Walking The Walk

"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...

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...

Almost exactly one year ago, my life took a dramatic change.  I retired from a career that was 9-5, and very predictable, into full-time ministry.  It was a difficult change, because I was used to decades of working in a very set routine, with set hours, in a job that I knew inside and out. And then all the sudden I'm thrown into a vocation that doesn't have set hours (if I'm awake I'm the pastor).  And there is no routine, because every single day is different, and every single week is different, and you never know what each day and each week is going to bring until you get into it.  And it was a struggle, because I'm a planner, and you just can't plan in a normal way when there's so many variables.  It has taken pretty much a year to find my footing.  Change is hard.   I'm not the only one that struggles with change.  One of the biggest challenges we face in life is dealing with the constantly changing nature of our world. More often than n...

The only thing harder than quitting a bad habit is beginning a good one. At least that's been my experience. I've had a very long habit of starting my day off in the Bible and with prayer. My routine varies-- lately I've been studying in Romans. I spent about a half an hour reading and studying, and another half an hour writing in my prayer journal. I rarely miss a day. But it was a difficult in the beginning to get into that daily habit. But I've found over the years, it has become my favorite part of the day. I've got a couple tips I hope you will find useful in setting aside a little time for God each day. My first time is to start small. I mean it really small. Don't plan to spent an hour on it every morning--you're setting yourself up for failure if you start with an unrealistic goal. How about instead, just find a nice five minute devotional to read each morning, and spend a few minutes in prayer. Perhaps you could find a journal to write you...

"A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed." ~Proverbs 15:13  It's easy sometimes to forget an important truth.  What happens in our hearts doesn't stay there. We have a profound impact on the world around us.  Like the outward rings from a stone dropped in a pond, we create waves that touch everyone and everything around us. This simple verse reminds us we have been designed with the remarkable ability to influence our surroundings through something as seemingly small as our attitude. Have you ever noticed how quickly a room changes when someone walks in beaming with joy? Or, on the other hand, how the atmosphere shifts when someone enters with a cloud of negativity hovering over them? This isn't coincidence – it's the principle from Proverbs 15:13 in action.  Our personality is visible and contagious. A cheerful face isn't just about putting on a smile-- it's the natural overflow of a heart filled with joy. ...

 "If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning."   ~Mark Twain I republish this piece every so often. I wrote back in 2018.  It's a great way to look at those tasks on our list that we just don't want to do--especially on a Monday morning.  I still put things off from time to time, and every once in a while, to this day, you'll see three words written on my calendar.  Eat the frog! From 2018:  My daughter looked over my shoulder the other night and asked me why I'd drawn so many pictures of little green frogs in my bullet journal over the last few days.  I gave her this Mark Twain quote.  I ran across it earlier in the week, and I'd forgotten the wisdom of it.  She looked at me very puzzled after I recited it to her. "You know how I've asked you three times this week to clean up your room," I said to her. "Yeah," she said. "You still haven't done it.  You've been putting it off....

I've been reading a book called "Atomic Habits" by James Clear.  I stumbled across it at the bookstore, and I've really enjoyed it.  It confirms what I've believed for a long time.  Big changes don't necessarily start with "big changes."  Big changes in your life are an accumulation of small habits.   What if you just improved a tiny little bit each day?  Not huge changes, but small changes.  If you're trying to eat better, what if you just skipped the donut in the morning?  What if you skipped the seconds at dinner?  What if you replaced one soda each day with a bottle of water.  Just start with small changes, and built on those small changes each day.  Don't make them hard, make then fairly painless.  You can do that in every area of your life.   In the book "Atomic Habits" the math author James Clear provides is pretty startling.  What if you improved by just one percent each day in one area of your life?...

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." ~Romans 12:21 We have control over very little in our lives.  We spend a great deal of time fretting over matters that we have no control over.  We worry about what other people think about us.  We worry about the future.  We regret things from the past.   What if we just focused on what we DO have control over?  Wouldn't we be a lot happier? We have no ability to change what has already happened in our lives.  The past is beyond our influence.  And what we see of the future is fiction, because there's no way way for us to know what the future brings. The only thing we have completely under our control is the moment we're in.  What if we focused on that moment?  On this day.  On the decisions before us right now?  Change happens when we make different decisions.  And all that we control is our actions and attitudes right now. What if we decided right this minu...

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life. Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?"   ~Luke 12:25-26 In Luke Chapter 12 verses 22-34, Jesus talks about three specific enemies.  Worry.  Fear.  Selfishness.  The first one He talks about is worry, and that's the one he has the most to say about.  Twice in these verses He commands us not to worry.  In verse 22 He says, "Do not worry about your life." And in verse 29 He says when it comes to food and drink and all those needs we have in our life, "Do not worry about it."  He says God knows we need them and will provide them. There's actually two different words used here for worry.  The first Greek word refers to our mind being distracted.  That's a pretty accurate description of worry.  The Greek word used in the second command is only used once in the New Testament.  The Greek word meteorizomai -- from that word we get the...

I preached a sermon on Sunday, and one of the things I said was that sometimes we just get stuck in life.  Too often we get stuck on something in our past and we just can't get free of it.  We're like an anchored ship, we're stuck right where we are until we cut those anchor chains.  And very often those anchors that keep us from being able to move into our future are deeply dug into our past. We carry a lot with us we don't need.  Just rubbish.  Old hurts.  Past failures.  Painful experiences.  Awful things we've lived through.  Ugly words people have said to us or about us that continue to hurt us.  Bad habits we can't seem to get free of.   So how do we get unstuck? The best place to start is with prayer.  Pray about it.  Tell God you want to be free from all this stuff that keeps you living and reliving the past.  Ask God to show you the way forward, and then fix your eyes forward!  Stop looking in the r...

"But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." ~Matthew 7:1-2 This is a challenging verse.  This is a challenging concept.  Forgiveness. I'd say about half the challenges I help people deal with as a pastor has to do with forgiveness.  When people do us the wrong way, it's not easy to let it go.  But that's what we're called on to do.  And the consequences for not learning to let the sins of others go, is that our sins will not be forgiven.  That is a very steep penalty for holding onto those hurts, isn't it?  That doesn't even take into account the personal cost to us--that emotional cost of carry those hurts with us rather than give them up. But it's not easy to let go of those hurts for a few reasons.   We all make mistakes.  One of the most difficult things for us to do sometimes, is to admit when we've made a mistake.  If we could simply admit it when we're wrong, so many of the conflicts...

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." ~Matthew 23:25-26 We spend so much time thinking about what people see on the outside.  How we appear.  What people think.  Too often we build a facade on the outside that displays a character which doesn't match what's on the inside. And it's hard work, because it's not real.  It's not authentic.  It doesn't match who we really are.  And we go to this effort because we're embarrassed.  Or we're ashamed.  Or we're hiding weaknesses we don't want people to see.  Or sins we don't want people to know.  And we work hard on this veneer we show other people because we're afraid they're going to see or discover that truth within. And that's what Jesus is pointed out to...

S o I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.   ~Galatians 5: 16-17 How can a Christian possibly live a Christian life in the world today?   We're buffeted each day by the worldly, and that influence can be corrosive to our faith.  It gets difficult to escape it.  The values of our society are in decline.  The lines between what is clearly right and what is clearly wrong continue to be blurred.  We're exposed to a constant stream of media, and internet, and social media--all of them trying to promote an agenda.  And pornography is everywhere.  You can hardly use social media at all anymore without running across these images from time to time.  And our kids are seeing all of this and being exposed to all of this you ...

I retired from my professional career last week.  For 38 years I've worked in jobs that have required me to work long hours, manage multiple projects with multiple groups, and manage employees and their workloads.  They've all been high stress jobs with monstrous workloads--including the one I just retired from.  I'd been in that job for 21 years.  I'd say I average about 50 hours a week.  I worked evenings when necessary.  I worked weekends when we were behind (which was often).  I'm a morning person, so I've always been the first one there.  I've usually worked several hours before the first person arrived in the office.  Taking vacation wasn't easy, and I usually had to take it a day or two at a time because taking longer periods of time off put my whole team behind. On top of that, my wife and I have raised a family--I've got a grown daughter who is out on her own, and a my youngest is a high school senior.  I've served on the school...

" Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."  ~Ephesians 4:29 It's always better to be part of what's right with the world, than part of what's wrong. And it's easy to tell which side your on by just looking at how you interact with other people.  What your attitude towards things are. How you live your life. If you're complaining all the time, you may be part of the problem. If you're unhappy all the time, you may be part of the problem. If you spend more time focused on and pointing out what other people are doing wrong than on what you're doing . . . you guessed it.  You may be part of the problem. We spend an inordinate amount of time focused on what we don't have.  Focused on people that make us mad.  Thinking about the things that aren't going exactly right instead of appreciating the things that are. What if...

" Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things." ~Philippians 4:8   When was the last time you left the house without your phone?  Or your iPad?  Or your iWatch?  When was the last time you were in an environment where there wasn't a screen within easy reach?  Or there wasn't a radio on, or music playing through your earbuds, or a TV playing in the background?   I was in a ZOOM call just over a year ago, and I was at the same time carefully wording an email response to an delicate inquiry on another screen, AND texting back and forth with my co-worker on something that was going on in her area she needed help with.  And then somebody asked me a question in that ZOOM call . . . and I'd only half-heard the question, and of course answered a question that was...

"A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself." ~Proverbs 11:17 What if you wrote down every good thing that happened to you in a day.  And then you wrote down every bad thing that happened to you in a day.  Which list would be longer?   I think it would depend on what kind of day you'd had, right?  If you've had a rough day, you're likely to be focused on those things that happened that were bad.  If you've had a great day, you're probably thinking about all the good things that happened to you. Now think about this. When we've had a good day, has nothing at all bad happened that day?  Was every single part of our day good?  Or was there one or two things that weren't great that we've forgotten about because we were focused on the fun we were having.  We were focused on the outing.  We were focused on the entertaining event.  We forgot about the lousy sandwich we had for lunch.  We forgot about the driver that ...

" Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." ~1 Peter 5:7 When I preached my message last Sunday, I told a story that illustrates the difference between saying we believe something and actually believing something.  I found myself in a situation two weeks ago, where I was right in the middle of a sermon about trusting in God, when I had to do just that.  When I flipped the page on my I-Pad, I discovered the last three pages of my sermon notes were missing.  And I depend on my notes a great deal--I'm meticulous about preparation!  I had to wing it.  Trusting that God would give me the words.  And He did.  But what a test that was! There's a big difference between believing something, and being put to the test on that belief.  Just ask Peter. Every once in awhile, we will find ourselves tested on what we believe.  And what Peter was hitting on in this verse is really key in making through those tests. Knowing that God cares for us....