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Tuesday, August 19, 2003

It used to be that if you had a message to get through to someone, you left that message on their voice mail to get their attention. Then fax machines came along and a fax was a more dynamic way to communicate your message and have it noticed. Then along came e-mail and introduced an even more dynamic way to get through. Now it's not uncommon for e-mailers to check their computer several times a day - eagerly wanting to know, "Has someone tried to reach me? What did they have to say?" And many e-mailers hope to hear that little voice from their computer that raises their expectations. It says, "You've got mail."

Monday, August 18, 2003

There's a lot of talk these days about Biblical prophecies being fulfilled and about the signs that precede Christ's return. But when you're little, all this talk about how things are going to end can have an interesting effect. One friend of ours told me recently about how his little boy told him, "Daddy, I sure hope Jesus comes real soon." His Dad asked him why, and the little boy responded, "Well, I'm really looking forward to sitting on Jesus' lap, and I'll be seven pretty soon. And if Jesus doesn't come soon, I might be too old to sit on His lap!" Dad was glad to be able to give his son the good news - "Son, you are never too old for Jesus' lap."

Thursday, August 14, 2003

One football team owner calls it "the single most impressive symbol of being a champion in all of sports." Well, he's talking about the National Football League's Super Bowl ring. The rings on the most recent Super Bowl champions are worth $5,000 each! Can you imagine losing something that valuable and irreplaceable? Former Raiders champion Gene Upshaw can. Oh, yeah, to keep his Super Bowl ring safe at home, he put it inside a bank that looked like a Pepsi can. Problem: he forgot to tell his housekeepers. They mistook the bank for an empty pop can and tossed it out, ring and all.

Monday, August 11, 2003

Our Christian Guidance Director reminded me the other day of how I felt about junior high school lunches. He was talking about it in our Team devotions. Few of us remember those 7th or 8th grade cafeteria lunches with great fondness. Friday wasn't bad -- that was french fry day. But most of the other days -- who knows what some of that stuff was! We'd complain about the food, we'd trash the food sometimes, and sometimes we even had a food fight with it! There were many days I wasn't too excited about what was on my plate. There still are.

Friday, August 8, 2003

I've got to tell you, it was a nostalgic time when we drove away the last time from our home of 24 years. We left behind a lot of memories in the walls - and a couple in the tree in the far corner of the backyard. See, when the kids were little, my wife and I decided we wanted to build the kids a tree house there. So we made a plan, got some lumber, and started our little project. We laid down a couple of boards between two branches - it was the beginning of a floor for the tree house. Then we took a break. And we never went back. Oh yeah, we intended to finish that house - but right up until the day we moved out, those boards were all that ever happened.

Thursday, August 7, 2003

There are few words that strike more fear into hearts in Middle America than the word "tornado" - and rightly so. Twisters can hit so suddenly and do such awful damage. That was proven again when some deadly tornadoes tore through Oklahoma in 1999 - one of them was so strong that it was almost classified an F-6 - which would have created a whole new category of tornado. In light of the power of those storms, the story I saw on the evening news was amazing. After hearing one of those tornado warnings for the tornadoes in Oklahoma, a mother and her adult daughter went into a room in their house for safety. It's called a safe room or a strong room, and it's built with concrete that's reinforced with metal. And it's built to withstand even a hit by a tornado. Well, sure enough, the tornado hit that house and there was virtually nothing left - except for one room. The safe room. And when it was all clear, the mother and daughter walked out unscathed in a neighborhood where virtually everything else had been blown away.

Wednesday, August 6, 2003

There's this one experiment I remember from my grade school science class -- no, not dissecting a brontosaurus. Our science teacher had this little hand-crank generator wired to a light bulb. And we'd turn that little crank, and it managed to generate just enough juice to light the light bulb. That baby generator was fine for the limited demands of Mr. Light Bulb, but I would hate to try and run my whole house on it! Bye-bye stove, bye-bye microwave, refrigerator, computer, lighting, and heat. No way that puny power supply could handle all the demands!

Tuesday, August 5, 2003

Our family has had the wonderful opportunity of visiting some of the most beautiful places in America, and taking in some incredible views in America. From the top of towering mountains, from the edge of the Grand Canyon, and in my wife's estimation, often too close to the edge. There's good news and bad news about getting real close to the edge. The bad news: it is dangerous at the edge -- you can fall off. But the good news is -- the view from the edge is spectacular!

Monday, August 4, 2003

I travel a lot. Of course, sometimes I drive, and time matters a lot. So over the years, I've learned a fundamental secret of making great time on the open road. No, not speeding - just driving steady. Over and over, I've watched what I call a "spurter" come roaring up behind me, doing everything but pushing me into the right lane. He's obviously well into the State Trooper Zone as far as his speed's concerned. So I move over, he roars past, but I catch up with him a few miles later -- without ever changing my speed. See, he's settled back into the right lane, just cruising along. (Maybe you've passed this guy, too.) He speeds in binges, he floors it one minute and then he's just tapping the accelerator a few minutes later. I usually make excellent time driving places, and I've talked to other marathon drivers who are used to getting places fast. And we pretty much agree. How do you trim hours off a long trip? A steady foot. The fast way to get somewhere is not with big spurts, but with a consistent, steady speed.

Thursday, July 31, 2003

It was September of 1999. A Cambodian pastor had made his way to a remote corner of his country to bring the story of Jesus to an area he had wanted to go to for years. But that area had been under the control of the brutal Khmer Rouge radicals until then. As far as anyone knew, this pastor was the first person to speak of Jesus in that isolated area where most people were Buddhists or spiritists. Surprisingly, as told in the book The God Who Hung on the Cross, when the pastor arrived in one village, the people welcomed him warmly and seemed to hang on every word of his messages. Then this old woman bowed and grabbed his hands and said, "We've been waiting for you for twenty years."

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