kenlassblog

The other day I was watching an episode of the old Perry Mason TV show from the late 1950’s. I was stunned when Perry’s rich client presented him with a ten thousand dollar bill. This must be a bit of Hollywood fantasy I thought. There’s no such thing as a $10,000 bill.

But out of curiosity I did a little research and was surprised to learn that, yes indeed, there was a $10,000 bill. The government stopped printing them in 1934, and withdrew them from circulation in 1969 because nobody was using them. Today they are very valuable and a collector can get more that $400,000 for one!

There also used to be a $500 bill, as well as a $1,000 and a $5,000 bill. All were discontinued because people apparently didn’t want to carry that much money around. Today, all forms of cash are slowly being replaced by credit and debit cards. I guess all things go out of style at one time or another.

Just don’t let your faith go out of style for lack of use.

I’m trying to drink more water. Water is good for you. I’ve been drinking diet colas with my meals for as long as I can remember. I guess I’m a bit addicted to the flavor and carbonation. But people tell me if I can just break the cola habit and get used to water, eventually I won’t be tempted by colas any more.

Well, so far, that hasn’t happened. I still want my diet drinks with my meals. Temptation doesn’t go away. The struggle against it continues every meal, every day. That’s true in your moral life as well. The desire and impulse to do things that are less than virtuous is always there. We can’t win that battle alone. God wants us to ask Him for support.

With His help, maybe there will come a day when I am satisfied with drinking water with my meals. A day when I am no longer tempted to stray from sinful behavior.

I’m still waiting.

Did you ever do something so stupid that you just have to laugh at yourself? Recently we were spending the night in a hotel room during a trip. When we heard a knock on the door I peered through the peephole but couldn’t see a thing. “This peephole doesn’t work” I told my wife Sharon.

Whereupon she burst out laughing uncontrollably, as she pointed out there was a little metal cover over the opening to prevent visitors from seeing inside. All you have to do is slide the cover up. I can’t imagine why I couldn’t figure that out in the moment, and my ignorance struck me even funnier than it did Sharon. We both laughed til our sides hurt.

Never take yourself too seriously. And if you do or say something embarrassing or ridiculous, just own it and laugh along with the crowd. It happens to all of us. This, too, shall pass.

The other day I was writing down the date on a form. When I came to the space for the current year, I wrote in 2025. It got me to thinking. The entire world, and all of its people, regard it as the year 2025. It is a global standard.

What is 2025 really? Of course, it denotes 2,025 years since the birth of Jesus. It is curious to me that much of our modern culture is trying to move away from God, and the need for God. And yet, the most basic universal measurement in all of humankind, the measure of time, is still based on the birth of God’s Son. Oh, I know that some of the secular world uses BCE (before common era) and CE (common era) instead of BC (before Christ) and AD (anno domini, after Christ). But their time frame is still based on the life of the Savior. All they’ve done is change the name.

So, in a way, every time you write down 2025 on a document, you are affirming that God and His Son are still the foundation and the basis of the universe.

  I’ve never gotten to experience anything quite like it.  It happened prior to my lifetime.  It seems incomprehensible, considering the climate of political, racial, religious and financial divisions that exist today. 

     Yet there once was a time when the United States was completely unified and of one mind and purpose.  I was reminded of it during the recent Memorial Day weekend as I watched a documentary about World War Two.  Sadly, it took war to bring the nation together in a way it has not seen again in the last eighty years. 

     On December 7, 1941 the Japanese conducted a bombing raid on Pearl Harbor.  As President Roosevelt announced the horrifying results on the radio, the country was shocked to learn that 2,403 military personnel and civilians had been killed.  1,178 others were injured.  The attack forced the U.S. into doing what it had been trying desperately to avoid, entering the massive war which had been ongoing in Europe. 

     Watching the old videos, I was seized by a wave of sadness over the loss of life, but I was also struck by how the event galvanized the American people in a profound way.  Suddenly, nobody cared whether you were conservative or liberal, black or white, Christian or Muslim, rich or poor.  Now there was a common enemy.  An evil force that had to be stopped at all costs.  A genuine threat to our democracy and way of life.  A compelling sense that Americans were all in this together. 

     Millions of young men voluntarily enlisted in the military to fight for their country and risk their lives in combat.  Others were drafted.  By 1945 more than sixteen million men and women had served during the war.  Back home, Americans dug into their wallets and bank accounts and purchased $180 billion worth of war bonds to support the troops.  85 million people took part in the sales, despite the average annual income at the time being just $2,000 a year. 

     Before the war, women in the workforce were sparse.  Most married women were housewives.  But with their husbands overseas engaged in battle, the women came out of their homes and diligently worked in the factories and shipyards, helping produce machinery and weaponry in support of the effort, spawning the iconic “Rosie the Riveter” symbol.  The war likely could not have been won without them. 

     Even Hollywood was unified to the cause.  Movie producers put out encouraging newsreels and fundraising videos which were shown in theaters before the main feature.  The time was considered a golden era for filmmaking, as many movies came out depicting the bravery and success of the Allied soldiers.  Stars such as Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and Henry Fonda put their careers on pause and enlisted in the military.  Oh, and one other star, a fellow by the name of Ronald Reagan, did as well.   Bob Hope was a major radio celebrity and movie star at the time.  He tried to enlist, but the government told him he was more valuable as the leader of a band of entertainers that travelled throughout war zones entertaining soldiers and boosting morale. 

     The war was not going well in the first years of U.S. involvement, but the collective will and drive of the American people, both in and out of the military, simply wouldn’t allow failure to be an option.  The victorious but costly Normandy landing in 1944 is broadly considered to be the turning point in the Allies favor.  Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945.  Japan followed on September 2 of that year.  The victory resulted in an unprecedented celebration in our land.  More than two million euphoric people flooded Times Square in New York, where there was dancing and confetti and people kissing everybody in sight.  Strangers embracing without reference to their differences.  The Chicago Tribune reported that a man climbed a ladder to light an 18-foot-tall solid wax victory candle that had taken three months to make.  In downtown Chicago, a half-million people crowded into the Loop, singing and dancing down the main streets.  In the South, overjoyed folks ran into the streets of Birmingham, Atlanta and New Orleans, singing and shouting and hugging. 

     What a time that must have been.  What an incredible feeling of unity and pride in America must have swept through the hearts of the people.  It was the clearest example of what this great nation can achieve when it is united.  As tragic as the war was, more than 70 million people lost their lives worldwide, I find there somehow is a part of me that wishes I had been there.  I can imagine there must have been intense grieving for the lost, but at least a partially redeeming sense that the deaths had meaning, that these brave soldiers helped save a planet from despotic, inhuman rule.  That they were, indeed, heroes all.  I can’t shake the feeling that I missed something special and rare.  What must it have been like to share in that tidal wave of patriotism, with no petty bickering or partisan slander.  

     World War Two ended six years before I was born.  It’s getting harder and harder to find those who experienced it.  As of early 2025, less than one percent of the veterans from that war are still with us.  I’m trying to remember a moment in my lifetime when our country had that kind of bond, that kind of devoted focus together.  Nothing comes to mind.  There were glimpses of it, such as the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Center, the response at the outbreak of Covid.  But the harmony quickly melted away under the heat of political accusations and hateful mistrust.  I wonder if America will ever achieve the unanimity of the early 1940s again. 

       I also shudder at the thought of what event might have to take place to inspire it.  

If you were going to write an honest book about your life, would it be a happy story or a sad one? If you broke it down into time periods, you’d write a chapter on your childhood, your teenage years, young adulthood, middle age, and, if you’ve reached that stage, your senior adult phase.

You would hit the highlights of your experiences, and describe the lowest points of your despair. Which category would get more space? When people finished reading it, would they admire you? Be inspired by you? Be jealous of you? Feel sorry for you? Dislike you?

Thinking about those questions could go a long way toward helping you assess where you are in your life. There’s still time to make edits. Still space for new chapters. You can still write your happy ending.

Here’s something that might stun you if you are of a certain age. The time span from 1970 until today, is equal to the time span from 1915 to 1970!

Isn’t it weird that we think so much time passed between 1915 and 1970, but the last half century seems to have flown past us. We’ve lived through so much more history than we realize. The pace of time is not going to stop. Our lives are going to continue streaking toward their destination. It should make us realize the value of each day, the preciousness of each opportunity.

Don’t put off enjoying, and restoring if necessary, the important relationships in your life. In the end, they will be what matters to you the most. And don’t forget your relationship with your Maker.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but my email has been hijacked by spammers. In the last 24 hours, I have received unsolicited messages trying to sell me McDonald’s coffee, a cure for yellow toenails, a cabbage cookbook, a secret exercise to improve my memory, a way to cut my electric bill by 90 percent, how to get relief from neuropathy pain, and of course, a booster for my testosterone count.

And many more. So many voices from so many directions, all designed to make a buck, none have my best interests at heart. Some, in fact, want to swindle me. It’s made us an understandably suspicious culture, reluctant to trust anything or anybody. We have a longing to hear from someone who will tell us the truth. Someone who is coming from a position of love and care for our well being. Someone who has endured and conquered all the evil and deceptive influences over time.

You and I know who it is. It’s time to read and listen to His word.

Since I retired almost nine years ago I have had more time to read, and I have found myself becoming somewhat of a science geek. I am fascinated by studies of physics and relativity and other deep, brainy stuff. I don’t understand much of it, but I like to read books by people who do. Concepts such as slowing down time, and objects becoming more dense at high speeds really grab my imagination.

But the most brilliant minds in the world have been trying to answer the basic questions of human existence for centuries. How did all things begin? How did things become alive? What happens after death? Try as they might, so far at least, science can’t answer these questions definitively.

So your best option at this point is to trust God’s answers. They are easy to find. They’re all in His book. They hold true until somebody proves otherwise.

When I was working as a local television news anchor, I learned something about prestige that stuck with me. If I walked down the streets of my town, some folks would recognize me and treat me like a local celebrity. But if I got in my car and drove two hours in any direction, then got out of my car and walked the streets, nobody knew who I was, and nobody cared.

It taught me that prestige and “celebrity” aren’t real. They just exist in the mind of somebody else. If you’re depending on status and notoriety to make you happy, you will be truly disappointed. They disappear like dust on a windy day.

Better to remember Luke 14:11. “He who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”