Get Up!
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.
Unchanging Love
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.
God’s Delays
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?”
Awesome!
It’s an often-used word, and we hear it in the most unusual contexts. It’s the word awesome.
Pachyderm Pedicures
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.
Night
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.
Megan’s Heart
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!”
Anger Management
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.
My Heart Condemns Me
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.
Instincts
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.
Known In Heaven
Mary stood by the entrance to the empty tomb and wept in misery that her Lord had died. She longed for “the touch of the vanished hand,” as Tennyson lyrically described death’s cold finality, “the sound of the voice that was still.”
Communion On The Moon
Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Most of us are familiar with Armstrong’s historic statement as he stepped onto the moon’s surface: “That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.” But few know about the first meal eaten there.
More Than We Imagine
For decades, astronomical artists have painted scenes of the universe based on a combination of scientific information and their own imaginations. But photographs from robotic space probes and the Hubble Space Telescope have redefined these artists’ view of reality. In a Los Angeles Times article, space artist Don Dixon said the first pictures of Jupiter’s moons Io and Europa “turned out to be much more exotic than anybody imagined.” Dixon now considers 70 percent of his space paintings to be “dated concepts” because reality has become more awesome than imagination.
“That Ain’t It!”
Visiting Alaska for the first time, I was excited that we were staying at the Mt. McKinley Lodge. As we were checking in, I caught a glimpse of a mass of rock through a large picture window, and I hurried out to the deck facing the mountain.
Handle With Care
While visiting Jakarta, Indonesia, for a Bible conference, I was invited to speak in a church there. Before the first of two services that Sunday morning, one of the elders asked me to give him my Bible. He explained that the elders were responsible for the biblical reliability of the teaching the congregation received, and that he would return my Bible to me in front of the congregation. It was a tangible way of showing the church family that the leadership was entrusting the ministry of the Word to me on that day.
Taking Out The Trash
My wife usually has to remind me to take out the garbage on trash pick-up days. It’s not one of my favorite jobs, but I muster up the determination to get it done and then just do it. Afterward it’s a nice feeling to have it out of the house, and I forget about it till the following week.
Giving God Our Best
We had rehearsed the song for several weeks, and it sounded good. But there was one tricky section that we just couldn’t get right. We were ready to call it good enough. Our choir director seemed to agree. He too was weary of rehearsing the same few measures over and over.
What’s In Your Hand?
Zookeepers who must handle snakes will tell you that you should never grab one by its tail. It can coil around in a split second and sink its fangs into your hand. The right way is to control it by its head. (Please don’t try this at home!)
Killer Plants
Some forest workers fight fires. Others battle fast-growing plants. A Mercury News article reported that teams of volunteers are working hard to remove invasive plants from the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Workers point out that many of the non-native species they are fighting are sold in garden stores. The German ivy plant, for example, has become a serious problem in California. This fast-growing exotic house plant competes with the native species, smothering and shading everything in its path. It can completely cover and destroy a tree.
Affluenza
As people in affluent societies stock up on Blackberrys and flat-panel TVs, it’s hard to deny the increasing wealth in many parts of the world. You might call it “affluenza.” There is anxiety, however, amid so much prosperity. It is the economic “puzzle of our time,” said Robert J. Samuelson in The Washington Post. I wonder if this is true because we are attempting to find security in “more stuff”—stuff that is temporary and fleeting.
Limited But Useful
Suzanne Bloch, an immigrant from Germany, often played chamber music with Albert Einstein and other prominent scientists. She said that Einstein, though an accomplished violinist, irritated his fellow musicians by not coming in on the beat. “You see,” Bloch explained, “he couldn’t count.” Einstein could project revolutionary theories about the cosmos, but he had difficulty with rhythmic counting. Despite his limitation, he remained an enthusiastic musician.
Miracle Or Magic?
Did Jesus really walk on water or simply use some nearby sandbars? Did He actually multiply bread and fish to feed 5,000 or just hypnotize the crowd into thinking He did? Was it miracle or magic?
Flawed Impressions
Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice is the story of an upper-middle-class Englishwoman named Lizzy Bennet who is pursued by Mr. Darcy, a brooding and complex man of great wealth. Lizzy’s first impression of Mr. Darcy was that he was arrogant, introverted, and self-serving. So when he declares his love for her, she rejects him. Later, when she learns of his many secret acts of kindness for others, Lizzy admits that she had been wrong about Mr. Darcy and agrees to marry him.
The Right Stuff
David, I missed you in class today,” I told one of my college students when we ran into each other in the Information Services office. He gave me that stunned “freshman in the first week of college” look, and then it struck him—he had misread his schedule and had gone to the wrong class.
Too Soon To Quit
Chris Couch was only 16 years old when he first qualified to play golf at its highest level on the PGA Tour. He was quickly declared the next golfing prodigy and a surefire success for years to come.
We Bow Down
The ancient Greeks and Romans rejected kneeling as a part of their worship. They said that kneeling was unworthy of a free man, unsuitable for the culture of Greece, and appropriate only for barbarians. The scholars Plutarch and Theophrastus regarded kneeling as an expression of superstition. Aristotle called it a barbaric form of behavior. This belief, however, was never held by God’s people.
No More Mowing
The mayor of a small town in Kentucky stopped mowing his lawn in 2005. He has put up a sign on his property that reads: “There are more important things in life than tall grass.”
Celebrate Freedom
After being kidnapped, held hostage for 13 days, and released, New Zealand news cameraman Olaf Wiig, with a broad smile on his face, announced, “I feel more alive now than I have in my entire life.”
Irreverence
King Herod, dressed in his royal apparel, delivered an oration to an audience eager to win his favor. He reveled in their flattering response. “[This is] the voice of a god and not of a man!” shouted the crowd (Acts 12:22). Fear and awe of the one true God should have led him to protest, but he didn’t. For his failure to “give glory to God,” he was immediately struck by an angel of the Lord. He suffered an excruciating death because of his lack of reverence for God.
Ignoring God
As a former high school teacher and occasional college instructor, I had this recurring thought: How terrible it would be to stand up in front of a classroom of students and have no one pay attention—to talk and have no one listen, to give instructions and have the students ignore them.
Whitewater Experiences
I was enjoying the start of my first whitewater rafting experience—until I heard the roar of the rapids up ahead. My emotions were flooded with feelings of uncertainty, fear, and insecurity at the same time. Riding through the whitewater was a first-rate, white-knuckle experience! And then, suddenly, it was over. The guide in the back of the raft had navigated us through. I was safe—at least until the next set of rapids.
