Although I was on my way to Portland, United Airlines sent me to Denver. I love Colorado, but an hour is not nearly enough time to rent a car, drive to the mountains, and breathe thin air. So I located the Portland departure gate, and began wandering through the shops.

“Hey Dick!” I looked up and saw Roland Hegstad, Religious Liberty former editor, careening down the corridor with his luggage in tow. “What are you doing here?” he asked, beginning a 20-minute conversation about the world, the church, football, family, chance meetings, and cigars. (He brought up the cigars.)

“Seems like everywhere I go, I meet another Adventist.” He chuckled, and then sped off to the punch line. “Remember this, Dick. There’s no place in the world where an Adventist can smoke a good cigar!”

We both laughed heartily as we dashed to our planes.

Now, please understand me. I have no desire to smoke any kind of cigar. The Devil knows where to tempt me, and the cigar option’s not on the list. But, I have thought about Roland's warning thousands of times. He’s right!

If I were to light up a cigar in the most foreign of foreign places, I would immediately be greeted by someone I knew in academy, or discover the saleslady in the cigar store is my pastor’s mother-in-law!

Last month I was in Fort Worth, Texas, for a couple days. Hoping for some good bird photographs, I added a few hours at Padre Island National Seashore where I found two successful fishermen, fifteen white pelicans, and perfect sunlight. Just the eighteen of us. No one else around. One fisherman was putting the boat away and the other was cleaning the catch. I was behind my tripod, training a 300mm lens on the greedy birds, who were pushing and shoving in hope of some free fish.

About that time a car drove up and two “snowbirds” ambled over to watch the show.

“Are you taking pictures for a magazine?” a lady asked.

“No, for hospitals,” I answered, without taking my eye from the camera.

”What hospitals?” she pressed.

Realizing she had more questions than I had patience, I looked her in the eye and said something about using the photographs to improve the “healing environment” in the hospitals and doctors’ offices of the Adventist Health System.

“So then you’re Dick Duerksen,” she said victoriously.

How was I to know I would find a Herald reader on an island in Texas! As we talked, I kept hearing Roland. “Remember this, Dick. There’s no place in the world where an Adventist can smoke a good cigar!”

When Jesus asks us to be His witnesses, He means all of the time, everywhere, regardless. No exceptions. Then He reminds us He’ll come along to provide whatever will power we need to escape the Devil’s temptations. If we trust Him, we can be like Him!

King David describes how God helps us trust Him. "You know me inside and out, you hold me together," David says about God, "you never fail to stand me tall in your presence so I can look you in the eye" (Psalm 41:12, The Message).

When I'm eye to eye with God, no "cigar" is attractive!

Dick Duerksen is an assistant vice president for mission development at Florida Hospital.