Celebrating the Journey

Last week at a Christmas party some friends of mine told me that their grandchildren did not have anything on their Christmas list that was under $100.00. My first inclination was to ask them if they could legally adopt me as one of their grandchildren. But my mind quickly raced back to a story I heard about another Christmas party that was held for our campers that attended Royal Family Kids Camp last summer. Royal Family Camps were formed to…

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 A person goes on a mission trip for the first time, and upon their return they are insufferable. Is it a life changing experience to serve people in a different culture who are living in desperate poverty? There is no doubt it. Such trips are truly transformational. When that first time participant returns home, they find it hard to comprehend that everyone else is not as fired up about going to Haiti or Mexico as they are after a two…

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 I miss teaching. I taught as an adjunct instructor for ten years at two different universities. I loved the students. Using my creative energies for weekly lesson preparation was nearly as much fun as being in the classroom. One of the perks of teaching is the closure that it brings. A semester begins in September and ends in December. Another semester gets underway in January and wraps up in May. Closure is a good thing. I always enjoyed getting a…

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 My imagination has to be kept in constant check, or it can travel to places that are not emotionally safe. When I am feeling strong resentment toward another person, my imagination slips into high gear and starts traveling through the rugged terrain of bitter images. I start creating vivid images in my mind of what I would like to do to the person whom I feel resentment toward. This of course is never a good course of action. A friend…

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I assigned a new meaning to “Going Postal” today. While I was waiting in line at the post office to send off my passport renewal the people lined up with me were grouchy, edgy, and just downright rude to the people trying to take care of their precious packages. The man who waited on me is normally very friendly, but I could tell his patience was being pushed to the limit. By the time I got out of that hotbed…

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 “If you don’t feel like preaching this morning, I will!” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that from one particular member of my church. If she didn’t offer her preaching services nearly every Sunday, I would terribly disappointed. There are of course some Sundays when I would gladly defer to someone that eager to get the job done! But in this case, I am somewhat fearful to abdicate my duty. I am not sure the church…

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 Why does it take a death? Why does it take a take a death for lifelong friends to finally get together and reunite? When I went to bed Sunday night, I had no idea that I would awake Monday morning to read the obituary of a longtime friend in the online edition of the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. The news of his death traveled among mutual friends quickly. Phone calls ensued. Little did I know when the day ended Sunday that…

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