Serve by Design

This past weekend, I wore my mask into the church building even though the CDC and our denominational leadership agreed that those who have been fully vaccinated no longer need to wear a mask. This is something new for those of us you have only recently returned to in-person worship. I certainly welcome getting rid of my mask, but wanted to be considerate of others who may for one reason or another have yet to receive their shots. I’ve had a couple of portly pastor friends who would wear suspenders on occasions when they dressed up in a suit to preach their Sunday sermon. I’ve seen some who liked the idea of dramatically punctuating the points, especially their sermonic zingers, with a snap of the suspenders for emphasis!  I'm told that it's a fashion faux pas to wear both a belt and suspenders! It’s technically not necessary since they have the same purpose... securing trousers to avoid an unexpected wardrobe malfunction! Etiquette says it's one or the other! Yet in these ...

We have an after-meal practice of slathering our favorite jam or jelly on a slice of French or Italian bread as an easy dessert. Since bread has some serious carbs and jellies have those tasty sugars, we have to guard against the excess of these kinds of habits that over time can wreck a fitness diet! It has also become a regular occurrence for Monique's imagination to run wild after the first bite. I guess this is a gift of sorts, but she holds and usually rotates the bread as she points out to me what she sees from the tooth marks left behind. Delicious Jelly Bread! Image Credit: unsplash.com  I can honestly say that I never get it! I think I am too linear or literal. If there is a figure left from the bite of bread and jelly, I don't see it like she does. Sometimes I want to play along as she describes the figure. She will ask, "Don't you see the head, the floppy ears, and the big eyes?" I'll answer, "Uhhh... no, I don't! Can't we just eat our ...

During this past Christmas season our church participated in an Advent study resourced by Adam Hamilton, senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Hamilton told a vivid story in his book,  Incarnation about how Resurrection sets up the annual Christmas Eve candlelight service. They turn down all the lights in the worship center and sit in absolute darkness for what seems like an uncomfortable amount of time. They are trying to demonstrate that "we cannot appreciate the light that Christ brings until we linger in the darkness for a moment" (p.121). "Crave the Light!" Image credit: depositphotos.com Hamilton further describes the drama that builds in these moments of anticipation, "We sit there in the darkness... babies crying, children antsy, we sit there craving the light... then one candle enters the room" as a reader shares this scripture, "In the beginning was the Word... In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. T...

 "Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end!" These are the sentiments of many who watched as people in the United Kingdom were being given the first shots to end the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, I was watching the global news broadcast "France 24" through our Roku and delighted to see the first and second persons vaccinated. The first British person to receive the Pfizer-released vaccine was a ninety-year-old grandmother. The second individual to receive it was an eighty-one-year-old man who had the unique name of William Shakespeare (like the famed English playwright!). I laughed when Francois Picard, the news desk reporter said, while holding back his laughter, "We can't make this up! My colleagues in the newsroom are calling this moment, 'The Taming of the Flu!'" (an obvious and playful reference to Shakespeare's Shrew!). A Vaccine of Hope! Image Credit: iStock.com A little levity is appropriate in order to release the pressure val...

This is our first and hopefully, last "Pandemic Thanksgiving!" It is different and disappointing. Yet, in many ways it is also surprisingly delightful! We have some extremely gifted and creative grandchildren in our family! Remember, my weekly signature postscript declares that I am proud to be known as "a doting grandparent?!!" This suggests by definition that I am "extremely and uncritically fond and adoring" of all twelve of our grands! 😁 I have been wanting to get a writer out of this crop of kids for years now. I just may get more than one! We have a couple of teenagers who are showing some promise. I'll brag on them sometime later. However, it is the littlest of the lot that I am bragging on today. Eloise our adoring 8-year-old granddaughter from Saint Louis recently wrote a precious note to Mimi and Poppi that has our buttons popping with pride. This was a school assignment for her second grade class. Her Daddy remarked that this micro literary...