“Is that your cell phone?” I squirmed in embarrassment as a well-known theologian and pastor turned to me in the midst of a presentation in a crowded auditorium on the SMU campus and asked that question. I started to apologize when he interrupted me and said, “In our church, we insist that everyone leave their cell phones on and that babies are never shushed. If we don’t have time to listen to crying babies, what do we have time for?... Read more
I sat in the seminar room watching the young and articulate woman across from me explain how she was serving as pastor to a church in what is called the “emergent” stream of Christianity. This young, energetic, vitally alive woman described how they meet in rented facilities on Sunday evenings, all go out to dinner together afterward, and then hit a pub or bar in the area and often have conversations that take them into the next day. How alive!... Read more
When things aren’t tame, we get hurt or sick or hungry. But without hunger, pain, or anguish, we lose the ability to appreciate the real good when it comes. Mr. Tumnus: He’s not a tame lion. Lucy Pevensie: No… but he is good. “He’s not a tame lion.” Anyone who has read The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis or seen either of the two Narnia movies would recognize that line. It’s Aslan’s description. Aslan, the great lion who... Read more
“The greater the relationship, the fewer the rules.” I read that phrase many years ago and it has stuck with me since. The truth of it reverberates deep inside me. I see it play itself out over and over. In situations of loving trust, few rules are needed. But when trust begins to break, when one party no longer believes the best of the other, when intentions are questioned, the rules start to mushroom. The financial markets are facing the... Read more
There are advertising campaigns in England and Spain which publicize the atheist contention that God does not exist. Apparently highly Roman Catholic Spain has many, many atheists who feel very much discriminated against. So the local atheists have purchased an ad to run on the side of an occasional city bus that reads: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy life.” Now, while I don’t agree with the atheists, I find I disagree even more with the people... Read more
So what is health anyway? If we can’t define it well, we can’t figure out if we have it. Here’s a test to check your mental health: http://www.sanityscore.com/ . I took it and am considered pretty healthy mentally. How nice of them. But I’d sure like some good definitions of health, physical, mental, spiritual. Give us a place to start. “A Pastor’s Thoughts” from First UMC, Krum, www.thekrumchurch.com Read more
How does a person get well? What is healing? Does God really heal miraculously? How does western medicine cooperate with the healing process? How does one maintain spiritual health when the body appears to be suffering from un-health? Perhaps an even better question: what IS health anyway? I’ve got a lot of these questions racing through my mind after the last few months in particular of seeing many dear friends and relatives get hit hard by various illnesses, some absolutely... Read more
I was enormously privileged this year over the Christmas break to enjoy visits from my three sons, their gorgeous wives and significant others, and my three grandchildren, Joshua, 2 1/2; his brother Samuel, 13 months (my oldest son’s children), and Kate, 1 1/2, (my middle son’s child). I have not had the opportunity to spend much time with any of the grandchildren. The two grandsons lived most of the last year in France and Colombia, and have now moved to... Read more
Well, the challenging week continues, but I’m beginning to see some daylight. I took yesterday off, declined to meet with some people over important issues because I knew I shouldn’t trust my insight in this exhausted state, and then worked outside in the flower beds for much of the afternoon. I cleaned out the beds with summer/fall plants, now dead from front. Onto the compost heap. I looked sadly at the house plants I had put on the front and... Read more
A few weeks ago, a horrific terrorist attack left a number of people dead and wounded in Mumbai, India. I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to this–it was just another piece of bad news filling the newspapers and airways. My inner response, “It doesn’t really affect me anyway.” Then I got an email from my oldest son who has been doing some graduate work in France. One of his classmate’s father was injured in the attack. Although the... Read more
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