Note: This is a true story, but I have changed the names to protect the privacy of those described. -John “The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing… not healing, not curing… that is a friend who cares.” -Henri Nouwen It is never a good idea to allow our first impression of someone to be the…
It is Memorial Day Weekend. It is a time to barbeque outside and make homemade ice cream. Most importantly it is a time to show respect for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in military service. I hope we have not lost sight of that purpose. This particular Memorial Day is unique for me. I interviewed for my first ministry role with a church 25 years ago this weekend. The Tenth and Broad Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, Texas…
Mother’s Day has become one of my favorite holidays, because of a tradition we have established at church in recent years. During the Sunday morning service we have a baby blessing. We honor all of the infants that been born during the course of the previous year. Seeing parents with their babies in front of the entire church is great. During this time of blessing we commit to pray for these children and their parents. It is a great day….
I’d like to pose a question. Do you know anyone in this world who has ever disliked or said anything bad about Jan Knox? Go ahead, mull it over. Take as much time as you like. I am 100% sure that you can’t think of a single name. I’m just as confident that will remain true forever. In fact I’d like for this blog post to be the official start of my campaign to have my mother considered for sainthood….
Two of my boys will be home for the summer. I would of course prefer to have all of them home, but I will take what I can get! We are celebrating male bonding by playing fantasy baseball together and by watching all ten episodes of Band of Brothers. This is the first time that I have watched each installment in this mini-series that is based on the real experiences of World War II veterans. The show has really affected…
Yesterday I was honored to be asked to be a participant in The National Day of Prayer Breakfast held at The Granbury Resort Conference Center. My assignment was to pray for our military and our law enforcement officers. I think they knew pretty quickly they assigned the right guy to that task. They know what I am passionate about! But I could not help but be a little amused as well as humbled during the event itself. There must have…
I don’t know what to say…I hear this all of the time in reference to communicating with people that are hurting. People frequently tell me that they are hesitant to go see someone that is seriously ill, or an individual that is grieving a loss. I have been reminded this past week that only one question is needed. No other communication is necessary. All that you need to say is: How are you? That is all. There is no need…
I said goodbye to a friend today. She passed from this life last Sunday after a valiant battle with cancer. I am not allowed to share her age. She made that forbidden territory. But I will say that she was four years younger than my mother, who was born in 1927. I use my mother’s age as a frame of reference primarily because Sara treated me like she was my mother. Every Sunday after church in the foyer we went…
In 1972, we were sitting in the lunchroom at Wind Point Elementary Schoolexchanging cans of snack pack pudding and discussing the Green Bay Packers. You notice I said “cans” of pudding. Plastic containers were still in the research and development stage at that point in our lives. In 1972, we were carefree. We were mischievous. We were not interested in academics, but we appreciated the social aspects of school. We kept things hidden in our lockers that would have caused…
Looks can be deceiving. Yesterday I played golf with an older gentleman that I was introduced to by a mutual friend. Physically speaking he can no longer hit the golf ball with a lot of force. He is a little slower in playing the game in general. There were probably players behind us wishing that the old man would speed it up a little. But looks can be deceiving. The older gentleman’s nephew also joined our group yesterday. He mentioned…