Archive for the ‘Lighten Up!’ Category

Thanks to the generosity of my friend Gary Wilber who runs Troy Christian Schools, one of the finest Christian educational institution I have seen, I just finished a week of R and R at Norris Lake in Eastern Tennessee. This place was a taste of heaven.

For seven days I watched five grandchildren in life jackets bob like screaming corks just off the end of the dock. I rode jet skis that go faster than my car. I fed worms to tiny thieves with fins and caught a catfish that looked a
larmingly like a kid I knew in college. We made s’mores around a campfire, laughed and talked and played cards until the wee hours. On the last day I water skied until my arms fell off. They are somewhere at the bottom of the lake.

At midnight the first night, as I sat on the deck, a hairy rodent (squirrel) flew past my head and landed on a post not three feet from my head. He ate a couple of grains of corn and flew to a tree 30 yards down toward the lake. I ran into the house yelling I have just seen a flying hairy rodent. That’s where it got interesting. No one in my family had ever heard of or seen a flying squirrel. Therefore they determined that no such thing existed and that I had imagined the whole thing. My protests were met with deriding comments like, “Did it have feathers?” “Did it carry away any of the children?” “Do you think we should be afraid of Asian squirrel flu? ”

In the midst of all the laughter and snide comments about my mental stability, a hairy rodent appeared out of nowhere, missing my daughters head by just inches and landed on the afore mentioned post. Three of the women and two of the men? scattered like… like…. well, like frightened hairy rodents.

I was vindicated. I would almost swear the squirrel winked before flying to another perch. Then from under one of the tables, I heard a voice proclaim. “That wasn’t a flying squirrel!”

My takeaway from the fantastic week

• It is human nature that people tend to believe what they want to believe no matter what the evidence! Recent best sellers prove the point.
• The oldest person at a family gathering is the least believed!
• If you want your arms, don’t water ski past age 60!

If you know the truth don’t be afraid to proclaim it!

MOST of the time, this is not my favorite use of time. Today I spent several hours on the phone and enjoyed it!

AND I discovered why.

I dislike interviews because so many are simply a list of questions. The interviewer asks a question and no matter what my response, without comment or reaction the interviewer goes on to the next question. This can be particularly difficult if HUMOR is the topic. BUT TODAY it dawned on me. A good interview is a conversation.

Chris Watkins from WBSA in Boaz Alabama started today’s interview with, “hey I am just a on old southern country boy so if you don’t understand something I say just ask me to repeat it.” We proceeded to have a great honest conversation punctuated with laughter and insight. All of the information that he wanted was revealed as we talked and laughed together. It wasn’t an interview it was a conversation. I need to remember this when I am speaking to my wife, or you, or a friend, or an employee.

I am not alone. Very few people like to be interviewed. Everybody enjoys a great conversation. So if we meet on the road somewhere………… TALK TO ME! By the way, I never understood a word Chris said!

For the last week it has been close to freezing or below in Tennessee. The trees had just started to show there new spring fashion when the cold hit. The coldest temperatures on record. The morning after the deep freeze, the beautiful green that had replaced the gray of winter was gone.

Everything was brown again. It was devastating to think that spring had been stolen. I wondered out loud if the beauty was ruined for the season. After all, this kind of cold had never happened since record keeping began. After asking if the damage was permanent, I was assured that after a relatively short and sad dormant period, the color and light and exuberance of spring would return.

So God’s grace is even demonstrated in nature!

If it is brown and gray and dreary where you are in your life today, don’t give up. The color and light will return. It won’t rain all the time. When the colors return to the trees and flowers here, I will show you a picture of what we call the broccoli hills of Tennessee. Until then keep looking up. Spring is still coming.