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This was my third trek to Israel. My last two trips I led tours. They were wonderful excursions, but I had more responsibility in leading and directing. This time was different. I was there to experience.We spent more time in wilderness areas than in my other two expeditions. We did a lot of hiking and ventured into some desolate areas. There was Mount Arbel, with sheer cliffs that bordered one of Israel’s three, “Valley of the Shadow of Death” locations. We ventured through

I stood looking at this pile of rocks. But it obviously was not just a pile of rocks. These were first century carved marble blocks, hundreds of pounds each, that had been transported over a hundred miles to the top of a mountain citadel. At one time, they made up a decorative government building used to protect Roman interest from their nearby enemy threat, the Parthenons. My mind went back 2,000 years. Who carved these giant building blocks? Who hauled them to their current

This is the week most people give up on their New Year’s resolutions. Winter feels long. The dreary sky, wet salty roads, and short days get to us. We lose motivation. It’s not that we just quit. We peter out. And for most, this is the week those goals come to the end of their slow stay in hospice. It’s easier to give up hope and just quit than to muster up any more energy to try again and keep going.Is that you?We see it at church. This is also the week we see the largest dr

In “Tale of Two Cities”, Charles Dickens tells the story of a physician who was imprisoned in a French penitentiary for twenty years. Unable to practice medicine, he took up the trade of shoe cobbler while incarcerated, making and fixing shoes for his fellow inmates. For twenty years, he could be heard working away in his cell late at night, tapping away, repairing the shoes of prisoners. Finally, he was set free to go home and return to medicine. But the doctor could not han

I am told that standing at the South Pole is like being in the eye of a hurricane––deceivingly calm. The quietness seems inconsistent with the fact that most of the earth’s wind originate from there. How? As warm air from the equator flows in over the southern polar region, it descends, becomes cold and dense, and sinks to the freezing surface. Since the ice-covered plateau tapers off toward the oceans, and no mountains or other obstacles stand in the way, gravity pulls the h

The late Ray Stedman told the story of a Jewish friend named Arthur Katz. Early in life he became a committed Marxist. At the close of World War II he was in Germany with the American army and saw the gas chambers at the concentration camps. It filled him with hatred, first toward the Germans and then, as he realized that this went deeper than nationality, at the whole human race. He moved back to Berkeley and devoted himself to education, but came to see that education was n

They often are not.Not that long ago, I visited a couple of locations where television programs were regularly filmed for the History Channel. I was surprised both times. Television can be very deceiving. Some of it's due to the nature of camera lenses and TV screens, and the way our imagination fills in what is past the camera’s periphery. But a lot of it is intentional deception written into the director’s instructions to give the desired illusion. All-in-all, these two loc

There are a lot of Christians who say, “No.” And there was a time when I agreed with them. I had heard their arguments…Halloween was the devil’s holiday, it celebrates demons, and it was entirely of pagan origin. I feel bad that when my kids were little, they didn’t go trick-or-treating. But now I take my grandkids trick-or-treating. For some reason, Christians seem to be attracted to conspiracy theories, and sometimes fear the devil where God wants us to see opportunity. “Ha

Two weeks ago it was attitude . Last week was  altitude . This week it's atmosphere , and knowing the conditions along your route.After my first solo, I had to learn to flight plan. Planning a flight involves knowing your destination airport and possible alternates. It entails learning the existing and forecasted atmospheric conditions along your route and at your destination. That’s probably the most important part of a flight plan. The weather might be beautiful where and w

My friend and flying partner, Mike Charewicz once said to me, “Altitude is your friend,” • When lost, go high.  I am a VFR pilot, (meaning visual flight rules). While I use all the instruments in the airplane, I aviate and navigate by looking out the window. But sometimes, every little town, every lake, and every road begins to look the same. It’s not hard to get lost. A rule of thumb for VFR pilots is, if you lose your bearing, go high so that you can see more landscape, and

Most of you know that I fulfilled a lifelong dream a year ago by getting my private pilot license. In the training process (which never ends if you want to be a safe pilot), I’ve learned so many life analogies; I could almost write on them over the course of this next year. But I won’t do that to you :-).But in the next couple of posts, I’d like to give you three primary lessons that relate to all of our lives: attitude, altitude, and atmosphere. Focus first on attitude. In f

Chicago native George Crane was a psychologist and popular syndicated columnist in the mid to late 20th century. He often wrote on marriage and relationships, and prided himself in giving “common horse sense.”One of his favorite stories was of a woman who came to see him about her husband. She hated him. She not only wanted to divorce him, but she wanted to hurt him badly in the process. So she asked Dr. Crane how she could make him miserable. He said, “Go home and act as if