SURVIVOR PLAYS THE RACE CARD

On the cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly Magazine a headline reads: "Survivor Shocker" and asks "has reality TV finally gone too far?"

The newest edition of America's #1 reality show will initially break the 16 survivors up into four race-based tribes. Then, you'll get to see how the Asian tribe differs from the Hispanic tribe; and what differences the black tribe has from the whites.

So what's all the controversy about? Is it that the producers are segregating this microcosm of society? Have you seen the neighborhoods in our home town? Generally, blacks settle with blacks, whites with whites, and so on. We like to live where we're comfortable - with people like us. Don't blame Survivor.

My morning show co-host Mandy (married to great guy who happens to be black) and I spoke about this on the JQ 99 morning show. We both agreed that this little social experiment has the potential to be a great lesson!

Sure, there's the possibility that early on the races will harbor contempt and that survivors will express prejudicial sentiments to the show's audience. But I don't expect it will last long.

During one of the early seasons of CBS's Big Brother show, Ken, a chain-smoking, politically conservative white guy, lashed out at Bunky, another houseguest whose open homosexuality and psuedo-feminine behaviour conflicted with Ken's social conditioning. While Ken's rants about how disgusting and unnatural homosexuality is was offensive to Bunky and gay viewers, they didn't last long. Gradually, Ken and Bunky became best of friends. In fact, Ken wasn't shy about giving Bunky a hug every now and then. The social stereo-types and prejudices were set aside as they grew to know eachother.

I expect the same thing will happen on Survivor: Cook Islands. In fact, I'll say that I hope survivors from each ethnicity honestly express whatever racial objections or prejudice views they have. Then, as survivors are voted out and tribes become multi-racial, all of America will witness the softening of the survivors' hearts.

Rarely is there an exception. We may begin with prejudice, but if we allow ourselves to get close to people that aren't like us, our prejudice gives way to understanding.

It's then we realize we're not that different after all.

Will You Just Shut That Thing Off Son!?

I don't know where he got it, but my son Brody has this battery powered fire truck with a siren that decides on its own when to start squeeling, and won't quit. It's a real cheapie - there is no on/off switch and no battery to remove. It just keeps crying the way sirens do - rrrrrrrr, rrrrrrrr!

The other night Tracie and I were trying to sleep and that evil fire truck just kept making that siren noise. I don't know what made it start up, but we weren't going to catch any Z's until that noise stopped! I wanted to smash it with my softball bat, but then Tracie would have had to explain the firetruck pieces Brody would have undoubtedly discovered in the trash. So, she deduced that we should stick it out in the garage - and that did the trick. We were able to rest peacefully!

Your kids may have a toy or musical instrument that drives you crazy. Often, kids will continue to make noise with that toy or instrument until you're on the verge of lunacy! It's terribly annoying, isn't it?

I Corinthians 13, known as the Love chapter, says that people who live the Christian life but don't have true love for their brothers are like those annoying toys that won't shut up. Okay, not exactly; but it does say it's like a resounding cymbal.

When I was in high school, I had a set of drums in my room and spent many a night bashing the crap out of them while my parents seemed to find anything to do that would get them out of the house - lawn work, grocery shopping, church bowling leagues, anything! The sound of that resounding, pointless clanging was enough to drive them batty! And that's how we sound to the people we encounter when we don't have genuine love for them.

No wonder so many people are tell Christians: "will you please just shut up!"

For years now, I've worked hard to serve God the best way I know how - but by what motive? At times it's been so God would bless me. Other times I've done good works grudgingly or out of sheer duty. Much of that work hasn't gone over very well. People are smart enough to sense when you truly care for them and when you're just clanging your own cymbals.

That challenges me!

THANKS, I NEEDED THAT! Someone told me recently that you really know God's using you when you don't know he's using you. No, it wasn't Yogi Bera. What he meant to say was that God often works in ways you didn't set out to work on your own. Meet the Winchell family. That's them pictured above backstage at the Unity Music Festival with Steven Curtis Chapman. The Winchells were the grand prize winners in JQ 99's Unity Music Matchgame. What's amazing about this family winning the grand prize is that they had resigned themselves to the fact that they couldn't afford to go this year. Tim is losing his job and times are fixin' to get really tough! No other Unity Music Matchgame prize would have been much help. Because of the family's financial woes, they needed this particular prize - 3 day festival passes, plus $150 in spending money for food, gas, and merchandise. It's amazing how God works these things out! But the Winchells aren't alone. I can't tell you how many times God has given the grand prize to families who need just that! For two years running, the $1,000 prize for finding the Jingle Bell Rock has been claimed by financially strapped families with no money for gifts. Last year's winner of a JQ 99 backyard make-over had no lawn - just dirt...not even top soil! God provided grass and landscaping. The stories go on and on! It feels so good knowing that God is using JQ and our family of advertisers to bless people...and I'm humbled that he's including me!

DOES THIS LOOK LIKE

A TOWEL TO YOU?

. This much is true: there are never enough towels around.

. You're over at a friend's house watching the game when your thoughtful pal returns from the kitchen and hands you a sweatty can of Coke. You greatfully crack open America's #1 beverage, take a swig and set it down on the coffee table when it happens...you wipe your wet hands on your pants.

My wife hates it when I do this because it often leaves stains that don't dissappear when dry. Being concious of this, and being 100 percent truly madly deeply in love with her, I'm no longer a "pants hand-dryer."

. I use my socks.

. Socks are great portable use-it-anywhere towels because they're naturally thick and fluffy as well as absorbant. If you wear long tube type socks, you're golden! The beauty of wiping your hands on your socks is, assuming you have long pants on, that even if you're wiping a stain-causing substance off your hands nobody will ever know.

. So whenever you're caught wet-handed somewhere and there's not a towel in sight, lift your pant leg and covertly wipe your hands clean.

. Maybe this is why some average guys never sway from wearing socks with their sandals!

THE ELEMENTARY TRUTH ABOUT HEAL+H IN$URANCE

So much for having a teachable spirit. After working the2005 school year without a contract, Holland Public School teachers have agreed to one with the school board. I'm not intimately familiar with the details, but news reports indicated the sticking point has been health insurance. School board officials have repeatedly stated rising costs mean teachers will have to get used to the idea of a paying a portion of their health insurance premiums. They agreed to pay $40 per month toward their health insurance premiums for the first year; then it goes up to $60 per month. Meanwhile, the school system is left to pay the remaining $1100 per month. Recently, my bosses held a meeting indicating that skyrocketing health costs are forcing them to reorganize the company health insurance plan. Many other employers are facing the same situation. They were able to minimize cost hikes by thinking creatively. Still, I pay more than $150 PER PAY CHECK toward health insurance premiums. What I wouldn't give to pay only $20 per paycheck! My heros are Christian and private school teachers who sacrifice income and yet often still pay the same health care insurance premiums as the rest of corporate America. THOSE are the people who know they're called to a great work, worthy of sacrifice. I have a hard time empathizing with better paid teachers with nearly no health insurance costs.

THEY DON'T CALL IT BREAK NECK SPEED FOR NOTHING Thursday on the JQ 99 Morning Show, Mandy and I talked to Phil Joel, bass player for the Christian rock band NEWSBOYS. For years, the band has traveled with their motorcycles. I remember seeing them on a Festival Con Dios tour with five BMW street bikes parked backstage. Phil says these days, the band is riding enduro style bikes, a high performance off-road/street legal hybrid style. Mandy asked what the band wives thought of the motorcycles. Phil gave a hesitant chuckle and revealed that the girls weren't very comfortable with their childrens' father spend his time free-wheeling with the boys in the band. I'm not sure anyone has an academic explaination for why guys love motorcyles. We just do! As a kid, I jealously watched neighborhood friends speed by my house on their way to rip up the trails nearby. Every week or so, to no avail, my brother and I petitioned our parents to get a mini-bike. My cousins, who lived on farms in North Dakota, recklessly rode three-wheelers year 'round. My brother and I would spend all of our vacation money filling their gas tanks and running them to the limit. Those were the days! Then, my brother finally sold his horse and bought a Yamaha racing quad-runner. My mom didn't aprove, but had little leverage to stop a grown college student. We promptly started pushing that baby to the edge of its performance capability....raging down dirt roads at sixty miles per hour...jumping sandy ramps dangerously close to trees...racing down narrow trails lined with pines during hunting season. Behaving so recklessly might not have been smart, but it was thrilling. Now, whenever I drive by a dirt or enduro bike propped up in someone's yard with a for sale sign taped to the number plate, I covet. I long to spend a Saturday afternoon drenched in adrenalized abandon - storming down a country trail. Who knows if that dream will ever come true? In the mean time, I'll keep the faith and keep praying for my wife.

EXCHANGING YOUR

MIRROR

FOR A

WINDOW

If you're like me, you spend waaay too much time in front of the mirror. True confession: I'm constantly looking at the mirror to make sure my nose and unibrow hairs are gone, or at least inconspicuous. The first thing I do in the morning is tweeze my unibrow and nose - - everyday. It's like a disease!! Recently, I've been made aware of the fact that I spend a lot of time in front of the mirror. People like me, who seize every opportunity to check themselves out tend to be very self-centered. We're impressed by looks and outward evidences of beauty and sometimes have a hard time making authentic connections with people. We're obsessed with having the right look - including the right clothes, hair, car, house, shoes, friends - everything! Sometimes I look up from the mirror long enough to realize how miserable mirrors make people. All the mirror does for me is show me my flaws. I'm never good enough. There's always something out of place! I wonder if God really inteded us to be people who obsess about ourselves. How much better it feels to look through windows. People who gravitate toward windows aren't so concerned with themselves. They want to get involved with the world outside their own. They engage people. They look for ways to get involved. They see people with needs greater than their own and work to meet those needs. Window watchers have discovered that a great big colorful world of adventure awaits them, and they are drawn out from their places of security to experience the thrilling joys of being with people. God take me away from the mirror. It's a depressing place. I want to open the dreary curtains I've hung and let the light of your good-will shine in. I want to see that the world is more than me and what's mine - and that a breath of fresh air is only a few steps away!

I'M A MALE AIRHEAD! There, I said it! Since just about every guy has an intense desire to be respected, it's a terrible thing for him to have to admit he's blonde. Now, I'm not talking about mere hair color - no. I mean the butt of blonde jokes blonde. An airhead. Ditzy. If you ever have blonde moments, you know how shameful it is to admit it. Does it mean you're stupid? Are you less worthy of respect? Probably not, you just miss a few things every now and then. Unfortunately, it always seems to strike at the most inopportune times...and when you're near the people you want to impress most. For example... Sunday afternoon, Tracie and I went to the Michigan International Speedway to watch the Indy Racing League race. A racing friend of mine was hosting clients at his businesses suite that overlooked pit road (really incredible seats!). Prior to the start of the race, as I decended the stairway from the roof, people walked by. Once inside the suite, my friend asked if that was IRL star driver Dario Franchitti who just passed by me on the stairs. I said I didn't know - wasn't looking. (DOH!) Last night, before I faded off to sleep, I put on my blindfold and inserted my earplugs. After getting settled, I started telling my wife about the day. Little did I know that about 30 seconds into my narrative, she got out of bed and went to check on my son. Sometime after she was gone, I stretched out my arm to place it on her belly. It was then that I realized I'd been talking to her pillow for two minutes. DUH! What a dork! Being a male airhead hurts. People mislead you and you follow them. You're constantly asking "are you serious?" to which people say "no, dummy!" You miss obvious happenings - things right under your nose. You figure things out long after most people (I just figured out how my foam earplugs work. For years, I went to be frustrated that they didn't fit my ear. I'd pinch them and stick them in...then push them deeper. They never worked. Then I discovered that if I just pinch once, stick the earplugs in, and leave them alone, they expand to fill my ear canals. Again...duh!) I guess I'll just have to accept my ditziness. Help me if you can relate!