Walking The Walk

" 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...

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." ~Philippians 4:6 I did something last week I'd never done before--I took a day off from work (both jobs), left the house early in the morning, and spent most of the day in a local park. I took a cooler full of water, my Bible, and a journal.  And that was it.  No phone.  No iPad.  Nothing that would distract me from what I needed to do.  I really needed to clear my head. I work a full-time job, and about six months ago, I became a part-time bi-vocational pastor of a small town Baptist church. It's been a challenge balancing my time between those two roles, and making sure I still have time for my family and keeping the yard mowed. But I've sure enjoyed it.  I like to be busy.  And I've found a pretty good balance. I have time enough to do everything I need to do as a pastor, but I just don't have enough time to do everyt...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  ~Philippians 4:6 In February, we added a member to our family--a little Corgi puppy that we named Oliver (although we call him Scooter more often than not).  He's about seven months old now, but from the very beginning, this little dog has been impatient.  That's just how this breed is apparently.  They've got an opinion about everything, and Scooter is annoyed if you're doing something, and he's annoyed if you're not doing anything.  My wife, Valerie, says he has the temperament of a grumpy old man.  I think we all struggle with patience from time to time.  Dealing with a difficult family member, or an annoying co-worker.  Sometimes we get too much on our plate.  Sometimes things come up at the worse possible times and it puts us in a mood.  Sometimes people aren't moving fast enough for us.  Sometimes...

Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice! ~Philippians 4:4   Paul wrote these words while he was in prison.  Can you imagine that?  Sitting in a cold, damp prison cell unsure about what your future holds, and celebrating the Lord as you await your fate.   Paul was able to endure every hardship because he had an anchor in his life.  His anchor was Jesus Christ.  It didn't matter what challenge he was facing or what trials he was going through, or what pain he might be suffering, he kept his eyes focused on Jesus.  He kept his perspective on the final reward and the work he had to do here before receiving it.   Paul had his priorities in order and his perspective, what he focused on, reflected that priority. We have the same anchor Paul had.  Too often we depend on our own resources as we're going through challenges in life, and we take our eyes off the eternal and get bogged down in the the temporary problems of...

"And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7 A study reported in the journal Social Psychological & Personality Science indicates Christians may very well be happier than atheists.  What researchers at the University of Illinois did was they performed a computer analysis of nearly 2 million Twitter posts from about 16,000 followers of prominent Christian and atheist personalities.  What they found was that Christians used more positive words than atheists, and talked more about their social relationships. It seems to support previous studies that show a correlation between all religions and a sense of well-being.  One theory is that atheists tend to to be more analytical in their thinking--and at extremes this thinking style can make people feel less content and happy.  Christians on the other hand are more creative in their thinking style, and this can make them feel mo...

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 4: 6-7 How we think is how we feel. It took me a long time to figure that out. We all have that constant internal mental dialogue that runs incessantly in the background. It's so normal and we're so used to it, we don't think about it very much. But we should be thinking about it much more because that dialogue is coming from us, and for many of us it is a constant stream of negative thoughts. You wake up in the morning: Ugh! Another day! You hear a funny noise coming from your car: That's going to be $1,000 bucks to fix . . . It rains during the night: my sump pump will probably quit. I'm too old and too set in my ways to change now . . . I'm not talented enough  to do this . . . I'm not sma...