Jim Daly

In 1979, a passenger jet carrying 250 people left New Zealand for a sightseeing tour to Antarctica. Unknown to the pilots, their flight coordinates were off slightly, just one degree. A small error, but it put them nearly 30 miles off course by the time they reached Antarctica. Before the pilots could correct the mistake, the plane crashed into Mount Erebus killing everyone on board.

Small mistakes accumulate over time. If something is off course by just one degree, after one foot, it will miss its target by an eighth of an inch.

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First Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Life often gets in the way of our desire to connect with Jesus as our source of contentment and joy. We get busy raising children, investing in our marriages, and building our careers. We get distracted by technology and lost in tough circumstances. Life overwhelms us, and we disconnect from God.

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Do you want to do something great, something that will change the world? The best way to achieve that may be to think small.

I remember a camping trip my family took many summers ago. We’d no sooner arrived at the campsite, when my boys leapt from the car and grabbed handfuls of rocks to throw into a nearby pond. My oldest son, Trent, muscled the largest stones he could find into the water. The bigger the splash, the bigger he wanted the next rock to be.

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My friend and former colleague, Tom Minnery, passed away unexpectedly on Christmas Eve.

Although now living in Ohio, Tom and his wife, Deb, were in New Mexico for Christmas with their family. Tom slipped on some ice and sustained a massive head injury. He entered Glory in the early evening.

Tom was a familiar voice to the Focus on the Family constituency, especially with his monthly column in Citizen Magazine, a periodical he helped launch in 1987, and which he served as editor-in-chief.

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My friend Matt learned the hard way how important other people can be to our lives.

In college, he pulled into a convenience store, threw open the door, and ran inside for a quick purchase. Unfortunately, he didn’t quite get his Chevy into park. It clicked out of gear, rolled backwards into a pole, and bent Matt’s open door completely in the opposite direction.

Instead of asking someone for help, he pounded his door shut with a sledgehammer.

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On our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Celebrating Christmas As a Family,” we’re airing a recording of a conversation I had in the woods of West Monroe, Louisiana. That’s the location for the home and headquarters of the world-famous Robertson clan, otherwise known as Phil and Kay Robertson from A&E’s Duck Dynasty.

For five years and 130 episodes, the Robertsons invited viewers into their home and duck hunting business and introduced us to their zany family antics.

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