Paul Alexander was 5 years old when he was diagnosed with polio. That was in 1952, in the old Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas. I remember when one of our elementary school class projects was to see how many little cardboard folders we could fill with the dimes we put in the round cut-out slots for other children like Paul, who had to live in an iron lung. We learned about the polio epidemic in America, the March of Dimes, and the story of President Franklin Roosevelt who had gotten polio because he went swimming one day in his vacation home pond when he was 39 years old.  We lined up at school for our polio shots, and we were all so very thankful for an oral vaccine that prevented us from having more shots, as well as ever getting polio. One of my teachers in junior high told how he got polio wading in the run-off water by the railroad tracks. Polio caused him to walk with a limp. Paul Alexander lost the ability to breathe automatically. He was known as “Polio Paul” for his remarkable life and the 73 years he spent depending on that iron lung machine. Paul Alexander died Sunday, March 15, at 78, of a recent bout of Covid-19 and other factors. Incidentally, March 15 was the 4^th anniversary of when everything closed because of  Covid.

According to CNN:  “Paul’s ambitions were not limited by his condition. He learned breathing techniques that allowed him to leave the iron lung for a few hours at a time. He graduated college, earned a law degree, and went on to practice as a courtroom attorney for 30 years. He also self-published his autobiography, Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung, titled after the accomplishment of learning how to breathe independently for at least three minutes – a feat that took him a year to master and was rewarded with a dog, according to the book.”  According to his brother Phillip, Paul’s last words were, “We are perfect.”

What an inspiring story of courage, perseverance, and a life well-lived. I think I complain about my aches and pains too much. Life is already hard. Adversity, pain, and sickness make it more difficult. Adding our own selfishness and sinfulness to the day compounds our troubles. There is a Savior who promises to be there with us through each day and provides the strength to overcome. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Be an overcomer. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

In the late 1950’s the price of a gallon of gasoline jumped from about 19 to 26 cents. That was a big increase—about 37%. There was a crisis in the Middle East. Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal; the safe shipment of oil was threatened and then Israel and Egypt went to war. The U.S. and some of our European allies got involved. Eventually that Mid-east Crisis was resolved, but the price of gas never went back to 19 cents. Nearly every time there is a crisis in the world, the price of gas goes up. Sometimes it makes us more cautious about how much we drive. Sometimes we just get angry. 

Around 1959 a man in our Florida church discovered someone was stealing gas from his car. His indignation, his pride and his anger led him astray. Ordinarily he was like a next-door buddy in my parents’ Sunday School class. He and his wife loved to host backyard cookouts and were the first to arrive with food when the need arose. They had two or three children a little younger than we were. He was the joke-teller and the life of every party. Then someone started siphoning gas from his car late at night. His house had an open carport so he could not put his car in the garage. He finally settled on a way to deter his robber. This was revenge.

One evening after dinner he set his trap. He stripped apart the end of a long extension cord and attached the bare wires to the bumper of his car. (In those days cars were made of metal.) He was going to teach that thief a shocking lesson. He thought of one more touch—water. He brought out the garden hose and wet down the car and driveway. He plugged in the extension cord and walked around the car to survey his work. As he neared the front of the car he slipped or tripped, falling with both hands on the hood. His wife ran to unplug the cord, but it was too late. A family lost a husband and father. My parents lost a good friend. I learned a tragic lesson about anger and the high price of revenge. Proverbs 22:24-25 says, Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.  Vengeance is a trap you set for yourself. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Vengeance belongs to God. So let’s experience the love and power of God together.

In 2015 Eva Jensen discovered a mystery deep in the Great Basin National Park in Nevada. She is an archeologist for the park who was surveying a section of the mountain wilderness looking for Native American artifacts when she saw a very rusted old rifle leaning against a juniper tree. The 1873 model Winchester rifle, according to the still visible serial number, was manufactured in 1882. What happened to the owner of this gun? “One thing we all assumed was that someone had a very bad day,” said Jensen. Archeologists are detectives. Conservationists discovered the rifle had been repaired a few times. Hidden in its stock was a .44 caliber cartridge made between 1887-1911. Findings indicated that the rifle was not loaded. Had the owner gone after something he had shot, then forgot where he left his gun? Was he camped there and attacked by a wild animal? A good detective story may one day come from this.

I love a good mystery. I enjoy the challenge of finding the threads and pieces, trying to discover the patterns, and finally solving the puzzle of the mystery. There is a sense of satisfaction when the mystery is resolved. In a book or TV show it helps to have realistic and somewhat likable characters playing detective. In everyday life our mysteries are not always solved in an hour or to our satisfaction. I once misplaced a set of car keys while on a fishing trip by myself at the lake. I had to call Dorothy to come rescue me with another set of keys. We will not go into that conversation. Years later, when preparing to sell the car, I found those keys wedged under a corner of the trunk. Mystery solved and still feeling foolish.  

The mystery of God and His ways has been sought after since the days of Genesis. It is the greatest story ever told and it is all revealed in Scripture. The apostle Paul often speaks of the revealed “mystery of God” when seeking to encourage believers. The mystery of the gospel is revealed in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. Read Paul’s benediction of his letter to the church at Rome for a glorious word for today. (Romans 16:25-26)

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Help someone solve the mystery.  And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

It was the day before Christmas Eve and all through the church the pastor and the organist were printing bulletins and practicing the music for the two services the next day. At some point during the preparations we realized it might be handy to dust off the organ light for the candlelight service. No problem, it was where we remembered storing it. The problem was, it would not work. This light clips on to the music stand and shines three LED lights on the music. Solution, change the AAA batteries. We had some in the office. Still, it did not work and would not even flicker. We tried other solutions involving other lights, but they were too big or too bright, and cast shadows on the music. It was too late to buy a new one, so we pressed on, and the evening service was beautiful.

What do you do with an electronic gadget that does not work anymore? It’s too nice to throw away and no one wants a broken one. So after the holidays and the snow days, I consulted our family fixer-of-things, Deacon Enos, to see if he could discover the problem. He is a tinkerer and problem solver. I told him it would be okay if he broke it beyond repair because it was easily replaceable. Deacon built his own computer from scratch when he was 13.  Now almost 17, he is on an academic path in high school and at Tulsa Tech to earn an engineering degree one day. The next Sunday morning he brought the now-working organ light to us, smiling all the way. He said he found one of the battery holders had a loose wire, which wasn’t connecting properly. He fixed it like new. 

We are in this disposable culture where it is easier to buy a new one, than to fix it. If we are not careful, we can end up treating people as disposable also. I read about a church that started a Repair and Renew Ministry for their neighborhood. They call it The Repair Café because it has coffee and goodies to share. People bring their broken appliances, electronics, and furniture to the church basement where volunteers help them figure out what is wrong. If something needs a new part, the owner purchases the part and brings it back another time. While working on these projects, friendships are forged, and spiritual conversations are initiated. It seems everyone is a little broken somewhere and could use some renewal from time to time. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Repair and renew.  And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I received an unanticipated letter from the Social Security Administration enclosing my new Medicare Card and not really providing an explanation. I  was not expecting a new card, but I do know why I was issued a new one. Last fall I called to report suspected Medicare fraud. Monthly medical supplies that no one had ordered appeared on one of my “This Is Not a Bill” summary statements. I called the Fraud Hotline and was told they would investigate it. I was not the only one noticing these false billings to Medicare and insurance companies. The fraudsters count on people of a certain age to have multiple health issues so they can slip in an extra item or two. They also count on thousands of people not looking at their medical statements at all. I heard on the news that a possible two-billion-dollar billing fraud had been uncovered involving seven high-volume suppliers of medical catheters. These catheter billings targeted 450,000 people in 2023, up a bit from the 50,000 in 2022. Becoming the victim of any crime is never a good experience. Look at those statements.

Over the weekend we received a letter from our former mortgage holder confessing that we may have been the victims of a scam in their company where false accident and disability insurance was bought in our name and paid for by us through hidden fees. Not nice at all. We checked, and sure enough, we were defrauded $45.60 in 2010! Does not sound like much, but when multiplied by thousands of customers, someone made off with a sizable sum. Greed in all its forms is roundly condemned throughout the Scriptures. Fraud is lying, dishonesty, bearing false witness, thievery, covetousness, and worship of the false god mammon. Fraud deprives the widow of her dignity, the orphan of his future, and the neighbor of their livelihood. Corporate greed increases the cost of everything we use and need. Political greed costs self-respect, decency, and the courage of true convictions. Religious greed is another way of taking God’s name in vain. It manipulates people’s good hearts for personal gain by misusing the sacred and the holy. The threat of artificial intelligence (AI) is in its potential use for fraud and deceit, times a million.

What can we do about fraud? I suggest three on-going steps everyone should be taking:

Stay vigilant in the small and the large matters. Call out and expose fraud. Live in honesty through the power of Christ each day. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Be honest. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.