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Showing posts from November, 2016

Joseph's Perspective on Christmas

Christmas is a challenge. For example, there is the challenge of finding just the right gifts for each of the special people in our lives. In my family of origin, my father was always the most difficult person for whom to buy Christmas gifts. The best job I ever did, of giving my father a Christmas gift he enjoyed, happened the year that my car broke down. I was nineteen years old, and one day driving down the freeway in California, the engine in my little Renault Le Car blew up. I had failed in a very simple maintenance task—that of putting oil into the engine. My father payed to have the car repaired. I decided in response, at Christmas, that I would wrap up all the burnt-out engine parts as a gift for my father. Then I put a check with the gift—the first installment in my pay-back plan! He loved it. Christmas poses the challenge of finding just the right gifts for those special people in our lives. Christmas poses some other challenges as well, some challenges that we share

Holy Boldness

On July 15, 1986, Roger Clemens, the renowned pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, played in his first All-Star Game. During the second inning Clemens stepped into the batter’s box, something he hadn’t done in a long while due to the American League’s designated hitter rule. Clemens took a few tentative practice swings and then looked right in the eye of the opposing pitcher, Dwight Gooden, winner of the Cy Young award the previous year. Gooden started off with a sizzling fast ball fired right over the plate. Strike one! Clemens smiled, stepped out of the batter’s box, turned to catcher Gary Carter and asked, “Is that what my pitches look like?” Carter replied, “You bet it is!” Clemens quickly struck out, but he went on to pitch three perfect innings. At the end of the day he was named the game’s MVP. From that day on, Clemens pitched with greater boldness than ever before. Why? Because of a fresh reminder of how overwhelming a white hot fast bal