Life Between Sundays
On The Edge
Several years ago, I attended a conference in Phoenix. I had a few days before returning home and decided to go to the Grand Canyon with several friends. This was a long term dream of mine but I had no idea just how magnificent . . . how truly grand a place this...
It’s In Me
I am 5’8.5” tall. If I was 6’ tall I really wouldn’t bother mentioning the other half inch . . . but currently it is important to me. Of my many distinctions, the fact that I lived through part of the hippie generation, without ever wearing bell bottoms, deserves at...
The Sunday Before Christmas
Twas the Sunday before Christmas and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, except perhaps a mouse The songs were sung by the choir with care, In hopes that the blessing soon would be there The children were settled while the young pastor read With slight...
The King of Klutz
I am the King of Klutz when it comes to being handy. Actually I am more "thumby" than handy. One Christmas my wife wanted to buy me a cordless screwdriver. I told her that none of the screwdrivers that I currently owned had cords and wondered what would make this one...
Remember . . . what we cannot afford to forget.
I think that my memory is improving as I get older . . . seriously. I know all the jokes and I have told most of them. We all tend to talk about failing memory as we age. While it may be true in certain ways, it is not true in every way. It is more important to me to...
The Crossing
The strong winds are driving the angry surf against the shoreline as I sit in the compound waiting for a late ferry. Memories of my life on Grand Manan Island remind me that late-fall crossings are absolutely unpredictable. I am not in control. My stomach does a...
Angel . . . a friend in the making.
Her name is Angel. She works the night shift at a certain coffee shop in town. The patrons stand, zombie-like, in line, one behind the other, in the early morning, pre-coffee stupor. And as they stand there, for lack of intellectual stimulation, they complain about...
7 Danes A Week
I am without question, a creature of habit. Perhaps one of the most frustrating questions that I am asked is, "What's New?". It is a lazy, nearly rhetorical inquiry, that hardly deserves a sensible response. I want to say, "New England, New York, Newport News" . . ....
Follower . . . ?
Why do I find it so much easier to call myself a Christian than to call myself a "follower of Christ"? I realize that the term "Christian" came later. Acts 11:26 tells us that it originated in Antioch and was applied to "disciples" anyone who followed Christ. So...
Let’s Pretend
Hey . . . the top of another week . . . Sunday is 24 hours into the history books . . . and I feel like playing. So let me invite you to play with me. Let’s pretend. We used to do that when we were kids. When you pretend, you can be anyone that you want to be and...
Fingernails
It's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me when someone says that the church is a business. That's like saying a snake is a broom, a skunk is a kitty cat or a pastor is a CEO. I apologize for this confusion because most of us have aspired at some point to emulate...
Labor Day Ramblings
Labor Day Weekend . . . if I wasn’t the pastor I am not sure that I would go to church tomorrow. I suspect by now that I would be wherever people go on these long weekends. That’s sort of like the missing sock and the dryer. You know you put two socks in . . . but...
Sympathy & Compassion
One of the great benefits of uniting with a running group is to find sympathy and compassion from your peers as the mileage increases. We are like most everything else when it comes to mileage. Age begins to show through, things droop and sag, there are noises that...
The Principle of the Slight Edge . . . escaping mediocrity
“People who excel over the masses, do so only slightly.” This is called the principle of the slight edge. Small changes and adjustments in our lives can make an incredible difference. The difference in a field of world-class sprinters is measured by one hundredths of...
Up is Down and Down is Up
They are building a new convention center in our fair city. There are boards erected all around the site with screened peep holes that allow for observers to monitor activity and progress. I keep waiting for something to emerge that looks like the artist’s rendering...
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