I hadn’t been water-skiing in 15 years, but when friends offered to take my son-in-law Todd and me out on the lake last summer, how could I say no? It seemed like a good idea until I watched Todd have trouble getting upright on his skis. He had done a lot of skiing, but as he tried to get up on one ski, he kept falling. So when it came to my turn, I didn’t have a lot of confidence.
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At a wedding I attended, the bride’s grandfather quoted from memory a moving selection of Scripture about the relationship of husband and wife. Then a friend of the couple read “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare. The minister conducting the ceremony used a phrase from that sonnet to illustrate the kind of love that should characterize a Christian marriage: “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” The poet is saying that true love does not change with circumstances.
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Waiting is hard for me. I want answers now. Postponements perplex me; deferrals daunt me. I’m baffled by God’s delays, wondering why and when. “How long, O Lord?”
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It’s an often-used word, and we hear it in the most unusual contexts. It’s the word awesome.
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Pachyderm pedicures are not a luxury, they’re a necessity. According to an article in The Kansas City Star, if elephants in captivity don’t get regular foot care, they are prone to infections that can be fatal. But clipping the toenails of an animal that can weigh as much as 6 tons can be risky business. So one man had an idea. He developed an “elephant flipper” that allows keepers to restrain an elephant and safely turn it on its side. The device stands 12 feet high, weighs more than 15 tons, and costs $100,000. Several zoos have purchased this helpful contraption.
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In his riveting and unsettling book Night, Elie Wiesel describes his boyhood experiences as one of the countless victims of the Holocaust. Ripped from his home and separated from everyone in his family except his father (who would die in the death camps), Wiesel suffered a dark night of the soul such as few will experience. It challenged his views and beliefs about God. His innocence and faith became sacrifices on the altar of man’s evil and sin’s darkness.
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When Megan was in third grade, she kept coming home from school without her winter gloves. It drove her mom crazy because she had to keep buying new ones, which the family couldn’t afford. One day Mom got angry and said, “Megan, you’ve got to be more responsible. This can’t go on!”
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Orlando, Florida, is home to several large theme parks that draw thousands of vacationing families each year. But last year, a health magazine labeled Orlando as the “Angriest City in America.” They based that title on things like violent assaults, road rage, and the percentage of men who had high blood pressure.
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Do you sometimes feel guilty and unworthy because of something you did years ago? You have confessed it and asked God to forgive you, but the memory of it still haunts you.
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Flying into a storm is a dangerous experience. The temptation is to fly by your instincts, or, as aviators say, “by the seat of your pants.” But as any pilot will tell you, that’s a prescription for disaster. If you rely on your feelings and instincts, you become disoriented, thinking the plane is going up when it’s actually going down. Thankfully, the instrument panel is set to magnetic north and can be trusted every time. Letting your instruments guide you, even when it feels like they’re wrong, helps ensure safety in the storm.
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