"SO IT'S THANKSGIVING"

It's been my privilege to travel over much of the world, including four complete circumnavigations of the globe (shades of 'Around The World in 80 Days' sans the balloon).  I've worked in many of the world's great cities and some of the most remote corners of the earth.  The downside to all that experience is the time it has taken away from home, from my wife and children, from dear friends, and church, too, usually for weeks and often for several months at a time.  Somehow my loving wife Gloria and my remarkable children (they really are!) have managed to stay close together.  I credit that to God!

But no matter where I travel and what I'm doing, there are two events at home that I do everything possible to make sure I don't miss -- Thanksgiving and Christmas!    While I think of EVERY day with my darling Gloria as a day of celebration (which is a good thing were I to confess how many anniversaries I've missed), Christmas and Thanksgiving are the two occasions when we celebrate our entire family.   Over the years I've missed maybe 4 Thanksgivings - but not one Christmas (though I've come close a few times)!

One of the Thanksgivings I DID miss found me in Manila, preparing for directing the television coverage of a Billy Graham crusade (one of the week-long speaking missions he conducted in almost every major city of the world).  Hundreds of thousands attended those meetings in the Philippines.  As Thanksgiving approached, the hotel chef announced he would be serving a tradional Thanksgiving dinner.  For a young homesick director, this conjured up wistful images of home.  The menu promised roast turkey with stuffing and all the trimmings, cranberry sause, pumpkin pie.  I could hardly wait.  But with the first bite I was reminded of Dorothy in Oz.  We were certainly 'not in Kansas'.  We weren't even near America and it sure wasn't a 'traditional Thanksgiving dinner'.  An 'A' for effort, but it all tasted Philippino by the time it came out of the kitchen!  I ended the day more homesick than ever.

I encourage you to identify those marker days in the calendar that mean the most to you and to the people you care most about.  It could be your anniversary or your mom's birthday or like me, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Then make every effort to protect celebration of those occasions from the temptation to never turn down work or to never raise your voice to suggest a schedule change that could allow you to be home on the days that matter most to you and those you love.  Most people will respect you for it - maybe even change something to make it happen for you.  Even so, I've missed a few Thanksgiving celebrations, but those I love knew how much I wanted to be there.

It will be hard to keep a perfect record if you're successful as a filmmaker, television, or live event professional.  On more than one occasion I've flown out the day after Christmas to load in a New Year's show somewhere.  That I've never missed a Christmas is a blessing from God for which I'm grateful.    There will ALWAYS be opportunities, even creative ones, to keep you away from what is ultimately the most important part of this life - the people we care about and who care for us.  But when all else fails, when the phone doesn't ring and no one is hitting your website or checking out your LinkedIn page for job referrals, it is the people who have loved you all along that will still be there for you.  Don't take them for granted or the chances you have now to be with them, to celebrate them, to enjoy them, to GIVE THANKS for them...That's what I'm doing this Thanksgiving! 

  

MERE COINCIDENCE?

I was in Manila, The Philippines, shooting a television special with Dr. Billy Graham.  We filmed his message before an audience of  nearly 100,000 people in Rizal Park, near historic Manila Hotel that served as headquarters for Douglas MacArthur in World War II,  We then traveled around the country shooting other segments for the hour special.  I was stirred by the visit to Corregidor, where MacArthur famously uttered his promise "I shall return".  But I was unprepared for the site that greeted us at the entrance to the sprawling American military cemetery just outside Manila.  A sea of white marble crosses and Stars of David stretch as far as the eye can see and beyond, in every direction.  It is a moving site that reminds the visitor of the enormity of the sacrifice that has been made to keep us free.

I filmed a sequence with Dr. Graham with the cemetery behind him as he compared the sacrifice made by these young men and women for our political freedom with the sacrifice of Christ for our spiritual freedom.  When he finished,  I kept the crew behind to shoot 'B' roll footage of the cemetery to be inserted later in editing the sequence for television.

It occurred to me that it would be powerful to reveal the cemetery by starting on the name of someone with a mid-western 'All American next door boy' sounding name, then pull back to reveal a sea of markers as far as the eye could see.   The names are etched into the white marble of the markers so any name would only be recognizable for a couple of seconds before the bright sun would cause the name to blend into the marble, but I knew it would be powerful for those who caught those two seconds.   To make sure I had choices in editing, we filmed a dozen or so different markers in the same way, each time beginning on a different name, then pulling back to dramatically reveal the thousands of markers.

We finished filming, came home, and I screened all the footage.   I selected one of the several shots we had filmed at the cemetery, added music and narration, mastered the show and sent it off to broadcast.

The morning after the national telecast, I received a phone call from our Chicago office, asking if I'd heard the news?  What news?  Apparently the night before, an elderly gentleman was watching the program who, along with his brother, had fought in World War II.    His brother had gone missing in action during the war and the War Department  had lost all trace of what had happened to him.  The old man had long ago stopped praying to find his brother, but still he wondered what ever happened to him.  He sat down to watch Billy Graham as he had often done before.  But as he listened to Dr. Graham's message, the image dissolved to a small  white marble marker in a cemetery on the other side of the world, a marker that bore the name of his long lost brother.  The sun quickly overpowered the etched image and it blended with the white marble of thousands of others across the vast sea of the dead.  But in those brief two seconds, 35 years of wondering, praying, and longing were answered.  He had found his brother.

By the next morning, the network news had learned of what happened.  Radio commentator Paul Harvey reported the story to the nation.  A few days later the old man was on a plane to visit his brother's grave.

I've thought about that story many times.  Just coincidence?   Why did I choose to film that sequence at the cemetery?  Corregidor or somewhere else would have provided a dramatic backdrop as well.  Arriving at the cemetery, I could have set up my camera anywhere - in hundreds of spots on those hillsides,   I could  have then chosen any of dozens of markers near where we set up.  Returning to LA, I still had a dozen very good choices for the shot I eventually used.  Why THAT one?   Why was that elderly veteran watching that night?  A glance away from the screen for two seconds and he would have never found his brother's grave.   But I DID choose that marker and this dear man WAS watching and he DID find his brother.   As Paul Harvey ended his newscast by saying 'And that's the REST of the story'.

Whatever YOU may think, I believe I was unwittingly guided in all those choices by a loving God who who had chosen to use me to be part of answering this old man's prayer to know his brother's fate and be able to say 'goodbye' after 35 years.


Never under-estimate God's ability to use you in ways you don't know, to accomplish His will on behalf of someone you may never meet or know -- but whose life you will touch because God used you.  He's doing it  in all of our lives, more often, I dare say,  than any of us will ever know on this side of eternity.  Mere coincidence?  I don't think so!