Ecclesiastes 12:10

  In 1903, a Detroit lawyer by the name of Horace Rackham had his neighbor ask for his services in drawing up the incorporation papers for his new business. The cost was supposed to be $25, but the cash-strapped client asked if Rackham might be willing to invest in the company instead. Rackham had always been cautious with his finances and leery of the speculative nature of the stock market, but decided to trust in his neighbor.  So, Horace went to the Michigan Savings Bank to inquire about a loan so he could buy stock in the client's new company. The bank decided to lend him the money but warned Rackham that it wasn’t sure his investment was sound. The bank president told Rackham, “ The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad. ”   Against that advice, Rackham took out the loan and invested in 100 shares of his neighbor Henry Ford's new business. That choice would work out for him. 18 years later, he would sell that stock for 12.5 millio...

    Harry Vardon was golf’s first superstar. The British golfer had become a cornerstone of golf popularity in the United States after an American tour in 1900 that ended with him winning the U.S. Open. In 1912 he was planning a return tour to America after overcoming tuberculosis. He was to arrive to huge fanfare on the greatest vessel of his day. The voyage had to be canceled when his disease came back. Harry was devastated thinking his comeback was over.   Jack Johnson was the world heavyweight boxing champion. At the peak of his fame, he too was planning to board the greatest vessel of his day on a trip. But it wasn’t an illness that keep him ashore, it was racism. The black fighter was refused passage on the vessel because of his color.   As tragic as these may seem, both men would later speak about how glad they were that they missed the boat, even with the terrible circumstances that caused it to happen. That’s because that boat was the HMS Titanic. A...

  Man plans, God laughs – Yiddish proverb   We think we know what is going to happen. We forecast the weather, make our preseason picks, predict the next big blockbuster, start counting the money that that hot stock is going to bring us.   However, we are not that great at it.   Go look at old draft forecasts or an article from a few years back on the next big things and you will see what everyone thought was it, didn’t turn out that way. Sure, we might get some things right but more so we get maybe a bit above random chance. Yet it still doesn’t keep us from thinking we know what will be   In James 4:13-14 we read “ Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away .”   It is hard to see the curve of the future be...

  There is an old Russian proverb, “Dwell on the past and you'll lose an eye, forget the past and you'll lose both eyes”.   This time of year is one where we do a lot of looking back as we also look forward. Where we have been, where we want to go and why we are where we are. The past is an excellent teacher but can be a burdensome travel companion. We need to learn from it but we can’t stay in it.   Sometimes however, we try. ‘Back in the day’ or ‘we used to’ are only good thoughts if they are trying to help us learn what to do now. Getting stuck in the past doesn’t work. That was then not now.   Yet in our desire for progress, we would be fools if we don’t consider the failures and successes of what came before.   I don’t want to walk backwards but doesn’t mean I’m not shaped as I go forwards by the road that I once trod. The past isn’t a map but more of a compass. It doesn’t show you where to go but more of the directions you need to head. ...

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. Romans 13:11   It was just seemly a few years ago when I took some of the youth group to the local fair when one of my young people saw a ride and made an excellent point. The ride was called Starship 2000. It was meant to look all futuristic but the ride itself was well aged. The young man exclaimed, ‘you know that ride is old because when they made it the year 2000 was far into the future’. We laughed because it was 1999.     Now here we are staring down at the upcoming year 2019. That story is over 20 years old. Yet in some ways, the year 2000 still kind of seems far off to me. It can’t be that we this far into a new millennium.  How has time passed by so fast?   That is the funny thing about time. It is constant and runs the same no matter what yet for us it the speed seems ever-changing. Monday...