No sticks or stones have broken my bones, but words have surely hurt me. And I've never broken bones with sticks and stones, but surely I have hurt with words. Maybe it was easy in kindergarten to chant them away with a catchy limerick, but, it becomes harder as we grow and find that there are meanings -- well and not -- attached to most words, whether hurled in anger, served softly with a sob, uttered in exasperation, sighed in resignation, delivered with blunt accusation, wrapped in hope or enunciated with grace. Words are too often the weapon of choice. Words said to you. Words said … [Read more...] about Words Worth Forgetting
When You’re Tempted to Tempt Temptation
I find myself in an odd situation at this point in life: looking for a suitable job. Three years out of “early retirement” from AT&T, with two books behind me and The Guest House established, I am in an odd position that seems best described as between doors. So many have closed behind me to make me realize I was in so many places at one time that it may not have been very clear to anyone who knew me exactly where . . . or even who . . . I was. Suddenly, it seems, doors are scarce. And, I like work. Not just because I want to continue to eat or be able to read with a working … [Read more...] about When You’re Tempted to Tempt Temptation
Beyond Chikin and Kissin’ are People in Pain
Chicken sandwich wrappers are headed to the landfill in record numbers. Digestive juices have done their duty. Thousands upon thousands of waffle fries have worked their way into the calorie count. And it's Thursday and we're hungry again. Thousands of men and women who struggle with sexual identity, poised between the pain of the pull, paused to watch the lines grow and the commentators commentate and the pundits pundit and beneath the wash of explanations and declarations, they pondered the rationales and motivations and tried to uncover what it all means for the gnawing … [Read more...] about Beyond Chikin and Kissin’ are People in Pain
You Don’t Need Permission to Change
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. -- Matthew 7:7-8 It was in a summer in the '60s in the steamy hot apartment-laden suburb of Houston that I first became aware that change was actually sometimes in you and of you, and not just something others did to you. Up to that point, change had been dependent upon a parent's whim or job, or the ebb and flow of family income. We might live in a house with a nice big yard and a barking … [Read more...] about You Don’t Need Permission to Change
The Summer of the Bully in the Barn
He is jealous for me Loves like a hurricane I am a tree Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy When all of a sudden I am unaware of these Afflictions eclipsed by glory And I realize just how beautiful you are and How great Your affections are for me -- John Mark MacMillan Summer is upon us again. Hurricanes and thunderstorms, sleeping late and stargazing, sunburns and swimming pools, watermelon and homemade ice cream, lazy days where sameness feels like security and days that change us forever, slipping in beneath the haze of heat to catch us … [Read more...] about The Summer of the Bully in the Barn
Lead Us Not Into Confusion
If we had it to do all over again We'd make so much better decisions. Only opening doors we should enter in Building lives without all the pretensions. With character above reproaching, And no reason to second-guess, With this sin no longer encroaching Doing nothing we need to confess. And, if they had the chance to redo it, Might forgiveness be not so held back? And peace found by those who pursue it? Would grace not be calling us back? The "we's" and the "they's" can begin again When both set aside all the fear, So the broken begin to mend from within While the … [Read more...] about Lead Us Not Into Confusion
President Obama Takes Brokenness to the Bank
“This is something that, you know, we’ve talked about over the years and she, (Michelle) you know, she feels the same way, she feels the same way that I do. And that is that, in the end the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people and, I, you know, we are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others.” -- President Barack Obama , announcing his personal support, as a Christian, for the legalization of gay marriage. "God is the author of marriage, and we will not let … [Read more...] about President Obama Takes Brokenness to the Bank
“At the Statue of Jesus, Turn Left”
As more decades descend upon my timeline, my confusion about the perfect randomness of God, as He demonstrates His all-knowingness, does not unravel, but remains tightly wound, safely bound by trust. I often do not know how or why His will is what it is, and my clarity remains unclear on the entire "God allows" issue. I only know He does . . . and He knows why. And I trust. God is not random. God is God. This is, after all, His world, not mine; in His hands, not mine; His creation . . . not mine. No matter what I have to say about this world, He spoke it into existence. And, in a world … [Read more...] about “At the Statue of Jesus, Turn Left”
At the Corner of Grace and Gray
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. -- Matthew 5:15 God created minds . . . and people think pure and impure thoughts God created hearts . . . and people love and hurt. God created bodies . . . and people care for or become careless. God created love . . . and people give freely or withhold selfishly. God created truth . . . and people declare or deceive. God created hope . . . and people build it up or dash it down. God created grace . . . and people give or hoard. God created faith . . … [Read more...] about At the Corner of Grace and Gray
The Line Between Almost and Always
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-21 While I don’t comprehend fully why some things happen, and some don’t, I do believe God is always with me, even in those moments when the grey claims the day, and the bleak overwhelms the week, just as much as on the days where all is … [Read more...] about The Line Between Almost and Always