Posts

Kind or Unkind?

Image
I heard a father speaking with pride about his son the other day. It’s not uncommon for a parent or grandparent to speak about his family with joy and delight! I should know because I am a shameless “doting grandparent!” This father is a church leader who remarked quite loftily that his fourteen-year-old had taught him “more about the Kingdom and every moment being holy” than any other person he knew! What may or may not surprise you is that this man’s son was developmentally disabled with Down syndrome. Kindness and Inclusion! Image credit: nicepng.com The Centers for Disease Control estimate that about one in six children (about 17%) in the United States today, ages 3 through 17 years have one or more developmental disabilities. I can speak fondly of several special needs children, youth, and adults. We were blessed in every church where I have served to have these special individuals included among us. I also have a beloved, adult-aged niece who is challenged in this way. I can say
1 comment
Read more

Guys Need "Guy-Time!"

Image
During forty-five years of fulltime active ministry, I planned and/or participated in numerous “guy events” that involved lay and clergy training, inspiration, and fellowship. In an effort to anchor these occasions in some of the memories of my readers, I will list just a sample of the settings, The camp-times would include Riverbend (Glen Rose, TX), Trinity Pines (Trinity, TX), Lake Sallateeska (Pinckneyville, IL) and Emmanuel (Astoria, IL). There were other retreat settings that included a ranch house First Baptist owned (Houston, TX), the Lady of the Snows Catholic facility (Belleville, IL), and the Assemblies’ Lake Williamson (Carlinville, IL). Truthfully, the additional places and occasions were too numerous to list! Image credit: depositphotos.com I have so many special memories where my relationship with friends and church leaders was deepened through guy-gatherings that often involved evening fish fries, cooking breakfasts over a modest cook-stove, and sleeping (or trying to!)
Post a Comment
Read more

"A Taste of Revival"

Image
The idea of spiritual renewal has been on the minds of many believers in the wake of the recent outbreak of revival on the campus of Asbury University that began February 8th. The Asbury outpouring is still reverberating throughout the community and beyond after two weeks of non-stop prayer meetings that started in an after-chapel prayer service and spontaneously continued on. Photo credit: pixabay.com Driven by social media posts and live streams, estimates are that some 50,000 individuals descended upon the college campus and Willmore, Kentucky, with a population   of only 6,000 residents! Students came from more than 260 colleges and universities to pray alongside those on the Asbury campus. Many of those arriving on the scene were hungry to see what God was doing in that setting and hoping it would be replicated in their lives, churches, and communities. I had "a taste of revival" at the Second Baptist Church of Marion, Illinois in 1972. I was serving on staff as a summ
Post a Comment
Read more

Measure Up!

Image
Monique has just completed a two-and-a-half-day stint with a fourth-grade class. She likes the continuity of substituting in the same class consecutively! This assignment was a bit more challenging though. She was required to teach a math-measuring, specifically geometry, exercise using a protractor. During her twenty-two years in the classroom before retirement, she taught her second graders mathematical concepts on many occasions. However, the math that fourth graders are doing these days looks a lot more like what was done in high school back in the day! Image credit: pixabay.com It's a good thing we have a family math expert in one of our daughters who majored in the subject and taught high school math for 14 years. Michelle usually gets a call for assistance when mother is faced with questions about obtuse and acute angles, tangents along with various geometric shapes. As you can imagine, this is quite “above her pay grade” as an elementary school substitute. This time the dau
1 comment
Read more

Meetings! Meetings! Meetings!

Image
Our beautiful, aware, and precocious fourth-grade granddaughter, Eloise, can be quite direct at times. The other day on the ride home, during an afterschool conversation in the car with her dad, she let loose a volley of words that our son wasn’t expecting. He had just told her that he was going to call Poppi because he (Moi!) had a window of time to visit before an out-of-town meeting that night. It was the word “meeting” that unsettled her and triggered the comment, “I have never once heard him mention the word meeting!”😲  Image Credit: www.pexels.com Matt surmised that this sounded a lot like what she often hears from both of her parents who work remotely from home much of the time. They will often comment to Eloise and her siblings, “You’re going to have to entertain yourself for a little while this afternoon. I have a meeting for about an hour, and I cannot be disturbed!”   Now, she is hearing for the first time that her beloved Poppi is also a “meetings-type person!” And it has
Post a Comment
Read more

I Am Not a Robot!

Image
Frequently these days, I am being asked for information on Internet websites to confirm that “I am not a robot!” This requires me to place a check mark in a little box. Since this happens so often now, I only have a faint memory of the first time I was asked to do this. I thought it was silly then and I have not changed my mind now. Just before making my mark,   I still question the absurdity of such an admission and I want to exclaim out loud by responding, “No! But are you?!” Image Credit: clipart-library.com We are both fascinated and frustrated by robotic technology or artificial intelligence, usually known by its abbreviation, AI. Our fascination is with how easily computer programs have become useful, if not necessary, in accomplishing routine daily tasks. The cutting edge technology of AI and chatbot facilitate our searches for cooking recipes or good restaurants, help us to identify sites for home repair instructions, to locate places and find driving directions, to look up the
Post a Comment
Read more

"A House Divided"

Image
The Super Bowl is the game that millions of football fans anticipate all season long! This Sunday is “the big game” when the best of the best square off against each other in the warmth of Glendale, Arizona. I must confess that football is not usually on my radar of interest. Unlike many of my family and friends, I have never cared much for the clash of the heads and pads on the gridiron. Rather, I sit out from the viewing audience and the action Sunday after Sunday, Mondays, and Thursdays too, while the football faithful follow their favorite teams and warriors with great delight. Photo Credit: clipart-library.com I’m pretty sure that I am not alone in waiting until the end of the football season and then tuning in to watch the championship game. There are many of us who show up to enjoy creative and costly commercials; eat pizza, hot wings, and other snacks; take in the half-time show; and try to hang on until the end of the final quarter of action to see the award ceremony. It seems
Post a Comment
Read more