Serve by Design

I recently had a meltdown! No, not exactly the kind you are imagining. This one was a literal melting down of a part on the engine of my new riding lawn mower. In late fall, the mower had unexpectedly been delivered about a month before promised. I was so excited to get on it and take it on a trial spin around the yard. I had only intended to mow and mulch leaves around the grass area adjacent to the circle driveway. I knew that our teenage grandson would enjoy using the new machine during the next official mow. Oops! I Forgot!! The backstory to this “meltdown” is that on the day the mower was delivered by the implement dealer, I thought I would compare the air filter on this new engine with the one that I used on my previous mower. These engines were similar, and I had a couple of expensive filters left over that I hoped I could use on the new rider’s engine. The issue occurred when I failed to secure the filter’s plastic cover. On the next day’s trial run, I had only been mowing fo...

I was pretty unruly the last weeks leading up to my retirement. In dealing with the loose ends and trying to find an acceptable closure to over 26 years of ministry, I was stressed and disagreeable at times. I was getting into trouble by saying some harsh things to family and friends and finding myself needing to ask for forgiveness. When have you recently asked, “Please, forgive me?” Over the years, I have had to “walk back” several comments that were hurtful. Sometimes I tried unsuccessfully to make excuses by what I had meant, but when something mean comes out of the mouth, something mean must be in the heart. No amount of excuse-making will work toward healing in these situations. Rather, it’s time to admit wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness. You would think that as time goes on a maturing Christian should be growing past some of these careless words and actions, but it seems that the devil never gives up working to trip us up! While patience may be one of the more important of...