Learning
Growth
Unity
Fall in Bend
I love fall in Bend.
Warm-ish days and cold nights signal the change I always enjoy seeing come through the door. The trees around town and in our neighborhood will soon stand out as clownish, dressed in crayon-colors of reds and yellows and oranges popping against the ever-green evergreens.
Oh, Dang...Again?
It’s pretty common when a Jesus-follower is explaining their faith to someone who has yet to meet him, for him or her to drop into almost salesman mode. Describing a faith-life can come across as living without hardship, drama, major problems and where all is rosy. On top of that an impression can be left that life as God’s child is always sweet and following his directions easy and personal faults fade.
Hogwash.
The Best Five Years of My Life
“Aside from the cancer, this has been the best five years of my life,” he’d said to his brother-in-law before passing. His words were shared at his funeral, and they stuck with me. Five years ago, my nephew Michael was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. It forced an early retirement as a pediatrician.
An Oldster's Life Template
Recently I spent a weekend with a bunch of old dudes. We gathered to explore ideas concerning how we can flourish and finish strong. All the guys were in their 4th quarter, some in the red zone.
When it comes to oldsters, elders, geezers, we have traveled into and transitioned out of the first two stages of a person’s life.
Acts: The Word Planted
Welcome to another edition of “Acts”, stories of the Holy Spirit’s exploits in today’s world. Sometimes the Holy Spirit makes himself evident with tongues of fire. Other times, he passes by in a barely audible whisper. Today’s story is more like the latter.
How Are You?...I Don’t Know…But…
In this brief letter, I am discussing a very serious subject, but in my own Dorene-Style-Speak because that’s what comes naturally for me. Please bear with my humor, but please, please, also hear my message.
Let me introduce you to my new roommate. I call her “Alzyee.” It’s my way of making light of a terrible diagnosis.
Bowling Alone
You’ve seen it plenty of times: The older man sitting on a bench by himself who appears to be quite alone, or the woman hunched in the booth at the diner slowly eating at a table set for one, or the person of any age walking down the street looking lost.
When Your Plans Go Sideways
Once upon a time, I planned a happy marriage with kiddos who, when they grew up and married, would live just down the street from us. Well, maybe not down the street, but certainly closer than 2,784 miles (daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids) and 3,716 miles (son and daughter-in-law).
Catawba Road
Time flies but memories hang on with lessons learned.
It seems like just last summer, but it’s been ten years since I rode my bike across the country. Claudia kissed me goodbye in Yorktown, VA and four days into the journey I stopped to see her at her brother and sister-in-law’s place just west of the Blue Ridge. On Mother’s Day it was truly launch day for this solo trip I had imagined for so long.
Consuming or Consumed
Social media and its amazingly powerful algorithms carry far more influence on our lives than we might think.
Alarms are sounding in most every corner of society concerning the ways powerful forces reconfigure the ways life is lived, from the halls of power to the church or schools or families and individuals. These systems work by relentlessly funneling more and more of what I search for direct to my device.
No Kid-Sized Holy Spirit
"If Jesus could come back then, why can't he come back now?" The inquirer was a 10-year-old girl I'd met a few days before, a girl I wasn't sure would still be at camp that day because of how intensely home-sick she'd been at the beginning of the week. A girl who had never attended church or heard about Jesus, whose Bible had never been opened, only purchased because a Bible was on the what-to-bring-to-camp list.
When the Fire Burns Low
I don’t think I’m too out of the ordinary when I say sometimes my faith-fire burns low.
When my days get crowded, or when the natural worries of life consume my thoughts, or just when I forget to recall what matters and what keeps the wheels on the bus going round and round, my spiritual fire burns down to embers. I still go through the motions of doing faith stuff, but the vitality I long for is absent.
Strengthening Ties and Air Shows
Date Night in our household unfolds on Fridays, although one of us tries to extend it into one big Date Day. “Honey, do you want to walk down to the Old Mill and get a chai latte this morning?” “Hey, does a hike sound good this afternoon?” “Where are we having dinner this evening?” See how that works.
Teams Within the Team
We recently got back from Virginia and a family reunion with Claudia’s clan. It was a great time in the high heat and humidity spiced with laughter and much too much comfort food, like mounds of sugared bacon (so good you want to rub it in your hair).
The Big Leagues and the Apocrypha
I grew up in awe of Major League baseball players, and to me they were like gods. They weren’t just bigger, stronger and faster than everyone else. Big-leaguers had an aura of boy-like charm and confidence, and they performed nothing less than magic on the baseball field. It’s sinful idolatry, I know, but what I’m getting at is that I perceived them to be a completely different and better category of human beings.
It’s Later Than You Think
We sat in comfortable silence. With my longtime friend, the shade and light breeze felt just right on a hot afternoon. Neither of us were in a hurry and our conversation wandered like a pleasant stream. We talked of past adventures and future hopes, of opportunities missed and chances taken.
Choices
A Challenge and Three Tests
Last week’s blog looked at the swing of events from the Yahoo! of Jesus’ baptism to the then of his time of testing in the desert, culminating in the duel with the devil. I used the space as a parallel to our life: We are right with God, but still often kicked around the playground by trials. Lessons in the flesh from Jesus’ experiences have a way of ricocheting relevantly in any of his follower’s mind and heart.
What Are Your Markers of Success?
What are your markers of success?
Success used to look like getting as many items checked off my to-do list as possible in a day. The more I accomplished, the more successful I was, right? And maybe even the more worthy I was, or so I thought.
Two Little Words
For me, Tim Keller might just be the GOAT of modern-day pastor-teachers and authors. Gone too soon, but still impacting many, Tim’s insights and reflections on scripture provide a master class in a faith life lived well.