Serve by Design

I recently received a sympathy card with a meaningful note on the side page. It has had me thinking since I read it. Among other comforting words written, there was an especially touching sentence that simply said, “It’s difficult to speak to a pastor about the loss of their loved one, but the loss is still the same.” Those phrases “difficult to speak to a pastor” and “the loss is still the same” are still swirling around in my mind. I was so appreciative of these sentiments that I immediately called these friends. I wanted to express my thanks to them for taking the time to write those candid and hope-filled thoughts down for my comfort. Comfort One Another Credit: clipart-library.com After decades of service as a pastor in a half dozen churches from Texas to Illinois, I have often wondered how pastors sometimes make it difficult for their members to share comfort with them. Without intending to do this, I think we can build barriers by saying, “We’re doing okay. We have a lot of supp...

During a recent sermon on grief, our pastor mentioned something that I have been thinking about lately. He said, "Many of us grieve over an accumulation of losses in our lives." This past year, Monique and I have lost several of our Texas friends. Another precious one passed a couple of weeks ago. This is number four by my count. Each of these friends has left an indelible influence on our lives. As the pastor observed, I feel like there has been a heavy accumulation of grief and loss in the last couple of years. We knew this was bound to occur. After all, we are getting older, too! But, the frequency of loss over a relatively short duration of time has been surprising.  In my personal reflections, I took to the computer keyboard to make a list of some of the specific losses. At the top, I thought of the loss of my mother who passed two years ago on July 17th. Then, there was the grief over a church conflict in March 2019. Added to this was the diagnosis of prostate cancer in...