Walking The Walk

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...

A few years ago, I was getting gas at a local convenience store.   As I’m waiting for my tank to fill, a guy walks out of the store after paying, gets into his car, and starts to pull away.   Suddenly, I see this young girl in a cashier’s apron dash out of the store towards the guy that’s pulling away.   I seriously thought maybe he’d stolen something.   She's sprinting after that car, and I mean like she’s trying out for the Olympic team.   She catches up to the car and knocks on his window.   He stops and rolls down his window.   “You forgot your change,” she said.   And she gives it to him.   Just change.   No bills.   Then she walks back to the store.   I was a little surprised by that.   It stuck with me.   In our modern world the fact she would have done that for less than a dollar in change is kind of remarkable.   That's not enough for a coffee these days. She could have easily pocketed that loose cha...

What they don't teach you in seminary is how awkward being a pastor can be . . .  I was riding to the cemetery in a hearse recently to do a graveside service, and a car pulled out in front of the driver.  The driver braked, honked at the car, and then let an impressive tirade of foul language fly.  That was followed by the awkward moment when he realized he was sitting next to the pastor.  “I’m sorry about the language, Reverend,” he said.  I went to my stand-by line, "I've heard way worse than that—I've been a Cubs fan my whole life."  Somebody is always apologizing to me for something, and I’m still not used to it. I haven’t been a pastor for a long time.   I've  spent most of my life "not a pastor."  I've been a Christian for a long time, but until I became a pastor, nobody ever apologized for swearing in front of me.   Nobody ever tried to explain to me items in their shopping cart at the grocery store. Nobody tossed a cigarette ou...

Valerie and I have really enjoyed giving these to people we come across in our travels.  And we leave them places, too.  We'll leave one on the table in the restaurant with the tip for instance.  I think we've been through about 300 of these little Jesus'.  And a few at the church have been doing the same thing. I started going to the YMCA three days a week a few months ago.  I found out that full time ministry takes a little more energy than the mostly sedentary work I had been doing the last 27 years, so I've had to kick it up a notch and get in a little better shape.   I borrow a locker at the Y, and a couple weeks ago, I left a little Jesus on the top shelf of that locker when I left.  A couple days later, I used the same locker and the little Jesus was gone, so I left another one.  I repeated that a couple more times after that. The other day when I was leaving, I went out a different door, and walked by a table in the reception area I h...

I read the devotions in "Our Daily Bread" almost every morning.   I think it was last week I read one that had a story about Glen.   He enjoyed being a blessing to others.   When he went through the drive through at the coffee shop, when he’d get up to the window, he would pay for his coffee, and then also pay for the order of the car behind him.  He'd ask the cashier to wish the car behind him a good day.   There’s more to the story than that, but I really liked that story, and I thought that was a wonderful way to bless somebody unexpectedly and build a little treasure in heaven at the same time.   And that’s what I was thinking about a few days later when I swung through the Starbucks drive through.   I decided I was going to do that thing Glen did.   I noticed there was a young couple in the car behind me, and I decided to pay for their coffee.   I get to the window, and I hand the cashier my card to pay for my coffee, and I ask her if...

I've been working at home for the last two years, and starting at the beginning of March, we've slowly been working our way back into the office with the goal of finally being back in the office three days a week.  For a month we worked one day in the office.  Then in April it was two days a week.  And now we're up to three days a week in May.   It wasn't going that well for me.  When we first started working from home, I didn't like.  But I've grown used to it.  My wife works.  My youngest goes to high school.  It's been just me and my dog, Daisy, for the majority of it--we added a puppy named Scooter a few months ago.  I've been pretty happy working from home.  Going back to the office has been a bigger adjustment than going home.  I dread going in on those three days.  Last week, I realized my attitude was the biggest problem, so I decided I was going to work on that.  I got up early.  I put on a nice tie...