When I was a teenager, my father was Pastor of a church in Houston, Texas and my mother was President of a city-wide Pastor Wives organization. On a cold-December night I lay in an Emergency Room with a broken second vertebra of the neck, hearing doctors saying it was a miracle I was alive, and…
A friend, who is my age, said to me recently, “Please stop writing about aging, you’re making me feel old.” So this is about youth. My grandson Price is twelve years old. He loves baseball, hunting, and fishing. His room is a collection of “game balls.” He has already killed two deer – one with…
Three funerals in ten days! I guess one should expect that in the later years of life. At least I have been in the pulpit and pew, and not in the casket. Or as one friend exclaimed, “We’re still on the green side of the grass!” The three deceased were very different in personalities and…
The more social media responses I read of people responding to prayer requests, the more I realize how much we have failed in teaching people about prayer. When Bible Schools and Seminaries opt not to teach prayer in their curriculum, assuming that students already know how to pray and how to lead others to pray,…
My grandfather was a “Yellow Dog Democrat” – a political term applied to voters in the Southern United States who voted solely for candidates who represented the then conservative Democratic Party. They would allegedly vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for a Republican. He was also a faithful member of the Central…
I’ve given up golf, yard work, and attendance at most daytime sports events. I don’t swim, sunbathe, tan, or ski. So why did I have my 9th MOHS surgery for skin cancer this past week? I commented to a friend that beauty was only skin deep, and he reminded me that ugly cuts all the…
As of last week’s birthday, I have now lived three-quarters of a century. As one friend said, I am the oldest I’ve ever been and the youngest I’ll ever be again. Some days I feel very young. Maybe Spanish painter, poet and playwright, Pablo Picasso was right, “It takes a very long time to become…
I often wake up with a hymn or chorus on my mind. I awoke Christmas morning with the words of an old hymn, “Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?” It may have been motivated by a cartoon by my friend Joe McKeever, in which Mary and Joseph are around…
I understand that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” but beyond that priority truth what defines Christmas for you – glitter, gifts, gatherings? For me it has always been about family. I clearly remember my first Christmas with a family other than my own. At the Christmas celebration in the home of my then,…
Flying into Vancouver, Canada last week, I was treated to a blanket of snow below. As I made my way around the city, I viewed yards, roofs, trees, and side streets, still covered with snow – a sight as rare in Vancouver, as in my home state of Texas. While non-Texans are amazed by our…