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I went to a large high school in Northern Virginia, where most of the classes had over 30 kids. It was a good school, but I was a lazy student. I spent most of my class time sitting in the back row reading novels or daydreaming. My grades were mediocre and I’m certain I was the source of much consternation to my teachers, largely because I put little effort into my education. Algebra is a perfect example. I hated math in general. It frustrated me to no end because it didn’t come easy. Strangely enough, after a poor grade the first sem...
6 years ago, while I was interviewing for pastor jobs, right before my wife and I decided to come to Big Sandy, I visited a small church in southern Indiana. The congregation had declined in the previous years after the pastor left his wife and children to run off with a Sunday School teacher. During the visit, my wife made an offhand remark about how she wasn’t perfect and committed sins daily. The leaders of the church panicked over what she said and asked me directly if my wife was living a wild life. I laughed at the question, mainly b...
Jesus, Matthew tells a story in which Jesus and the 12 disciples are in a fishing boat crossing the Sea of Galilee, which is known for sudden and violent storms. Halfway across the inland sea, one of those storms set in and threatened to capsize the boat. The disciples were terrified, while Jesus just slept in the stern. Finally, they woke him up and asked: “Teacher, do you care if we drown?” Jesus got up and commanded the storm to stop, then asked his disciples if they had any faith at all. The story is interesting for a few reasons. Fir...
Over the weekend, my wife and I sent our kids to stay with a friend and set out to a bed and breakfast in Cascade to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. The spot we picked to stay at was beautiful and situated right on the Missouri River. We had grand plans of floating the river, swimming, hiking, and spending time away from the responsibilities of life. We drove the 105 miles to the B&B and arrived to the news that our reservations were no good. The hotel had been overbooked and we arrived last, with no place to stay. We scrambled to find...
When I was younger, I developed a terrible habit. I would listen to sermons and think about all the people I know who should be hearing the message because it dealt with an area of sin I saw in their lives. Sometimes, this would happen when the folks I was thinking about were actually in the room with me. In those cases, I would find myself peeking over to see if they were paying attention and learning their lesson. I was young and dumb back then. Now that I am older, and hopefully wiser (or at least less dumb), I would pay good money for the...
Last week, I started studying the life of Samson for the sermon series I’m currently working through. Samson is an interesting figure because he is basically an action hero. His story is a collection of crazy adventures, battles, and love affairs. Strangely, most folks miss the point of his story. Generally, the misunderstanding begins with his hair. Most people identify Samson’s hair as the reason he was so tough. However, this isn’t accurate. Samson was commanded by God to live according to a strict set of religious rules. These rules were...
Kudzu vines are a species of Japanese leafy vines that were imported to the United States in 1876 and planted throughout the southern states in an effort to stem soil erosion. They performed this job very well. The climate in the South is perfect for the plant and it quickly took hold and spread far and wide. Unfortunately, as good as the Kudzu vine is at preventing soil erosion, it is far more effective at wiping out every other species of plant it encounters. The vines grow quickly, climbing and covering everything they encounter....
There is a story in the Old Testament about a prophet named Elijah. Elijah’s job was to speak on God’s behalf to the people of Israel, a job that often made him unpopular in a time where traditional Jewish religion was very unpopular in ancient Israel. The day after Elijah experiences the most spectacular victory of his life, he leaves a party where God’s people are celebrating the end of a long drought and returning to their belief in God. Elijah is forced into hiding to escape assassins sent by Israel’s queen, Jezebel. It’s interesti...
Last year, during the heat of the presidential elections, I was browsing my facebook feed when I came across an article making very serious accusations against a prominent politician. It caught my attention, so I clicked and read. Within 3 minutes, I figured out that the linked article was from a ‘parody’ website that posts false news stories. The crazy thing about it was that there was no hint of parody to the article. I discovered the truth by googling the web site name and reading the wikipedia entry about it. Lots of those websites exi...
Last week, I was very busy. As a result, I didn’t get to sermon writing until Thursday, which is usually my last office day for the working week. The sermon was on the parable of the prodigal son, which is a story Jesus told at the end of a series of stories about lost things, specifically a lost sheep and a lost coin. I was working hard trying to finish up before the end of the day, when my 4-year old son came into my office and asked to sit in my lap while I worked. I agreed, with the stipulation that he had to be quiet so I could focus on my...
My son is almost 4. He is just beginning to figure out that when he and his sister don’t agree on something, he can hit her and get his way. The other day, they got into an argument over a toy they both wanted to play with. His solution to the impasse was to punch his sister. She started crying and told on him. I punished him and he apologized to his sister. About 20 minutes, later the scene replayed itself. My boy literally did the same thing he had done before. He apologized again, but it’s clear that he will likely end up fighting with his...
I mowed my lawn for the first time this year on Thursday of last week. By Friday, the dandelions had already sprouted up and covered most of the lawn again, making it look an awful lot like it did on Thursday. So, in frustration I passed over the dandelions again with the mower in the middle of the day. I’ll admit that I wasn’t that surprised when, by Saturday, the lawn was already overgrown with little yellow flowers again. I don’t think it’s inaccurate to say that I could go out with the lawn mower daily and have the same result for the nex...
Last Friday evening, I was ordained as a pastor in the Church of God. Up until this point, I was a licensed minister and had been for about 7 years. This seems funny to me, because I have been working as a minister in one capacity or another for nearly 17 years. Regardless of licensing or ordination, I have been in a vocation that I felt God called me to do for almost 2 decades. I didn’t actually need anyone to tell me what God called me to do, nor did I need confirmation from other pastors that this was what my life had been aimed at. W...
Camels are able to build a resentment toward their handlers. They can literally get angry at their handlers over a long period of time, then suddenly attack to release their pent up hostility. Some observers have compared them to pressure cookers that explode after enough heat has built up. An experienced camel handler can learn to observe and recognize that their animal is reaching the limit and about to blow up. Interestingly, their solution is to give the exasperated camel their coat, right at the point when the camel is about to lose its...
One of the most difficult and meaningful experiences I ever had was teaching the Bible at the home for kids with emotional disorders. Every day, I would sit with different groups of kids and talk about Jesus’ teachings to young people, many of whom had almost no experience with Jesus or the Bible. The experiences they had had were negative. Most kids saw everything about Jesus to be boring, disconnected from their lives, and aimed at telling them how bad they were. I noticed a strange phenomena, when they would try to quote Bible verses or s...
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine approached me to disagree with how I handled a situation I was dealing with. My initial response was to grow irritated and argue as to why I was right. As the discussion continued, I realized I was wrong. It is a difficult thing to hit the breaks when you are angry and turn in another direction. In my case, I had to turn 180 degrees and apologize for my initial response. I also had to reconsider my approach to certain types of issues and make some decisions about adjusting my approach for the future. I...
I have a stationary bike in my living room. It serves several purposes. Sometimes it is a coat rack. At other times, it is a fun way to burn off a little energy, though admittedly these times are rare. Usually, the stationary bike is there for the purpose of improving me. I ride it to make me healthier and fitter. Ideally, this means that in the long run, I will likely be happier as a result of using it, but the immediate effect of working out on the bike isn’t my happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of the work I put in. The stationary bike e...
A month and a half before Elvis Presley died, a reporter interviewing him asked an interesting question: “Elvis, when you first started playing music, you said you wanted to be rich, famous and happy. Are you happy?” His response was simply: “I am lonely…” The interesting thing about this response is that Elvis had achieved everything he had ever desired. For that matter, in terms of wealth, success, and the adoration of millions, Elvis’ success exceeded the desires of most people in general, but despite all of that, he found himself lon...
We live in a time of unprecedented connection to the people and world around us. Cell phones enable us to have conversations with each other wherever/whenever we want. Email allows us the instant exchange letters. Social media gives us the opportunity to share our lives with people anywhere and to find long lost loved ones. Strangely, we are simultaneously living through an epidemic of loneliness. Through the 70s and 80s, surveys found that between 11% and 20% of Americans felt lonely regularly. In the past decade, between 40% and 45% of...
A pastor friend of mine often tells a story about a man and a woman approaching a building at the same time. When the man notices the woman, he rushes ahead to open the door and hold it for the woman, who was a stranger to him. As she entered the building, she stopped turned to him and said: “Are you holding this door for me because I am a woman?” He responded: “No. I am holding it because I am a gentleman.” Almost every instance I heard this story told by my friend was in the context of working together at a home for kids with emotion...
For a few years after the death of his wife and mother, Theodore Roosevelt ran a cattle ranch on North Dakota. Early in his venture, another rancher tried to strong arm the future president from his land, going so far as sending a hired gunman and his gang to the homestead in an attempt at intimidation. Theodore wasn’t home at the time and the thugs left after issuing a warning that they would murder him next time they saw him. When Teddy heard about the visit, he rode directly to the gunman’s home, knocked on his door, and when the man ans...
For the last couple of months, my family has faced some challenges as a result of illness. These challenges have put us into a position where we have strained a bit under the basic tasks of life. Perhaps the best thing that has come of this time in our life has been that folks have rushed to assist us. Last night, a couple of friends from church, while visiting, took the time to clean my kitchen and wash dishes. In addition, brothers and sisters in Jesus have brought us prepared meals, helped out with our kids, sent us cards, and in all sorts o...
Many years ago, I had a coworker that I could not stand to be around, though our jobs required us to work with each other in a variety of settings. This resulted in frequent conflict. In fact, there were several occasions when work devolved into shouting matches. Needless to say, this made my work environment miserable, and that misery often leaked into other areas of my life. I often left work angry and spent my evenings stewing over some insult or altercation. After many months of this, I decided to start praying for the guy, not because I...
My wife often says that I collect hobbies. I discover something new, begin to learn about it after my interest is sparked, achieve a level of proficiency or learning in my new area of interest, and move on to a new interest. It drives my wife a little nuts, but has resulted in me developing an eclectic skill set. Recently, I was reading a book on the psychology of motivation when I came across a bit of an explanation for my odd tendency to jump from hobby to hobby. The book talked about motivation as a fleeting thing. You get motivated and...
One of my less successful goals for 2016 was to lose 30 pounds. Faced with the end of the calendar year, I buckled down and lost 10 pounds through a mixture of exercise and disciplined eating. This happened in the beginning of December. Then Christmas happened. Christmas is a stressful, busy time of year with lots of parties and wonderful gifts of food. As cookies, candies, cakes, and great leftovers began stacking up around my kitchen, my disciplined eating habits fell off and so did my exercise habits. Shortly after that, I found the 10...
