Team Hoyt

Every once in a while I experience something that I just know I'll remember for as long as I live.

Because I was so young at the time, I didn't realize I was having such a moment when I heard that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Along with millions of other Americans, I will never forget where I was and what I was doing when I heard the tragic news. (On the school staircase, returning to the classroom after lunch. A student who had gone home for lunch returned with the grim report.)

I've walked across a stage to receive diplomas, walked down the aisle and said "I do", and been handed my just-born infants to hold. After a while you begin to realize when you're experiencing an unforgettable moment.

Some have been on the negative end of the spectrum. Going 60 mph down the highway in the passenger seat of my friend's car and being hit head-on by a drunk driver. Getting a frantic phone call from a good friend that my 4-year-old, at whose home he was staying, had spiked a 106 F. temperature. Attending a friend's funeral -- a young father who had buried his wife and two sons during the previous two years, all having succumbed to AIDS. And 9-11.

A variety of other permanently etched moments, not at all in chronological order:

• Hearing Neil Armstrong's famous words through a scratchy transmission back to earth from the moon one August evening in 1969. "One small step..." (Mind-bending.)
• Watching the sunrise from atop Haleakala, a volcanic crater on Maui. (Breath-taking.)
• Being caught in a South Dakota blizzard for four days in a single wide trailer while visiting another family. (Seemingly endless.)
• The take-off on my very first jet airplane trip. (I was 16. It was a TWA flight to Los Angeles. I was leaving home to go away to college. Thrilling.)
• White water rafting on the Youghiogheny River in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. (Petrifying.)
• Trying to whisk my two small children out of the car and into the house as a tornado bore down on our township, leaving our street completely impassable, littered with huge uprooted trees. (Major adrenaline surge.)

It happened again this weekend. This time what I "experienced" was a video clip. I will never forget it. Used at the conclusion of a sermon, the illustration captured the essence of God's all-sufficient grace for any and all life circumstances (II Corinthians 12:9).

I wish I could link you directly to the video, but the best I can do is to direct you to the website where it's available for purchase. The story and accompanying photos you'll find there are compelling, but I promise you'll love the video.

For years there have been just three people at the very top of my list of special heroes -- those whose personal qualities and accomplishments most inspire me to live beyond myself. But now I have four. I'd like to introduce you to my newest living hero, Dick Hoyt.