Today is my sister’s birthday. Happy birthday Tammy! While today is a day of celebration for my family, October 7 has now become a memorial day of the unprovoked massacre in Kibbutz Re’im, Israel, just 3 years ago. What word would you use to describe that kind of violence? Hatred. There seems to be a lot of that going around. It’s the go-to posture that justifies attitudes of self-righteousness and even actions of violence. The Bible uses the word hate about 100 times but the

The traffic light turns red, the car in front of you stops and you also stop behind it. You keep your eye on the traffic light waiting for it to turn green. It’s not long, the light turns green, now you’re waiting for the car in front to start moving. It doesn’t. How long do you wait till you sound your horn? (this could be an ouch moment for some of you.) The thing is, there have been times I’ve been the front car. I’ve gotten distracted: sometimes passenger conversations, u

A parable: Once there was a sapling, that over the summer had come into its own. Bark had hardened its trunk, twigs sprouted out from its limbs and leaves, so many that light barely shone through, filled its branches. Sunlight and rain nourished this sapling so that it began to think of itself as a tree, like those in the forest around it. Summer turned to Autumn and one by one the sapling’s leaves fell to the ground. In a panic it cried: “it’s over, I’ll never become a tree”

I have a waterproof jacket, maybe you have one too. I love it. Water droplets just bead up and roll off, the hood covers my head, I stay dry, until…until the rain becomes a downpour. This “waterproof” jacket apparently has a saturation point where its claim loses integrity. I often hear the gospel proclaimed as “life-proof”: “believe and life just rolls off your shoulder”. Eventually life will dump on you, then what? In Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, he says this about one of t

My grandmother had an expression that even when I think of it now, I can still hear her voice: “for heaven’s sake”. Now mind you, I still don’t really know what that means but every time she uttered the phrase it was out of exasperation. Sometimes it was in response to a surprise but even then, it was an unwelcome surprise. My best guess is that what ever was happening (her grandson’s behavior or clumsy accident) was not good, tilting bad, and in need of heaven’s intervention

One of the tasks we had to accomplish in order to successfully pass drivers education class was the “3 point turn”. That maneuver that allows you to turn the opposite direction you’re driving with minimal effort. It’s a driving skill rarely used but oh so handy when on a rural road, having missed a turn, you can either drive another mile or two down the road searching for a turn-around or execute a “3-point turn”. Once a young man approached Jesus asking what he needed to do

“Sorry, Not-Sorry” That’s a recent Reese’s chocolate-peanut butter add campaign. Of-course it’s not original to them, you and I came up with the idea. Remember that time one of your parents scolded you and said, “now say you’re sorry”. Sorry came out of your mouth, “not-sorry” remained in your heart. That was kid stuff. As we grew into adulthood, we’ve become more creative in our not-sorry posture. I retain the right to “my feelings”, “my actions”. “It’s just my personality”.

How do you drop an egg off a two-story building without it cracking? That was the challenge of one of my daughters in her high school physics class. Each student was given an equal list of allowable materials to construct their egg vessel. Not to brag (but I am) my daughter’s was the only egg to survive. She built her vessel modeled after NASA’s Mars probe lander that bounced safely onto the “Red “ planet. All the other kids came with complicated structures and braggart confi

Every parent is familiar with: “are we there yet?” In my youth pastor days, every time the question was asked, I had a ready response: “about 15 minutes”, regardless of the actual time. New kids would get excited, till one of the seasoned kids would say, “he always says that, may as well stop asking”. It worked. For some reason we all want to how much farther to our destination. As Christians we all have a destination in mind and there are days when the journey seems long. Th

Rest is a fickle word. “Did you get enough rest?” we’re often asked as we crawl out of bed of a morning or even a quick afternoon nap. Even as we answer yes, weariness soon creeps back into our bones. Of-course we need rest, we all do, from the numbness of daily routine, the mental grind of work, the physical requirements of one foot in front of another. Even when traveling we’re offered “rest areas” to relieve the tension of driving and cautioned: “next rest area 83 miles ah

In the “Family Circus” comic strip there are four kids: Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P.J. But occasionally there’s a fifth, a ghost-like child named “not me”. He or she suddenly appears when mom or dad discover something amiss and ask, “who did this?” “Not Me” gets the blame. Even P.J., the youngest, gets in on the act and if you and I are honest we too have a “not me” sibling close at hand. It’s convenient. When I didn’t cause the problem, who’s going to fix it? “Not Me”. Trash

I received my bank statement the other day. (electronically) It’s time to reconcile the statement. That means, according to Google A.I.: “checkbook reconciliation involves matching each transaction in your checkbook or accounting records with the corresponding entries on your bank statement.” Sometimes something shows up on the statement and for whatever reason (memory lapse/lost receipt) the records don’t match, thus the need for reconciliation. (I know some of you are thin

There is a three-letter word that parents of young children hear, repeatedly, that drives them crazy. That word: WHY? Why is the sky blue? Why is water wet? Why do trees lose their leaves? Why…Why…Why? As parents we grow accustomed to answering with general explanations and pacify the “whys” with “because”. That pattern of answering might explain the reason we tend to pacify some of the “whys” Jesus asks. For example: why do you worry about clothes?/Why do you look at the spe

Most of us, if not all of us, have some kind of weather app on our phones. The apps generally provide a 7 – 10 day forecast, a hour by hour prediction and a radar showing current condition. Still, with all that in the palm of our hands how often are we caught off guard by the sudden downpour disrupting our plans. Chapter 27 of Acts is such a disruption. Luke’s life and death story is riveting. Fourteen days of hurricane winds, desperation that ends in shipwreck, but no loss o

BYSTANDER: one who is present but not taking part in a situation or event, that’s Webster’s definition. That’s what a recent news story called a crowd of people, phones recording, as three young boys beat and robbed an elderly man. Once Jesus went into a synagogue to teach. Present was a man with a cripple hand and Pharisee bystanders watching, not in hope of healing but to accuse Jesus of healing on the Sabbath. Of-course Jesus is going to intervene, it’s what he does. After

What does it take for a product brand name to become the generic name of the product itself? Wikipedia’s answer is “when a brand name becomes so widely recognized and used that it replaces the general term for a product or service.” The process is called: genericization. Examples are: Kleenex (facial tissue), Xerox (paper duplicate), Ziploc, Thermos, Chapstick, Band-aid, Vaseline…many more. Here’s another brand name: Christian. It was first used in first century Antioch label

There are those moments when the only thing to say is, “oh no”. It’s that split second before the unexpected happens, and you know it’s not going to be good. I’ve said it as a bystander witnessing: a fall, a car collision, a bumped table followed by the shattering of glass, images of a storm’s aftermath. I’ve said it when news affecting my life reached my ears. “Oh No!” Here’s my thought: God never says, “oh no”. Of-course things happen in our dysfunctional world that ignore

I hit a pothole this morning. No damage, but I didn’t see it coming. The pothole is on my street where I pass over several times a day. It began as a crack. No big deal. Not long after that it became a rough spot, then gravely, then a little dip in the road. All that was noticeable but nothing to cause you to swerve to miss, till today. I’m not sure when it earned the title “pothole” but there it was, and it got me! The Bible often speaks of sin as “opportunistic” (Rom. 7:11)

We have wind chimes hanging in our back yard, three specifically. One is handmade and moves with the wind but makes very little sound. The other two are store bought, both with its own unique sound. One is more of a jingle sound while the other has a gong-like sound. The wind blows, the chimes chime. The fiercer the wind, the more robust the sounds. The point is wind chimes only respond to the movement of the wind. I think that’s why Jesus so often refers to the Holy Spirit a

Tomorrow. A favorite word of procrastinators, prognosticators, optimists and to-do listers. We live today but deep down we live with a certain confidence there will be a tomorrow. It’s a delicate balance. When tomorrow weighs too heavily on our today all kinds of disfunction unfolds. Worry: Jesus has something to say about that: do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own . (Matthew 6:34) Uncertainty: We don’t yet