We're pretty avid New York Giants football fans at our house. Don't hold that against us. You know, you can understand it if you follow football at all. We're eager after a long basketball season and a baseball season to see the first games, even when they're exhibition games. Now, when my children were growing up, there was a particular game on one season that we really wanted to see, because it was against a top NFL team.
Back when my son and his friends were going into their sophomore year in high school playing football, they moved up to the junior varsity and the varsity team. And the word got to them that they were going to have triple sessions in August and September practices. That's exciting... Triple sessions meant that you got to go, not for the regular two-hour practice of calisthenics, and running, and working hard, and running into things, and running into each other. No, you got to go for four hours. No, you guessed it: six wonderful hours of that!
Whether you're in your car, or in your home, or almost anywhere you are right now, I think you probably have available to you what you're going to need for our next few minutes together. Yeah, because you're either near one or you might even carry one. Now, some people use this object too much; other people could afford to use it a little more. Maybe you've guessed what it is by now. Yep, it's a mirror, and you'll need it today, because that's where we're going to end up.
There was a time in my life when I had once a month responsibilities in Chicago, and I was living in New Jersey. So it gave me an opportunity to see what weather was headed for my home in New Jersey. Of course, you know the weather in our country moves from West to East. So, usually, in New Jersey we got Chicago's yesterday - today.
Oh, the frequent flyer bonus. That's one of the smartest ideas the airlines ever had I think. You know, you don't usually have to think twice about what airline you're going to book with. If they've got a flight going to the city that I'm going to anywhere near the time I need to go, you know I'm going to try and stick with that one company. Oh, I'm just a loyal kind of guy! No. See, the airline credits me with mileage awards that convert ultimately into discounts, and upgrades, and even free trips. They're getting a little harder to get, but you know, it's still a pretty good deal. Now, that bonus incentive sure has worked in getting me to stay with one carrier. And I understand it's worked on millions of other flyers too. The golden principle here is pretty simple: the biggest rewards are for those who stick with the same carrier.
My daughter wanted to put her fingers in the fan. Oh, she was a very little girl at the time. I said, "No." She cried. I think she thought I didn't love her and if I loved her I'd let her put her fingers in the fan. She really wanted to check it out!
I just can't get this little four-year-old girl out of my mind. Even as I was preparing this, her story just hits my heart again.
She and her family only had moments to prepare before the F5 tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri not long ago. Now, Mom and Dad battled fierce winds; they were desperately trying to shepherd everyone into the safest corner of the house, but not quite everyone. Somehow this little four-year-old daughter of theirs got separated from them, and these winds were so strong that it was impossible to look for her any more. So, they huddled together as the tornado made a direct hit on their house. When they looked up, it had leveled everything almost instantly.
It was some years ago, but I remember when they closed our local airport. Yeah, there was a violent storm at Newark airport, and thousands of people had their plans suddenly changed. Storms have a way of doing that. Did you ever notice that? There's a snow storm, for example, and schools and businesses oh, they all had their plans made for the day, and suddenly all those plans are out the window. Meetings that had to be today are amazingly rescheduled. Planes and ships are diverted or blown off course. You see, a storm is a classic embodiment of that familiar phrase, "Due to circumstances beyond our control..." Maybe you're in the middle of a storm right now. Your life, your plans are being blown around, and it seems like everything is out of control. I've got good news for you today.
Let's say that someone steps on the wooden backstairs of your house. Imagine what they do when all of a sudden one of those stairs caves in. Okay, whose fault is it the stair caved in? Well you could blame it on your friend and say, "'Bout time you went on a diet, isn't it buddy?" Or could it be that it wasn't their weight that really made it collapse? Could it be that those little bugs got in and ate it from the inside; and it was already weakened? In fact, even a skinny friend might have made it cave in.
Now, if you're a night person, there is nothing more aggravating than a bright-eyed morning person who's trying to get you to be a morning person along with them! And one of the great, interesting, fun things about God is He tends to kind of put those kind of people together in a marriage. Maybe so there's a night shift and a day shift. I don't know. Maybe you have the other kind of metabolism; maybe you're a morning person. Well, then there's nothing more aggravating than a raring-to-go night person who's trying to get you moving when you're ready to put it away.
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