For those of us living in America, July 22 is a day of wild celebration. July 22 is . . . National Mango Day National Penuche Fudge Day National Rat Catcher’s Day National Refreshment Day But more importantly, today is National Hammock Day. The hammock comes from Spanish culture. They invented the hammock, or “stretch…
Some things are hard to predict. Just two generations ago, my grandparents’ world would have never seen any of this coming: A motorized vehicle replacing the horse and buggy Bicycle repair man inventing an airplane The eradication of polio Man walking on the moon A peanut farmer becoming President of the United States The Miracle…
Viktor Frankl was a Jewish psychiatrist who was taken to one of the death camps in Nazi Germany. All of his family and friends were gassed and murdered. He writes in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, about one day when he stood in front of the Gestapo, stark naked. They had taken away the…
President Dwight David Eisenhower was a rare success in American history. He was both a five-star General and a two-term president who presided over amazing peace and unity throughout the land. But his future success was not clear from the beginning. Eisenhower was an average student in school. At the military academy, he spent more…
In 1946, Rebecca was born to a poor family in Tennessee. Her dad was a tobacco farmer. After her birth, her dad paid the doctor’s fee with a bag of oatmeal. Raised with 11 siblings, Rebecca was determined to set out on her own after high school. She pursued a career as an author and…
One night when I was about 13, I went to my school and ran around the track, imagining there were thousands of people in the stands cheering me on. In my mind, I won the race. But the race wasn’t real, and my “time” didn’t matter. It didn’t count. We achieve a lot of things…
Over 200 years ago, John Wesley’s “Holy Club” asked themselves the same 22 questions every day. I suggest you try this yourself. (I will shorten and paraphrase some of these for the sake of brevity.) Am I living the life of a hypocrite? Am I honest in all my words? Am I a gossip? Can…
What kind of legacy are you leaving for those coming behind you? In his song, “Small Town Southern Man,” Alan Jackson sang these powerful lyrics: “He was always proud of what he had, He said his greatest contribution Is the ones you leave behind, Raised on the ways and gentle kindness Of a small town…
Okay, baseball fans, here’s a trivia question for you. Who had more career no-hitters? Nolan Ryan Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Steve Carlton, Grover Alexander, Lefty Grove, Don Sutton, Don Drysdale, and Whitey Ford – combined Answer: 1. Nolan Ryan Nolan Ryan tossed a record seven no-hitters over his amazing 27-year career. By comparison,…
Sometimes, God employs a strange battle plan. In Judges 7, we read about Gideon. God told him to take 300 Israelites into battle against 135,000 enemy soldiers. And it gets crazier. God said to bring as his weapons torches, trumpets, and clay pots. Gideon would put the clay pots over the torches so the light…