One Story He Forgot to Tell

(2005) There are a lot of people I can say I’ve been through a lot with. Of course, none haven been there with me more than my parents and sister. But there are some friends who I’ve shared some of my life’s greatest and hardest moments with. There are others that I have shared the world’s greatest and most difficult days with.

But one person comes to mind that’s literally been through just about every major world event with me on a daily basis. Sadly, he died this week. I’m talking about long time ABC News anchorman, Peter Jennings.

Since I can remember he’s been right in front of me giving me certain facts, opinions or just a human element to make what was happening real. Even as a kid I can remember hearing him talking as I would fall asleep late at night. He was an icon of American journalism. He was on America’s TV sets for four decades, along with the likes of Tom Brokaw with NBC and Dan Rather at CBS.

I can remember him covering Hurricane Alicia when we lived in Houston in 1983 and the Shuttle Challenger explosion of 1986. I recall his words when President Reagan was shot. I remember him talking to us about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. He was there in the elections of Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. He was there during various Olympic events and he helped us deal with the Oklahoma City bombing and the Waco compound ordeal. He brought to us other events as well such as various Mid-East conflicts, “Watergate”, and Vietnam. He helped us deal with various wars, economic struggles and social issues. He even stirred the social pot with TV specials like “"The Search for Jesus" in 2000 and "Jesus and Paul — the Word and the Witness" in 2004. I watch the news today because of him.

But no one made the events of 9/11 more real than he did. I watched, as like most of us, he cried as he tried to give what facts he knew about that terrible day. It was Jennings to a “t”. He made the news worth watching and being from Canada, he wasn’t even a sworn in American until 2003.

Despite his political leanings, Jennings was a decent representative of life itself as an American. Sometimes his comments made me mad, other times he was sincere and right. But he was consistent and was always there.

Unfortunately, the one story he never completely explained was that of smoking and how it kills. He told us in April that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Less than 4 months later, he was dead. Suddenly the face and voice so many of us had been used too as a source of comfort and stability is now gone.

Funny how his “mark” on society now has nothing to do with what he said all of those years. Now it has to do with what he did all of those years. His legacy just might be the millions who claim they’re never smoking again.

Sure, like many, I’ve had my share of smokes in my life. Sadly, during my college years, I tried a lot of things I wish I would have never heard of. My Papa Jack smoked cigars until I was in my early teens. My mother smoked when she was younger. My granny smoked her entire life. And, like many of you reading this, I have family and friends that smoke packs and packs a week. Some smoke a pack a day like Jennings did. Sure, I enjoy a cigar, a “clove” or a pipe here and there. But now I’m thinking I’ll never have another.

I don’t want to be gone 4 months from now.

Do you?


“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own…” 1 Corinthians 6:19


© 2005, J. Brady
"I say it as I see it and I make no bones about it."

When Wrong Becomes Right

(1997) This morning I began to think about all the trials of 1996. You know, the ones we heard about everyday last year - Routier, Irvin, Simpson, Clinton, and others. As I sat there thinking about them, I was truly amazed at how our society has glorified the wrongs people have done, making light of them and only adding celebrity status to those who could use a little less of it.

Every week we hear the justification of what should undoubtedly be wrong while unmercifully neglecting the victim. Letting them endure the pain most of them live through the remainder of their lives alone. The perpetrators are now the victims according to the media and many in society.

However, I was also reminded by the Holy Spirit, of how Christ, Himself did that very thing for me. Though I have done so many things wrong in life, He has brought me out of the muck and made me a celebrity in His eyes! You too! For He has taken us all from wrong to right by the power of what Jesus did. We are all celebrities in His kingdom. He was the victim of our sin, but He lets us walk free.

To think my trial should have had a different outcome brings tears to me eyes. For we all who believe, were spared a life term, and in its place given life with no limits.

We are all wrong. It's Him who makes us right.


"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and behold the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ...not counting men's sins against them." 2 Corinthians 4:17-19

© 1997, J. Brady
"I say it as I see it and I make no bones about it."

Grandma Knows Why...

(1993) She was neat.

For almost a century she walked this earth; giving, loving, and sharing the joys of being a friend, a mother, a wife, a Christian, a grandmother and for a few like me, a great grandmother. In the last few years, she could barely hear, barely see and barely walk. Yet her lovable little body continually beamed like the little light of life that she always was. However, that life, which spanned a road over 92 years long, came to and end; an end that will leave many in tears and some asking why.

I guess I consider myself blessed to not only to have had a great grandparent in my life, but to have had a deep, fun, neat relationship with Grandma as well. I can remember days of going to visit her and talking to her about school, my job, or finding "Mrs. right". I remember the stories she would tell me of the Great Depression, or about her and Papaw getting married on a carriage, or even her talking about seeing him again one day soon in Heaven above. I can even remember discussing those good old Dallas Cowboys, as she would ask me if they were still winning and if "Tom" was still their coach. She liked Tom.

She was just one neat, smart, and lovable lady.

And though it's hard to let her go, I have to ask myself, who am I to keep her from the warm sun, the blue skies, and the gentle breeze of a nice heavenly day with the very Creator of our lives? For is that not the true goal our lives as well? To one day step into eternity, claim our prize and live in paradise with the ones we loved forever? How anyone could live without such hope I will never understand. How empty and pointless life must be.

Yet, even with this hope, death is still the most difficult issue we face. As we "lose" those we love or are faced with losing our own lives, death becomes a dark cloud over every emotion we bare within.

But in Christ and with God, there is victory. Though death seems so final and merciless, in reality it is the door to heaven. For as Christians, we have the assurance of knowing and saying, "Oh death where is your sting?" while claiming the victory that is ours. That is why Grandma lived and that is why Grandma died.

So now, when we find ourselves asking why, we can be assured of the truth we know and of the truth that she lived.

Like the little edge-burned plaque says, that I made for her when I was 14 or 15, Grandma would answer our whys like this...

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, and whoever believes in Him, shall not die, but have everlasting life."

That, my friends, is why.
Maude Speers...home, as of January 10, 1993.

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” I Thessalonians 4: 13-14


© 1993, J. Brady
“I say it as I see it and I make no bones about it.”