We gathered at the table last night. It’s not just any table. It’s the Simpson table on 75thstreet in Lubbock. It’s the table where a number of my values were formed. It’s the table of my adolescence. It’s the table where I gathered with my buddies to inhale hamburgers we cooked outside during our college years. But it is also the table where I learned that members of several generations can come together and communicate meaningfully. My first…
–> –> Over the years I have made a lot of mistakes in relationships with friends and extended family alike. I can’t imagine listing all of them! I have been foolish. I have let relational wedges form. I have been impatient. I have been selfish in countless ways. And I have been judgmental. As I look back, I realize I allowed external conditions determine the course that a friendship took. When a relational firestorm occurred, the heat drove me away….
Your friend has just been diagnosed with cancer. She is facing decisions about surgery, chemotherapy, and perhaps radiation too. Her doctors are discussing lymph nodes and biopsies. References are made to oncologists that specialize in some particular aspect of cancer treatment. And the whole process is just overwhelming… And that’s when you enter the picture. You are the co-worker. This is someone you see at church regularly. Perhaps this is a close friend. What exactly what will say to this…
I am tired of empty rhetoric. And I have grown particularly weary of people that possess an endless array of opinions, but seem to have a basic inability to make a difference in their world. They are all talk. How’s that for a breath of fresh air for the new year? I am actually not feeling nearly as negative as that sounds. During the course of 2017 I was blessed by several people that I would characterize as being individuals of conviction. I…
–> She was sitting on the back of a tailgate a few yards away from where tragedy had just unfolded. It was still a fairly chaotic scene. One of the investigating officers motioned for me to join him, as he walked toward this young woman. He told her that her relative had not survived the injuries that were sustained in an incident that had occurred a few moments before she arrived at the scene. The officer soon resumed his investigative…
Meaningful friendships don’t just happen. Family ties are not maintained effortlessly. Forming and maintaining relationships requires a significant investment of time and emotional energy. Am I willing to make that investment? I was invited to a Christmas party tonight. I was reluctant to go, because I knew that more Spanish than English would be spoken. Speaking and listening in Spanish is work! And my Spanish vocabulary is certainly limited. In the final analysis, I chose to go. I made new…
I have a confession. I really do like social media. I have reconnected with an untold number of friends since I entered Facebook world in 2009. Friends I had not seen in nearly 40 years have become near and dear once again. It’s also a great way to keep up with my cousins who live all over the country. And I even get to keep up with my wife’s aunts! They are too cool. Social media has afforded such wonderful…
Judy Siburt is one of my all-time favorite people. In a recent post, she made the following observation. “A gift of a long, sturdy friendship is one of God’s greatest blessings.” I understand the concept of long-time friendship really well. But the word “sturdy” caused me to pause. I have used that word in reference to a woodworking project, but not as a descriptor of friendship. But who am I to question a career educator regarding word choice! “Sturdy.” It…
I had an old school world history teacher in the 9thgrade that frequently told her students to “wake up and smell the coffee.” It irritated me at the time, but now I find myself embracing the very idea she was trying to get across. I have been more fortunate than most. I’ve been surrounded my entire adult life by really good mentors. I have been able to observe, interact, and become personally acquainted with exceptional leaders. Many of those individuals…
Every day on my way to work I am being tortured. There are no breaks. It happens every single day. Some sadistic individual has placed a 1972 Chevy El Camino with a for sale sign right in my line of vision. I can’t not look at it. It is a beauty. The body is perfect and I suspect the interior is equally flawless. I try not to think what is under the hood. And I remind myself that it could…