This morning I caught a video of children being removed from a mountaintop. I, like so many others have been praying for the safety of these children, as well as their families. Only this week I read of children’s parents , cutting their hands so these children could drink their blood and not dehydrate and die. Continue reading It Is Time!
Memorial Day-My dad was a veteran of WWII. He did not die as many did, the very reason we celebrate Memorial Day, for those who gave their lives. My dad, like so many carried the guilt, the pain the hurt of fallen comrades. I never take the sacrifice lightly. This is the second of two articles this weekend on Memorial Day and one that appeared in numerous papers a few years ago.
Raw Feelings
I played enough sports to know that if you take hit to the “privates” or you get hit in an eye or the solar plexus, you stay down until the world stops spinning. You just suck it in and relax and let the pain ebb. And I have been around my 58 years and endured some losses and some crazy times that have removed my breath.
Today (5/2/14) I found out something so shocking, honestly it “took my breath away”. Something I thought to be true had changed yet one more time. But this time the results were not like the first time of change. Back then I had someone to “hold” on to and at least walk through it. Today, I am the big kid, the one stuck with the knowledge. Continue reading Sometimes Family Brings Up Difficult Feelings
Today is Sunday. My friends have already joked “May the fourth be with you”. Me, I have never been much of a sci-fi person. My dreams, my life, are pretty weird to begin with, so the idea of going to see something weird, well, I am just not there. Continue reading Will I Love?
There are two sides to every coin (Least as far as I know.) and today was a good example.
A dear friend of mine lost her dad last week. She and her husband asked me to do the “celebration of life” service. It was attended by here family and members of our church family. Even when you know where someone is “going” it forces you to think about the play of things. Continue reading Two Sides Of The Coin?
I leave the big “discussions” about Easter for so many others. For me, Easter always represented a sense of hope long before I ever really knew about God.
As a child Easter meant many different things to me. Sunday morning my brothers and sister would run out to find Easter baskets filled with jelly beans, gold foil colored eggs and coins and these beautiful eggs that held all sorts of treasures. The smell of hot crossed buns, eggs, Canadian bacon and coffee came out of the kitchen. At some point we had a jelly bean hunt, running through the house finding jelly beans on mantles, window sashes and behind pictures. Following that we all sat down for breakfast and then it was time to get ready for church. There were the occasional years where we would go up the hill behind the elementary school at 6AM, climbing up to greet the sun, while singing hymns and thinking of Jesus. Continue reading Easter 2014
Last night in one of my dreams I ended up here.
I was in a car full of friends and we were driving through what appeared to be the Adirondacks. There were 6 of us in the car. We pulled off the main road and we headed down the dirt road to where we were going. The smell of the pine trees in the air, I could hear the water on the shore of the lake. We pulled up to a small house. As we got out of the car, I realized we had gone from street clothes to suits. Continue reading Six Of One, Half Dozen To Another
What We Offer
I want people to move ahead. To get better. To be all they can be. Over time I have seen a lot of great moments where people “get it” and move ahead. I also have seen some disillusionment.
I want to help people. But through many interactions, I have learned the following thing. A lot of people want you to endorse their actions, their decisions, bringing “confirmation” to the direction they want to go. They want you to encourage them. (Ever have a conversation with a person who is going down the wrong path? “I know he/she is not saved…not sober…a drug addict…but I love them!”) Continue reading Encouragement Is What We Offer
Last night as were teaching Catalyst class moving from our study on the 6 important “stages” of Christ, (crucifixion, death, burial, quickening, resurrection and seatedness) I found myself thinking about how much “junk” I allowed in my life that spoke of something less than it “was done” or finished. The result of my “diet” was I encouraged others to engage in the same behavior or mixture.
Last night our sound guy, Chris though that the title of my message ought be “no more squishy gospel.” Perhaps that is truth. What I said was that I needed to lean on something that had integrity. I used the example of the difference between squishy “store bought air” bread and homemade bread. The difference is that one (the first) you could roll up in a ball while the second was so “thick” you could not “squish” it. I need, and so do you, a gospel that is not squishy. We need to be able to look at what we read or believe about Jesus and not be afraid. Continue reading The Cutting Room Floor
Our babysitter, Mrs. H, was very nearsighted and very slow. She was also very excitable. One day I decided to “kill” my brother. We were supposed to be washing dishes. Larry and I came up with this elaborate plan for his “demise.” We took an old knife and broke off the blade. We taped it to his chest and had him lie in front of the cabinets. I poured watered down ketchup on his chest and on the floor. Then I yelled “Stop that or I will kill you!” Mrs. H. yelled to me to be quiet, but I kept screaming and then Larry did his death scream. At that, Mrs. H came in to the kitchen and saw my brother lying in a “puddle of blood.” Continue reading Mrs. H and The “Murder”
