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I had the benefit of a Christian education as a child. And no, that does not mean that I was homeschooled by Christian parents during my formative years - I did about 3 months of homeschooling as a freshman in high school. And no, that does not mean that I went to Christian schools from grades 1-12. I did go to Christian schools for a few years, but the majority of my schooling was done at the public schools. So what do I mean? I mean that I received a Christian education predominantly from my parents, and not even predominantly during school...
“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.” -Rabindranath Tagore (cited in Thriving Through Tough Times, by Deidre Combs, 2012) For some of us, conflict is a dirty word. We try to avoid it all costs. We pray for pain to go away. We steer clear of any person who makes us uncomfortable. We tend to leave those situations where we do not have control. Avoidance is a common flight response to fear, uncertainty and major dis...
For those of us fortunate enough to live in this gorgeous country, our hearts have been thrilled with this fantastic spring as the lakes thawed, the grasses turned green and the larch and aspen started to leaf out again. As I looked about I saw the miracle of life exploding upon us and I started to ponder once again what life really is. Although science can define the attributes of living things, scientifically life itself remains an unknown. Yet we all realize what things are alive and those that are not. In all of the commotion that life...
You are a very rare person, indeed, if you have never faced a difficult time in your life such as death of a loved one, divorce, loss of home, unemployment…etc. I could list many possible events in your life that would give you extreme sorrow in some way or another. Just look at the tragedies that are in the newspaper every day that kill or severely injure thousands of people. I can’t remember how many times people have asked the question “Why would a loving God allow that to happen” after a major loss of life has occurred. After all, isn’t G...
I recently relearned a lesson I thought I had already learned and thought I understood...words are like birds, once they’re out of the cage, they’re often hard to recapture. Why is it so easy to find fault in others and so difficult to see it in ourselves? As I was reading a story recently regarding a married couple, I was reminded of the saying, “Women’s faults are many, men have only two, everything they say and everything they do.” The story was written by a gentleman by the name of Carl Windsor. He told of an elderly woman giving advice to...
The term “parting shot,” to give someone a final riposte in an argument while departing, originated with ancient Iranian (Parthian) fast, light horsemen who would turn and shoot backward toward pursuing cavalry to lure them into an ambush of waiting heavy cavalry...a “Parthian shot.” Historians still debate as to who first used them but it is the simple invention of the stirrup that gave the armies of Genghis Khan, the Avars, Sarmatians, Scythians and Attila’s Huns the advantage in their conquests. Throughout history, similar basic advances...
As we all know living here in western Montana, the weather changes fairly drastically on a seasonal basis. Sometimes it changes even much quicker - like recently when it went from snowing one day to sunny and warm a day later. We live in an area that has some of the most dramatic seasonal changes - about an hour drive from here is the location of the coldest ever recorded temperature in United States outside of Alaska - Rogers Pass recorded -70 Fahrenheit (F) in 1954. And only a few hours farther to the east but still in Montana, Glendive and...
This past month our family traveled back to Washington to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful visit with my parents, along with my brother and family traveling from Florida. The occasion of 50 years of marriage together was truly a time of celebration and thanksgiving. As my parents looked back over their years together, they were full of gratitude for the years they have shared and all the blessings received. Furthermore, all those who are close with my parents have experienced the example and demonstration of w...
In a small village outside Jerusalem, two sisters, Mary and Martha, watched their brother become ill and die. Because they dearly loved their bother, you can imagine their great suffering and mourning upon his death. Their friends and neighbors tried to comfort them but failed. Their sorrow was so great that upon seeing them, Jesus was filled with compassion and wept (John 11:30–35). We have been experiencing the same emotions in our congregation. One needs to simply follow the paper on a weekly basis to see that we experience this in our c...
Easter is arguably the most important holiday for Christians. The death and resurrection of Jesus are the foundation of Christian beliefs. So how has a holiday with so much meaning been seemingly taken over by the Easter Bunny and marshmallow chicks? What should we as Christians make of it all? The decorating of eggs for Easter can be dated back to at least the 13th century. One explanation is that eggs were forbidden during Lent and were boiled or roasted as a way of preserving them. They were then decorated as part of the Easter Celebration....
Most, if not all, of us have at one time or another said, “I can’t.” Whenever I uttered those words as a young boy, my Dad would always remind me that, “Can’t never accomplished anything.” In like manner, one of my business partners would always tell our sales people, “If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t. Either way you are right.” Both were expressions of positive thinking and reminders to not limit ourselves. Yet the reality of life is that there are some things that are too big (even for a positive thinker)....
“Ecce homo”...“Behold the man.” These are the words, in his native tongue, of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judea, Israel during the trial of Jesus Christ. Jesus had been brought to the Romans with the hope that they would condemn and execute Him, rather than His enemies themselves doing it. But amid all of the other events surrounding His arrest, trial, persecution and eventual crucifixion, there was one particular interaction that occurred just prior to these words being spoken as Pilate presented a brutally beaten and scourge...
I write this having just returned from a snowmobile trip to British Columbia. Seeley Lake has wonderful snowmobiling, world-class snowmobiling, but sometimes it’s nice to just get away on a trip to somewhere else. While out riding, I had a few thoughts and observations that I thought I would share. First, the world is big. Really big! I know that going from western Montana into the land of our friendly neighbors to the north does not pass through any heavily populated part of the world; indeed, driving for many hours covers a very miniscule p...
“Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord pointed out a tree to him. He threw it in the water, and the water became sweet.” (Exodus 15:25 CEB) The notion of “surrender” has a myriad of understandings. On one hand we can relinquish an object, even ourselves, over to the care or responsibility of another. On another hand, we can surrender by giving into something – perhaps a behavior, or going along with the crowd. This season before Easter, what those of us in certain liturgical traditions call “Lent,” provides an opportunity to focus on surr...
My mentor, co-worker and friend Rollie Johnson told those words to me in 2001. My mom had just died and I was entering into my senior year of college. I had mounds of responsibilities (from work to clubs to school to church and everything in-between) on my plate and I was emotionally broken. I didn’t know how to function with this new heaping pile of hurt from losing my mom. So, through my tears and pain, I told Rollie that I just wasn’t sure what to do because I had committed myself to so many things. And I wasn’t just a participant – I was a...
In October of 2006, a milkman by the name of Charles Carl Roberts lost all reason and control. Blaming God for the death of his first child, he stormed into an Amish school without any provocation, released the boys and adults, and tied up 10 girls. He shot the girls, killing five and wounding five. Then he took his own life. Should this have happened to me, I would have been angry, bitter and unforgiving, but the Amish response was quite different. While there was great anguish, there was no anger; while there was hurt, there was no...
In the gloom of all the tragedies in the world; the injustices and corruption in our government and country; the dysfunctional families and abuses; the addictions and life-threatening diseases; the starving and the homeless; the prejudices and the hate; the immorality and the fascination with evil and darkness; the self-centeredness and the greed; and the inevitable certainty of our death, there is still hope! We live in a fallen world where no one is without sin. Romans 3:23 states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of G...
While reading a recent article in the New York Daily News, I was once again reminded that we often miss the point of prayer. This article criticized Republican presidential candidates for tweeting that they were praying for those affected by the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. This same article praised Democratic candidates for tweeting their support for greater gun control laws. The cover of the tabloid screamed, “God Isn’t Fixing This,” followed by, “As the latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards w...
Admiral Horatio Nelson is one of England’s greatest heroes, yet his fame was gained not only due to his strengths, but arguably even more so from his weaknesses. Having lost his mother at the age of nine, he began his military career at the age of 13 as an ordinary seaman. From his first day at sea through the rest of his life, he would suffer from constant seasickness. His frailness also left him susceptible to other illnesses, contracting yellow fever, recurring bouts with malaria and an unidentified debilitating sickness in the West Indies....
As a contractor, I have many opportunities to see the value and effects of appreciation. Appreciation is simply defined as “the recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something.” There are certain customers that I find more pleasant to work for and certain customers that I find more difficult to work for. One of the differentiating qualities is how appreciative they are of what we do for them. Even a very demanding customer is easier to work for when they regularly express true appreciation for what we have done. And that...
“This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with death and our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other… There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in love. We love because God first loved us.” (1 John 4:9-11, 18-19 CEB)...
I love the beauty of a fresh covering of snow. After several days without a new snowfall, the ground begins to look muddy, full of tire tracks and various debris covers the surface. Once a new layer of fresh snow covers the ground once again the beauty starts all over again. As we get ready to step into a new year, I am reminded of the importance of a fresh start. The beginning of a brand new year shows us that we can start over. We may have fallen into bad habits, experienced personal trials or feel stuck. Standing on the doorstep of 2016,...
Tis the season to be jolly. Everywhere you go people are joyful, happy and cheerful. Despite the fact that as a society we see the holidays as a joyous time, many people find the holiday season anything but joyful. Tis also the season to especially miss loved ones that have passed on. For some, it’s the season to be lonely and depressed, and for others, a season of stress and anxiety. If you are one who is struggling this season, my heart goes out to you. I know many right here in our little community with real wounds this season—hurting fro...
I have fond memories of singing in a choir during a Christmas program when I was in the fourth grade in a small east Texas town. In order to be in the choir, you had to learn all the words to most Christmas carols. No one complained that we sang about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ nor were there complaints that a large Christian cross was hung on the auditorium stage. Things were different then and even though WW II was in progress we were looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior. I believe we knew what Christmas was all...
Recent years have seen increasing attacks on Christianity, one of which has been an attempt to remove Christ from Christmas. Many department stores and retailers have gone to stressing “Happy Holidays” in an attempt to not offend non-Christians. Apparently they are not concerned with offending Christians. Christmas has long been both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Chr...
