We are four men, sometimes five, from different backgrounds, each with a unique life story. We drink coffee together about once a month, sometimes more often. Three of us are retired, so we have to work coffee times into our busy schedules. In order to be in this group you have to have had at…
I saw her first at church, on a Sunday night, in the collage choir. She claims it was the only night she ever sang in the choir. Once was enough. I saw her again the next week in the University Library. It may have been my only time in the Library. Then I asked her…
The Senior Adult years are like rounding third base and heading for home plate. That reminds me of my last organized game – a church-league softball game. I was on second base when our batter hit a line drive between the outfielders. As I approached third base, the youthful coach waved me toward home. My…
Albert Einstein asked, “A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin, what else does a man need to be happy?” Apparently Einstein was not smart enough for Harvard University, who conducted a seventy-five year longitudinal study of the subject, and first concluded happiness is love. Then this same group suggested that happiness…
I confess to getting older but resist my grandfather’s term of being “sot in my ways.” I do like some things the way they were, but I’m open to fresh ideas. Seems rather than taking on an existing church, many Seminary graduates plan on starting a new church. Mix that with the word “Throwback” (as…
Three funerals in fifteen days, made me think. The first was for a friend from another denominational than mine, a Christian church with worship styles and patterns, some of which, were unfamiliar to me. It made me THINK, how strange, that our methods vary, yet the message is the same. Paul reminded us that even…
An interesting feature of social media is TBT (Throwback Thursday) where people post pictures and memories of past days. A few recent events have had me using my memory overtime. I’m actually communicating with friends via social media that I had not visited within fifty years. One of my fondest memories of my grandfather was…
I love new words, although I’m sometimes slow in learning them. I’m sure most of my younger friends have already started using the word “emoticon” but it is somewhat new to me. It is defined as “a pictorial representation of a facial expression that, in the absence of body language serves to draw a receiver’s…
Have you ever communicated something to others only to find you needed it for yourself? Last Monday’s Morning Manna was from Philippians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing” with the emphasis on the “for nothing.” Before the day was over, I needed that advice. I found myself in somewhat of a “Physician, heal yourself” (Luke 4:23)…
Amazing how I have become so dependent to something I’d never heard of a few years ago. Eight years ago I began writing a Monday morning, one paragraph, spiritual jump-start for the week. It was first called, Dr. Dan’s Monday Morning Memo, then we changed the word “Memo” to “Manna” but writing it became a…