Category: Miscellaneous

Dec 06

My Dad vs. an Angry Mother Goose

 

Did I ever tell you about the time my father was attacked on a golf course? It’s true. After he retired, he worked part-time at a community golf course as a ranger riding one of those little golf carts. He knew there was a nesting goose on the course who had laid several eggs, and he thought he was keeping a good distance from her not-hatched-yet babies.

But mother goose apparently didn’t agree that he was far enough away and as he rode by in his cart, she circled around and began flying straight toward him.  My dad kept thinking that surely she would turn, but instead she aimed her beak right between his eyes. At the last second he threw up his arm to protect his face as her broad wing knocked off his ball cap. He lost control of the cart and ended up capsizing in the nearby stream (much to the amusement of a nearby foursome on the green!).

He laughed as he later told me the story, but I was horrified.

“Dad, what if you hadn’t thrown up your arm in time?” I chided him. “Do you know what the newspaper headline would have been the next day?…’Man Goosed to Death on Golf Course’!”

 

Sorry that I shared my weird sense of humor there, but as an ex-newspaper reporter, I’m always thinking about stories and headlines! Anyway, the moral of this story is that a goose will do what she needs to do to protect her family!

Mother hens do likewise. Have you ever watched one clucking and spreading her wings as she tries to safely gather her chicks as some danger approached–perhaps a predator or even a storm.

Did you know that Jesus once described Himself as a mother hen? In Matthew 23:37 we read: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” 

As He looked over the city of Jerusalem, Jesus knew He was the answer ti the longings of Jewish hearts, but the people didn’t want to hear it. Like a protective, loving parent, the Lord wished He could draw these folks close to His heart and keep the safe, but they wouldn’t let Him.

Can you feel those imaginary wings over you today–protecting you, shielding you and drawing you close? Have you trusted Jesus enough to let Him truly cover you? He longs to do that for you. Don’t miss your chance to be hidden safely in His arms.

 

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Today’s song is a really old one, but the words are timeless.

Nov 29

The Day the Dog Walked on Water

 

Did you hear about the farmer who lived next door to a pessimist? If the farmer said “Isn’t is a beautiful sunny day?” the pessimist would reply, “We need rain.” If it rained and the farmer commented on how wonderful it was to have rain, the pessimist would reply, “It’ll probably ruin the crops.” He always managed to see the worst in any situation.

But one day the farmer decided he would put an end to his neighbor’s pessimism. He called his neighbor to come over and see an amazing trick his dog could do. The farmer proceeded to throw a stick into the middle of his pond. Immediately the dog jumped on top of the water out to the floating stick. He carefully picked it up in his mouth, walked back across on top of the water safely to the shore and laid the stick at the pessimist’s feet.

The farmer looked at his neighbor and said “Pretty amazing, huh?” to which the pessimist replied, “Can’t swim, can he?”

 

I know I’m a pretty skeptical person, but I think a dog walking on water would have impressed me! (I tried to find such a photo for you here, but had to settle for one swimming back to shore with his stick!)

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read the description of Jesus walking on the water toward His disciples in their boat. If you had witnessed this, what would you have done? Would you have been skeptical? Afraid? Like Peter  and ask Jesus to walk on water too?

Now remember this was no calm lake on a bright sunny day that Peter stepped onto. It was the middle of the night, a strong wind was whipping,and the boat was fighting heavy waves. It took some amazing courage on Peter’s part to step over the side of that boat. and it paid off as he, just like the farmer’s dog 🙂 walked on top  of the water.

But Peter’s triumph quickly turned to trouble as he became terrified and started sinking. Did Peter sink because the wind got stronger or the waves got higher? I don’t think so. I think it was because he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at his circumstances instead.

Don’t look at the “waves” below you or the “wind” above you today. Instead, as the old hymn says, “Turn your eyes open Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

 

 

 

 

Nov 14

How Captain America Saved the Day for Me

 

As you can see I met Captain America recently—he actually stopped by my house the other day for a few hours. The Captain, a.k.a. grandson Benny, wanted to show me his new shield (Mommy, a.k.a. Wonder Woman-Shopper, found it in the Target clearance bin) and the pint-sized super hero clearly explained to me that it was “made of indestructible vibranium.”

I was especially glad he brought the shield as he deftly used it to block the swinging plastic bat aimed at my face by his 1-year-old brother Jack. Both boys seemed to immensely enjoy this game of the little one taking aim at Grandma and the bigger one interjecting the vibranium shield at just the right moment.

I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of Captain America by telling him I didn’t know what vibranium was, so after he left I Googled it. Turns out it’s only real in Marvel comic books, but on those pages it is able to absorb all the vibrations of anything that hits it. And I will attest that in my real life, it did absorb blows from a free-swinging toddler.

After the shield saved my face from being pummeled, it got me thinking about some 27 years ago when another friend held up a shield for me.

It was in 1990 just a few days after I came home from my colon cancer surgery that our dear friends Gene and Sheila Latta stopped by for a visited. I begged the usually jovial Gene not to say anything to try and make me laugh because my abdominal incision with 27 staples hurt way too much. He obliged and I began to pour out my fears and my tears to Sheila, my older and wiser friend.

“Everyone prayed for Ralph’s first wife and she still died,” I sobbed. “If God didn’t heal her, why would He heal me? I’m no better than she was.”

Thankfully, Sheila didn’t try to explain why one faithful follower doesn’t survive a life-threatening illness and why another does because there is no answer this side of eternity. But she did remind me of Truth.

“Your fight with cancer is a physical battle, but it also is a spiritual battle,” she gently explained. “You need to hold up your shield of faith.”

I knew the verse in Ephesians 6:16 to which she was referring: “Hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.” For me, those fiery arrows included depression, fear, anxiety and despair—all common for people facing life’s dark trials.

Sheila prayed for me and reminded me of what I knew in my head, but could not feel in my heart: God’s love and presence in our life are not based on whether we’re “good enough”—they are unconditional gifts from our heavenly Father. She promised to continually pray for me to have the strength to hold up my shield of faith in a God who has proved His love for me: “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (I John 4:10)

Slowly, but surely that shield absorbed the lying arrows of the devil and I felt God’s love and experienced His peace even in the face of cancer.

How are you doing holding up your shield of faith? Are you listening to the lies of the enemy or the truth of the lover of your soul? Do you need to ask a trusted friend to help you hold up that shield? Do you need to ask a trusted friend to help you hold up that shield? No matter what you can see or not see, you can’t see it all. Have faith in the God who will never leave you nor forsake you.

I hope you are fortunate to have Captain America stop by your home and protect you with his vibranium shield, but I especially pray you hold up your shield of true faith: “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

(I am still experiencing major technical difficulties with my website, so i can’t upload the music video here. But please click on the link to enjoy “Give Me Faith'” by Elevation Worship) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMVvqI1-tM4 

Nov 01

Cancer Can’t Stop Her Joy!

 

Bunnie Gasperini's Profile Photo, Image may contain: 1 person

My friend Bunnie is a redheaded, retired heavy equipment operator with a delightful New England accent who loves to laugh. On weekends she “clowns” around at the local Dairy Queen as she whips up balloons and smiles for children, while sharing God’s love for them. On weekdays she takes off her clown make-up and cooks hot meals which she joyfully delivers to the homeless folks in a nearby neighborhood.

Did I mention that she has stage 4 tongue cancer, carries her portable oxygen tank everywhere and is on hospice?

“I’m a bulldog for the Lord!” she explains.

“When I make dog balloons for the children, I tell them ‘God wants us to be like dogs’—a dog is loving, faithful, obedient and always happy to see us!”

And with the tenacity of a bulldog, Bunnie has refused to allow a cancer diagnosis and multiple recurrences to change her goal of sharing the joy of Jesus with anyone she meets. Here’s a little of her inspiring story from my new book Peace in the Face of Cancer.

 

When Bunnie moved to Florida in 2011, she wondered what she would do in her post-retirement life.

“I was laughing so much, I dreamt I should be a clown,” she recalls with a chuckle. On a whim she searched online for “clown schools” and found there was one only two hours from her new home. She took the courses, and since 2012 she has been a professional clown and member of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians.

She began volunteering at her local Dairy Queen, where she performed magic tricks and twisted balloons into animal shapes. While the children enjoyed their ice cream, she shared character-building stories and told them about God’s love for them.

But in August 2013 the shows stopped when Bunnie was diagnosed with inoperable tongue cancer. Doctors told her that without chemo and radiation, she probably had six months to live. She was devastated with that prognosis, but resolute in her faith: “You can even take my tongue, and I’ll still find a way to share the gospel,” she announced to her doctor.

Bunnie had thirty-five radiation and eight chemo treatments. After a two-week hiatus, she was back whipping up balloons and smiles at Dairy Queen.

When she read a copy of my first book, When God & Cancer Meet, Bunnie felt as if God were telling her to share her story by giving away copies of the book. (Why doesn’t He tell everyone to do that?J)

So she bought dozens of books and gave them away to cancer patients and their families at the cancer center. But in May 2015 a scan showed the cancer had spread to her lungs.

“I was really, really devastated for a little while—for maybe an hour or something,” she told me, chuckling on the phone, after we became Facebook friends. “The Lord said, ‘You’re still here for Me and I’m going to use you right here at the cancer center.’”

She headed back there for more treatment, armed with more books.

Her methods might be a little unorthodox, but they produced her desired results.

“I went to the chemo waiting room with twenty-six books,” she explains. “I stood up and said, ‘Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but two years ago I was right where you are, and the Lord gave me peace and brought me through. And my friend gave me a book that strengthened me so much.’”

Then she held up a copy of the book and announced, “If you’d like a free copy, just raise your hand.”

Within a few seconds nearly every book was taken, and that’s what happened every time she spoke.

 

I promise you that my purpose in sharing Bunnie’s story is not to draw attention to her giving away, by her count, 425 copies of my first book—as grateful as I am for that! What I want to highlight is her generous and bold spirit as she has learned not just to battle cancer, but to dance with it.

Think about it. She has every reason to be bitter—a devastating cancer diagnosis in a new state with no family nearby, just when she was ready to relax and enjoy retirement. Cancer of the tongue when she loves to talk fast and laugh often.

But Bunnie knows what I hope you do too—that your purpose in life never changes. It is the same whether you or your loved one has a lot of cancer, a little cancer, or even no cancer. Your purpose in life—and mine—is to know God and love Him more, and to help others know God and love Him more.

Bunnie says her life verse is the same one I have chosen in my retirement: “My life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the task assigned to me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:24 NLT)

As long as you have breath (even if it’s from an oxygen tank!), God is not finished with you.

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,

and he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the pit of despair,

out of the mud and the mire.

He set my feet on solid ground

and steadied me as I walked along.

He has given me a new song to sing,

a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see what he has done and be amazed.

They will put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 40:1-3

Please enjoy this music video with Jason Davis, the pastor who lost part of his tongue to cancer singing his original song “These Walls.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga_m8wqg3us

 

Oct 25

“Mother, PLEASE, I’d rather do it myself!”

  Anybody else old like me and remember the 1965 Anacin pain reliever commercial shown  here?  

I was a pre-teen when that commercial appeared on the screen of our little black-and-white TV (with the aluminum foil on the rabbit ears) and my mom and I thought it was hilarious. We would joke around and quote it to each other whenever one of us offered to do something for the other. But headache or not, I think most of us are I’d-rather-do-it-myself kind of people. That’s one of the reasons why it’s especially frustrating when serious or chronic illness hits us or those we care about. It’s not really in our nature to admit there’s something weighing us down and we can’t really fix it. How heavy is the load you are carrying these days? Are your arms weary from trying to hold up yourself or your loved one? Is your back breaking from the weight of medical bills piling up? Is your mind exhausted from trying to keep track of all the appointments and medications? Is your spirit feeling let down by the unfairness of life? Jesus has an exchange He’d like to make: your heavy burdens for His light one. Then Jesus said,”Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give  you rest, Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

Notice He doesn’t promise to just take everything away so that we have no burdens? It’s as if right now we’re plowing through life as a single ox Image result for photo double yoked oxenwith a heavy yoke on our necks. When we give that big burden to Jesus, He comes alongside us, attaches His double yoke, and plows right with us.

No wonder our burdens are so much lighter and we are so much less weary! You don’t have to carry this heavy load by yourself. Lay down your I-can-do-it-by-myself yoke and allow Jesus to lighten the load as you walk side by side through whatever lies ahead.   Please enjoy this “oldie but goodie” song from 1975 by Chuck Girard, whom I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing back in the ’90s when he sang at Houghton College (and yes, I still own and listen to this album!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbLpncI4OvY