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I know it’s our nation’s birthday this weekend. And while I’m grateful to live in this country, a bigger celebration for me, personally, is July 7. This Tuesday, Linda and I will celebrate our 36th anniversary.We honestly enjoy each other more today than even during our dating years. But ours would not make a good chick flick. We didn't have a storybook romance. However, I think our marriage can serve as an example for any couple.We aren’t still married after 36 years because

I had a shooting pain down my arm. I tried a lot of things. I bought an elastic band that was supposed to make it feel better. I used analgesic. My wife would massage my hand, forearm and elbow, where the pain was the strongest. I tried sleeping differently, so that I would no longer sleep on it, thinking that might be what it was. But after months of no relief, I went to the Dr. He did an X-ray of my back and neck. I said, "Dr. that’s not the problem. I’ve never had back pro

I had a conversation with a guy a while back, who had a defeatist mentality. His life wasn’t really that bad. He grew up in a stable family, had a good wife and a couple of happy kids. He had a decent job, drove a newer car, and lived in a nicer house than I had ever lived in, and he was healthy. But to him, everything was wrong. His parents were nags, his wife wasn’t perfect, his kids misbehaved, his job was stressful, his car used too much gas, his house needed repairs, and

In the last three weeks, I’ve made multiple phone calls to African-American friends around the country, as well as police officers among my friends and family. When this whole thing started by the senseless murder in Minneapolis, and before the demonstrations began, and the subsequent rioting and violence, what I heard repeatedly was, we need to have conversations.Do you talk to people you think you might disagree with or are uncomfortable with? It’s really the only way we ar

While stopped at an intersection, an automobile and a bicycle both attempted to sneak through a red light at the end of a yellow. The bike was going straight and the car was turning left, and they collided. The car was barely moving and fortunately, the woman on the bike was not hurt….but she was mad! She jumped up off the ground and picked her bike up, ripped her helmet off, and with bike in tow, ran after the car screaming at the driver. I asked Junior, who was sitting next

This has been a tough week for our nation. We all became eyewitnesses to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer, who was trusted by the public to protect civilians, not kill them. It set off race riots in Minneapolis and other major cities, where unrelated business and property owners were robbed of their property, by looting and burning. The nation is in the middle of attempting to come back from an all-out economic collapse, due to COVID-19 quarantine measures, and

Russel Cornwell used to tell the story of a Persian named Ali Hafed. He was a wealthy farmer who had fertile lands with orchards, grain fields, and gardens, that produced abundantly year after year. Hafed was content and known throughout his region as having it all . Then an acquaintance began to talk to him about diamonds. He said, “If you owned a diamond the size of your thumb, you could purchase the whole country. If you owned a diamond mine, you could buy the thrones of n

Most of us can point to our greatest regrets in life as things we did or didn’t do when our feelings were in control. It’s always a mistake to let your emotions guide you. Facts–Faith–Feelings. Feelings are a blessing when they follow, but a curse when they lead.But the real problem for most of us is the heat of the moment. It’s when we are in the middle of overwhelming feelings, whether anger or anxiety or lust, that we tend to do things that create havoc in our lives. So wh

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” ― Winston S. Churchill This thing is going to last awhile. The virus is going to be around for many months to come. “Returning to normal,” if there will be such a thing, is a long way off. As a church, we can’t even plan a reopening because that date is not within sight. It pains me to say that, but that’s our reality. So, what are we going to do? Get discouraged? Climb into ourselves and quit emotionally? Let down our guard in the

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” – C.S. LewisA few years ago, Linda and I sat and talked with Jean Meisner in her room at hospice. Jean was very special to me. She was an office worker here at the church when I started in 2007, and was a constant source of wisdom and entertainment during my first four years. As a teenager in the 1940's, she became a Christian through the youth group in this church, met her husband, and raised

I just went back through my own blog posts over the last few months. Almost every post of mine, going back to February 13th of this year, had something to do with COVID-19. I guess, week after week, I’m feeling like it’s almost insensitive to not write about what we are all facing.But maybe it’s time to get back to the basics of life. What are the things, whether alone in quarantine, or forced together 24/7 with family or a roommate, that will breathe life back into our circ

At first we watched from afar. We knew something was going on in China, but that was a long way away. Then, we heard murmurings of this threat that was becoming an international problem. There were the cruise ships, the travesty in Italy, and some scattered cases in the U.S. We were told to stop shaking hands, refrain from touching our faces, and to wash our hands repeatedly through the day.Then came social distancing orders, ramped up week by week. Schools closed. Restaurant