The facebook message seemingly came out of nowhere on January 19th of this year. It was short and to the point. It simply said: John, did you live on 4 mile as a kid? (4 mile is the name of a road by the way.) I replied in the affirmative, so the next message was even simpler. It read: Remember me? How could anyone forget Ray Christenson? Ray lived almost directly across the road from the house I grew up…
The telling of The Parable of the Good Samaritan is prompted by the question: Who is my neighbor? That is a good question. Who is my neighbor? Serving as a law enforcement chaplain for the past 22 years has taught me that in some cases the answer to that question is…nobody. I do mean nobody. I have gone with police officers to deliver death notifications on more than one occasion when the person receiving that unexpected and awful news has…
I am not normally a list maker, but I made one out last night. It never actually made it to a piece of paper, but it was very detailed in my mind. I conjured up a list of six really stressful, unpleasant, sad, or irritating things that happened to me in the past week. I liked my completed list. It justified my grouchy mood. I woke up this morning and ran through the list in my mind again and again…
Several years ago I was picking one of my boys up at the high school after an out of town school event very late on a Saturday night. On the way home that night I had to take extreme evasive action to avoid a collision with a vehicle that was involved in some kind of road rage incident with another car at a high rate of speed. About the time that I got my wits about me enough to dial…
My assignment for this week is simple. I am to reach out to someone whose background is very different from my own. It is a timely assignment. Here is why: When we refuse to throw a relational life ring buoy, someone is going to drown. Such life buoys are on my mind right now. I received a phone call from a longtime friend earlier this week. She was quite disturbed the day she called. She told me about attending the same…
I am currently reading Dr. Tim Clinton and Dr. Gary Sibcy’s book entitled: Attachments: Why You Love, Feel, and Act the Way You Do. It is an exceptional resource. This evening I ran across this quote from the book: ”Feeling loved and being heard are so similar, it’s difficult to distinguish between the two.” My mind immediately went to my longtime professor, mentor, and friend Charles Siburt… OK, I hear you…How many times have I heard Dr. Siburt say that? And how…
Are you willing to do it when no one is looking? I think I do things for good reasons. I think I have really pure motives. But I was reminded today once again that reality is my friend. My motives are not nearly as pure as I would like to think. I discovered that my ego is indeed as big as Texas itself. Last month at church we underwent a period of 40 days of fasting and prayer. Our Family…
I have decided there are two kinds of people in the world. Just two mind you. There are coaches and there are critics. Given a choice I prefer the former and not the latter. Coaches encourage and critics dishearten. I feel very enlightened on this subject since I just returned from serving as a judge at the Texas UIL State Cross Examination Debate Tournament. As a debate judge, I feel a huge weight of responsibility to evaluate the round as…
We look at people’s appearance or demeanor, and immediately start forming conclusions. But don’t let a rough exterior fool you for a second. There could be a heart of gold lurking underneath that crusty surface. Refuse to evaluate a person’s character based on one experience with their behavior. Nobody’s conduct is up to par every single day. You will end up making a judgment call about someone that you will live to regret when you reach hasty conclusions about the…
I have spent my life waiting. In my formative years, I was literally dragged through the mall by my mother, so my sisters could shop for clothes. Waiting in stores that specialized in fashion for teen girls was equivalent to Chinese water torture. And then I got married. I soon figured out that it took my sweet little bride a lot longer to get ready than it took me to put on a pair of jeans and comb my hair….