When grace replaces guilt and fear...
When relationship outweighs behavior...
When church involvement becomes meaningless rituals...
When you refuse to live in fear of what others might think or say...
When rejecting others over dogma or doctrine becomes sickening...
And when you want to be a simple human being accepting and loving all the other human beings...
The only thing left is a carpenters son saying Come Follow Me and that makes all of the difference.
I lost a friend, actually a brother from another mother, last December. There was and is pain in the loss but that is tempered with a deep sense of gratitude that we had somehow maintained our friendship for over fifty years in spite of the many changes in our lives and career moves that never allowed us to live close together again.
His name was Dr. Joe Garms.
Read MoreI did a very brave act yesterday. I did not climb the Devon Tower or anything like that, but I did go for a walk and leave my phone at home on purpose.
My daughter seemed to be more upset about that than I was. She said a left behind phone is something you go back to get and remarked that it felt strange. I thought it felt wonderfully freeing.
That led to my thinking about the role the phone has always played in my life.
Read MoreAn ancient ruler demanded that all of his subjects return to their hometowns to register so they would be easier to control and tax. So, the first journey Jesus took was in the womb of a very young girl who was nine months pregnant.
Neither he nor his mother were very comfortable as she walked or rode a donkey toward a small town called Bethlehem where the only place for her baby to be born was in a smelly stable. The only ones who witnessed or cared were some very frightened shepherds and evidently a little boy with a drum?
2022 years later a ruler called a governor decided to make some brownie points with his followers and the political party he worshipped.
Read MoreToday is September 25. My wife of fifty-seven years died twelve years ago today. I think of her all the time of course but in September each year the memories flood my mind. These memories are usually not just about her death, they relive our life together and rejoice in the love we shared. Those thoughts reenforce three things I have found true about grief.
First: It never goes away, our loved ones live on in our memories. No one is dead until they are forgotten.
Second: Hopefully in time gratitude replaces some of the pain. We either become grateful for what we had, or we will remain a victim of what we have lost.
Read More“Democracy is like sex
when it is good it is very, very good.
When it is bad, it ain’t all that bad.”
—David Frost.
A dear friend of mine has terminal cancer that is progressing quite rapidly. Until recently he and I made contact on Zoom three times a week, so his journey has been very real and well documented to me. He has been in Hospice care for some time even though he had no symptoms until recently. Hospice is now available to us when we have a diagnosis of terminal illness not just when we are in the act of dying.
Read MoreThe Bible records a meeting of the disciples of Jesus after his resurrection and ascension. The first order of business was the election of someone to take the place of Judas who had betrayed Christ and was dead. The role of apostle had one major requirement: it had to be held by a witness to the resurrection. Two men were qualified for the post and a vote was taken. However, there was another person in the room that was even more qualified for the office. Mary Magdalene was chosen by Jesus to be the first person to see Him, and He sent her to tell the others. So much for women being quiet in church. It is evident she had been an important part of His entourage and a close friend to Him. She would have been the natural choice, but she was a woman and therefore not even considered.
Read MoreIt may sound simplistic but if all of us would just say and mean these five words it would have a profound impact on our world. The words are “BUT I COULD BE WRONG.” Just saying the words gives a sense of freedom and release. They mean I don’t have to be right, or defend what I believe, or judge what anyone else thinks or believes. Those words make me free to be me.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me we are trying to live like we hold absolutes in a world where they rarely exist. Outside of the natural order of the universe there are almost none.
Read MoreThose words from the Battle Hymn of The Republic appeared to a very divided nation in1861 the year before the Civil War. President Lincoln had warned that a nation divided against itself could not stand but from the words of the song it seems that no one was willing to do anything about the divided nation except wait for God to heal the problem. The result was the bloodiest war in our history with the grapes of wrath still untouched.
Once again, we have become a nation divided and in danger of imploding. Fear, hate, anger, greed, and lust for power has divided us into warring tribes seeking to destroy each other. Once again, we seem to be content with complaining, arguing and trying to figure out who else to blame besides ourselves while waiting for some other outside source to heal our nation.
Read MoreJesus said the meek shall inherit the earth and we have been trying to figure that out ever since He said it. Especially here in macho America where we worship at the altar of strength and winners. No preacher would dare preach about how we should be weak, helpless, and humble. One person wrote “if the meek are going to inherit the earth they better get a lot more aggressive.”
As a result, we have come up with a vast array of explanations that allow us to be meek while still being strong. One person described it as being like a spirited horse that maintains its spirit but is controlled.
Read MoreThe sixteenth chapter of John records Jesus telling His disciples that He was leaving and that they would be better off after He was gone because the spirit would come. They, of course, could not believe that they could exist without His physical presence much less be better off. In fact, they had not developed very far while He was here. They were still convinced He was going to build a kingdom here on earth and they were jockeying for positions and arguing over who got to sit on His right hand. Faith by sight makes very few changes in lives, nor does it go very deep. If they had doubts all they needed was to attend the next miracle. If they were afraid, they could remember how He calmed the storm. Hungry? well He feed thousands with two fish and some bread. They followed what they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears, but He knew that faith only becomes real and life changing when it internalizes and changes how we think and feel.
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