kennethbaucum

OK.  So you're sitting around having a good time when someone you've known for years but haven't talked to in months walks in and smiles.  Score one for the happy team.  Then, the person says "Hi!"  Score two.  Finally, out of nowhere a hand comes out for a high-five.  It goes out of the ballpark on score three!  Since when is being happy so much fun?  I can usually get the first two, but a spontaneous high-five will blow me away every time.  Keep 'em coming!

Next time you see someone who looks like they need a high-five  GIVE IT UP!  It may not mean anything to you, but it could change their day.  Good luck!

"When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating.  And I think I have one thing to say.  If you wish to be useful, nevertake a course that will silence you.  Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, wether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a univeristy.  Retain the power of speech no matter what other freedom you may lose.If you can take this course, in so far as you take it, you will bless this country.  In so far as you depart from this course you become dampers, mutes and hooded executioners.

As a practical matter a mere failure to speak out upon occasions where no opinion is asked or expected of you, and when the utterance of an uncalled-for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrance in palable iniquity.  Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound.  It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct.  It is a note from a friend of your father's offering you a place in his office.  This is your warning from the secret police.  Why, if any of you young gentlemen have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well.

I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think that they must save their strength and wait.  They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard.  'In a few years,' reasons one of them, 'I shall have gained a standing, and then I will use my powers for good.'  Next year comes and with it a strange discovery.  The man has lost his horizon of thought.  his ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say.  I give you this rule of conduct.  Do what you will, but speak out always.  Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged.  The time of trial is always.  Now is the appointed time."

--John Jay Chapman, Commencement address to the graduating class, Hobart College, 1900

Yup, He still loves me.  So, laugh if you must, but it happened again.  Oh, yeah, that's right.  The dryer didn't dry my jeans.  That's a lot like a personal offense, right?  I should be priviledged and obliged to shoot the dryer to pieces now, right?  Well, not so fast.

Once again, God put the right people in the right places at the right time, and it worked out great for everyone.  Of course, the dryer takes $1.25 in quarters and I have $.75.  However, I had a stack of nickels in the car, and a gentleman was kind enough (and had the resources) to trade my nickels for two quarters and allowed me the opportunity to choose another dryer and try again . . . or rather, dry again.  Thank you, Lord, for still loving me.

Hmm...this is a tough one.  I'll bet I know who came to your mind first.  You.  Would you consider others, or giving to charity?  If so, how much, or what percentage?  Of course, we all have a few pressing needs that a bailout could easily cover, but what about the rest?

Here's my idea...pay off the debts we owe, keep a little in savings, then be very generous.  If I were getting $1 billion, I'd pay off my student loans, pay my rent through the end of the lease, buy a modest car, put some in savings and still have $999,940,700 left over.  Naturally, 10% of the total goes to my church (the preacher wouldn't let me forget tithes!), and after that, there'd be a lot of making other people very happy.  I could take myself and a couple friends on an overseas mission trip, helping out in another country, then follow that up in my hometown in a few community projects.  Finally, there's always my areas of ministry at church and in my community...the possibilities are endless.

This would represent a perfect example of how giving to others would bring so much more joy than spending on yourself.  sure, you get to pick what overseas country, and the bailout pays for expenses, but as long as you budget an appropriate -- or better yet, generous -- amount of time in the actual outreach, it works!

Think about it.  Let me know what you think at bailout@kennethbaucum.com (start the subject line with [BAILOUT]) or leave a comment below.

Whether you're giving thanks or giving life this Thanksgiving, don't almost give.  Give.

"Remember when you saw the homeless woman in the snow, and you almost volunteered to work in the soup kitchen?  Or when you saw the news report about the wounded soldiers, and you almost visited the veteran's hospital?  Or when you almost brought dinner to your neighbor with AIDS?  Remember all those times when you almost helped?  You meant to, but somehow you forgot, you were too busy, and it slipped your mind.  Well it's only human, this almost giving.  But if you almost gave, there's a good chance everybody else almost gave, too.  Which means it's quite possible there was no soup kitchen at all, that no one visited those vets, and that your neighbor never got that hot meal.

Because almost giving is the same as not giving at all.  Don't almost give.  Give. To find out how, visit http://www.dontalmostgive.org"

(text transcribed from radio ad)