Christa McAullife’s Life Challenge for Us

Are you able to recall your first memory in life?

I’ve read studies that most of our earliest memories in life are often the most dramatic ones. It is as if they are worth remembering because they are scenes that often shape our lives in one way or another. One of those scenes for me was the Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion. If you are in your mid thirties or older, you will probably remember it. I remember vaguely that beautiful yet tragic morning of January 28th, 1986. Like 9/11, it was hard to escape the images of the shuttle exploding in mid-air.

If you were a student , you were likely in class watching this. If you were an adult, you either saw it on the morning news or the radio as you were driving to work. I don’t remember being in class watching it but I do remember the images on the tv that day and wondering what was real or a cartoon. I was a 7-year-old boy and fascinated with space travel. This was a unique shuttle mission because it was the first involving the NASA Teacher in Space Project, an initiative dreamed up during the Reagan Administration. It was hopeful

My parents would often talk about where they were when President Kennedy was assassinated. I remember thinking later in life that perhaps this was one of those moments in history for me to remember for better or worse.

President Reagan’s message captured the moment,

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them — this morning, as they prepared for their journey, and waved good-bye, and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’

I’ve thought about the Challenger disaster from time to time since then. I was at our Nashville Adventure Science Center y recently and ran across quotes from McAuliffe that brought me back to that day.

Christa McAuliffe  was a social studies teacher and one of the seven crew members that perished in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. She seemed to be such an optimist and her heart for teaching was evident. She knew about past tragedies involving the space program and despite the risks, she had this opinion,

Every shuttle mission’s been successful.

She was right. After each mission, something new is learned for better or worse.

My next space shuttle memory was two years later in 1986 when our 4th grade class gathered in our schoolroom to watch Space Shuttle Discovery take off. It was beautiful and sent a loud and clear message: Tragedy and mistakes happen but we must keep moving forward and upward. The greater loss would be if we quit trying. I remember being in awe of watching Discovery take off. It is what brings me to tears at the end of the movie October Sky seeing the rocket lift off.

In 2011 when the last Space Shuttle Atlantis took off, I made sure my girls sat down with me to watch. We recorded it on our DVR and watched it multiple times. Each time it launched, they cheered. I wanted the girls to see what it was like to be always looking up, soaring, and to always tackle the unknown. It’s easier to preach than practice but by attempting to teach them, I have learned that these scenes are all part of life’s process. Challenger was not NASA’s last disaster as Columbia was lost in 2003 and I’d expect things to happen as it is the occasional price of exploration. The space program is in a wilderness now but there are probably several people at NASA who know that this is not the end and will never stop trying. They have Christa McAuliffe to thank as well as the many more who perished.

I’ll leave you with McAuliffe’s words:

Reach for it. Push yourself as far as you can.

Thank you teacher.

My Stan Musial Story

On Saturday evening, January 19th, 2013, beloved St. Louis Cardinal legend  Stan Musial passed away. In his Hall of Fame career, he helped the Cardinals win three World Series titles, won three MVPs, had 3,630 hits and 475 home runs, won the NL batting title seven times, while also appearing in a record 24 All-Star games. Despite all of those accomplishments, he even gave up the 1945 season to serve in the Navy during World War II. One of my favorite additional pieces is that in 1957, he became the first major league player to earn an annual salary of $100,000. After a sub-par season in 1959 and hit a career low .255, Musial asked the Cardinals to cut his salary to $80,000. Can you imagine someone today doing that? In 2011 he was given the much deserved Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. The numbers speak for themselves. But there is more to the man than the numbers.

His statues grace Busch Stadium in St. Louis because of something different many always knew. There is a reason people would call him “The Man” that most people outside of St. Louis would not have had the opportunity to witness. The blessing for anyone living in St. Louis was that sooner or later you would have run into Stan The Man. I saw him at several events playing the harmonica or interacting with people at a game. That was just his character. I never got to see him play but I did get to see something even more special.

When I was 18, I was caddying and working in the pro shop at Old Warson Country Club in Ladue, Missouri. That summer of 1997, I was also worked as a “greeter”, which meant that I was the person who welcomed people driving up to the front entrance to drop off their golf bag before parking. My job was to make sure they had a pleasant and smooth experience.

One day, the legendary Cardinals broadcaster, Jack Buck, came to play with his son Joe (now famous as Fox Sports Commentator), and they brought none other but Stan the Man. It was special day because while they were warming up on the golf range, both Jack and Stan stayed to talk with me for thirty minutes.  I don’t remember specifically what we discussed but they were so cordial and interested in my life, and avoiding the temptation to talk about themselves. Once their time was ready, they went off to play their golf round.

Four hours later, I was slammed by a large group of people from a tournament that came in from the course so I was taking care of 4 or 5 people at any given moment. Unfortunately, the Buck-Buck-Musial threesome came back in at the same time and Stan walked up to me while I was running around.

Stan said to me while handing me his shoes and car keys,

“Hey Dave (yes he remembered my name), do you mind putting my shoes in my car while I go back and get something inside the clubhouse?”

I quickly replied,

“Yes of course, Stan. Right away.”

I immediately took care of that task because it was Stan and went back to taking care of every other golfer who needed help. When Stan came back from the clubhouse, he walked toward me and said,

“Dave, I’m ready to go. Do you have my keys?”

I put my hands in my pockets to get the keys and they weren’t there. I replied,

“One moment Stan, I’ll go find them, I think they are in the golf cart.”

I walked back to the cart and they weren’t there. I wondered where in the world I left them. I did what I knew and retraced my steps. I walked back all the way to Stan’s trunk of his car. I stopped and stared at the trunk for a few moments.

I thought to myself, Oh my God, I locked his keys in his trunk with his golf shoes. I’m dead. I’m fired. My boss will kill me. This is it, I’m done. Game over for me at Old Warson. I was the village idiot. On top of that, the realization that I just locked the keys in the car of a legend, my dad’s boyhood hero, Stan The Man, was hitting me. There was nothing I could do because I needed to tell him. So, I humbly walked back to Stan and as I approached him, Jack Buck walked up next to Stan. This became the humiliation-fest times ten now.

I said in a lowly voice,

“Stan, I am so sorry but I locked your keys in the trunk of your car with your shoes. I was moving much too fast and I’m incredibly sorry. How can I make this right?”

Stan replied with a big smile,

“Oh Dave no sweat at all, Jack is right here and he can take me to my house to get my spare set. We’ll be right back.”

The thirty minutes they were gone was agonizing to me because I was so worried that my boss would find out and they would be frustrated when coming back.

When they came back to me, both Jack Buck and Stan said,

“Thank you, Dave”

Then they handed me a $20 tip with 2 front row tickets for the Cardinals game that night. I was speechless but quickly regained composure to thank them.

It was the tip of a hat grace I will always remember. It was the character and action of real grace that Stan Musial will always remind me of in life. I remember coming home to tell my dad about what happened and he laughed so hard. I think he gave me a hug that night too as a reminder that no matter what mistakes we make in life, there is always a need to show another person grace. My story is not unlike many others who encountered Stan The Man thank God. It was his ongoing story of grace given to all of us.

Thank you Stan for that memory. For all of the memories.

Thank you for inspiring all of us.

Thank you for showing all of us what real grace looks like. 

What ‘Ironman’ Teaches Us About Grace

My friends Roy and Rachel Roper reposted this video on Facebook not long ago and I was surprised that I had not seen it since it occurred a year ago. Please watch this short 2 minute message before you read further. You will see that it speaks for itself.

I believe it took a lot of humility from both Robert Downey Jr. as well as Mel Gibson to publicly live through pain. Hollywood sure knows how to produce drama on-screen as well as off. In the past twenty years, both of these actors have thrown stones at others as well as had them thrown at them. And they paid a terrible price through broken families, damaged careers, health, and legal troubles. As Gibson put it, they have both “hugged the cactus” in life. Most of Hollywood abandoned them in their time of dire need. Thankfully, we all love a comeback story and I think scenes like this show us that grace can happen in the most unlikely places, especially Hollywood. I was in tears witnessing what real loyalty, forgiveness, and love looked like through their stories. God was not done with their stories yet because grace was at work.

This video makes me ask tough questions of myself.

• Do I stand up for my friends?
• Do I ‘really’ forgive those who have hurt me?
• Do I really understand grace?

There are times when I’ve felt like I’m in life’s rut thinking it will never get better. Look back at your life and I’m sure there have been times when you may have felt the same. I am thankful I haven’t been in such an extreme position as Downey Jr. and Gibson but their stories are a beautiful illustration of God’s grace.

Thank God we don’t have to hug the cactus forever when our savior is always there for the warmest hug. Grace is always the best hug.

What The Top Secret Congressional Bunker Reveals To Us

I recently visited the historic Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. It is a beautiful hotel and I can say that it was on my bucket list of places to experience. Despite its beauty and the wonderful time my family had there, there was something special that intrigued me most about the Greenbrier.

In the mid 1950s, President Eisenhower made a visit to the Greenbrier Hotel during a summit between the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico. While there, Eisenhower met with the President of CSX, the owner of the Greenbrier at the time. It was the Cold War, a time of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States and Eisenhower knew that the government needed to continue governing in case Washington D.C. was attacked. He saw the Greenbrier Hotel, tucked into rural West Virginia as an ideal spot to ‘hide’ the Legislative branch in this time.

Eisenhower convinced the President of the Greenbrier to allow the building of this secret bunker to be created. The Greenbrier was in need of creating a special wing to be added to the hotel so the government offered to pay for that in exchange for absolute secrecy of this facility. And so it was built over three years, opening in 1962. Very few knew about its existence and the most fascinating thing was that most of the bunker was open to the public between its operational existence from 1962-1992.

The government figured that it would be incredibly difficult for someone at the hotel or the town to not know something was there. As a diversion, part of the bunker was used as a conference facility equipped with meetings rooms, even two auditoriums that fit around 450 and 125 people, enough to fit each branch of Congress. The 18 inch blast doors were hidden from most people so they were led to think they were just walking into another part of the hotel. Most people in town and at the hotel knew that ‘something’ was there but they never could prove it. The bunker was not officially exposed until a Washington Post article revealed its existence.

One of the greatest secrets of the Cold War was hidden in plain sight.

I will always remember ‘discovering’ the Greenbrier Congressional bunker. I have been reading about so many New Year’s resolutions and people hoping to make this year happier than the previous one. There is a workout that will make us healthier. If I can come up with a better way of doing something at work, I’ll feel better. There is a job out there that will make me richer and happier. There is more money that will make life easier. Happiness will come if we do… (fill in the blank).

It reminds me of a great quote I read recently from Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

Happiness depends so little on the circumstances; it depends really only on that which happens inside a person.

Jesus shares more through Luke 17:20-21 NIV

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation,  nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within^[a] you.”

Yes, happiness comes from within. It is hidden in plain sight. If our heart truly seeks Jesus, we are free and real happiness enters us. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t know this great secret. But it really isn’t a secret like the Congressional Bunker. But the bunker sure is great reminder to us to not look too far for happiness.

Happiness is hidden in plain sight for all of us.

PS  You can read more here about the Greenbrier Congressional Bunker. It is definitely worth a visit.