Thanksgiving is coming. By news report, another forty-six million turkeys will be consumed. Calories and memories will remain. As I reflect on Thanksgiving, I am thankful for at least three things, and they come from a rather unusual source. In Genesis 16 Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar had made a mess of God’s plans. Hagar was…
Thanksgiving is over. By news report, another forty-six million turkeys have been consumed. Calories and memories remain. As I reflect on Thanksgiving past, I am thankful for at least three things, and they come from a rather unusual source. In Genesis 16 Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar had made a mess of God’s plans. Hagar was…
My role models have all been workaholics. Many of these have also been perfectionists. This is a dangerous mixture. Trying to justify such a lifestyle, I searched the scriptures, until I discovered Jesus saying in His sermon on the mount, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)….
One of God’s greatest gifts is memory. When we remember, we sometimes sit in a recliner and reflect. Other times we do something in response to memory. Yesterday, people placed flowers at grave sites, and memorials of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Others attended ceremonies in cemeteries and at national monuments….
Recent events have reminded me of an old saying. Some years ago, a former pastor of mine and I were having a conversation about a fellow minister who had been terminated from his position. Strangely enough, he had been found guilty of the very action for which he had terminated ministers who worked with him….
Transition is tough! I wonder how old does one need to be before life is not punctuated by transitions? I’m not sure. You’ll need to ask that question to someone older than me. I clearly remember transitioning from being at home all day, as a five-year old, to going off to school every morning. I…
Some bumper stickers make me want to pull off the road and reflect. Such was the one that read, “Keep Women in Their Place.” So where exactly is their place? Many and diverse are the way today’s culture answers that question. But where was the place of women according to Jesus? Any sincere student of…
October is Pastor Appreciation Month. The first pastor I remember was L.B. Reavis, from whom I received my middle name. He was followed by E. Hermond Westmoreland, under whose ministry I became a Christian. During my teen-age, pre-college years, my pastor was my own father, W. Edwin Crawford, under whose ministry and influence I surrendered…
Since grief is such a big subject, there isn’t a single definition that covers it. A commonly used definition is “Grief is the normal and natural emotional reaction to loss or change of any kind.” Let me illustrate. Last week I attended a conference that involved several hundred cross-cultural missionaries, some of whom were former…
Referring to an annoyance, or a nuisance, as “a pain in the neck” is a colloquial expression that dates from about 1900. My first “pain in the neck” came when I was fifteen years old and was involved in an automobile accident, sustaining a broken second vertebrae of my neck. The healing took nine months….