Walking The Walk . . .

When I was beginning my career, I was anxious for a promotion.  An opportunity had opened for a store manager, and I had quickly made my interest known to my supervisor. My supervisor had simply declined to interview me for the job. I disagreed with his decision and we wound up having a long talk about it. He went over all the things a store manager does--there were a lot of things on that list I knew little about.  Scheduling. Inventory. Ordering. Banking.  Daily paperwork. Payroll.  He also pointed out to me the opportunities he had given me to learn about some of these things, which I had declined. He said I wasn't ready for it.   I knew he was right.  I decided then and there I was going to learn everything there was to know about running a store--and I did.  Six months later, that same position opened up again, and I didn't have to ask for an interview.  There was no interview.  The job was mine if I wanted it.  I wound up the top manager in the company.  But if I'd go

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." ~Matthew 7: 13-14 We live in a world today that's all about ease.  All about convenience.  We want what we want when we want it.  We've made so many things in life easy.  When given the choice, who wouldn't pick the easy way over the hard way--right? But Jesus reminds us in this verse that the easy way isn't always the best way.  Some things in life don't come easy.  Some things we have to work for.  And often the harder we work for something, the greater the reward.  Ask any successful athlete how they succeeded, and you'll find out it came with great effort, and hours of training and practice.  Ask a concert pianist how much they sacrificed to develop that gift God gave them--the hours they've spend at the piano are likely incalcu

"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." ~Matthew 7: 13-14 These verses were the focus of my daily devotional earlier this week.  It should be very familiar to most Christians.  As I read through them, I realized probably for the first time, just how much is packed in just those two verses.  Another thing I realized is just how relevant these two verses are as we look at where we are in our world today.   We are in a mess today.  I'm fifty-four years old, and in my time on this earth, I've never seen things as bad as they are right now.  We've been divided by political party.  We've been divided by class.  We've been divided by region.  We've been divided by race.  We're now being divided by whether we're vaccinated or not vaccinated.  We've got a political class that

A friend of mine reminded me of these wonderful words of Billy Graham.  I thought I'd share them with you today: "There's an empty place.  You have everything except something; you're not quite sure what it is.  There's a hole in your heart and in your life.  You'd like it to be filled, but you don't know what it is.  So you're searching.  You're searching for something that can satisfy that deepest longing that you have.  That something is God. Because God made you in His image, and He loves you.  And He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross, and he took every sin that you've ever committed on that cross.  And if you were the only person in the whole world, He would have died for you. But Christ didn't stay on the cross.  He rose from the dead, and He's alive tonight, and he's willing to come into your heart right now." ~Billy Graham, 2000  ~TEC