Three Days in the Arena

The final horn sounded, the streamers fell from the ceiling, and the crowd spilled out of the arena and onto the street. As my son and I surveyed the situation and saw the wind, rain, and lightening, he said exactly what I was thinking: “Dad, we’d better run”. As we sprinted down the middle of [...]

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How to enjoy your life

Have you ever heard of the Japanese production management term “Just In Time”. It seems appropriately fitting, ironic even, on this Sunday afternoon. The Bing family just spent most of last week with Miyu, our new Japanese exchange student friend/”adopted daughter”, and saw her leave to return home on Friday. That evening, we gathered around [...]

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A Two Horse Race?

…and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14 For those who haven’t heard the news, the sitting president for old Alma Mater is retiring next year. Accordingly, those charged with our sacred trust have been diligently working to find the next appointed leader. After six [...]

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Intense Situations

There’s a great exchange in the 1996 movie “Twister” between two characters, Beltzer and Dusty, while they are chasing a tornado. As the scene unfolds, they are barreling down a dirt road at a high rate of speed in old trucks, and are shouting to each other over a CB radio: Beltzer: Normal man spends [...]

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Beyond Babylon

This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and [...]

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Now I know how Jimmy Buffet feels

Big orange ball, sinkin’ in the water Toes in the sand, couldn’t get much hotter… …Now I know how Jimmy Buffet feels Not really, but as I’m stirring on this silent Saturday morning, and I’m on Day 2 sans Facebook, it feels like forever since I’ve creeped on my kids and my friends. I awoke [...]

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Do hard things

“How dare you?”, meet “Dare I not?”. People complain. That is a fact of life. People make mistakes. That is another fact of life. Sometimes, mistakes take on the form of fatal errors, and that is a hard reality. Without getting into the details, we all likely know of Penn State head football coach Joe [...]

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Out of Africa

“I’ve learned there are some things worth having, but they come at a price, and I want to be one of them.” The quote is from a woman named Karen, the subject of the 1937 novel and subsequent movie “Out of Africa”. As I get older, I confess to conjuring up a bit of a [...]

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All the runners run

1 Corinthians 9:23-25 I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings. Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but [...]

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House Blend?

Coffee as an analogy for life? Some would suggest that coffee is life, and I would concur at times. For certain, life often begins each day after a first cup, but today I wish to ponder it before I drink it. As I prepared the first “nectar of life” carafe of the day yesterday, I [...]

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