Many things in life are behind us. Those experiences are gone, and we will never get them back. That's the thing about time- it is truly our most precious commodity. My week has been filled with reminders. I spoke with the family of a man who was 'suddenly gone', with the father of an infant who is no longer with us, and prayed with a man (and his family) who is not expected to leave the hospital....  Read More

Consider the farmer who plants 1,000 acres of corn. Not counting the astronomical cost of equipment and fuel, he will spend $100,000 on seed. Then he buries it in the ground... INVESTMENT...RISK...WORK...FAITH...WAITING....Producing a harvest always comes with a significant cost. The same is true in our spiritual lives. Salvation is free, but following Christ will COST YOU EVERYTHING. Jesus said, ...  Read More

I had a chance yesterday to help a man lift a 140 lb propane range off his truck and put it in a cargo sled behind his snowmachine. He was a little bashful at first when it came to accepting help. Typical man. I know, because that's how I would have responded. But he was thankful that I INSISTED on helping. When you see a need, is it your natural inclination to try to do something to meet that nee...  Read More

My first retriever (named Tuck-A Duck-Away) was so intelligent that by 12 weeks old he took hand, voice, and whistle commands. The process of teaching him was so joyful that I actually considered a career as a dog trainer. 'Tucker' was strong, impervious to the cold, loved to learn, loved water and loved to hunt. I had followed the instructions in a book by a world-class dog trainer, and I honestl...  Read More

With our machines still idling in the bitter cold, we were finally able to put on our warm gear and get ready to ride. Another friend was off-loading at the same time as us. Seeing that we were having problems, he walked over to our machines and asked, "Did you bring extra gas?" I said, "No." He replied, "Then you better follow me to my cabin. You're almost out of gas. I have some there." A short ...  Read More

It was a short drive by Alaska standards. My son David and I drove less than 2 hours and pulled over to off-load our snowmachines. The temperature was −17°. When David stepped out of the truck, he said, "We have a flat tire on the trailer." Sure enough, completely flat. Before we could jack the trailer up, we needed to off-load the machines. It took a lot of pulling and sweating and freezing finge...  Read More

So here we were- the better part of a day of hard labor, good conversation with friends, inflating a raft, putting on our gear... There was one logjam higher up that we needed to portage. Other than that, the East Fork of the Eklutna River was high and raging. We plunged through all of the 'boulder gardens' and 'drops' that we had intended to portage around. This was whitewater rafting at its best...  Read More

As we made our way alongside the river, carrying raft and gear, we noticed a number of places that we felt were too dangerous to raft. "We'll need to pull out right here and portage." Those words were heard again and again. Because of the grade, we expected Class IV whitewater, but we were seeing a lot of Class V. Then we passed where an avalanche had covered the riverbed but the river had melted ...  Read More

Every true adventure has a cost attached. We took turns carrying the 85 pound raft 7 miles up the East Fork of the Eklutna River. We also had 4 paddles, lifejackets and other essential gear. A friend was dragging a kayak. Our goal was to be the first people ever to raft this stretch of river. We scouted every stretch as we journeyed in, and the river was much more gnarly than we had anticipated. I...  Read More

The temperature has finally dropped below freezing again. Everything that was wet is now frozen, but 'dry ice' is much better for driving than 'wet ice.' After breaking October's record for snowfall, we've now broken all-time records for 'lack' of snow. In some ways it reminds me of God's created order for the harvest. At harvest time, you reap an abundance. But then there is month after month of ...  Read More

Snow at higher elevations- 2 inches at my house, but rain at the bottom of the mountain. At lower elevations we have a grit and grime. It clings to our shoes and boots and vehicles. But the higher you go the cleaner things become. The breathtaking purity of a blanket of fresh snow is in stark contrast to driving rain on grimy streets. There is a spiritual principle to be learned from this. God is ...  Read More

The light shines in the darkness. Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I preached by candlelight to hundreds of people in a totally dark room. This was not by design. As I began to preach, the fire alarms went off. I told people to remain seated. Then the power went off. We had wind gusts in the area that exceeded 100 miles per hour, and we could hear the heavy gusts battering our building. A...  Read More