A Word With You

Oh sure, Mom and Dad thought it was just another excuse to stay awake longer. Adults don't believe what kids know to be the awful truth - that there are monsters in your closet at night. And they expect you to close your eyes and just start having sweet dreams? Come on! Actually, I really had nothing to fear from those monsters that lived in my overactive imagination. But then there are real monst...

The passenger across the aisle from me wasn't very happy. He was complaining to his seatmate on the plane about everything and complaining with a lot of profanity inserted, oh I'd say maybe like every third word. The man next to him was mostly listening as this, shall we say, colorfully spoken speaker cussed out his favorite baseball team, then the service on the plane and the clients he was worki...

I was about halfway through my hamburger at a cookout when a friend of our son asked me a provocative question. She worked with a group of junior high kids and she asked them what they thought the purpose of life was. They said, "To die." She continued to probe and then she started to talk to them about hope. But she said, "Ron, they have no concept of hope. They're like concrete people. Hope is t...

Wow! For once, the United States Congress was totally united. No partisan torpedoes. No verbal dueling. Even tears of compassion from some usually tough opponents. Gabby did it. It had been just over a year since Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was gunned down in a Tucson, Arizona mall. The head wound she received threatened to end her life (you remember) or, at best, to leave her severely handic...

He was this intriguing guy. He was a recently retired Marine who had the great privilege of working security for George W. Bush when he was President of the United States. He even worked as President Bush's spotter when he was in the weight room working out! On a couple of occasions, my friend had the opportunity to tell the President something that was very much on his heart. He said, "Mr. Presid...

Over the years, when our kids were growing up and at home, they didn't carry a wallet full of money. And they did need some money along the way. They had to buy their lunch at school. They had to buy clothes when they outgrew them or wore them out; which happened frequently. They had to pay admission prices when they went to special attractions. They needed spending money for trips and vacations,...

There's nothing in nature I love to see more than an eagle soaring majestically through the sky. That's why I enjoy the story of the farmer who once found a little eaglet all alone in the woods. And since the little bird was struggling to survive, the farmer decided to take the eaglet back to his farm to raise him. The problem was the only birds he had on his farm were chickens, and that's who the...

I've ridden with a lot of people on a lot of elevators, but none quite as unusual as the young man that I met on an elevator a while back. Actually, he wasn't unusual; but what he carried was. He had his arms full of a wadded up tuxedo and a wadded up wedding gown. So here's this fellow, marching down the hall with a wedding gown and a tuxedo in his arms. Now, you can put two and two together. He...

Our former office was, literally, for the birds! I mean it was like they lived in the attic above our top floor offices. And you know what, they would sometimes show up flying down the hall. Every once in a while we could hear them when we were recording radio programs, it was a little "chirp" in with their singing. But there was a problem with this apparently safe place, they thought. The birds b...

I was in a meeting in a hotel. It was in the 90s outside, but I was ready to put gloves on so I could write my notes without shaking. Maybe you've been in those rooms. It was hot outside but the air conditioner was on one notch past high - I think the setting was like on "arctic'? And all of us in the room became concerned about that setting, and one by one we wandered over to the box on the wall....

Now I don't see a lot of movies but that old groundhog one with Bill Murray, I can tell you, it's really funny. You probably know the plot if you've seen it. He's this not very nice TV weatherman who goes to Punxsutawney, PA to broadcast that American tradition that comes from there. We're supposed to be able to predict whether or not there will be six more weeks of winter weather based on whether...

I saw my friend Rich at a busy committee session. We had a lot to do and there were some very important choices to make. In fact, we didn't even get through everything we needed to! But Rich, well, he didn't forget what really mattered. He announced out of the blue, "Hey everybody! I brought baby pictures!" Oh, yes, you could guess! He's the father of a newborn son. So, forget everything else, man...

It's just a humble little house in the country, but it had been a dream of a friend of ours for years. Actually, it was her grandparents' house most of her life. She lived just down the road from them as a child and she spent many hours and made many memories in that little place. After Grandma and Grandad died, her dad owned the house. But by then he lived four hours away, so he just rented it ou...

Years ago I was flying like a gazillion miles a year it seemed like. And they gave me this coupon along the way. It entitled me to an upgrade to a first class seat on a future flight. Now that was a privilege that was really appreciated, especially when you've got major work to get done. They even let me board before any other passengers. I got a lot of dirty looks, but it was nice. And that meant...

I admire my friends who are marathon runners. I don't want to be one of them, but I admire them. I actually did have a bit of a running program going when my kids were little. Every morning, I used to run around the block twenty times, until my son moved the block! Sorry. I've never run a marathon. I've watched some, and I've talked to my friends who have done the whole 26-mile distance. If you've...

There's bad plaque and there's good plaque. The bad kind is that substance that builds up on your teeth that you see in all the toothpaste commercials. They're going to help you get rid of that. Oh, and then there's good plaque; that's the kind we have hanging on walls all over our house. They're good plaques because they have different promises on them from God's Word. Right as you come into our...

So look, there's a football game on but you don't have time to watch the whole game. Listen, turn it on near the end of the game. Some of the most amazing things happen when the game is almost over, especially after they sound that two-minute warning. Suddenly, everybody knows it's time to throw caution to the wind and go for broke, "Let's get some points on the board!" It's time for those bold se...

I've actually tried to explain American football to people from another country. It's not easy. Sometimes it's not easy to explain it to someone from this country, especially to some women who don't really care much about how it's played. But I want you to imagine a man trying to explain football to an acquaintance who has never seen it. And his friend says to him, "You know, I'd like to learn to...

Some years ago, I read in a news magazine about one man's very interesting response during a Papal visit to Latin America. This man owned a produce stand and it was just a couple of blocks from where the Pope was making this historic personal appearance. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Pontiff. It seemed like everybody was going, except for "Mr. Produce Stand." And this article...

When that terrorist bomb ripped apart the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City on that infamous April 19th years ago, Mark was on the scene within ten minutes. Today that scene of horrendous carnage and violence is a tranquil Memorial Site in downtown Oklahoma City. One night when I was speaking in that city, Mark (who was a police officer) took me there for a personal tour that was pretty mov...

She was only one woman - an inmate on Death Row. And she became the center of a public opinion hurricane. Karla Faye Tucker was her name. She was convicted of a brutal pickaxe murder in Texas, sentenced to die, on Death Row for almost 14 years. Reporters from across the country and around the world descended on Huntsville, Texas in the days and weeks before her scheduled execution. And millions of...

"Dad, you're on E!" Yeah, I heard that a lot from my kids for years as we drove along, as if I didn't know the fuel gauge was nearing the empty mark. Of course, I knew. But why stop any sooner than you have to, right? I did create too much stress in the process for me, and my wife, and for my kids who were leaning over the back seat, and sometimes I actually did flirt with an empty tank. And I gue...

I was speaking at some youth conferences in South Africa and my South African friend, Ted, was driving me through this massive game reserve during a break at the conference. It was winter and the grass was tall. He said, "You'll see the big animals - but not the cats. Oh they'll be there, but they're in the grass." I've got to tell you, it was amazing to drive behind two slow-moving giraffes and o...

If you've ever been to a professional football game, you've probably had the same experience. You're surrounded by experts at the game. You know, those fans that are on a first-name basis with every player. You know them. Actually, the players don't know them, probably wouldn't admit it if they did, but these fans feel free to call every player by his first name. And, of course, all the people aro...

He was one of the outstanding kickers in the National Football League at the time, and he actually helped his team win some memorable games with his field goal accuracy. But he had a spiritual hole in his heart. As he tells his story - which he did before tens of thousands of people at a Billy Graham Crusade - it was a sudden, debilitating disease that got his attention. He began to be aware how d...