Last week I was on the Island of Roatan, a part of Honduras. It is an island of beautiful colored houses and buildings. When asked about the colors, my guide said everyone who can afford it re-paints their house or place of business every year. It is not only a way to resist the elements…
I have a friend who is writing a book. In fact I have several friends who are writing books. All of them have contacted me for various favors ranging from advice, to proof reading, to ghost writing, to writing the foreword, to simply adding a brief recommendation to their book cover. I am honored to…
The struggle began again this week; worse than which club to use on a difficult golf shot. Back pain! MRI showed arthritis and muscle spasms. Return to Physical Therapy and the therapy pool. Once again I heard the two voices battling in my head. One reminded me it had been nine years since I retired,…
Yesterday’s Father Day observance brought back a few memorable events. My kids had given me a Three Stooges tie bearing the pictures of Curly, Moe, and Larry. At their request I wore it to my Seminary office on the following Monday. Mid-morning brought a call from the Seminary President’s Office. I was requested to hurry…
You know you’re getting old when you remember something from elementary school but can’t remember where you parked your car at the mall yesterday. Last week’s Manna on brevity reminded me of the Weekly Reader, an educational classroom magazine designed for children. While it began (1928) before my time, circulation peaked during my elementary school…
I guess it all started with my parents’ subscription to Reader’s Digest. I enjoyed reading the brief articles. I never much liked reading long bodies of material at one setting. Then I had a Seminary professor who assigned us fifty-word papers to write. He said anyone could elaborate, but an accomplished writer could abbreviate. So…
Much of life is lived in relatively predictable circumstances. Then, suddenly news arrives that shatters our normal. We close our eyes, partly in an attempt to resist the shock, and partly to shut out reality. But, because we must see to move forward, we open them again to discover common things have taken on uncommon…
A few years ago, an interesting question surfaced in classrooms and seminars, “If you knew you wouldn’t fail what would you do?” In the follow-up discussion, I always had to remind my students the only way to avoid failure, was to do no more, nor no less than what God called them to do. The…
Have you ever wondered about the phrase, “the apple of his eye”? While it is used frequently to describe something or someone very precious or dear, such as a newborn baby to a parent, it actually is as old as Moses. While the refrain of a rather recent praise song by Jason Upton says: “Give…
Yesterday was Mother’s Day. It found me wishing I could sit by my mother in church just one more time, but she transferred her church membership to the church eternal in February of 1996. Since my Dad was always on the platform, usually in order to preach, I spent many a worship service sitting by…