Tuesday, January 10, 2017

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The funeral plans for Matt were in the works. The Park Service had announced that Matt was one of five people who had been killed in a plane crash on a mountainside in Montana. The funeral never happened. Suddenly, Matt's bereaved parents heard the stunning news: although he had been badly injured, their son, along with one other Forest Service worker, had just been rescued alive, miles from the crash site. Rescue workers at the scene of the crash had concluded that the charred wreckage and the scattered human remains indicated that the crash had been "un-survivable". But amazingly, Matt and his fellow worker hiked for 29 hours, often in subfreezing temperatures, until they reached a highway where a motorist picked them up. One news magazine called it, "A Miracle in the Snows of Montana" (Newsweek, October 4, 2004). I guess!

Monday, January 9, 2017

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Our daughter is all grown up now, but she'll never forget that very scary moment when she was four years old. My wife was shopping in a supermarket with our son riding in the grocery cart and our daughter walking with her – well, actually running ahead of her. Karen had warned her to stay in the same aisle she was in, but we're talking a firstborn here – so she had to run ahead to other aisles to explore, of course. Until suddenly she noticed how high those shelves were and how long those aisles were, and the fact that she didn't see anything familiar. And suddenly she felt that awful feeling that she still describes today as "scary" – she was lost. Not too long ago, she told me how it felt. As a grown woman, she said, "Suddenly my security wasn't there." Thankfully, her mother came looking for her. Our daughter got lost, but someone who loved her found her.

Friday, January 6, 2017

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We had someone on our ministry team who was really an enthusiastic auto-racing fan. If you're into that sport, you know a name like Jeff Gordon is one of the best in the business. One of the people that helped him get to that position is the man who has been head of his pit crew. You've probably seen those high-speed cars swing into their service pit and only seconds later they roar back into the race.

My racing fan friend told me about a TV special a while back on Jeff Gordon. On it, they interviewed the head of his pit crew – who, by the way, has a degree in organizational behavior. Isn't that interesting? He revealed just how amazing the work of the pit crew is in a sport where seconds really matter. The pit crew chief said they will change up to 20 tires in one race. Just think of what those speeds have to do to a tire! And they change a complete set of four tires (You ready now?) in thirteen seconds. That's faster than I can finish off a bite of my dinner! The driver, of course, is the name everyone knows. But the driver knows he's nothing without his pit crew!

Thursday, January 5, 2017

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The precision of America's weapons during recent military engagements has been pretty amazing. But even in these days of high-tech efficiency, there are still casualties and fatalities from what's called "friendly fire". In the war on terrorism, one of our most accurate bombs went astray and killed some of our own military. Several days after that tragedy, four of the men injured by that bomb – men who lost some of their comrades – were interviewed. I was struck especially by the comments of their commanding officer. Basically, here's what he said. "I will have my time to cry and grieve for what we've lost, but not now. I have men to lead and I have a war to win. My feelings will have to wait."

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

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I missed that sunset a few nights ago, but I saw something just as beautiful-the afterglow. A sky painted by my favorite Artist in brilliant hues of orange and yellow. Look, I've seen a lot of sunsets all over the country and all over the world. But the show isn't over when the sun goes down. No, the sky is still glowing; often magnificently. The sun may be gone, but its aftermath is still beautifying our horizon.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

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She was only 21 years old – but she was well on her way to becoming a superstar. Aaliyah was enjoying huge success with her music, and she was beginning to emerge as an actress with a great future. But all that ended in one awful moment in the Bahamas when the plane carrying her and her crew crashed shortly after takeoff. What made the crash even more tragic was the fact that apparently it was avoidable – at least on the preliminary findings of the investigators. The plane had been loaded with something like twice its maximum baggage capacity. And investigators believe that it was all that weight that made the plane go down.

Monday, January 2, 2017

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The Seattle Mariners were in the middle of a baseball game when it hit. It was an earthquake! And the sportscaster in the Seattle King Dome said, "Man, everything is shaking here." Well, the newscast showed the reaction of the Seattle star Ken Griffey, Jr. Even though he is one of baseball's premier players, he ran over to a spot on the field where he could see his family in the stands, and it wasn't baseball he was thinking of all of a sudden. He was motioning to his family to get out of that stadium, now and to start driving home! It reminded me of the night when an earthquake hit that third game of the 1989 World Series in San Francisco, and the remark the San Francisco catcher made that night. Even in the midst of living his World Series dream, speaking of that quake he simply said to a reporter, "Sure does change your priorities, doesn't it?"

Friday, December 30, 2016

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It's usually the most watched event of the Winter Olympics every four years: the women's figure skating competition. Let's go back in the time machine to the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. A lot of America's hopes for a gold medal were riding on Sasha Cohen; especially after she managed a thin, first-place edge after the initial short program. Then came that decisive long skating program. Suddenly, all hopes of any medal seemed to disappear with a major fall that she had early in her program. The TV commentators actually said, "Well, now it's going to be a fight just be on the podium." With a major deficit in her score from her fall, Sasha Cohen could have easily lost heart, but she didn't. She fought back with a strong and impressive showing in the rest of her performance. When the rest of the world's best had all skated, the young woman who had fallen-who seemed to have forfeited any hope of being a champion-stood on that podium with a coveted silver medal.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

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As our kids were growing up, Saturday was always chore day at the Hutchcraft house. It was the day we got our leaves raked and bagged, rooms got cleaned – or hosed out like a monkey cage as the case may be. It was the day the garage got dug out, the dirty clothes got clean, broken things got fixed. It wasn't that kids jumped out of bed on Saturday morning said, "What do you have for me to do today, Dad?" No, Saturday mornings often involved some delicate labor negotiations, especially when it came to someone getting a job that meant more time and more dirty work than some of the others. That child might say, "I don't want to do Job A. I want Job B." To which I would reply, "I pay the allowances and the bonuses around here." (See, usually there was extra pay for extra work). So I would tell them, "Don't forget lesson #1 of working – you don't pick your jobs. The person who pays you decides the jobs you'll do."

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

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If you consider yourself a religious person, boy, have I got good news for you! Recent research indicates that those who consider themselves religious tend to have lower blood pressure than the rest of the population, they are less likely to be obese, to have cancer, to be hospitalized, and they have a 29% greater chance to live longer! And religious people (it says) tend to have lower rates of depression, less suicide, greater sexual satisfaction in their marriage, and overall a greater sense of well-being. What do you know, Jesus was right when He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness" and "Blessed are the pure in heart" (Matthew 5:6, 8). Lots of good news if you're a religious person, and some very disturbing bad news.