Serve by Design

I haven’t heard the local meteorologist say much about the drought monitor lately. Last season, our area was locked into some serious drought conditions, but 2026 is quite different for us. The intersection of highs and lows, along with the jet stream, is pushing an abundance of thunderstorms and higher rain totals our way! We are on the plus side (five inches so far in June!) for rain totals here in central Illinois. A Rainy Day Retreat!  We have a neighborhood pond about a half-block away from our house. Over the years, I have seen a few mallard ducks crossing our property with a half dozen ducklings imprinting behind the mother hen. It is nature, at its best, to see the next generation in motion! The frequency of these visits seems to have increased with each flood watch report this spring! It has me thinking that even the ducks are seeking higher ground! There is a good bit of relational advice in the saying, “Take the high ground!” I’ve heard something similar, “If someone g...

I have been a space enthusiast for as long as I can remember. When I consider the actual numbers, I have been watching launches since May 1961, when Alan Shepard and the Mercury capsule lifted off powered by a Saturn V rocket for that first American suborbital mission from the Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida. I was barely ten years old, but I was thrilled to join millions of others, from my generation, in following the space program through radio and television coverage. When I moved to Sharpstown, Texas, in southwest Houston to pastor in 1984, I lived in the same suburban community where the seven original Mercury astronauts were given starter homes back in their day. Our kids went to Ed White Elementary, the neighborhood school, that honored the memory of Edward Higgins White, born in San Antonio, who lost his life along with two fellow astronauts, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee. The terrible accident happened in 1967 when a fire broke out in the cabin during a pre-launch te...