My Ramblings

“Your loving kindness is better than life." Taken from an ancient psalm and more contemporary Christian song. Often I equate the good things in life with God’s loving kindness. The close parking space, the friendly receptionist, the sale at the grocery store, the pay raise, the warm reception at church, the green lights, etc. all point to God’s favor warmly extended our way. Who could argue with God’s loving kindness expressed so beautifully and practically on behalf of mankind. Even Scripture reminds us that we should be thankful and realize where the good things come from, “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of heavenly lights.” To go a step further, we can begin to equate these “blessings” with God’s communication with us. We pray, talk to God, and don’t hear a response with our ears, but allow God to speak through circumstances. For example, everything falls into place for a new job and we "hear" that as God speaking to us to take ...

Again this morning, I am amazed at the spiritual blindness of some. In the Gospel of John, Chapter 5, Jesus has just healed a man who has been an invalid for 38 years. Now that he is healed, Jesus tells him to pick up his mat (he used it to regularly lie in wait by the pool at Bethesda) and go home. This man has not been able to do such a thing in 38 years. It is a miracle. However, there is a problem. The day all this happened is a Sabbath and people are not supposed to work on the Sabbath -- this man is breaking the law by carrying his mat. The religious leaders of the day scold the man for his actions and he tells them, "The man who healed me told me to pick up my mat and go home." The leaders respond, "Who told you to pick it up and walk?" They completely overlook the healing. They skip over the miracle -- this man has not been able to walk for 38 years and today he is walking!! These religious leaders are so offended by the man's actions that they ...

A simple question. If only the answer could be so simple. Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of John, encounters a man who has been an invalid for 38 years -- longer than I have been alive. Jesus asks the man his simple question, but instead of "yes" the man begins to make excuses... "I have no one to help me," "I am too slow getting in the pool," "someone else always gets in before me." Thankfully, Jesus gets beyond the excuses and hears the man's heart, "YES, but..." The man wants to be healed, but simply did not see a way out of his situation, except for the waters at the pool of Bethesda. His focus on this one "answer" blinded him from seeing THE answer. He could see no other alternative. How often do I miss what God wants to do in my life, my family, my church-family, simply because I can't see. I think I know the answer and if Jesus would just lower me into the pool, before anyone else gets in, then all wo...

I can't believe it's here; the first day of my six-week sabbatical. The months leading up to this day have been busy and hectic. I have put a lot of extra time and effort into preparing myself and the church for this extended absence. In thinking over these things on my drive home yesterday a couple things came to mind. First, I am only going to be gone six weeks, this should not be such a big deal. The reason the church has made such a big deal of it is because I have made a big deal of it. I think a couple of things play into the difficulty of going away: one, I am the only pastor and only full-time employee on staff at the church and two, due to my own failure to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, I still do a majority of the tasks necessary to keep the church business and the church services running from week to week. Taking this break has forced me to delegate many of the tasks that should have been delegated a long time ago. Also, during this time, I am...

My six-week sabbatical begins today. It is strange to think that I won't be back in the office for over a month. The Potomac District , in its effort to plant new churches and rejuvenate plateauing congregations is encouraging the pastors of the district to occasionally take time to rest. Each year the District approves a certain number of sabbaticals. Of course, ministers can take a break any time they like, but with District approval comes funds to help pay for some travel during the time off. The meeting that this sabbatical was approved the board changed the district's sabbatical guidelines. Under the former guidelines, the District has certain expectations of its ministers on sabbatical. To the best of my memory, some of those guidelines are as follows: ministers should take at least four consecutive weeks off ministers should not preach for at least two of those weeks in a row two weeks of the sabbatical should be used for a family vacation the minister should spend time...

It's been a tough week personally. I took some time just before Easter looking at pics from last Easter when my sister and nephew were in town for a visit. We enjoyed Easter Service at church, the kids loved the Easter egg hunt. Then, we drove over to the hospital to visit mom. We took some pics of the three boys in their Easter clothes sitting on the bed with their grandma. She hated the idea of being photographed in the hospital. She always cared so much about how she looked and never thought she looked great, but we talked her into allowing the pics. I'm glad she did although looking at them now makes me sad. Little did we know that Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, that just over two weeks later, mom would be gone. I miss you, mom.