Don Musser just passed away yesterday. He had been in failing health for a couple of years and has been a resident at Betz’s Nursing Home for the past year.
Don and Mary Jane began attending New Hope when we were Calvary Chapel of Waterloo back in 1981. One of the first projects we tackled as a church was the purchase of a sound system and speakers for our old sanctuary. Don stepped up to the plate and made a sizable donation (for him) toward that purchase.
He and I were good friends and called each other “old timers”. Now he leaves me stuck with the title alone. Don was outgoing and had many friends. He was a great horseshoe pitcher. Anita and I joked that one day he would be making “ringers” around some nursing home nurse’s leg.
Don was once a town drunk who had an encounter with Jesus Christ that changed his life. He loved to tell the story of our first meeting when we both lived at the trailer court in Waterloo. He asked me, “When are you going to get a haircut?” I, a long haired hippie at the time, replied, “That’s none of your business!” We’ve both laughed about that many times.
What will you remember about Donny Musser?
Tags: Remembering
Competition in the economy drives costs down, right? It sure works in the restaurant and motel businesses. If costs are out of line, people just take their business to the other guy. But, what if like businesses worked together to increase costs across the board. Then the whole principle falls apart.
I visited a patient in the new Parkview North hospital today for the first time since its completion. That’s quite a facility. Everything from the MRI to the urinals is state-of-the-art. And when we get sick, we want the best treatment for our loved ones, right?
But has competition in the health care field driven prices down, or is there an agreed upon strategy among health care providers and insurance companies and government watchdogs to run those prices up so we have to pay far more than other countries for the same care? Who pockets the excess?
I’m all for the best health care treatment, but I smell a rat! What do you think?
Tags: greed, health, money
When I was in Junior High, I was a part of a Boy Scout Troop in Butler. It was the early 1960s and each boy dreamed of the day we would have our own car. Our scoutmaster arranged a series of classes at Maxton Motors, then a GM dealership. Each week a mechanic met with us eager boys (about a dozen of us each week) to teach us about auto mechanics.
One week he pulled in a cut away engine block and explained how an automobile engine worked. Another week they explained radiators and coolant systems. Then they explained carburetors and exhaust systems. Then they talked about electrical systems in cars and how batteries were recharged and lights worked. Then tires and oil and air filters and brakes. They brought in actual parts and tools and explained routine maintenance.
The professional mechanics who donated their time to teach us boys invested something in me that has helped me many times over as I’ve had breakdowns with my vehicles. Whoever you were, guys, ‘Thank you’.
What do you know that you could pass on to someone else? That’s called discipleship on every level. Pass it on.
Tags: Boy Scouts, repair, trouble
I’ve been helping a friend research her family ancestry from the early days of Bell County, Kentucky. Her ancestors settled in the Yellow River Valley, a rather flat circular section of the Cumberland mountains just north of the Cumberland Gap. After exhausting Online information regarding her family, I went to work researching the history and geography of the area where they lived.
It seems this several miles across circular valley nested among rugged mountains is actually an impact crater from a meteorite that crashed into the rugged mountains centuries ago. Only recent space technology revealed it. Had that meteorite not crashed into this area, the Cumberland Gap would never have been, and settling this corner of the State of Kentucky would not have happened for another 100 years.
Sometimes God allows bad things to happen because there is something good that will come out of it. Remind yourself of this the next time bad things happen. Remember who’s in control.
Tags: bad news, trouble
One of my favorite stories regarding being a giver is a story about the great philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
For a number of years, Andrew Carnegie, whose wife loved classical music, made up the annual deficit of the New York Philharmonic Society. Then one year, at a meeting of the directors, he made the suggestion that the responsibility should not be his alone. He told them, “From now on, I think the burden should be shared. You raise half the deficit from other donors, and I will give you the remaining half.”
A few days later the directors informed the philanthropist that his condition had been met. He was pleased by the news. He said, “I told you the money could be easily raised. Where did you get it?” They replied, “We got it from Mrs. Carnegie.”
Some people just don’t understand what outreach means. They are so involved in their ministry, that they forget that ministry is always about reaching and discipling others. In the balance of your UP, IN, and OUT, how’s your OUT doing?
Tags: Carnegie, donation, giving, outreach
Several years ago Chi Chi Rodriguez, a stalwart on the Senior PGA Tour, said, “If you don’t share you may have material success, but you’ll be very poor in spirit”.
As a young boy, Chi Chi recalls learning this important life lesson as a young boy growing up in a tiny tin-roofed shack in rural Puerto Rico:
“It was 2 AM when my father woke me because he heard someone out back. We crept outside and found a machete-wielding neighbor standing beside the small banana grove that fed our family. Despite the fact that the man could have killed him, father said, ‘Give me the machete’.
Then father cut a brunch of bananas and handed half of them to his neighbor. ‘From now on,’ he said, ‘anything you want back here you come and ask for it. And make sure you leave some for my kids, too.’
“The compassionate way he handled that man was one of many things my father did that influenced my life. That night he taught me that takers eat well, but givers sleep well.”
Tags: Caring, Father's Day, giving
News this morning included a report of a 6-year old girl being arrested and taken into custody in handcuffs because she was throwing a temper tantrum in the school Principal’s office, including throwing furniture that struck the Principal in the leg.
Now, they’ve enacted laws prohibiting corporal punishment (paddling) in schools because it teaches violent behavior. I wonder how this little girl learned to act out to get her own way? Was this modeled in the home; she surely didn’t learn it at school? Listeners were expressing outrage that the girl was taken out in handcuffs. What is the alternative?
How do you think that situation should have been handled? What would have happened to you if you acted out that way when you were in school? Are schools getting better at dealing with this behavior or worse? Who is responsible for the 6-year old girl’s behavior? I’m interested in your feedback.
Tags: children, discipline, punishment, sin