Serve by Design

Like me, some of you may be fascinated by numbers. My love of math goes back to sixth grade and a before-school tutoring session with my teacher/principal, Mrs. Martha Ortegren. For several weeks, she gave up her prep-time to “catch me up” on some math skills so I could join the advanced group in our class. I will never forget her patience, encouragement, and how this built up my confidence as a student. Mrs. Ortegren believed in me and knew that I could do the work! Image: vecteezy.com While I never became a mathematician, I do think I passed some of my love of numbers off to one of our daughters, who is a math teacher today. Our eldest son, who is a public policy “wonk” also has an aptitude for math and recently took two challenging seminars in statistics from Harvard. A few years ago, one of our grandsons blew us away with a near perfect grade in his high school statistics class! Do you have a favorite math fact? I still love to recite 8 lines of Chaucer in old English, especially...

I rarely use an alarm clock except on those occasions in the middle of the night when we are trying to make a 6:00am flight out of the St. Louis airport two hours away. One of us sets the alarm feature on our smartphones to make sure we get to our destination on time. I do know there is a snooze button on some alarm clocks that can ease the pain, if only temporarily, that accompanies a two or three o’clock a.m. wake-up time. I’ve always been afraid to try that feature out! Image: Shutterstock Recently, we were dispatched to our daughter’s house to join other family members in saying goodbye to her twin sister (our other daughter!) and her family as they headed home to New Mexico. When we arrived, everyone was up and moving around awaiting the final departure. They were bathed, dressed and waiting for the pics to document the occasion. Yes, some were a little blurry eyed, but not our youngest grandson, Dawson! This boy is always good with his words. Because of his propensity for story...

How many times recently have you heard someone disparage technology? Parents, schools, and employers regularly monitor the use of cell phones. Even our smartphones are programmed to calculate daily screen time and post the results on our home pages. The government is also concerned that certain platforms are being used to steal personal identities or track citizen movement. Some of this caution is justified because there are innumerable “bad actors” out there who are engaged in nefarious activities and disruptions. Daily, we read or hear about security breaches! Image credit: clipart-library.com Cybersecurity is one of the fastest growing industries today. A recent study revealed that there are 3.4 million cybersecurity jobs in the workforce. The number of college bachelor students seeking a degree in cyber engineering doubled from 3500 to over 7000 between 2018 and 2022! It is understandable that we should exercise some vigilance in the use of technology and avoid bad screen time. T...

It’s been a long while since I have participated in a revival service, let alone three consecutive nights long! Our Methodist church had such a renewal experience this week. Personally, it was spiritually refreshing. We had altar calls at the end of the services where there was soul searching and confession of sin. There were also prayers of recommitment to Christ, intercession for healing (physically, spiritually, and relationally!), and genuine prayers for revival both in our church and throughout our city, country, and the world. Image: stock.adobe.com On the first night, we heard Bishop Jonathan Franklin, founding pastor of the Mt. Zion Apostolic Church, and president of the Springfield Ministerial Alliance. He brought a stirring message from the Great Commission in Acts 1:8 and Jesus’ teaching to the disciples at the scene of the pagan temple of Pan in Matthew 16:13-19. Bishop Franklin spoke like a prophet when he said, “Our nation needs prayer! We have evicted God from our nation...

On July 1, 2018, I retired from active pastoral ministry. For 48 years, I was privileged to serve as a pastor or staff associate in eight different congregations in both Illinois and Texas. In these last years, I continue on occasion to officiate weddings and funerals for family and friends. I think part of the reason I am still called upon to serve in these ways is that I have considerable "history" under my "ministerial belt!" That is to say, I know the personal stories of family and friends. This enables me to bring a more intimate and familiar dimension to these kinds of services. Image credit: depositphotos.com During the last few months, I have conducted three funerals. Each of these services have had similar elements in them that enable family and friends to honor their loved one, process their grief and loss, and bring a witness to others of the realities of God's comfort and His promise of an afterlife.  After all these years, I have had many experience...