This summer, some close friends welcomed around 50 folks to their home on the river for a night of laughs and good talk and a fine meal of some of the best brisket I've ever eaten. Our host, Don, shared the story below. I'm not sure where he got it and maybe you have read it before, but it is worth a repeat.

Pedestals are for statues, not people.

Once we elevate a person to an admired status, we can inadvertently rob them of the rough edges that make up the human experience.

This summer will remain in my mind’s memory file as a trying one.

• I watched a friend’s family continue to spin out of control, and the husband feeling powerless to change its trajectory.

• I stood in grief with many others saying goodbye, for now, to a remarkable young man.

• Entropy proves itself again true as my body slowly slows from a lively sprint to more of a wobbly jog.

• The growing polarization in our nation and community looks more and more like flashing warning lights of an oncoming calamity.

Every one of us has, is, or will face stressful times that tempt us to call a time-out...or the paramedics. If I asked you to name the stressors in your life, most can reel off a parade of people and situations that cause you heartburn.

Our church family lost a young man last week, and it has deeply saddened our congregation. Joel was the oldest son of a fine family of eight. He was 21 and ready to graduate this winter from OSU and had a wonderful future ahead of him. Tragically, he fell while climbing North Sister with his girlfriend and he perished.

Think again of that message from Jesus toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount when he says,

“So whatever you wish that others would do for you, do also to them, this is the essence of all that is taught in the Law and the Prophets.

A handful of years ago I rode my bicycle across the country. Claudia and I flew to Virginia, where I had shipped my bike, and after dipping my rear wheel in the Atlantic (truthfully, it was the Chesapeake Bay), I started turning pedals and headed west…toward home.

There is a lesson for us to glean from an interesting relational story midway through the book of Genesis. 

In a self-published book titled, Uncommon Thoughts on Commonly Held Beliefs, Glenn Murray in one chapter discusses our identity. Who we portray to our world, who we are on the inside, then how God sees us.