“Ambition” I came across this article by a retired pastor in our state, Rev. Carl Schenck, about the positives and negatives of ambition. I hope you are as blessed by it as I was. Blessings, Chris James 3:13-18; Mark 9:30-37 Ambition fuels human behavior. Many events in people’s lives are motivated by ambition. A shopkeeper … [Read more…]
“A Team Sport” I like golf. As I write this, I’m sitting in front of our television watching the Ryder Cup matches. Part of what is interesting about these matches is how different they are than the typical golf tournament. If you’re not familiar with the Ryder Cup ,or golf in general, most weeks each … [Read more…]
“Finish Line or Starting Line?” As you likely remember, for the past couple of months our congregation and church leadership has been engaging in a process of discerning a new vision for our church. Briefly, a vision is a picture of a preferred future, and design for who we are and who we feel God … [Read more…]
“Where are you?” Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A few weeks after that tragic day, country singer Alan Jackson released a song with an opening line “Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?” Like many of you, I remember very vividly where I was that September … [Read more…]
“What can I do?” All week the news has been dominated by stories of the damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Ida. If you’re like me, these stories can become overwhelming. Sara and I watch the news and see the devastating pictures and ask questions like, “What can we do to help?” Typically, after natural … [Read more…]
Trial and Error “Wow, I’m really good at this too!” I still smile every time I remember our niece, maybe three years old at the time, saying this phrase after hitting a plastic ball off a tee for the first time. We were hosting a family celebration (Easter maybe) and the boys wanted to show … [Read more…]
Merciful God, We are grateful for the resilience, innovation and determination our students, teachers, school staff, parents and administrators demonstrated and developed over the past year. We begin this new school year in prayer because we are anxious for our students to resume school in person, yet still be safe from COVID-19. We pray for … [Read more…]
Mixtape One of my favorite parts of being a dad is boring my kids with those “when I was your age” stories. Most of these revolve around how much technology has changed things and how they will never understand some of the things that were part of our daily lives growing up. Recently, one of … [Read more…]
The Garden of Salvation Haphazard. Functional. Low-Maintenance. These are all terms that describe my philosophy toward gardening. I know, as a life-long Midwesterner I’m supposed to have soil running through my veins. But the truth is, I just don’t really care for it. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in gardening as a theory. I’m … [Read more…]
“Ugh!” Wednesday afternoon I walked into my lunch meeting, found a chair at an empty table, and allowed myself to sink into it, relieved for a break from the busyness of the morning. I let out a deep sigh. As more people arrived, I noticed how each person who joined me at the table seemed … [Read more…]