Walking The Walk

This morning I stopped to fill up my gas tank and couldn't believe my eyes—gas was 30 cents cheaper than last week!   After I filled up, I went inside, and the coffee was on special for just $1. With Thanksgiving approaching, I felt that was a good example of something to be grateful for, so I shared it on Facebook. And do you know what the response was? A few people got upset about it, because of the politics of the fuel prices coming down.   And that’s sad to me.   We've become a society that complains about high prices AND also complains when the prices go down. We've trained ourselves to find fault with everything, even good news!   And we wonder why we’re so unhappy! Scripture reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 to "give thanks in all circumstances." Not just when everything's perfect, but in all circumstances, including when gas prices drop and coffee costs a dollar. I've made it my practice to actively notice and celebrate when things go righ...

"As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." ~Proverbs 27:17  I was flipping the channels the other day, and one of the cable news channels was reporting on a story.   According to the reporter, it was the worst decision our government had ever made in our 250-year history.   I flipped to another cable news channel, and they were reporting on the same story—of course they were reporting the complete opposite. And we wonder why we’re always fighting with each other?   Because we make decisions based only on whose idea it was rather than if it’s a good idea or not. Our leaders are talking past each other, each convinced the other is completely wrong.   Nobody is ever listening—just talking. And it’s not just on the national level.   I've watched this scene play out countless times in our communities, too. And at family dinners and on social media and in workplace conversations. We’ve forgotten how to have a conversation.   We’ve forgotten...

I don’t know what you imagine a pastor’s life is like.   You probably imagine I spend a good deal of time in quiet contemplation and study as I prepare my weekly messages.   And when I’m not dispensing wisdom and radiating spiritually-driven leadership, I live a quiet, dignified and somewhat uneventful life. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We have somehow accumulated three dogs who have made it their personal mission to remind me daily that dignity is overrated. I usually blame my wife Valerie for this pack of chaos we live with, but the truth is, it's usually me.  One day I will learn to stay away from puppies. There's Daisy who is an eight-year-old chocolate lab (Valerie's baby).   She weighs about as much as a small refrigerator and has the enthusiasm of a toddler on Christmas morning. Then there is Scooter (he has certainly become my dog).   He is a three-year-old corgi, and thinks of himself as a four-legged comedian who specializes in physical...