Sorted by date Results 645 - 669 of 729
Every morning, while I walk the 2 blocks from my house to my office, I try to make it a point to stop and take a moment to look at the Bears Paw Mountains from the end of my driveway. They never fail to impress me. One of the things I fell in love with about Big Sandy when I interviewed here 6 years ago was how beautiful Montana is. An odd thing has happened in the last few years: there are quite a few mornings when I am in a rush or am stressed out and I simply step over my morning ritual because taking a moment to appreciate the scenery is a...
When I was in school, I was a poor student all the way up until I went to seminary, where I was a straight ‘A’ student for the first 3 years. It started as a point of pride for me, then it became a challenge to maintain it, and finally it made me miserable. I had done so well that I was afraid of messing it up. I reached a point where I obsessed over grades and put in excessive hours on papers just trying to maintain my perfect record. I eventually encountered a class that I struggled with, and, after several difficult tests, finished with a ‘B...
This week, as a homework assignment for a class my wife and I are taking at church, we have had to spend time talking on the couch every day and go out on a date. I alluded to the challenges associated with the assignment in an earlier column, but I think it’s worth pointing out the seemingly counterintuitive reasoning behind the assignment. The class that we are doing the conversation time for is a parenting class. The first few weeks of the course focused on an unlikely topic: marriage health. I call it unlikely because I fully expected t...
My wife and I have been taking a class at church that includes a daily homework assignment: We are to spend 15 minutes of ‘couch time’ together. In principle, this isn’t complicated or difficult to accomplish. It involves sitting on the couch together and having a one-on-one conversation for 15 minutes, without kids or tv or any other distractions. The crazy thing we discovered is that it’s just not easy to have a focused conversation for 15 minutes. We have to work to come up with things to talk about that aren’t small talk, work, or kid re...
In the 5th Century, an Egyptian named Arenius set out to live a holy life by abandoning the community he lived in and living in the desert as a monk. After several years of living in the wilderness, he visited the city of Alexandria, where he spent time wandering through the markets and bazaars. A Christian in Alexandria asked him why he spent so much time wandering through the shops if he had renounced possessions and worldly comforts. He responded that he was filled with joy at the sight of so many things that he didn’t need. Arenius had l...
I’ve been going to the gym every day for months and have been enjoying it, but I discovered that the gains in my weight training and general fitness, which I experienced during my earlier days of working out, slowed gradually and reached a point of standstill over time. I responded to the slowing of my progress by working out harder, but that didn’t help. I resolved to stay the course and hope for the best at that point, when a friend of mine asked if I had considered taking days off or incorporating lighter workout days into my routine. I had...
Everywhere I go, my phone goes along with me. Part of the reason for its constant presence is my need to be available to folks. My job and my family are both benefited by access to me whenever and wherever I happen to be. It’s also a convenience. From time to time, I have trouble finding an address or I need to take a note that I would otherwise forget. Apart from that, my phone keeps me entertained when I feel bored. I can read the news, books, and articles or play games or waste time in almost a limitless variety of ways wherever I happen t...
While playing with my kids at the park this week, I watched as my son climbed the jungle gym, struggled with the last step, and called for help. I walked over, but was pretty sure he could take the last step from the ladder to the platform at the top. I watched as he yelled at me to grab him, while simultaneously taking the step over to the platform. He was obviously scared, which is justifiable for a four-year old, but he beamed when he managed to get to the top without any help. I was close enough to catch him if he fell, so he wouldn’t g...
When I worked full time in youth ministry, I noticed disturbing trend in the kids I worked with. With every passing year, they got busier and busier. Between homework, after school jobs, sports, extra-curricular activities, etc. many of them were scheduled end to end from before school until bedtime. Not every student reached that kind of excess, but it was rare to find kids who had any completely free days, apart from holidays. This was in a bigger community, which in many ways was different from Big Sandy, but there is a strange cultural...
In 1906, San Francisco suffered through an earthquake which caused enormous damage and many deaths. Among the destroyed structures was the Memorial Arch that stood in the quad of Leland Stanford University. The arch had been a very large structure, and it appeared to be quite sturdy. When the earthquake hit, the otherwise impressive monument crumbled, damaged so severely that it was necessary to tear it down entirely. Part of the reason it was necessary to tear it down was that the earthquake revealed that the arch was really quite flimsy,...
The Medical Guild Rummage Sale is upon us, this October 5th from 8 to 5 and 6th from 9 to 4. We all look forward to the opportunity to clean out our closets for a good cause, pick up a few odds and ends at a good price, and indulge in a half dozen or so slices of pie at the pie counter. My first year in Big Sandy, my daughter and I ate 18 slices of pie at the pie counter and have looked forward to the event every year since. Though in the years that have followed, I’ve discovered another, bigger reason to appreciate the Guild Sale: It’s an opp...
At one point during Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign in the spring of 1862, he wound up in a position where his force was on one side of a river while it needed to be on the other side. Jackson first approached his engineers and asked them to plan and build a bridge to safely get the army to the other side. They immediately set to the task they’d been assigned. He then spoke with his wagon master, telling him that it was urgent that the wagon train get to the other side. The Wagon master immediately began gathering logs, stones, and fen...
One of Jesus’ most popular parables is that of the Good Samaritan. Most of us know the story: a man is attacked while traveling and left for dead on the side of the road. Afterward, a series of travelers pass him as he is laying in the road. The first two are a priest and a Levite who go around him. The third is a Samaritan who takes the poor traveler to an inn, where he tends to his wounds and pays for the man to stay at the inn while he recovers. The whole story is told when Jesus answers a question. Jesus is talking with a group of s...
Jesus was raised in the town of Nazareth. Nazareth has been the topic of some controversy over the last 50ish years, with some archeologists arguing that the town itself didn’t exist in the early first century. The reason for this argument was that there was no archeological evidence for it until recently. As it turns out, Nazareth was really small. It was so small, it went undiscovered for many years. Jesus was raised in a town so small that it wouldn’t likely have a name on a modern map of Montana. After his childhood years, he moved to Caper...
I went to a large high school in Northern Virginia, where most of the classes had over 30 kids. It was a good school, but I was a lazy student. I spent most of my class time sitting in the back row reading novels or daydreaming. My grades were mediocre and I’m certain I was the source of much consternation to my teachers, largely because I put little effort into my education. Algebra is a perfect example. I hated math in general. It frustrated me to no end because it didn’t come easy. Strangely enough, after a poor grade the first sem...
6 years ago, while I was interviewing for pastor jobs, right before my wife and I decided to come to Big Sandy, I visited a small church in southern Indiana. The congregation had declined in the previous years after the pastor left his wife and children to run off with a Sunday School teacher. During the visit, my wife made an offhand remark about how she wasn’t perfect and committed sins daily. The leaders of the church panicked over what she said and asked me directly if my wife was living a wild life. I laughed at the question, mainly b...
Jesus, Matthew tells a story in which Jesus and the 12 disciples are in a fishing boat crossing the Sea of Galilee, which is known for sudden and violent storms. Halfway across the inland sea, one of those storms set in and threatened to capsize the boat. The disciples were terrified, while Jesus just slept in the stern. Finally, they woke him up and asked: “Teacher, do you care if we drown?” Jesus got up and commanded the storm to stop, then asked his disciples if they had any faith at all. The story is interesting for a few reasons. Fir...
Over the weekend, my wife and I sent our kids to stay with a friend and set out to a bed and breakfast in Cascade to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. The spot we picked to stay at was beautiful and situated right on the Missouri River. We had grand plans of floating the river, swimming, hiking, and spending time away from the responsibilities of life. We drove the 105 miles to the B&B and arrived to the news that our reservations were no good. The hotel had been overbooked and we arrived last, with no place to stay. We scrambled to find...
When I was younger, I developed a terrible habit. I would listen to sermons and think about all the people I know who should be hearing the message because it dealt with an area of sin I saw in their lives. Sometimes, this would happen when the folks I was thinking about were actually in the room with me. In those cases, I would find myself peeking over to see if they were paying attention and learning their lesson. I was young and dumb back then. Now that I am older, and hopefully wiser (or at least less dumb), I would pay good money for the...
Last week, I started studying the life of Samson for the sermon series I’m currently working through. Samson is an interesting figure because he is basically an action hero. His story is a collection of crazy adventures, battles, and love affairs. Strangely, most folks miss the point of his story. Generally, the misunderstanding begins with his hair. Most people identify Samson’s hair as the reason he was so tough. However, this isn’t accurate. Samson was commanded by God to live according to a strict set of religious rules. These rules were...
Kudzu vines are a species of Japanese leafy vines that were imported to the United States in 1876 and planted throughout the southern states in an effort to stem soil erosion. They performed this job very well. The climate in the South is perfect for the plant and it quickly took hold and spread far and wide. Unfortunately, as good as the Kudzu vine is at preventing soil erosion, it is far more effective at wiping out every other species of plant it encounters. The vines grow quickly, climbing and covering everything they encounter....
There is a story in the Old Testament about a prophet named Elijah. Elijah’s job was to speak on God’s behalf to the people of Israel, a job that often made him unpopular in a time where traditional Jewish religion was very unpopular in ancient Israel. The day after Elijah experiences the most spectacular victory of his life, he leaves a party where God’s people are celebrating the end of a long drought and returning to their belief in God. Elijah is forced into hiding to escape assassins sent by Israel’s queen, Jezebel. It’s interesti...
Last year, during the heat of the presidential elections, I was browsing my facebook feed when I came across an article making very serious accusations against a prominent politician. It caught my attention, so I clicked and read. Within 3 minutes, I figured out that the linked article was from a ‘parody’ website that posts false news stories. The crazy thing about it was that there was no hint of parody to the article. I discovered the truth by googling the web site name and reading the wikipedia entry about it. Lots of those websites exi...
Last week, I was very busy. As a result, I didn’t get to sermon writing until Thursday, which is usually my last office day for the working week. The sermon was on the parable of the prodigal son, which is a story Jesus told at the end of a series of stories about lost things, specifically a lost sheep and a lost coin. I was working hard trying to finish up before the end of the day, when my 4-year old son came into my office and asked to sit in my lap while I worked. I agreed, with the stipulation that he had to be quiet so I could focus on my...
My son is almost 4. He is just beginning to figure out that when he and his sister don’t agree on something, he can hit her and get his way. The other day, they got into an argument over a toy they both wanted to play with. His solution to the impasse was to punch his sister. She started crying and told on him. I punished him and he apologized to his sister. About 20 minutes, later the scene replayed itself. My boy literally did the same thing he had done before. He apologized again, but it’s clear that he will likely end up fighting with his...