Easter

My dear Saviour, let me ask Thee
since Thou art nailed to the cross
and since Thou sayest Thyself: It is finished!
Am I now set free from death?
May I, through Thy suffering and death,
inherit heaven?
Has salvation come for all the world?
True, Thou canst not speak for pain,
yet Thy head Thou bowest
And tacitly Thou sayest: Yes!

Chorus (Chorale):
Jesus, Thou Who wert dead,
now livest forever;
in my last agony
nowhere will I turn but to Thee
Who hast redeemed me.
O my beloved Lord!
Give me only that which Thou hast won,
more I do not desire.

Aria and chorus from J.S.Bach, St. John Passion

He’s Dead – Face It!

It may seem fake, if not futile to drum up sadness for Good Friday – I mean, we know the ending: Jesus comes back to life on Sunday. But it’s worth lingering on the Good Friday bit before racing on to the happy ending, for it was not obvious at the time how it would all end.
There’s an important life principle involved that we all need to remember. Death is part of life. We can’t always win, losing and failure are inevitable. The lament needs to be in our repertoire along with the victory march.
One lady who went through a period of great illness, said she found no help in church when it was too happy. She needed realism and an acknowledgement of pain before she was ready to move on to hope and new possibilities. Without Good Friday, Easter Sunday seems frothy and fairy-tale-ish.
So-called Good Friday was the dashing of a lot of people’s hopes and dreams. People genuinely believed that Jesus was a good thing and they’d bet their shirts on him. They left homes, jobs and families and followed this peripatetic Galilean preacher. To see him arrested, mock-tried, condemned, brutalised and killed sent them into their fox-holes where they dug out their bank statements and address books to see what they could recover of their tattered lives.
And who of us has not known this experience in some degree? Dreams that have come to nought; self-opinion proved to be greatly exaggerated; daring and courage shattered. Once hope has been so brutally assaulted, one scarcely dares to let out in the sunlight on its own again. Cynicism seems a safer bet.
It pays to reflect on Jesus’ pain and humiliation, on what it means to be true to one’s convictions and pay the price of obeying God. This cures the light-hearted of too much bobbance and bounce. It injects realism into the Sesame Street view of life that pretends we can be or do anything if we hold onto our dreams.
In the hemisphere of its origin, Easter coincides with the onset of Spring and many of the rituals and connotations connect with the rebirth of nature, new life, eggs, etc. What about here where it is the onset of Autumn, the looming of Winter, summer is past, harvest is over, growth and production are declining?
I think Good Friday has a lot to say about the colder seasons. As we bury the seeds in their long funeral mounds, and see the deciduous trees become gaunt and leafless, we face the reality of sadness and closure, loss and coldness. That’s life! Brick walls across our dream roads, forced landings for our winged hopes.
But God gives new life. It is the story of Easter. Not to be confused with the story of motivational speakers who tell us to turn our tombstones into stepping stones and our scars into stars. This is not about human effort, or the rewards of persistence.
It is the story that God vindicated Jesus by resurrection, and will vindicate those who say, I am finished, I am lost, please help me. Born out of death, resurrected from burial like seeds of wheat, new life comes. It is a way to life that few choose, preferring to trust in their own strength than to surrender into the hands of another, to hold on rather than let go. To truly live, we must be prepared to die.
To enter Easter and the qualities of light, I need reminders that Jesus was not "cured of death," as theologian James Alison puts it. That's what happened to Lazarus. Instead, Jesus kept fidelity with life. – Rose Marie Berger

by Rev. Geoff Leslie, Baptist Church

God's Unexpected Easter Embrace

Many years ago, my wife and I were having a marital "moral discourse," and I was becoming increasingly agitated. In my fury, I yelled at her and aimed my fist at a section of the dining room wall. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit failed to guide my hand between the studs, as he usually had done, and instead I hit a stud right on. I broke a knuckle.
A deathly silence settled in the room. While I came from a family in which nothing got done until someone yelled, Barb came from a family in which yelling brought things to a standstill. She was not going to speak to me for weeks. As I writhed in physical pain, I also writhed in emotional pain. I was a moral failure of a husband. …
As I tried awkwardly, with one hand, to sweep up the bits of sheetrock strewn on the floor, I felt a hand on my arm. I turned around, and it was Barb. She said something apologetic. I said something apologetic. And then she embraced me for a long time.
She had every right to pronounce a grand moral imperative, condemn my behaviour, and distance herself from me. That surely would have taught me a lesson. Instead, she embraced the angry sinner, and rather than teaching me a lesson, she helped heal me.
[On Good Friday] we Christians celebrate a similar event, albeit one of cosmic proportions. In his life, Jesus so identified with the immoral, spent so much time with them, that the good people of his day mistook him for a sinner. On Good Friday Jesus continued the story. He did not distance himself from sin as much as embrace it in himself. And by this embrace, he made redemption possible.

source unknown

Consuming Gods

In his book The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeier uncovers the ways corporate brands affect individual consumers:
"Depending on your Unique Buying State, you can join any number of tribes on any number of days and feel part of something bigger than yourself. You can belong to the Callaway tribe when you play golf, the VW tribe when you drive, and the Williams-Sonoma tribe when you cook a meal. Brands are the little gods of modern life, each ruling a different need, activity, mood, or situation. Yet you're in control. If your latest god falls from Olympus, you can switch to another one."

from The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier (AIGA, 2006)

Reap What You Sow

Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), recently resigned after admitting the résumé she submitted 28 years ago was filled with lies.
Ms. Jones has written a number of books, including Less Stress, More Success, where she writes: "Holding integrity is sometimes very hard to do because the temptation may be to cheat or cut corners. But just remember that 'what goes around comes around,' meaning that life has a funny way of giving back what you put out." Jones now wishes she had followed her own advice.

Source: Tamar Lewin, "Dean at MIT Resigns, Ending a 28-Year Lie," New York Times (April 27, 2007)

The Prosperity Gospel

61% of Christians believe God wants people to be financially prosperous.
48% of Christians believe Jesus was not rich, and we should follow his example.
49% believe Christians don't do enough for the poor.
57% do not believe 10% is the minimum God expects Christians to give.

David Van Biema and Jeff Chu, "Does God Want You to Be Rich?" Time magazine (18 September 2006)

Baseball Pitcher Schilling Sustained by God

In the first game of the best-of-seven, 2004 American League Championship Series between baseball's New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, Boston's ace pitcher Curt Schilling was in pain. An ankle injury kept him from being able to plant his foot and throw the ball with his usual skill. Schilling was removed from the game after allowing six runs in just three innings. Teammates feared Schilling's injury would end his season and their hopes to get to the World Series.
But in the sixth game against the Yankees, Schilling surprisingly took the mound again. Facing elimination if they lost, the Red Sox watched Schilling throw an amazing seven innings in which he only gave up four hits and one run. Every time the TV camera focused on Schilling's ankle, viewers could see blood seep through his sock. Doctors had stitched his ankle tendon into place to allow him to pitch. The Red Sox won the game, and afterwards a FOX Sports reporter asked him about his performance.
Schilling answered, "Seven years ago I became a Christian, and tonight God did something amazing for me. I tried to be as tough as I could, and do it my way Game 1, and I think we all saw how that turned out. Tonight it was all God. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to do this alone. And I prayed as hard as I could. I didn't pray to get a win or to make great pitches. I just prayed for the strength to go out there tonight and compete, and he gave me that. I can't explain to you what a feeling it was to be out there and to feel what I felt."

sources: FOX Sports coverage of the 2004 ALCS (10-19-04);
"Curt Schilling Postgame Quotes," www.Boston.Redsox.mlb.com (10-20-04)

Leader Forgot the Big Picture

In the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai, the lead character, Colonel Nicholson, is a prisoner of war in Burma who leads his men to build a bridge for his Japanese captors. Nicholson is an officer of high integrity, dedicated to excellence, a great leader of men—and thus well trained to complete any mission that he is given.
He builds a beautiful bridge. By the film's end, he finds himself in the painful position of defending the bridge from attack by fellow officers who want to destroy it to prevent Japanese trains from using it. There's a chilling moment of realisation, right before he detonates the bridge, when Nicholson (Alec Guinness) utters the famous line, "What have I done?" He was so focused on his goal—building the bridge—that he forgot the larger mission of winning the war.

- Marshall Goldsmith, "Goal 1, Mission 0," Fast Company

Forgotten Risk

It had been a nerve-racking experience for my attorney husband. He was working with the FBI on a federal sting operation. Worried for his safety, they put him under protective surveillance. Finally the FBI told him they had rounded up all the criminals and were lifting the surveillance. A few days later my relieved spouse was on the phone, telling his brother about the whole adventure. "Did you happen to mention to the FBI that you have an identical twin?" his horrified brother interrupted. "Who lives next door?"

- Contributed to "Life in These United States" by J. D.

Sacred Ground

The World's Fastest Indian is the true story of Burt Munro, a New Zealander who set several land-speed records in the 1960s riding an early-century Indian motorcycle. The movie traces his difficult journey from a tool shed in New Zealand to the salt flats of Utah where speed records are attempted.
In one scene, Munro (Anthony Hopkins) arrives at the salt flats with a hitchhiker named Rusty. Getting out of his car he looks at the barren landscape in awe. "All my life, I've wanted to do something big—something bigger and better than all the other jokers. This is it: Bonneville. This is the place where big things happen. Do you realise, Rusty, the fastest that man has ever gone on land is here? Right here, where we are now.
"Malcolm Campbell did it here with Bluebird—first guy to go over 300 miles an hour. And then later, his son Donald came here with Proteus. He crashed at 350 miles an hour and lived to tell the tale. John Cobb was here—first guy to go over 400 miles an hour. All the great attempts: George Easton with Thunderbolt, Mickey Thompson with Challenger … "
Munro takes in a deep breath as tears well up in his eyes. With a voice full of emotion, he says: "I'm telling you, Rusty, this place is holy ground, mate. Holy ground. And I made it here."

source unknown

Grace Pays the Bill

I was having breakfast with my dad and my younger son. As we were finishing our meal, I noticed that the waitress brought our bill, then took it away, and then brought it back again. She placed it on the table, smiled, and said: "Somebody in the restaurant paid for your meal. You're all set." And then she walked away.
I had the strangest feeling sitting there. The feeling was helplessness. There was nothing I could do. It had been taken care of. To insist on paying would have been pointless. All I could do was trust that what she said was actually true and then live in that—which meant getting up and leaving the restaurant. My acceptance of what she said gave me a choice: to live like it was true or to create my own reality in which the bill was not paid.
That is our invitation—to trust that we don't owe anything. To trust that something is already true about us, something has already been done. To trust that grace pays the bill.

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell (Zondervan, 2005)

The Woman Who Drew The Line

You’ve probably never heard of Dr. June McCarroll, but she's truly a woman who left her mark on the world. Born in Nebraska, she was a general practitioner that lived in California. Interestingly enough, her claim to fame lies outside the world of medicine. An accident was the trigger that got her thinking about making our highways safer. Her car was side-swiped, and she determined to do something about cars that crowded others off the road.
Driving on a road that bulged down its centre, Dr. McCarroll noticed that the bulge helped to keep motorists on their own side of the road. That gave her an idea. She tried persuading the town council to "paint a line down the middle of the road" to set an example and "lead the nation in public safety." She got the typical bureaucratic response. However, she was someone who would not take no for an answer. So she took her idea to the local women's club. The vote was unanimous in support of the project. Still, she continued to face bureaucratic stubbornness for seven long years before her idea was implemented.
In 1924 the California Highway Commission agreed to experiment with a centre line on two sections of Route 99. Accidents on both test stretches diminished dramatically, and soon the entire state boasted McCarroll lines on its highways. Most of the world has since followed suit.
Message: When you conceive an idea in which you fervently believe, go after that idea, especially if people you respect believe it's a good one...

Zig Ziglar

Rewards of Discipline

When I went to the University of Colorado as an athlete, I discovered we had a track coach who was a sadist. Every Monday for ten months of the year there was a standard workout. We ran 20 quarter miles each at 63 seconds, with three minutes of jogging in between. It was a devastatingly painful workout. I hated it. I hated Monday with a passion. When the workout was finished, I virtually crawled to the locker room.
There was another man on the team, though, who did that workout alongside of me. After the workout was over and I had left the field, he rested for 15 minutes and then would do the workout a second time. His name was Bill Toomey. He went on to win an Olympic gold medal in the decathlon.

Kevin Miller, vice president, Christianity Today International

When You Feel Boiled in Oil

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is one of the fastest-growing franchises in America. In addition to their unique taste, a key to Krispy Kreme's phenomenal success is its strategic blueprint for individual shops. Customers are able to watch through a wall of glass while doughnuts are created along an assembly-line conveyor system.
First the little balls of dough are shot through with a piercing blast of air to create a hole. Then the flat doughnuts are forced to spend time in the "proof box" where they ride a vertical elevator up and down in an atmosphere of heat and humidity. This is what allows the flat dough to rise. Then the soon-to-be delicacies are dropped into hot oil in order to be cooked thoroughly. As the circular survivors of such an intense ordeal make their way toward the end of the line, they pass through a cascading waterfall of icing.
Just as the poor doughnut's trial produces a product of great delight to the customer, the trials God allows in our lives bring about in us what delights him.

source unknown

The Song of Life

When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child. They recognise that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavour and purpose. When the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud. Then they return to the tribe and teach it to everyone else.When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child's song to him or her. Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers and chants the child's song. When the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, the people again come together and sing. At the time of marriage, the person hears his or her song. Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the person's bed, just as they did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life. There is something inside each of us that knows we have a song, and we wish those we love would recognize it and support us to sing it. In the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the centre of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.

source unknown

Michelangelo Redeems Broken Marble

In 1463, members of the City Council of Firenze (Florence) Italy decided they needed a monument to enhance their city. They commissioned a sculptor to carve a giant statue to stand in front of city hall. Someone suggested a biblical character wrought in the neoclassical style, an expression of beauty and strength.
They approached Agostino di Duccio, who agreed to their terms. Duccio went to the quarry near Carrara and marked off a 19-foot slab to be cut from the white marble. However, he had the slab cut too thin. When the block was removed, it fell, leaving a deep fracture down one side. The sculptor declared the stone useless and demanded another, but the city council refused. Consequently, the gleaming block of marble lay on its side for the next 38 years, a source of embarrassment for all concerned.
Then, in 1501, the council approached another citizen, the son of a local official, asking him if he would complete the ambitious project, using the broken slab. Fortunately for them, the young man was Michelangelo Buonarroti. He was 26 years old, filled with energy, skill, and imagination. Michelangelo locked himself inside the workshop behind the cathedral to chisel and polish away on the stone for three years. When the work was finished, it took 49 men five days to bring it to rest before the city hall. Archways were torn down. Narrow streets were widened. The people from across Europe came to see the 14-foot statue of David relaxing after defeating Goliath. It was even more than the city fathers had envisioned. The giant stone had been transformed from the massive fractured waste of rock to a masterpiece surpassing the art of either Greece or Rome.

Sam Whatley, Pondering the Journey (True Life Publishers, 2002), pp. 17-18

Operation Cleanses Abuse Victim

Maylo Aames's life was as bad as it could get. Bud, her mother's boyfriend, raped and beat her for years. Maylo's mother ignored the abuse her daughter suffered. Even her father refused to listen to her cry for help. Maylo says, "The older I got, the more I fought with Bud—and the more violent the rapes became. He told me if anyone ever found out what was going on, he would kill me."
Maylo escaped to Hollywood and a life of drugs and alcohol. Eventually she began an acting career and put an end to her destructive behaviour.
A visit to the doctor brought news of internal damage created by the years of abuse. Maylo would also have to undergo an operation for cervical cancer. This increased her rage for the man whose abuse made it unlikely she would ever have children.
Maylo described the operation as a turning point.
Even though I didn't know God, he began to heal me. Before I fell asleep in the operating room, my doctor leaned over and said, "When you wake up, there won't be one spot in you that that man has touched. You will be clean." When I woke, my body was my own. My doctor will never know what a gift he gave me that day.

Maylo Aames, "I Will Not Forget You," Decision, June 2004

Cooking and Communion

One preacher recalls the first time he was asked to teach a seminary class about Communion. He went to an older colleague and said, "How shall I begin? What should I do?"
The older colleague said, "The first thing you must do is go to a kitchen and learn how to cook."
The preacher said, "Why should I learn how to cook if all I want to do is to teach the meaning of Communion?"
"Ah," said his older colleague, "you must know this. You will never be able to understand the meaning of Communion until you know the love of cooking and the joy of those who are satisfied."

Wayne Brouwer, "No Ordinary People,"

Father and Son Endure Difficult Hike

Pastor Mark Coleman loves to hike, and he passed on that love to his son, Peter. When Peter was only 5 years old, Coleman planned an easy hike on the northern part of the Appalachian Trail. Coleman would lead them around a mountain to a lake in Vermont where they would spend the night. He made thorough preparation for the trip, including coaching his son. Over and over he told him that it would be tough, and it was okay to be tired, but they had to keep on walking. They had to keep on walking.
Unfortunately, the walking was longer and tougher than expected because Coleman led them over the mountain, not around it. The trail was steep and broken. Little Peter stumbled time after time on loose rocks, but they kept on walking. The hike was a burden, not a joy, but they kept on walking. Peter fell so many times that he ripped the knees of his jeans, but he kept on walking. Finally, after one fall too many, he sat and cried.
As Mark approached him and began to speak, Peter cut him off: "I know, Dad. It's okay to cry, as long as I keep on walking."

From a sermon by Mark Coleman (3-16-03)

Crossing the Generation Gap

Bill is wild haired; his wardrobe for college is jeans and a T-shirt with holes in it. He recently became a believer while attending a campus Bible study.
Across from campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. One Sunday Bill decides to go there. He walks in late and shoeless. The sanctuary is packed. Bill heads down the aisle looking for a seat. Having nearly reached the pulpit, he realises there are no empty seats, so he squats down on the carpet. The congregation is feeling uncomfortable.
Then from the back of the church, a grey-haired elder in a three-piece suit starts walking toward Bill with a cane. The worshipers don't expect a man in his 80s to understand some college kid on the floor. With all eyes focused on the developing drama, the minister waits to begin his sermon until the elder does what he has to do.
The elderly man drops his cane on the floor and with great difficulty lowers himself to sit next to Bill.
"What I'm about to preach," the minister begins, "you'll never remember. What you've just seen, you'll never forget."

Lew Gervais, director of Pressing Onward support groups; quoted in Men of Integrity (3.2)

How I’ve Changed My Mind

Here’s an expanded version of a talk I gave to our small group. It’s a meandering chat, I haven’t put much order into it, and it’s a summary of just one of six pages of notes…
People – including Yours Truly – do not change their minds simply because a Compelling New Idea comes floating by. To summarise four years of a Masters’ degree in social psychology: given that the new idea has to make sense, it also has to win in the ‘reward/punishment’ stakes. Punishment? Yes, if the group to which you belong and/or whose approval you need despises or even expels you for espousing the new idea, you’ll think twice about embracing it.
Also, one asks the ‘source credibility’ question: can I trust the purveyor of the new idea. Are they ‘opinion leaders’ in this field?
Then there’s the ‘cognitive dissonance’ issue: can the new idea fit into the schema of ideas already registered in my brain? And the ‘personality/ persuasibility’ question: some of us are suckers for any novelty at all, including new ideas.
Many people belong to groups which not only abhor new ideas, they ensure that their members don’t connect with any (‘monopoly propaganda’). And finally, the incorporation of a new idea is reinforced if the welcomer-of-the-idea has to role-play with it in front of others (which is why cults/sects and many other groups get their devotees to give ‘testimonies’).
OK, so much for psychology. As I’m mainly talking about Christian ideas, there’s the question of authority, and Christians have four broad approaches: the Bible, the Church and its tradition/s, reason (together with contemporary secular disciplines), and experience – past and present, one’s own and others’.
People embrace new ideas in different ways. Will Rogers said there are three kinds of men (ie. males): those who learn by reading; the few who learn by observation; and the rest who have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves… Most of my mind-shifts have resulted from reading.
I grew up in the ‘Open [Plymouth] Brethren’, and they would have approved of this quote: ‘[I hope] they would not find me changed from him they knew/ Only more sure of what he thought was true’. I’m now a bit wary of such a maxim. One of my greatest fears is to come across a new idea and reject it, through stubbornness and/or fear. Or, OTOH, how pathetic to go to your grave believing something that is not true, or resisting a good idea which might be inconvenient. However I am a ‘work in progress’. I’m only 70 years young, and have many ideas to reject/modify/embrace before I die. And I have a way to go yet on the road to wholeness/holiness.

Rowland Croucher

My Little Shark Hunter

Always brave, my son tackles a new dangerous mission. At times, I wish I felt better about it

by Phil Callaway

Ever since he was knee high to a Doberman, the boy was fearless. Take him to the ocean and he'd jump in looking for sharks. Take him to the mountains and he'd see how high he could climb. One day when he was five, I watched in horror as he jumped off a roof—a garbage bag duct-taped to his back. We couldn't be more opposite, my son and I. The higher he climbs, the more he believes God is with him. Not me. I believe God put us on dry land and says, "Lo, I am with you always."
In his first year of college, he called one night to ask me for money. "I'm sorry," I said. "You have reached this number in error. Please hang up and call your Uncle Dan."
"I scaled a 300-foot cliff today," he said, undaunted. "You'd have loved it."
Right. His father who contracts vertigo standing on a skateboard.
For years I've wondered what God would make of our son. Would he call him to be a crash-test dummy? A professional bungee jumper? Or would he fulfill every North American parent's dream by settling down in a huge house with a nice wife and provide us some grandchildren to spoil?
The unexpected answer arrived by e-mail one day:
Dear Dad and Mum,
I just want you to know that I met a couple nice girls and we're planning on being married. In Utah. Not really. But I did meet Lucy. You'll like her a lot. It's surprising how quickly you can find a Justice of the Peace down here. Lucy owns a tattoo parlour, but seldom works. Her father won some money in a lottery, so she's set for life. I won't need to work anymore either. I've bought a Mercedes convertible and you'll be happy to know I put a chrome fish on the bumper.
If you haven't fainted yet, here's the truth. It may be more shocking. In the country of Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army is committing atrocities against children that are too awful for me to put in this letter. Over the years they've abducted 50,000 kids and turned the ones they haven't murdered into soldiers. I'd like to work with street children in Kampala. I'll be living with local missionaries. It will mean lots of needles and I'll need to raise a little money too.
Dad, you told me once that Jesus came to comfort us, not to make us comfortable. I guess I've been comforted enough; it's time to offer some to others.
Your son, Steve "Where do you think we went wrong?" I asked his mother. "Couldn't he just have a beach ministry in Hawaii? Maybe we blew it taking him to other countries and showing him what the real world looks like. Don't you just hate it when your son practices what you've been preaching?"
"It's what we've prayed for all these years," she said with a grin, "that he would live life on purpose."
And so one month ago, we hugged our firstborn son goodbye as he embarked on a grand adventure half a world away. It's funny the questions people ask when they hear he's in Uganda. "Aren't you worried about his safety?" I have my moments. Check a list of the most dangerous spots on earth and Uganda nears the top. But is safety what we're here for? Isn't Complacency the most dangerous place on earth? Isn't Suburbia sucking the life out of our teenagers more than any foreign country ever could?
I sat with a missionary the other day who is pouring her life out in Pakistan, patching bodies and souls for Jesus. She's the only missionary in her area whose parents support her being there. I must be honest: I understand. There are times I'd rather Steve was home making good money—putting it away for my nursing home bills. Yet I cannot hope for more than this: that my children will hear God's voice despite a noisy culture, and that they will obey.
A few nights before he left I asked Steve what he'd miss most about home. "The dog," he said, smiling. Then why is it that I found him studying family photos and lounging on the sofa watching an old Disney movie with his brother and sister? Was he killing time? Or saying goodbye to the remnants of childhood?
I've shed a few tears, for sure. But mostly I've been giving thanks. For a son who's a much improved version of his father. For e-mail and cheap overseas phone rates. And I'm thankful there are no sharks in Uganda.

Phil Callaway is the best-selling author of a dozen books. Visit him at www.laughagain.org.

Being Comfortable Can Kill Us

Too much comfort is dangerous. Literally.
Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley did an experiment some time ago that involved introducing an amoeba into a perfectly stress-free environment: ideal temperature, optimal concentration of moisture, constant food supply. The amoeba had an environment to which it had to make no adjustment whatsoever.
So you would guess this was one happy little amoeba. Whatever it is that gives amoebas ulcers and high blood pressure was gone.
Yet, oddly enough, it died.
Apparently there is something about all living creatures, even amoebas, that demands challenge. We require change, adaptation, and challenge the way we require food and air. Comfort alone will kill us.

(Study source: Chris Peterson, "Optimism and By-pass Surgery," in Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control [New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993].)

Spats Slow Healing

Marital arguments can have a significant effect on the physical health of each spouse, a 2005 study from Ohio State University showed.
The study looked at 42 couples who had been married at least 12 years, during two clinical visits conducted two months apart. At the beginning of each visit, the researchers used a suction device to inflict blisters on the arms of each participant.
During the first visit, the spouses were led in positive discussions. For the second visit, however, the couples were encouraged to talk about things on which they disagreed. The sessions were videotaped to determine the degree of hostility between each couple, and the wounds were monitored for blood flow and fluid accumulation. The hostile couples' wounds healed at only 60% of the rate of non-hostile couples.
The study revealed that a 30-minute marital disagreement can add a day or more to the healing process of a wound.

Source: Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience.com (5 December 2005)

Community: Dead Man Sitting

In October 2005, an elderly man passed away while sitting in his parked car in Melbourne, Australia. He remained that way for several days before his body was found and identified by city officials.
After the man's death, however, and two days before the discovery of his body, a police officer gave him a parking ticket and attached it to the windshield of his car.
The head of the Maroondah City Council later apologized for the incident, saying: "It must be just so sad for the family, and we extend our sincere sympathies to them." He added, "It is simply a case of the parking officer not noticing."

Source: ABCNewsOnline (21 October 2005)

Taming Tongue: Devils Spread Disease

Australian scientists recently discovered what's killing thousands of Tasmanian Devils on the island state of Tasmania. The scientists initially believed the deaths were caused by a virus; however, their research ultimately uncovered a rare, fatal cancer. The named it the Devil Facial Tumor Disease, or DFTD.
What is strange, according to cytogeneticist Anne-Marie Pearse, is that the abnormalities in the chromosomes of the cancer cells were the same in every tumour. That means the disease began in the mouth of a single, sick devil. That individual facilitated the spread of DFTD by biting its neighbours when squabbling for food, which according to Pearse, is a natural devil behaviour: "Devils jaw-wrestle and bite each other a lot, usually in the face and around the mouth, and bits of tumour break off one devil and stick in the wounds of another."
Over the course of several years, infected devils continued to inflict deadly wounds with their mouths. Consequently, DFTD spread at an alarming rate, ultimately wiping out over 40 percent of the devil population.
A similar fate threatens the church if its members persist in the devilish behavior of wounding their neighbours with their mouths.

Source: FoxNews.com (6 Feb 2006)

QB Minus a Game Plan

Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots, is not only one of the NFL's best players, he is one of the NFL's best stories.
By age 28, he had already won three Super Bowls, an accomplishment that ranks him with some of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game. Brady's loss to the Denver Broncos in the 2005 playoff was his first in the playoffs, compared with 10 playoff wins in the last 4 years.
But with all Brady's fame and career accomplishments, he told 60 Minutes, "Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'Hey man, this is what is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life.' Me, I think, 'God, it's got to be more than this.' I mean this isn't, this can't be what it's all cracked up to be."
"What's the answer?" asked interviewer Steve Kroft.
"I wish I knew," Brady replied. "I wish I knew."

Source: CBSNews.com (6 November 2005)

Definitions: Integrity Matters

In a year filled with political wrangling, natural disasters, and pop culture curiosities, Americans turned to Merriam-Webster to help define it all.
Filibuster, refugee, and tsunami were among the publisher's 10 most frequently looked-up words on its website.
Topping the list is a word that may give insight into the country's concern about its values: integrity.
The noun, defined as "firm adherence to a code" and "incorruptibility," has always been popular on the company's website, said president John Morse. But in 2005, the meaning of integrity seemed to be of extraordinary concern. About 200,000 people sought its definition.
"I think the American people have isolated a very important issue for our society to be dealing with," Morse said. "The entire list gives us an interesting window that opens up into what people are thinking about in their lives."
Ralph Whitehead, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, said it may indicate the continuing discussion about American values and morality, or perhaps that integrity is becoming scarce, so its definition is unfamiliar.

Source: CNN.com (12 October 2005)

A Father’s Sacrifice

March of the Penguins follows the Emperor Penguins of Antarctica on their incredible journey through ice and snow to mating grounds inland. This beautiful documentary captures the drama of these three-foot-high birds.
Once the penguins have made the trek and the females have produced their eggs, a remarkable exchange occurs. Through an intricate dance, each mother swaps her egg into the father's care. At this point the father becomes responsible for the egg and must keep it warm and elevated off the ice for weeks on end.
The camera shows the fathers securing the eggs on top of their feet and sheltering them against the cold. Morgan Freeman narrates:
"Now begins one of nature's most incredible and endearing role reversals. It is the penguin male who will tend the couple's single egg. While the mother feeds and gathers food to bring back for the newborn, it is the father who will shield the egg from the violent winds and cold. He will make a nest for the egg atop his own claws, keeping it safe and warm beneath a flap of skin on his belly. And he will do this for more than two months … "By the time their vigil on top of the egg is over, the penguin fathers will have gone without food for 125 days and they will have endured one of the most violent and deadly winters on earth, all for the chick."

source unknown

Daddy's Empty Chair

A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.
When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.
An empty chair sat beside his bed.
The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.
"I guess you were expecting me, he said.
'No, who are you?" said the father.
The minister told him his name and then remarked, "I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up."
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man. "Would you mind closing the door?"
Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man. "But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me, "Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest."
"Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'. Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now."
"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."
The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.
Did he die in peace?" he asked.
“Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?"
The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we could all go like that."

source unknown

Role Models Needed

The TV show 60 Minutes ran a segment that tells us something important about fatherlessness.
The park rangers at a South African wildlife preserve were concerned about the slaughter of 39 rare white rhinos in their park. It turned out that the rhinos were killed not by poachers but rather by juvenile delinquents—teen elephants.
The story began a decade ago when the park could no longer sustain the increasing population of elephants. They decided to kill many of the adult elephants whose young were old enough to survive without them. And so, the young elephants grew up fatherless.
As time went on, many of these young elephants roamed together in gangs and began to do things elephants normally don't do. They threw sticks and water at rhinos and acted like neighbourhood bullies. Without dominant males, the young bulls became sexually active, producing excessive testosterone and exhibiting aggressive behavior. A few young males grew especially violent, knocking down rhinos and stepping or kneeling on them, crushing the life out of them. Mafuto the gang leader eventually had to be killed.
The park rangers theorised that these young teen-aged elephants were acting badly because they lacked role models. The solution was to bring in a large male to lead them and to counteract their bully behaviors. Soon the new male established dominance and put the young bulls in their places. The killing stopped. The young males were mentored—and saved.

60 Minutes (20 January 1999)