“You know, the English are not very nice,” she told me. “I was there, you know. And they were cold and uncaring.” The woman speaking to me after church at my wife’s congregation the day I flew out to England told me this sincerely. I was struck how easy it is for us to define…
Category: Fellowship
Saving Grace
Sunday mornings I sit in the narthex of my wife’s church building, running the zoom service during the in-person gathering. I’m sitting out there because it currently has the only live outlet to plug in my computer. In this area of the building is the rope pull for the bell in the steeple; I’ve had…
Move Forward in Small Steps
We had two of our fuchsia winter over in their hanging pots just sitting on the ground along the back fence. Then this spring new shoots appeared so I hung them in the usual spots and began watering them. They didn’t look as bushy nor as beautiful at first as the ones brought home from…
No Clouds Here.
San Jacinto UMC July 1, 1988 – June 30, 1994 Karen and I, with Anna (3) and Grace (1) in their car seats, drove for four days, in blistering heat, from Kentucky across the country to Southern California. We put a bucket of ice on the floor under Karen’s feet, opened all four windows and…
Perseverance
Perseverance Chapel July 1, 1987 – June 1, 1988! What a name, right? Perseverance! As a fourth-year seminary student, I took the weekends-only pastoral position at this small, country, Southern Indiana church. The church’s name seemed to be my own life motto — to “try harder,” to “work more.” The congregation was thrilled to welcome…
Object Lessons
Object lessons. You know them. The ones where a leader usually working with children cuts open the pumpkin and says, “Did you know that carving a pumpkin for Halloween is a lot like being a Christian?” And everyone thinks, “No way?” And then as she cuts off the top. “When Jesus comes into our lives…
Look for God
While living on earth Jesus performed many, many miracles. This has long been the focus of controversy by people wanting to see each reproduced today — and they all have been. But still, people doubt. Then Jesus topped all of them in this triumphant defeat over death! Talk about the miracle to top all others! …
Time to Sing
Church worship moved online. Sports canceled. State of emergency declared. Panicked shoppers. No toilet paper anyplace. What a strange and wild time we are living in. While waiting for the customer service at a Walmart, the worker took a phone call and I overheard her saying, “Sir, it is an epidemic. I don’t have enough…
The Stalker
March 24th, 2 years ago, I drove Gabrielle, then 26, to the airport. She then was a flight attendant. Enroute I brought up a conversation that we had partially had another day. During that previous conversation, I had asked if she had had any problems with stalkers. The reason I asked was because during training…
Unity
This week I finished reading the book entitled Hamilton: The Revolution which describes what went into the creation of the famous play that has become an international sensation. The book describes the history of the play, the many people that went into making it a reality, the achievement of it, and the power of the…
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