A Reminder About Grief     We covered the chapter “Enlarge Your Soul Through Grief And Loss”  in our Emotionally Healthy Spirituality class tonight.  It is a challenging chapter that encourages us to embrace the difficulties, griefs and losses of life as avenues of growth and transformation.  There is no resurrection without death and although it […]

Know Yourself That You May Know God      We are halfway through our Emotionally Healthy Spirituality course.  It has been a great time of sharing in this journey of emotional health and contemplative spirituality.  I appreciate the work and effort of each person as they give themselves to the work of God’s Holy Spirit […]

“Let’s Make A Deal” In the 1960’s and 1970’s there was a show called “Let’s Make A Deal.”  The premise was quite simple…Audience members would dress up in whatever crazy costume they thought would get them picked to be one of the people (“traders”)  to “make a deal” with the host  Monty Hall. In most cases, […]

This past week a prominent young author and pastor from Harvest Church in California killed himself.  Jarrid Wilson had battled depression since childhood and was a huge advocate of bringing awareness to mental illness.  Sadly and shockingly he chose to end his life, leaving behind his wife, two young children and a community of brokenhearted […]

Humility   My last “Reflections” I wrote about “Pride”. Today, I write about “Humility”. Two sides….Same coin.  Because both have to do with “self”, so while pride is about self focus humility is about being other focused. Pride says “look at me” while humility deflects that kind of naval gazing. When I was a teenager […]

Pride   “There are two kinds of pride, both good and bad. ‘Good pride’ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‘Bad pride’ is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance.” (John Maxwell)   On Sunday my sermon title was “Washing Your Pride Away.” I gave out wash cloths at the end of […]

Failure and Faithfulness       Baseball is often referred to as “a game of failure.”  The reason being is that the greatest hitters of the game, the ones who make it into the Hall of Fame, get a hit just three times in every 10 at bats.  If a player hits .300 for the season […]

“Taste And See That The Lord Is Good”       We enjoy watching Guy Fieri on Diner’s, Drive Ins and Dives.  They go to out of the way, unique eateries where people love to gather.  Whenever we are in a new location we look for restaurants that have been Featured on “Triple D.”  We have […]

“In the essentials unity. In the non-essentials liberty. In all things love.” John Wesley “Good and bad, I defined these terms quite clear, no doubt, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then I’m younger than that now” Bob Dylan         Marie Kondo is an organizing consultant from Japan who has written several books […]

“How Many?”    On this, Bob Dylan’s 78th birthday coinciding with Memorial Day weekend, I thought it apropos once again to reference a song that is representative of the anti-war, folk genre and peace movement of the 60’s.  As long as there is war, as long as soldiers and civilians die as the result of war, […]