When my friends are in trouble, I tell them that I will walk beside them. And I really mean it. I have always had an image of being a shield to those that are close me, when life is getting the best of them. Telling them that I would walk beside them seemed like the right thing to say and do. I read an article in a journal today that caused me to rethink that image. The article describes a…
Summer is coming into its final stretch. Two a day football workouts start Monday. Marching band members will soon be practicing as well. The state of Texas will offer a tax free weekend to stimulate shopping this month. School begins August 22nd. A lot of teens have spent their summers going to camps of all kinds. There is basketball camp, band camp, and football camps of all kinds. Church camp is often figured into that mix. I suspect there is…
Times they are a changing around the Knox household. My youngest son informed me today that his older brother would not be home for Thanksgiving this year. Randall is spending the fall semester at the Los Angeles Film Institute, so he will be eating his turkey in California when November rolls around. That will mark the first time since we started our family that we have not all been together for a major holiday. I am not sure I am…
This morning I completed my 5th year as the Head Men’s Counselor and Dorm Dad for Camp Zenith. Zenith is geared for 9th-12th grade students. Every year I come to camp with a desire to learn something from the kids I am serving that is meaningful. I have never been disappointed. Most of the lessons I glean are not new. They are just not so subtle reminders of what teens really need from adults. Every year there are students that…
I preach somewhere between 40 to 45 Sundays during the course of a calendar year. I am one of those fortunate ministers that get to deliver the same sermon twice on Sunday. There are times when I think that the first go around was just a good warm up for second service. And there are other times when I feel like I gave so much of myself in first service that there is not enough left in me for the…
He never embezzled any funds. He did not take advantage of people in business deals. He treated all of his customers with the same level of fairness and dignity. In fact, he dealt with the young adult just getting started in life in the same manner as he would an individual who already possessed significant assets. The man’s name is Tommy Wallace. He retired a few weeks ago after 64 years in the banking business. A lot has changed in…
What is the real story? I have a colleague that poses this question to me at least three or four times a week. What is the real story driving a person’s actions? That is the query he poses so regularly. A friend becomes enraged at something that appears trivial to those closest to him. And everyone wonders privately: what set him off? Others seem to have a complete inability to engage in meaningful interpersonal relationships. Friendships begin with a bang,…
I purchased a bed today to be placed in our newly formed guest room. We bought our first home in 1992, and lived in several rental properties during the preceding 8 years. I don’t recall ever having an area in the house designated as a guest room! As I hauled the mattress and box springs home from a garage sale today, my mind wandered back to about this time of year in 1989. Jan was expecting Randall around the first…
Mark and Ali Kaiser are my friends in Brazil. They are doing ministry in ways that I still dream of doing ministry. Their sleeves are rolled up and they are serving those that are homeless and people struggling with drug addiction. In recent months they formed a vision of purchasing two buildings in the city of Itu to use as half-way houses for those struggling with addictions. That dream became a reality this past week. Here is their most recent…
My patience level with people that are constantly chattering about good things they intend to do seems to be decreasing more every single day. My dad used to reference individuals that are: “all talk and no do.” I call it “blowing smoke.” And I my patience with smoke blowers is nearly exhausted. Today at the funeral service for Deputy Clifton Taylor, who was killed in the line of duty last Saturday, the sheriff of Johnson County made some observations about a…