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About a dozen years ago, a pastor-friend of mine made a dream hire. He was able to convince a young man to join him in a small town in Wisconsin as his assistant pastor. This young man had everything going for him on his resume. He had glowing references, a near 4.0 gpa from arguably the most respected Bible college (Moody) and seminary (Trinity) in the country. During his Moody years, he was so well thought of by his peers that he was elected student body president. In Semin

The internet is a crazy thing. Do you pay attention to YouTube videos that take off? “Viral” they call it, when an amateur posts a video and it receives over a million views. Some videos that have gone viral have been “interesting” to say the least. From cute things that kids do, to spy videos of people fighting, crazy accidents, and funny animal stunts, viral videos run the gamut. But the latest one is the talk of the month. Jeff Bethke is a talented 22 year old amateur

Things are pretty tense in Korea right now. Since the death of North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Il a few weeks ago, and his son, Kim Jong-un (in his late 20s), assuming the role of supreme commander, South Korea is understandably concerned about the near future. There has never been a peace treaty agreement between North and South Korea since the Korean War in the early 50s, and North Korea has amassed over a million soldiers along the demilitarization zone. My two sons a

Sixteen years ago, Lena Paahlsson, of central Sweden, lost her wedding ring. All wives become distressed when their wedding ring is missing (at least those who are happily married). For Lena, this was of special concern since she had designed the ring and had it custom made. It was a beautiful white gold band with with seven diamond studs embedded. She had taken the ring off in her kitchen while baking Christmas cookies, and it disappeared. All garbages were searched. The

Sometimes we start over on a project because we want to….unsatisfied with the way it is going. Other times we start over because we have to...like when we forget to save a document and the computer freezes. Sometimes we should start over but don’t. Timanthes was an aspiring Greek artist in the Roman era. While studying under a well respected tutor, he was nearing completion of a major painting when upon arriving in the morning, he found the canvas blotted out with paint.

We all have Christmas memories. Mine are probably as varied as yours. Lots of happy ones, and some lonely ones. One year while in college, I did not have a home to go back to. I stayed in one of the dorms my college made available for overseas students during Christmas break. While lots of friends invited me to join their families, I decided to work as many hours as I could and declined the invitations. One of the jobs I had was working as a night watchman for a factory l

Seventy years ago this morning, as I am writing this, the United States was thrust into world power status via a surprise attack that almost devastated her Navy. It was a horrible day. Thousands lost their lives. Many thousands more lost their loved ones. With untold millions of dollars worth of equipment, buildings, ships and airplanes destroyed, especially at the tail end of The Great Depression, the attacking nation had hoped the US military would be relegated to a minor t

I read a spoof article today, announcing a new drug that is supposedly now on the market, promising a cure for the common cold. Within 6 hours, all cold symptoms will be gone and the underlying virus will be eradicated. A spokesperson for the company was quoted as saying, “We’re excited and happy to do the public some good.” But then the article went on to explain that as with all medications, there are some side effects. Here are some associated with this new miracle drug: H

A middle school student in Idaho won first prize in a project he did for his school’s science fair. He wanted to show how conditioned Americans have become to accept junk science without thinking through published studies or their conclusions. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide." Before asking them to sign the petition, he showed them the dangers associated with this chemical

I fly fairly often and I enjoy it. But there have been those moments while sitting in that chair 30,000 feet in the air, streaking across the sky in excess of 500 mph, when I’ve thought to myself, “I hope this guy got As in his aviation classes.” We tend to just trust the guy in the pilot seat. And we should. These guys (and gals) have a huge amount of training and have passed multiple exams, as well as hundreds of hours of flight time before they even make it to co-pilot

As a young man starting in ministry and working a secular job at the same time, I made a mistake in my work and said, “Sorry boss, that was my bad. It won’t happen again.” To my surprise he responded, “Don’t apologize. In business, you’re viewed as weak when you admit you’re wrong. Just move on and correct your mistakes, but don’t apologize.” Wow! I was pretty surprised. This business owner was a Christian, yet he told me that I shouldn’t apologize when wrong. I have sinc

I went into the bank the other day and was struck by the vault being left wide open and unattended, while I was filling out a deposit slip with a pen that was chained to the counter. Does that seem ironic to you? I’m guilty of those little hypocritical gestures….such as ordering a burger, fries, and then a DIET Coke–hahaha. A friend of mine used to leave his new $30,000+ car in the driveway, because his $1,000 camper was taking up the garage space. I could go on and on with t