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Ancient rabbis used to tell a story about the Jewish exodus from slavery in Egypt. At the climax of the story, God parted the Red Sea so that His people could cross on dry land and escape from the pursuing Egyptian army. In the story, two men were walking along and complaining. They were looking down at the deep mud that they were trudging through, where the vast sea had been before. They complained about the mud on their legs and feet. They complained about all the walking. They complained about their clothes getting messy. The whole time they...
It takes a village to raise a child they say. It takes a community to withstand all the difficulties of time. A community bands together over the years if it wants to survive 110 years. The Mountaineer is 110 years old. Older than the homestead pictures I took. The Mountaineer has gone through many changes, but always serving the same community. I love unique pictures, this one of a blank with old rusty nails which may be helping to hold the old building together, reminds me of the Mountaineer....
I do about 30 chin-ups at the gym several times a week. I don’t like doing chin-ups, and I couldn’t do them for many years. I’d try and try and couldn’t quite get myself up over the bar. Then, a crazy thing happened one day: I did one. After doing one, I found that doing a second one was easier. In the space of a few weeks, I jumped from none to more than a dozen. I didn’t develop some supernatural strength or find a new training program. What changed was that I figured out that I could do chin-ups. Before I did my first one, I never believed I...
It was hot that day and still in the high 80's when it approached the hour I go for my walk. I have accepted a #365challenge to go for at least a mile walk/run/bike ride every day for a year. I wasn't looking forward to walking in the heat, but like always I grabbed my cellphone to prove I did indeed walk that day. I had also committed myself to "smell the roses" every time I walk. I was almost at the end of my walk, while still frustrated because of the heat, I finally noticed the sunset and th...
A few weeks ago, my 6 year old son and I were at the community pool for swimming lessons (for him, not me). It was the last session of the week, and they typically just play in the pool for the hour. I asked my son to go down the big slide, which has been a requirement in our family as a prerequisite to going to water parks during the summer. He looked at the slides and told me that he would do the little one, but not the big one because he was too scared to do the big one. Reaching into my parental toolbox, I went for the big hammer: bribery....
About 10 years ago, I started playing a Facebook game. It was one of those games where there’s almost no skill or thinking involved. A few of the guys I worked with started playing the same game, and before long we were discussing it at lunch and ducking away every hour or so to check on our status. We played it for months. Until one day, I realized that it was kind of pointless. I didn’t really find it challenging or fun. I wasn’t competing with anyone to try and win anything. It didn’t impact my life in any way. There was no way to win or...
It's Time to Fly In December 2017, when I started writing for the Mountaineer, I felt inadequate. In nineteen months, I've improved. I've learned a local paper is essential. Philosophically, I believe the Big Sandy Mountaineer should be used to celebrate who we are. It should be a tool to keep us connected. Rural lives matter, and we need to be supporting our community. I do have dreams. It will take time before I can make them a reality. However, it's worth the effort. Nothing gained without...
This week, I have been married for 21 years, and I am happy. I thank God every day for my wife and the life we have shared, good and bad. This isn’t to say we never disagree or fight. Rather, that I love her dearly and she is my favorite person in the world. I’ve spent some time trying to come up with some sort of magical advice that would account for our marital success. I spend a bit of time doing this whenever I do premarital counseling or talk with married couples who are struggling. I don’t think there is a magic key. Instead, havin...
I am a procrastinator by nature. Though I’ve gotten better about it over the years, when I was in college, I turned it into an art. I began by waiting until a few days before an assignment was due to start working on it. Then as time went by, the starting point moved to the day before. Eventually, I began setting my alarm early on the due date and rushing through the work. There were times I would print up papers and run to class to turn them in with seconds to spare. As I have grown older and begun to look back at those days with a little m...
This morning, I read an interesting op-ed written by a woman who is a lawyer and mom. She talks at length about the difficulty she has in that role and the hard truth that she often chooses her work life over her family because it fits her priorities. She laments the fact that she skipped birthdays and phoned in her participation in her kids’ school activities because her work was more important. I disagreed with the author on several points, but found myself identifying with her perspective because the same struggle often plagues folks in m...
I am allergic to dandelions. Every spring, my lawn begins to grow, the dandelions show up, and I start to develop headaches and sinus problems. When it gets tiresome enough, I mow in an effort to beat them back. Every home owner knows that mowing won’t solve the problem. In fact, it can make the dandelion problem worse by spreading their seeds out. The new seeds take root and new dandelions sprout up. I could certainly solve the problem, but I don’t really want to put the effort in. The issue is the roots that sit under the surface. Cutting the...
When I was a kid, I knew a handful of guys who were rabid baseball fans. They could tell you any stat for any player on their team going back 10 years. They collected baseball cards religiously, stored them in little plastic sleeves and studied them daily. Over the course of my lifetime, I have seen this same phenomena play out for all sorts of different hobbies. Recently, I listened to a couple of car guys talk for an hour solid about engine specs for different model years of muscle cars. The thing that blew me away was that they could rattle...
Q:American Christians seem to be comparing modern politicians with leaders who are mentioned in the Bible—good and bad. Is it right to make such comparisons, and who is the most wicked king in the Old Testament? A: Judging belongs solely to the Lord because He is the only One who can know the motives of the heart. He doesn’t compare us to others because the Bible says that we have all fallen short of His perfection (Romans 3:23). But God has certainly given us 66 books of the Bible to teach us about our fallen human nature and what happens whe...
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” This quote, from motivational speaker Jim Rohn has made the rounds in the world of self-improvement for years, and it’s worth taking a moment to consider, because it has a great deal of truth imbedded in it. The way we think and view the world is shaped by what we read, hear, watch, and interact with. Our attitudes rise or sink to the level of the folks we associate with. This is an unconscious drift that is built into people as a byproduct of being social creatures. We na...
Q: Is belief in God the same as the belief the devil has in God? A: The devil and his demons know God exists; certainly Satan stands before the throne of God accusing mankind, as seen in the book of Job. The demon world also believes in the facts of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection. But their belief is not a saving belief because it does not lead them to turn to God in repentance. A saving belief in God is what happens when sinners turn from sin to Christ and put their trust and faith in Him, the Savior of sinners. This is a saving f...
Q: My biggest struggle as a Christian is to know God’s will and the purpose of my life. The more people I talk to about it, the more confused I get. Is it difficult to know God’s will? A: There is a simple answer which is this: God’s will is for everyone to obey His Word. This was His will from the beginning. His perfect will was known to Adam and Eve in everything, and gave one “don’t.” All through Scripture He tells us what to do and what not to do. He tells us how to live. He gives us the strength to endure hardships, and He brings joy when...
About 15 years ago, the church I was working for as a Youth Pastor made significant budget cuts that resulted in me taking a 50% pay cut. This meant being forced to start working a second job. The job I found was at a facility that worked with kids who had emotional problems. The program I started in was Emergency Shelter Care. We provided housing for kids that had nowhere else to go. My first week there, we took in a young lady who had been homeless since she was 8. She was 13, and the police picked her up sleeping on the side of the road....
Wabi-sabi is the Japanese word referring to their cultural understanding of beauty. It’s an interesting perspective that is very different from what we generally accept in the west. Whereas we tend to look at things that are perfect as beautiful, in wabi-sabi, beauty is based on the idea that all things are constantly changing and nothing is perfect. Wabi-sabi looks at the imperfections as the source of beauty. This doesn’t mean that Japanese craftsmen and artists don’t work to improve. In fact, Japanese craftsmen are often meticulous in their...
Q: Some of my friends criticize me because I take better care of my pets than I do myself. But it is because my pets bring me great joy and they love me unconditionally. Am I wrong, and what does the Bible say about animals? A: Animals are God’s creation and He brought them to the first man, Adam, to see what he would name them, “And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19). This no doubt was pleasurable work for Adam. God made provision to protect every kind of animal—male and female—at the time of the fl...
I recently read the Wizard of Oz and was surprised at some of the differences between the film and the novel. The most interesting difference related to the story of the Tin Man, who was originally just a regular woodsman. He was cutting wood to earn money to buy a home for his fiancé. While he was working one day, he accidentally cut off his own leg, which he has replaced with a mechanical one. The same kind of accident claims his other leg and his arms, all of which he replaces with mechanical limbs. He discovers that he is able to work...
“A man and a woman are walking up to a building. The man notices the woman and runs ahead to open and hold the door for her. As she walks in, she turns to the man and asks ‘Are you holding this door because I am a woman?’ He responds: ‘No. I am holding it because I am a gentleman.’” I’ve heard this anecdote hundreds of times from a good friend of mine who is a pastor. He tells it frequently to make the same point: It’s wise to act based on your identity, not based on the situation you find yourself in. In the story, the guy holds the door...
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, the first day of was is often called Holy Week. In the account of Palm Sunday, Jesus is arriving in Jerusalem for passover. At this point in the story, he has amassed a large following and a huge reputation. As he approached the city, folks gathered and cut palm branches from the trees to lay in his path. They cheered and praised him as he went. In the ancient world, this was not an insignificant act. It was the sort of thing a city did when a conquering hero arrived. Often Roman generals would return from war on...
My younger brother sent me an article written by a prominent millionaire outlining the 12 things that folks need to attend to in order to live a fulfilled life. The interesting thing is that the individual went through a nasty divorce recently after scandals came out about his philandering. I read the article, thought it was interesting and the advice it contained was worth noting. He advised things like: “Do things your way” and “Take risks” and “Work hard your whole life” among other things. The interesting thing that my brother pointed out...
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham Q: America has been a land of plenty for much of its history and some believe our nation can never fall. Are we in danger of going the way of other great and powerful nations? A: Fifteen hundred years ago the people of imperial Rome were living in luxury, ease, and prosperity. The Romans laughed at the rugged barbarians of the north. They had a far lower standard of living than the Romans did. They could not possibly conquer Rome—great imperial Rome. But they did. Those illiterate barbarians conquered...
I just returned from a real vacation. You know the kind that energizes you while you’re gone. The kind of vacation that when you get home you don’t need to take a vacation to recover from your vacation. But, let’s face it, it isn’t pretty here, yet. It’s still gray. There is blue sky and sunshine, but no flowers, and although the trees are starting to bud, no vivid green. Harriet Ann Jacobs says, “The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.” Nothing gives me a better lift then the...
