Plants burned. Some folk put potatoes in their trunks and baked them. Another guy wired a hot dog to his antenna and it roasted. It was a record-breaking heat wave. I took a four-mile walk with a good friend in the 114F temperatures. I felt like the hot dog! My car was not pleased with…
London at 19
London as a 19-year-old—friends and I hitched rides, visited Brighton, Bath, Salisbury, and Stonehenge. We met in pubs, drank lager, laughed, told stories, and philosophized about life. One friend, Cammy from my university, and I especially took many walks and short trips together. We had plenty of work on our classes, visited art museums, studied…
God Has Brought You Here
On May 18th, I texted our daughter, “Grace, I just received some info on doctor I was planning to start with, which raised questions about him from interns who had worked with him. Could you pray and give me any guidance you might have?” (Grace is our second daughter.) It was just six days before…
First Stop: Joy.
After a summer knocking on doors, I was full of enthusiasm. I’d been acting enthusiastic all summer, as Southwest Publishing taught us, and now was totally filled with it. Much of my outward expression, my super interest was in order to be liked. But it was not a lie. It was the best way I knew to be myself, and…
“I wanted to punch your lights out!”
1988. My first pastorate in San Jacinto, California. The church statistics in the Annual Conference Journal said there were 166 members. It felt like a daunting step from seminary and my student pastorate into my first church. When I arrived I discovered the difference between stats and reality. The previous pastors had not done an…
The Meeting
I felt shy, self-conscious, and little, but could not resist the draw to meet her. I reached my right hand across the barrier, “Hi, my name is Brian Shimer, what’s yours?” “Karen Cook” she said, shaking my hand. Later I learned her last name was spelled K.O.C.H “Good to meet you. Are you seeing…
The New Caste System
I met friends on my walking team on June 6th and arrived first. Val arrived next, saw me standing outside in the cool and rain and waved me over. “Hey Brian,” she said, “Come sit in my car and we can talk while we wait!” I started toward her car and then she stepped out…
The Gate
(Continued from last week’s post titled “Walk by Faith.” This is from the opening chapter of my memoirs. I’m 19-years-old, selling books door-to-door.) Door-to-door, I walked on that summer of 1978 in Newton, IA. In my flip-top steno pad I tracked every house on every street with a box and house number. I tracked who…
Brokenness Isn’t An Ending
Everyone asks when they hear about the injury, “How did you do that?” I have a torn rotator cuff — the supraspinatus tendon and a labral tear. I’ve learned more about shoulder anatomy as a result. But I don’t have a single answer to the question. Several falls, the most recent in November while cross-country…
Walk by Faith
(This is the start to a book I am writing about my life. Hope you enjoy this dip into the past.) “I want you to leave early, on August 20th.” At 19, I had heard the voice of Jesus since May 23rd the Summer of 1978. So, this time I had no doubt it was Jesus….
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