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If you are lonely, many Bible characters could identify with you. Even Jesus knew the pain of feeling all alone in the world. You might not be able to change some of the circumstances that have led to this, but you don’t have to feel this way. There are some things that you can do. But that’s the key…there are some things you have to do . Start by viewing your situation differently. There are a lot of people who crave the kind of solitude that you have grown accustomed to. A

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. “Your Majesty,” said Prior Richard, “do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.”“I understand,” said King Henry, “The rest of my life I will be obedient

Linda and I spent a couple of days this week in my childhood hometown, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and I had an interesting encounter.I went back and visited the old church I grew up in. It’s a large and very ornate Romanesque style building, built in 1904. A door was open so Linda and I went in and wandered around, and a flood of childhood memories came, reminding me of the understanding I had of God back then. God, to me then, was big and powerful, but not personal. I don’t blame

Bill was buying a car. The dealership was offering an unbelievable rate, so he elected to finance it. He now says it was the worst decision he ever made.The finance assistant gave him the forms to fill out, and unbeknownst to the dealership, it included an extra form where he put all of his information: Social Security number, driver’s license, bank account information, and even a credit card number. Six months later his bank account had been emptied, fraudulent charges appea

It happened again this week. Someone I looked up to, someone who seemed to have a nearly perfect home. They were so good together, had good jobs, a nice house, great kids.Now a total marriage meltdown. It started with a line that was crossed.I’m not going to solve all marriage problems in a single post. There’s probably more books sold on this topic than any other. And I could give you a list of things to do here that would help improve your marriage and also help protect you

“Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” – C. S. LewisA couple weeks 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 nine years ago, and was a constant source of wisdom and entertainment during my first four years. She became a Christian through the youth group in this church as a teenager in the late forties and has been

I turned the TV on last night while getting ready for bed and saw parts of an old rerun of King of Queens. In this episode, Carrie (the wife) learns that Doug’s (the husband) parents’ dog, Rocky, is 28 years old. Having a hard time believing that, she inquired further, only to learn from his mother that this particular dog was actually Rocky IV, who was only a few years old, unbeknownst to Doug. The previous three Rockys all died, but they didn’t want to “upset Doug,” so they

Have you been watching the Olympics? There’s been so much to see: the entertainment of Usain Bolt, the resurgence of Michael Phelps, the whole story of Simone Biles. Most of us have tuned in live or online at some point over the last couple of weeks and statisticians believe that half the world’s population, 3.5 billion people, have watched at least a portion of this year’s Olympics. In fact, Simone Biles' gold gymnast routine was viewed in some form by nearly 3 billion peopl

Brock was our easiest as a teenager. He has a good heart and loves his parents and is good to his siblings.But as a little tyke, he was more than a handful! He was into everything, broke all of his toys and a lot of things around the house. He never stopped moving and we had to keep a constant eye on him. On the rare occasion that he napped, Linda would often quip, “Don’t worry, he’s just recharging.”When he was three or so, he was buckled into his car seat next to his sister

Several years ago my sister and brother-in-law moved into an old Victorian home that was in rough shape and needed renovation. The day we helped move them in, I remember how old and worn out everything looked. They didn’t have a lot of money to do a complete remodel, but I’ll never forget coming into their home and looking around just a month or two after they moved in. It looked fabulous. I said, “What did you do?""We just cleaned everything up really well.” And that’s all t

Linda and I were at the beach a couple of years ago, and a young college-age couple picked a spot to lay in the sun not far from us. (That’s them in the title pic). We both were mildly amused while watching them, as it was obvious they were a new couple and just getting to know each other. The girl pulled her towel out and spread it over the sand in a single motion. The boy pulled his towel out and repeatedly tried to lay it out on the sand. But he was trying to unfurl it aga

I was sitting in my office with a man going on and on about his terrible marriage. His wife does this and that, is on him about everything…blah, blah, blah.I finally interrupted, “What would she tell me?” He said he didn’t know. “So you are having a really bad time getting along with your wife and you don’t even know what she thinks is wrong in the marriage?"“Oh, I can tell you what’s wrong in the marriage!” he exclaimed. I responded, “No, you don’t know have a clue. You’re n