When the team wins, the players get the credit, when they lose, the coach gets fired. That’s the way it is in the sports world. Unfortunately, that attitude spills over into churches. I’ve known of far too many friends, former students, acquaintances, who were terminated (or sometimes, simply encouraged to leave), not because they misinterpreted…
The quote hung on my wall as a teen-ager. I would not know much about the author until Seminary days when his name was prominent on reading lists. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference,”…
Time passes slowly when you’re waiting on an airplane departure, especially when a mechanical issue has caused a four-hour delay. The airline kindly requested that we be seated and have patience. They did offer a meal voucher since they were keeping us past the noon hour, a welcome offer since I had arisen at 4:30am…
Surely some of you remember the children’s song we used to sing first thing in the mornings: “Good morning to you, Good morning to you, We’re all in our places With bright, shiny faces, Good morning to you.” I had no strong feelings either way about the song, but I remember wondering if my face…
He walks by my house every Saturday morning on his way to worship – black slacks, white shirt, black yamaka on his head, black walking cane. His faith prevents him from driving on the Sabbath, so he walks, with a slight limp, for 22 blocks (3 miles round trip). Rain or shine, hot or cold,…
In thirty-five years of teaching at the university and seminary level, I learned this – you can’t always tell when a student is learning, nor can you accurately predict their level of future achievement. Some of those I thought would surely fail now serve significant positions of leadership and ministry. Some I thought were “can’t…
How do you spend your day . . . and your night? The Bible has a suggestion. Love in the daytime – both receiving and sharing God’s love. In his “Ragamuffin Gospel,” Brennan Manning wrote: “We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our…
One of my early pastors closed every worship service with the same benediction. It was the one chosen by Paul as he closed his writings to the church at Corinth, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians…
I’ve always enjoyed silence. Early on, God told Isaiah, “In quietness . . . shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). Jesus had a pattern of rising early to enjoy the stillness of the morning and occasionally retired to the “mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). Living in a…
Often, when I am preaching on Sunday morning, I have a sleepless Saturday night, or at least partly so. But this was Thursday night and there appeared to be nothing of great significance on my Friday agenda. With her recent death, poet Maya Angelou has been widely quoted. Once she wrote of sleepless nights, “There…