I am told that the period after the Civil War, leading up to the end of that century was a very colorful time in American history. War always makes manufacturers wealthy. And there were quick fortunes to be made in railroads, oil exploration and...

I remember when my sandwich at lunch was covered by folded wax paper. And then mom discovered Tupperware and heaven help you if you didn’t bring home the precious plastic box. Today, we stuff sandwiches (and everything else) in zip lock bags...

On the news the other night, they had a report about an autistic young man who had a remarkable experience in a grocery store. As his family did their shopping, the teenager became fascinated with a store clerk as he was stocking shelves. The store...

Years ago I attended a seminar called “Basic Youth Conflicts,” and it changed my life. I was so young in my faith, so rough around the spiritual edges that I needed a totally new way of thinking about life. And the material in those sessions...

When I lived in England, I loved sitting in those massive train stations and listening to all the announcements. I can still hear pronouncements like “The 4:15 non-stop to Manchester is now departing on track number six. All aboard!” rolling around...

Apparently in the Australian outback, ranchers have two strategies for dealing with wandering cattle. Some build miles and miles of high, tight fences to ensure that the cows stay in and the wolves stay out! The other strategy calls for digging a...

Summer is a time for splashing around in some water. And I recently read about a mama duck doing just that on a lake in Minnesota. It seems that she and her family were making quite a racket as then paddled around the lake. She is a Merganser and...

I know it is the middle of the summer and our kids are in full scale ‘lazy mode.’ But lots of them still need to be chauffeured everywhere and that means many of us are spending tons of time in a car. This week might be a great opportunity to use...

A few months ago, a Southwest pilot, Tammie Jo Shults heroically landed flight #1380 in Philadelphia after a midflight engine failure. This 56-year-old Texan mother worked with her co-pilot and safely landed the plane after a 20,000-foot drop in...

The scripture tells us that there were three groups of Jews who returned from exile in Babylon. Zerubbabel led the first and largest group (about 49,000) in 539-537 BC. He was focused on rebuilding the temple. Ezra led a smaller group of just 1754...

This is one of my favorite illustrations. It is the transcript of an actual radio conversation between a U. S. naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October 1995. Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the...

This week our country celebrates our Declaration of Independence, the birth of the United States of America. But actually, the declaration was declared two days earlier on the second of July. On the fourth, they just finally agreed on all the edits...