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Leading from the Middle

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As advertised in my blog postscript, I am a doting grandfather and Poppi! With four grown children and twelve grandchildren, we have been able over the years to make several observations about these family members based upon their birth order. Those firstborns have tended to be high achievers (if not over achievers!), perfectionists, and sometimes, bossy leaders! The youngest of their families are happy, predictably spoiled, and love the spotlight! Charlie - Stepping Up... Again!! What about the middle child or the one I have always observed as the “most well-adjusted” of them all? As a confrontive, competitive firstborn, I am thankful to have married a well-adjusted, adaptable second born! It is a blessing, too, that Monique brings harmony and common sense to our relationship and family! She is the “glue” that holds us all together! While I am devoted to each of our children, (spouses included!) and grands, I have come to champion, in special ways, those in the “middle” of their fam...
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Who Do You Look Like?

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Last week, I participated in an intensive, three-day training event to equip chaplains, sworn officers, and code employees at the Illinois State Police Academy (ISP). The topics were crisis management and wellness. This may surprise you, but law enforcement is exposed to significant trauma four to six times greater than the general population. Our role, as chaplains, is to not only deal with our own susceptibility to compassion fatigue, but at the same time “help the helpers!” As I was sitting in the instruction room during a session, I noticed a mirror mounted on a board with a placard attached that said, “You only have one chance to make a first impression.” I have seen variations of this quote usually attributed to Will Rogers, who said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” I was curious how this saying was being applied in a law enforcement setting. One of the new chaplains who serves along with me throughout the Capital City was sitting nearby the day I no...
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Get In the Zone!

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A popular idiom in our day is for an individual to be so focused on his or her sport, creative endeavor, or work engagement, that it is observed by others that they are “in the zone!” In these early days of the baseball season, my favorite team has some exciting young players named Church, Wetherholt, Winn, and Jordan who are achieving this seemingly effortless state of hitting and fielding at such a competitive level that these guys are certainly performing “in the zone!” Focused! In the Zone! Image: stock.adobe.com Athletes aren’t the only ones who “get in the zone” of accomplishment. Our church has recently been celebrating a dozen or so young people who have just completed sixteen weeks of instruction in their confirmation class. The Sunday Bible study class, Monique and I attend, got to partner in their efforts the other evening by serving their pre-instruction pizza and salad meal. These students were in their next to last session and the topic of the evening was spiritual gift...
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"I Ain't Old!"

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I stood in the driveway of Dad’s auto repair shop the day he confronted a gentleman representing the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). Dad informed the man he was not interested in any such membership even though the fellow said it would only cost around $5.00 for three years. Dad ended the conversation that day by saying, “I’ll give you the five dollars if you’ll get off my driveway. I’ve got work to do!” Floating in the Dead Sea! Image credit: pixabay.com That terse response may have been what further emboldened Dad’s lifetime attitude about aging, “I ain’t old!” And he meant it! He was still showing up at the shop on this ninety-fourth birthday when I pulled up to get him to head out to our favorite restaurant for a barbecue baby back rib dinner! Over the years, we had used his birthday and mine as an annual occasion for such a celebration! I just celebrated my seventy-fifth birthday over a recent weekend that included some of my other favorites that I don’t get too ...
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"Splashdown Confirmed!"

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The NASA team, along with many of us watching the event from home, welcomed all four Artemis II astronauts home this past Friday at 7:07 CST after completing what seemed to us to be a flawless reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. The heat shield of the Orion capsule protected its precious cargo through 5,000 degrees of intensely dangerous heat at speeds of 25,000 miles per hour. Many of us whispered our prayers for the crew’s safety. Image: petapixel.com Described frequently as a “dynamic and dangerous mission,” this incredible journey to the moon did not disappoint! I was one among many other space travel enthusiasts who were wowed by the pictures the crew took, and enjoyed their cabin antics over the ten-day mission. This epic and dynamic flight, out and around the moon, required the execution of so many crucial steps and changes. Experts kept reminding us in this historic mission that “a lot of things had to go right” for this to be as successful as it appeared to be. And who could de...
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"Go For Launch!"

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I have been a space enthusiast for as long as I can remember. When I consider the actual numbers, I have been watching launches since May 1961, when Alan Shepard and the Mercury capsule lifted off powered by a Saturn V rocket for that first American suborbital mission from the Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I was barely ten years old, but I was thrilled to join millions of others, from my generation, in following the space program through radio and television coverage. When I moved to Sharpstown, Texas, in southwest Houston to pastor in 1984, I lived in the same suburban community where the seven original Mercury astronauts were given starter homes back in their day. Our kids went to Ed White Elementary, the neighborhood school, that honored the memory of Edward Higgins White, born in San Antonio, who lost his life along with two fellow astronauts, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. The terrible accident happened in 1967 when a fire broke out in the cabin during a pre-launch te...
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The KitKat Kaper!

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The Easter Bunny may have to substitute certain candies for the beloved KitKat bar during this season. According to reports from the   Nestlé   home office in Vevey, Switzerland, there has been a mysterious and perplexing heist in recent days that may disappoint many kids expecting to see copious bars of their chocolate-covered wafer in their Easter baskets come Sunday morning! Credit: gettyimages.com Newsweek reported that a whopping 26,455 pounds of KitKat deliciousness was stolen. That was a staggering 12 tons in weight equal to two grown elephants! Wowzers! That’s some serious chocolate! How does a thief fence that much stolen product? Ha! Are there that many hungry kids with that much cash? You can imagine how the late-night talk show hosts are capitalizing on this unfortunate event during their monologues! Our grands are past the days of suspenseful in-house searches for their Easter baskets and for surprise-filled eggs during the afternoon hunts outside! However, they...
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