Blog

For Wilshire Baptist Church

I’ve been to the eye doctor recently, hoping to get my eyes back in playing shape. I’ve been trying to wing it too long.

The problem I’ve had is when I play with Wilshire Winds, my vision gets wonky and I have trouble seeing the notes. Actually, I can see the notes, but sometimes I can’t tell if they’re on a line or in a space. And, if a composer has thrown in an “accidental” notation, I can’t tell if it’s a sharp, a flat or a natural. Guess wrong and the result is noise rather than music.

Continue reading “No More Winging It”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Who do you like to hang out with?

At a recent deacons meeting we had a lively conversation around our table during dinner, and reflecting on it later, I’ve been thinking about affinity groups. The term “affinity group” often refers to people organized around a common goal, but I’m talking about groups of people with common interests.

For example, of the seven of us around the table, six have degrees from Baylor. In the past, that would have been unimpressive at a Baptist church, but Wilshire is much less Baylor-forward than the church I grew up in during the 1960s and ’70s.

Continue reading “From Affinity to Eternity and Beyond”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Often my sense of humor is ill-timed, like on Ash Wednesday when I was standing in line in the chapel to receive ashes. As my turn drew near, I saw  Katie Murray’s ever-present smile and thought, “maybe I should ask her for a Nike swoosh instead of a cross.” Yes, I know: sacrilege of the highest order, but I had a lot of disjointed thoughts rolling around inside my head.

Just moments before that, we sang “The Old Rugged Cross,” a great old hymn I grew up singing with this refrain:

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,

till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

and exchange it some day for a crown.

Continue reading “Trophy or Cross”