Are you at the end of your rope? Do you want to give up? I have noticed a pattern over the years. At the very moment I am ready to throw in the towel, God intervenes. Occasionally I want to throw in the towel, and get completely out of ministry. The expectations are beyond what I can handle on some days, and so I dream of being a stocker in a grocery store. Facing the green beans on the shelf…
I was informed by a well intentioned church member several years ago that as a minister I do not live in the real world. I think I know what he meant. His perception of my life as a minister is that I office in a church building. I deal with good Christian people through the course of my day. I don’t have supervisors or co-workers cusssing me, or telling off color jokes.I just don’t live in the real world in…
Several years ago I participated in a medical mission trip to Mexico. This particular trip to Ciudad Victoria marked my first visit to Mexico. It was not uneventful by any means. The customs officials were highly offended that one of our doctors had packed some drug samples that were out of date. We ended up trading a couple of cases of Dr. Pepper in exchange for immediate immunity from our infraction. Dr. Pepper is a rare commodity down there. In…
I wanted to take her home. I am not exaggerating at all. I would have taken her home, and never looked back. I got to hold her a couple of months ago at a local business ,while several police officers were investigating an alleged crime. I can’t repeat her name for reasons of confidentiality. Nor can I share her exact age. I can only say that she is an infant. I was riding out with one of the officers on…
Next Monday 86 volunteers from our church will host Royal Family Kids Camp in Glen Rose. RFKC, as it is commonly called, is a very special camp designed to exclusively reach out to children ages 7-11 who have been abused or neglected. The vast majority of the kids who will attend this year’s camp are in CPS ordered foster care. I ran across a compelling story from a Royal Family Kids Camp that took place in Kansas regarding a little…
I really do believe there is such a thing as a sacred place. I am not really using the term in a profoundly theological manner. I would say that there is such a thing as a special place, but sacred is more descriptive. The campus of Lubbock Christian University is a sacred place for me. I can still go and stand in the very place where I first got to know Jan during the spring semester of 1983. We sat…
Choose your words carefully. You never know what kind of impact that you are about to make in someone’s life. As a minister, I have heard everything. As a police chaplain, I have been called everything. That is a bit of a stretch, but it is not too far off from the truth. People’s verbal reactions to sermons can sometimes be amusing, and other times not so entertaining… A number of years ago a colleague received the following reaction in…
Two pop culture icons of my formative years died on the same day this week: Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Farrah’s famous swimsuit poster sold millions of copies, when it hit peak popularity in 1976. I was a freshman in high school that year. I always wanted one of those posters in my room, but my traditional Southern mother would say in her typical drawl: That poster is just “vulga.” (That is Southern for “vulgar’” by the way.) And then…
Why do I agree every year to be the Head Men’s Counselor for Camp Zenith? Why would any person in their right mind want to supervise over 250 high school age boys, and 22 college age counselors? I know one thing for certain. Sanity has nothing to do with it. Around 2:00 this morning I received my annual call. The annual call is generally worded something like this: “You have ____ number of campers out of their dorm rooms.” “They…
In July of 1989, I started anticipating the arrival of my oldest son. Jan was due on July 6th, so I scheduled my vacation to begin that very day. I was under the assumption that babies arrive right on schedule. Why would my male brain think anything differently? The 6th of July came and went. There was no hint of labor pains. There was a dad to be in the house who was on the verge of becoming a pain,…