Serve by Design

A rolling stop is not a stop at all! Did you hear about the man who was driving home and was stopped by a county deputy police officer? It was a rural community with little traffic. The officer informed him that he had not come to a complete stop and then gave him a ticket for the violation. The man asked, “Don’t I get a warning?” The officer curtly replied, “Sure, here’s your warning: If you don’t come to a complete stop the next time, I will give you another ticket!” Image credit: istock.com Years ago, as a teenage driver, I had the embarrassing experience of being pulled over for a rolling violation. I was heading out to the local A&W Root Beer restaurant with a carload of church friends on a Wednesday night. We had just had a youth Bible study when a county deputy sheriff stopped me. I am from a small town where traffic on the main street is always light. The way it was configured, the stop sign was located about twenty feet back from the intersection. You were supposed to st...

Many regard the Memorial Day weekend as the beginning of summer. Sunday was exceptionally beautiful for our road trip to Vandalia for worship, dinner, and family time with my sister and dad. However, during the trip we ran into another frustrating detour that wasn’t clearly marked out. This has been ongoing for a few years now due to a critical mine subsidence issue necessitating numerous repairs on a two-mile stretch of Route 185 between Hillsboro and Coffeen. We were closing in on our destination and I thought, “Here we go again! I wonder how long this is going to take!” Another reminder... "Be Calm!" At this point, Monique, my “counselor of calmness,” offered some much-needed advice, “Let’s pretend we are on vacation and just take our time!” Immediately, this thought slowed me down, literally, and figuratively! This is what I needed to hear to relax as I steered the Buick over hill and dale not knowing exactly where we were going to come out of this. The detour was only a ...

I have been uncomfortable in closed spaces for several years. It has nothing to do with claustrophobia induced by elevators or large crowds of people. My issues causing panic and anxiety emerged during the advanced diagnostic testing (MRI Scans) my doctors repeatedly prescribed to determine the source of chronic back spasms thirty years ago. As it turned out, regular exercise and dropping forty pounds of excess weight were the needed remedies! While I haven’t had the need to undergo another MRI in recent years, my urologist recently recommended that I undergo a PET C-Scan to track how my prostate cancer was progressing. I immediately became anxious about that test. Although C-Scans are not as confining, they do require the patient to remain completely motionless for about 30 minutes while the scanner passes from head to toe. I thought, “Oh boy! Here we go again! To tolerate this, I may need a light sedative this time!” "Don't be a baby! Man up!" Two days out from the te...