The Happiest People in America
Pollsters for the annual Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index interviewed 176,000 people in every state of America. They wanted to find which state had the happiest people. Best results ever. They asked questions related to five areas: 1) purpose and sense of happiness in what you do, 2) healthy, supportive social networks, 3) financial security and freedom from stress, 4) community safety and liking where you live, 5) having health and energy. If we think the way the media and advertisers would have us think, the top states would be places like Hawaii and California, or maybe Florida. No way. If…
Suicide Rates and Expectations
Suicide rates among middle-aged Americans have apparently risen sharply in the past decade, so says The New York Times. More Americans now die of suicide than car accidents. The greatest increases have been among males in their 50s. Researchers acknowledge that the reasons are complex and varied. But two factors seem to stand out: stresses of the recession and the easy availability of prescription painkillers. One other factor may be significant: Baby boomers had great expectations for how well their lives would be, but for most it didn’t turn out that way. Looking at the ebb and surge of socially…
Paul Crouch Achieved His Vision
Paul Crouch, who built a Charismatic Christian television network empire, has died at 79. Loved by some, ridiculed by others; a great blessing to some, a superficial showman to others. Whatever you may think of the man is okay with me. But one thing about him deeply convicted me and is to all of us inescapable. In the mid 1970s, on the ceiling of a room in his house, he saw a vision. A map of North America appeared. From it pencil-thin lines streaked in all directions. Crouch asked, “Lord, what does this mean?” God responded with just one word:…
Will You Adopt Me?
Davion had been born to a mother in jail, grown up in foster care and group homes and lived his life in a rage. When he finally tracked down his mother. She was a drug addict, in and out of prison, and had died only weeks earlier. That changed him. He turned around his behavior, his grades, even his weight. He desperately wanted to be accepted into a family. Tampa Bay Times reports that he heard God would help those who help themselves, so with his case worker’s support (the two are in the photo), he nervously went to a…
Dead Cattle and Broken Hearts
The weather is going mad. In South Dakota two days after temperatures were in the 80s, and before ranchers could move their cattle herds (some of which had been relocated here after the horrific droughts in southern states), a rainstorm hit and quickly froze. So cattle were drenched then frozen. Then snow fell hard and deep. Some cows retreated downwind as far as twelve miles. They broke through fences and crossed highways before they finally died, sometimes piling up on one another in culverts. As many as 100,000 heads of cattle died Most ranchers lost between 50 to 75 percent…
