About a week ago, Heather and I were talking about an upcoming preaching symposium and finding our confidence while preaching. I jumped up and pulled out a book I bought 25 years ago in college. It’s pages are yellowed and heavily highlighted. It’s spine cracked by use. It reshaped my life, electrifying my soul with […]
As we traveled to visit family over the holidays, we drove past a church camp I went to for several summers. Connie asked about the camp and as I reflected on my experiences, I realized part of my journey away from biblical literalism began as a college intern at camp. Everyone is on a journey. […]
Uncle Clellon was a bit of an oddball for example as a lifelong bachelor farmer, he ran irrigation pipes to dry fields, but never saw the need to pipe running water into the house. Sill, every Christmas Eve, the Purdues, Sanders, Simms, Scotts, Greys, Harolds, and Hendrix families gathered in a five room home. The […]
In the sixth month, God sent a named angel to unremarkable small town to speak a virgin named Mary. Mary’s family had signed the arranged marriage contract with Joseph, but the wedding was months away. Mary and Joseph may have met a few times, but only in the presence of a chaperone. God’s messenger greets […]
A deep sense that “this is not right” may be the birth of a new vision for our living. It may be that God is not silent, when the walls fall down and the pleasant places seemed ruined, but that God is longing to do a new thing in us and through us. Oh if […]
A few days before Christmas, the grandparents arrived ready for “Christmas with toddlers”. One set drove their older pickup. The truck was packed tighter than Santa’s sleigh. After our 11 pm Christ-Mass Eve Service, I walked alone down the little path from the church to our parsonage humming, “silent night, holy, all is calm, all […]
The phone rang at 3am with almost unspeakable heartache on the other end. I soon passed through the ER’s metal detectors and toward ICU. The victim vacillated between this life and the one to come. I found her daughter sitting in pajamas in the middle of an empty hallway. I introduced myself as her mother’s […]
