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Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Charles Dickens said it about the French Revolution, "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Well, during final exams in college, it's just the worst of times. Actually, it was mostly our own fault. We waited until one or two nights before the exam to try and cram in all that information that we should have been studying all along. Now, my room was always Grand Central Station during our final days. Yes, you can take final days two ways. I usually took pretty good notes in class, so everyone jammed into my room to try and learn what there was to learn. Hey, the big test was coming, man! We had to learn what was in all those lessons!

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

As most children learn, there is an art to getting what you want from a parent. And most kids should get honorary degrees in psychology for how skilled they become at doing it. Our children sure did. One approach from the playbook of the three little Hutchcrafts could be called the "United Front Maneuver." One time they pulled out this tactic was when they wanted to get pizza for dinner or to go to a certain clown's hamburger joint. Often our oldest would first dispatch the youngest to approach me with a dining proposal. You know, always use the youngest as the sacrificial lamb. Well, if that didn't work, send in number two child. If two out of three couldn't turn my heart to their cause, then the oldest would join in. And I have to confess, there were some times when I was able to say no to one of my children, or even two, but something happened in my heart when they all came to me together.

Friday, November 3, 2006

I know men are never lost. We just find alternative routes, right - scenic routes. I've found more than my share, but my choice of a wrong road has never led to deadly consequences. It did for Comair Flight 5191 out of Lexington, Kentucky. Somehow, the pilot went down the wrong runway; one-half the length of the runway from which he'd been cleared to take off. He ran out of runway and hit a row of trees. Tragically, 49 of the 50 people aboard died in that crash. As the investigation of the crash unfolded, we found out that the one flight controller in the tower wasn't looking when the plane turned onto that fatal runway. He had what was described as "administrative duties" to tend to, and he turned his back, and moments later - disaster.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

One lousy moose; that's all our family wanted to see. The moose did not get the memo. Or he did get the memo and he took off. We were on our first trip to Alaska years ago, and all five Hutchcrafts were determined to meet a moose. After all, they're grazing in every backyard in Alaska, right? Well, the February we were there it looked like they'd all decided to winter in the Bahamas. While I was busy speaking at some meetings, my wife and kids were out driving around, of course looking for a moose. They even went to the animal sanctuary where they were told there was always a moose. Not always. Several people told us about hitting a moose that suddenly appeared in the middle of the road. Not any road we were on. Someone suggested leaving a Hershey bar on our car - something about chocolate mousse. Well, we weren't that desperate. Well, lots of looking, no finding. The next morning, we drove down the driveway of the house someone had loaned to us and guess what? Three moose, grazing at the end of the driveway. You don't find moose - they find you.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Our daughter's got this thing about lighthouses. Thanks to her family indulging her passion at Christmas and birthday time, she's got lighthouses all over her house. She's got lighthouse stationery, lighthouse rugs, and lighthouse books; sad to say, even a lighthouse on the cover of her commode. In many places, real lighthouses are mostly reminders of this maritime past when lives actually depended on seeing the light that marked the shore and the rocks. But sometimes, lives still depend on them; as in the case of a Greek ferry called the Express Samina.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

When you've got a God like ours, even a parade can turn out to be a place for Him to amaze you. What I'm about to tell you is not Uncle Ronnie's Story Time. It's really a story about a God that you may really need right now. I was scheduled to speak at a Native camp in Canada this past summer, and our hosts wanted me to bring a few of the Native young people that God used so mightily on our reservation teams all summer. They'd been so excited about being spiritual rescuers that they asked me if there was a reservation near the camp. They wanted to continue the outreach of the summer. There was a reservation, but we knew no one there who could help us. My wife and I got to the area a couple days early, and we decided to take in a parade in the nearby town. We prayed about God directing us where to sit. Basically, we just wanted a shady spot. Our neighbors in the spot we chose turned out to be a Native family.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Tall grass, dead mower. That was my sad situation last spring. I tried everything to get my power mower going, but it really didn't want to start. Of course, that didn't stop the lawn from growing. I went away for a little while, came back, and the grass was now taking over. I played with my mower again and again, and it still didn't respond. We were starting to look like the set of a "Tarzan" movie and, of course, my mower didn't care. So I started looking for alternative equipment to get the job done. Let's see now, my hair clippers were working fine; you know, the kind you use for haircuts. I was desperate but, no, I did not try to cut the grass with my hair clippers. See, they work great on hair; they would not work on my lawn. But, on the other hand, how would you like to get your hair cut with a lawn mower?

Friday, October 20, 2006

I have had a lot of young women complain to me about a condition they find rampant in young men these days. I guess I will call it "commitment phobia." Now, this guy's willing to show interest, he's willing to date you, charm you, agree with you, spend money on you, and then you reach this level of mutual compatibility and that's good. And then, you're on the edge of commitment and he's gone. I hear it's pretty frustrating. I met a beautiful woman myself many years ago and we spent a lot of time together. We found that we agreed on all the important things. We reached a place of affection for each other and agreement with each other, so we were married - right? No.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

You may not remember much from your World History class, but you probably at least remember that the nations of Europe fought it out for a long time to see who was going to be Number One. For many years, their biggest way to fight it out was with their big navies. So, if a ship from England saw a ship from France, you could expect some fireworks. Of course, the way you knew what country a ship was from was that flag they flew from the top of the mast - their colors. When they would see a ship approaching on the horizon, they usually lowered their colors until they could see whether that other guy was a friend or an enemy. But occasionally there was a ship that approached those encounters in a radically different way. There were a few courageous captains who would give a simple six-word order to their crew, "Nail our colors to the mast!" But you could just hear the first mate saying, "Captain, that means we can't lower our colors, no matter what." To which the captain would say something like this - "That's right."

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Why would a teenage girl go swimming in the ocean at night? Nobody knows. We do know she was in serious trouble by the time the rescuers finally rescued her. It was nighttime; there were no lifeguards on duty. We were in Ocean City, New Jersey, and the only people who could help her were people who ran from the boardwalk and stripped off their shoes and some of their clothes to try to get in there and help her. Now, one person had the presence of mind to bring a life preserver. The girl who was drowning refused it. She actually fought off the rescuers who were battling this strong undertow, and then you heard this strange cry out there, "Hit her!" Sounds cruel but they thought that was the only way to save her. And they hit her. And she did go under; she ended up unconscious. They grabbed her. They brought her in and finally rescued her. When I heard "Hit her!" I remembered what my friend Jim had said. He was a lifeguard on the Pacific Coast for a couple of years and he described what he called a hard rescue. He said, "Ron, if they keep fighting a rescue, knock them out."

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