Regen Morris , a 12 year old had been fighting brain cancer for over a year. I had the privlege to visit him and pray with him and his family often during that time. His incredible spirit and determination was evident to all who knew him.  He was a great student and athelete. He was known to spot kids who were new to his school and would be the first to reach out and include them in things.
    The support of family and friends during his illness  was simply amazing. The outpouring of love by the whole community of churches, school classes, civic groups, businesses, and indivduals was unlike anything I have ever seen. We even had a parade for him when he came home from the hospital.
   One day during one of my visits, I could tell he was having a difficult time. During this stage of his illness, Regen could understand things but could not verbally communicate back his response. I leaned over close to him and told him ” what an inspiration he was to so many people, even those he had never met.  I told him that he brought out the best in them. People who probably prayed for anything or anybody in a long time, were now praying for him and others on a regular basis. People who had  been so wrapped up in themselves were now thinking of others and were volunteering to help. People who had taken their familiy for granted, were now, beacuse of him and his family were encouraged and challenged to make their family a priority.”  When I said that to him..I saw tears come to his eyes… He knew what I was saying to him. 
    Then I prayed this short prayer with him: “Lord, help us all to be like Regen, to be the best we can be, and bring out the best in others. Amen.” Regen passed away early on Christmas morning. He got to go to Heaven and be with Jesus on the day we clebrate the birthday of Jesus here on earth.God used Regen and his family to change my life and many others. I will never forget him and I will continue to ask The Lord: “Help us all to be like Regen, to be the best we can be, and bring out the best in others.”

I have encountered a lot of interesting things during my years making hospital visits. I have been mistaken for a Cardilogist, ER Physcian, Surgeon , somebody’s Uncle Fred, and a car mechanic (they wanted to thank me for fixing their car recently). I even had a lady ask me about a wart removal.
I have sat with families during major surgeries, prayed many prayers, seen many miracles and also despair. I have visited the hospital mornings, afternoons and late at night. I have been there in rain, sleet, snow and a tornado. I have assisted hospital staff with moving patients out into the hallway during weather emergencies.
I even once got in a ferocious fight at the hospital…with a malfunctioning hand sanitizer…I got sprayed with white foam from my head down to my waist…poof…I instantly became “Frosty the Snowman”! This spontaneous display caused a lot of laughter at the near by nurses station.
My main focus in visiting is to encourage people spiritually and cheer them up some. They often need something to smile about during a time of illness or surgery recovery. The Bible teaches us that “Happiness is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).
There is enough sadness, pain, and suffering to go around but there seems to be a real shortage of happiness and joy these days. I am thankful that our joy and happiness isn’t limited to our circumstances and difficulties. It actually transcends all of that kind of stuff. Jesus said “In the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world” (John 16: 33). The Bible also teaches us that God can be our source of joy in life…”The joy of The Lord is our strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10). May you and I spread our joy in The Lord today. It is contagious and is good medicine for us and others.

One of my “Bucket List” things to do was accomplished several years ago. It all started with a conversation with my friend Joey who helped me lead a retreat one summer. On the way back from the retreat we stopped by the famous Beacon Drive In at Spartanburg, South Carolina. The Beacon is a long time “Southern Cultural and Culinary Eating Establishment” that is sorta like Arnold’s on the old TV Show “Happy Days” (except it is much larger). Joey asked me the question if there is anything I wished I had done before leaving the Carolinas and moving to Tennessee…after some thought I replied yes, I wished I had ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner all at the Beacon in one day…thus the Beacon Triathlon was created. In a moment of weakness, Joey agreed to come back later that summer and attempt this amazing test of endurance with me.
Several weeks later, we left Tennessee early in the morning and drove to South Carolina. Upon arriving at the Beacon were greeted by J.C. who called out your food order to the cooks. J.C. was one of the most interesting people I have ever met anywhere. He worked at the Beacon for over 50 years. He always greeted you with a smile. Although legally blind, he could remember your voice and your favorite items on the menu. He was always there and had a unique way of calling out your order. He was know for yelling “Call it” asking for your menu selection. At the Beacon, if you added onion rings and fries to your order he would call out the name of your sandwich and add to it “A…P-L-E-N-T-Y!”
He couldn’t believe we had driven 3 hours for breakfast. After we had our breakfast we went to Christian Supply, a well know Christian Bookstore near there. We spent several hours there. Then we went back to the Beacon for lunch. I had tried to coach Joey about the importance of “Pacing Yourself” during endurance events such as this…but he forgot. I suggested to Joey just to get a sandwich. He got excited when J.C. asked him to “Call It” and Joey ordered a “Cheeseburger A Plenty!”
After lunch, we went to the NFL Carolina Panthers Training Camp being held at a college campus in Spartanburg. We had a great time that hot, sunny, afternoon watching the team practice. There is something inspiring about watching these pro athletes work so hard to prepare for the upcoming pro football season. We got to meet some of the NFL players we had watched on TV and that was a lot of fun.
When we returned to The Beacon for dinner, J.C. recognized my voice and asked “What are you doing back here?” I told him of my bucket list wish of eating 3 meals in one day at the Beacon. He replied laughing and smiling..”You must be crazy!” We had a dinner,and although Joey had to take some medicine to calm his stomach, we completed the Great Beacon Triathlon that day…and that was…”A..P-L-E-N-T-Y!”

Of all the jobs I have had, one of the most exciting was the “Keeper of the Flame.” My daughter was a majorette. Part of her routine while performing with the school band was twirling a “Fire” baton. As her assistant, my job was to dip the ends of the special baton in lamp oil, then light it before she twirled with it. I had to shake it to tone down the flame before she used it. A family friend nick named me “The Keeper of the Flame” after observing me in action.
One night a a football game, I was preparing the baton and got the baton flame too close to the dry grass on the side line and accidentally started a small fire! I immediately started stoping out the grass fire with my feet while still holding the fire baton in my hand…I looked like a one man pyrotechnic- strobe light- rock and roll show! After the half time band performance was over I went to the concession stand to get a Diet Coke …There, I was approached by the Fire Department personnel at the game about becoming their “Mascot” ! When I returned to my seat in the stands I received a rousing ovation by the fans…and lots of laughter!
I have often thought how difficult it is to keep the “Flame of Hope & Confidence” in our lives going with so many things that can diminish or extinguish. It may come in the form of negative thinking, criticism, stress and burnout can also hurt it. Here are some things I have found that help:
Be honest and realistic in your expectations. Some times we are “our own worst enemy” by setting such high and unrealsitic goals for ourselves that we actually set ourselves up for failure. Expectations and goals are appropiate when they are achievable and realistic. Short term goals that are attainable can actually build our confidence.
Realize God is working in your life. ” Being confident of this, that He that began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:6. Our best source of hope and confidence is found in our personal relationship with God.
Do what you can with what you have each day. Abraham Lincoln had a very timely quote about this…” Whatever you are, be a good one.” Sometimes we get overwelmed and clutter our thinking by thinking about all the long range complications in the future to the point of losing sight of what we can do today. It is good to stay focused on what we can do today.

I was asisting in an outdoor baptism at a lake in North Carolina. The Pastor I was helping was really afraid of snakes, so much so that he had me check ahead of time to make sure there were no snakes in the lake. There wasn’t, but the thought occurred to me …what would happen if something that looked like a snake showed up just after we finished the baptism service? As we entered the lake, I put a small skinny stick of wood in my back pocket. After we baptized the last person, the Pastor instructed all of us to join hands and sing “Bless be the tie that joins our hearts in Christian love”…at that moment He reached out for my hand ..I floated the the stick toward him..he glanced in my direction looking for my hand…only to see something that looked like a snake…Kaboom! …he went straight up in the air like a Saturn 5 space rocket !…as he renentered earth’s atmosphere and the lake…he grabbed my hand and wispered something about my future fate…Don’t worry, he didn’t get mad…he got even and he returned the favor many times.
Life can be full of surprises and unexpected things do happen. How do we respond? We often seem to automatically expect the worse and jump to the wrong conclusions…someone has well said that “the only exercise some people ever get is jumping to the wrong conclusions”..next time before doing that,why not stop and get the true facts about the situation and look at options for solutions and guidance…”The Lord says ‘ I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” (Psalm 32:8 NLT)

When I was in middle school, I played bass guitar in some not-so-famous bands. One day at school, my zest for musical creativity spontaneously took over the classroom. I wrapped several cords from the window blinds around the old radiator heater to make a bass guitar sound. I had begin to pick a popular tune on my new found instrument. The teacher had left the room, when he returned I had all of my classmates singing the popular song “Louie, Louie…we gotta go…yeah, yeah, yeah..”
I thought it was a good idea at the time but it turned out it was’t a good idea…My teacher wasn’t real big on that kind of creativity during his world history class…so Louie had to go…and I had to go to the school principal’s office…
There are times when we have difficulty determining when an idea is the right choice for us. Psalm 27:11(NCV) reminds to look for God’s guidance: ” Lord teach me your ways, and guide me to do what is right.” A good idea may not be a godly idea. Before making a major decision we should: Consider the options, get good advice, and pray it through to be sure God is in it…and that is a good idea for us all the time…

Through the years I have officiated a number of outdoor weddings. Some have been in the mountains, by the sea, by a barn, and by a lake. Outdoor weddings can be a challenge sometimes because you are at the mercy of the the weather conditions and the environment. I have been interrupted during the ceremony by uninvited guests such as wild ducks and wild turkeys and mosquitos and yes…even bears.
Once while doing a wedding in the mountains, I didn’t know there was a bear behind me. I had my back to the woods and everyone else was facing me and could see the bear. During the ceremony my friend Scott Andrews, who was singing at the wedding whispered to me..”Bear” and I would whisper back to him “What?” ..because “Bear” is my nickname. Finally, he pointed behind me, and I glanced there and saw a real Bear! This became the shortest wedding ceremony I have ever done…The bear left and we did too, fortunately the reception was in the opposite direction…
You know, just like outdoor weddings can have some unexpected surprises, our daily lives can too. There are sometimes we are not prepared for the unexpected things we may encounter. What is encouraging for us though, is that nothing surprises God. He is always there..ahead of us, often times with the solution in place before we even knew about the problem. If we really believed that it would help us we we encounter an unexpected crisis in our lives. David in the Bible, encountered many unexpected experiences in his life, yet he wrote in Psalms 34:19(NCV)…”People who do what is right may have many problems, but The Lord will solve them all.”

In the fabric of our lives, there are those special people who God has used to encourage us at key times in our lives. For me, one of those was Molly T. When I was I was a youth pastor (years ago), two of her children Rob and Susan were in the youth group at my church. Molly would often host youth Bible Studies at her home on Monday nights. It became a favorite place for kids to gather.As a young youth pastor, I would sometimes get discouraged and overwhelmed but Molly would just talk with me, help me keep things in perspective and I would keep going, she was an encourager to me and many of her family and friends.
One of her favorite mottos was “say kind words”. I had the honor to speak at her memorial service yesterday. Those “kind words” were easy for me to say because of her and her family have been such good friends to me through the years. I am so glad that I took the opportunity to say thank you to her several times through the years before she went home to Heaven.
Often times, the people God uses to encourages us the most are those who just there and believe in us when we need it the most. Thanks Molly T. for believing in me…

I was sitting in my office at church when a friend came by to see me. He presented me with a sack. I knew he had a garden, so I assumed it was some fresh vegetables. I thanked him, and he said I should look in the sack… When I did, it was a big snake! ( I am only afraid of 2 kinds of snakes… Dead ones and Live ones! ). If you would visualize one of those vibrating chairs you see at the shopping mall and cobine it with a helicopter you would get a picture of what I looked liked in my office chair…spinning around and around…and trying to go up into the sky! All the while I was still holding the sack with the ( I found out later) recently deceased snake. Finally, my friend took back the snake sack and I was released from my fears.
We all have fears sometimes that catch us off guard and leave us in a state of mind called “I do not have a clue what to do”…May I suggest a few things that I have found most helpful and encouraging to me through the years?
The first thing we should do is to realize and admit our need. When we do this, it empowers us to seek answers, look at options, and talk to people who can really help us work through our fears, whether it is relationship issues, financial stress, or other problems. We will never get over the fear if we don’t admit it and ask God and others to help us. We are not meant to be totally self sufficient for everything, God purposely built in us a need for a relationship with Him and people. Dr. Oscar Thompson, one of my favorite professors in graduate school, often reminded his students that: “the most important word in the English Language is RELATIONSHIP.”
This is true in so many ways and in particular in overcoming fears.Isaiah 30:18 (NLT) states it this way: “So the Lord must wait for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for His help.”
It is important to commit our need to God in prayer. At that point we should also release our concerns into His hands and rely continually on God’s strength and grace. Two of my favorite Bible verses on this are:
“People who do what is right may have many problems. but the Lord will solve them all.” Psalm 34:19
” I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [ I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me: I am self-sufficient in Christ”s sufficiency].” Philippians 4:13 (Amplified Bible)

Frank Atchley, was one of the most humble people you will ever meet. I was fortunate to be one of his friends for almost 25 years. He was a quiet man of unbelievable strength and integrity. Even in his older years, he consistently helped out in so many ministries of our church, I hesitate to mentioned them because I would surely leave something out. He endured a lot of illness, watched his wife Mary struggle a long time wrestling with an incurable disease, yet he never complained  about much of anything except that he wished he could do more to help people. I guess if you could sum up his life it would be that He loved God and people. Nothing else really seemed to matter to him. When most people ( probably me included) would like to just give up under pressure, give out when exhausted, Frank just kept going on serving God and quietly helping people.
I remember one night several years ago,  we ate dinner together at McDonald ‘s on the way to the Hearts On Fire YOUTH Conference in Gatlinburg Tennessee , yes that is right…a YOUTH Conference! Frank volunteered there with helping young people who made decisions and prayed  with them. This is one of many things he did in helping others find the same hope in God that transformed his life many years ago. He was a friend that was always praying for you and had a genuine interest in you well being. I marvel at all the lives he has touched through the years…
During our dinner at McDonald’s that night, he reminisced about how God had so blessed his life. That night he also shared with me one of his secrets about his faith…”you grow spiritually by getting involved in the study of God’s Word and applying it by helping others”. So simple…yet so true. Why else would a person way past 80 years old, volunteer to work  at a Youth Conference? What is even more amazing was how God used him that night. At the invitation time at the conference, a lot of people came forward to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. Among them was a young married couple that were chaperones of a youth group. In a crowded room they ended up talking to Frank, who led them to the Lord. They they asked him about advice for their marriage. He shared some of the best advice I have ever heard from his own marriage of many years with his wife Mary. He shared with them the importance of commitment to each other and the Lord, getting involved in a  church, spending quality time with each other, the importance of praying for each other and several other things. Heaven’s gain is our loss. We will miss him, but his impact upon me and many others will continue to influence us in a positive way forever.