This Jazzy Life

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Last Wednesday evening, Wilshire member Mark McKenzie started a three-week study on “Jazz + Faith,” and it’s off to a great start. We haven’t even gotten to the “faith” part of it yet, but in week one Mark walked us through the history of jazz in sounds, words and images. It was fascinating and revealing and I’m looking forward to week two and seeing how faith enters the picture.

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Not-So-Empty Nest

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Working in the yard on Friday I could hear the laughter of children on the playground at the church down the street. I hear that most days when I’m working outside and I don’t think much about it. But this time my mind locked in on the sounds of childish play because I was getting the yard and the house cleaned up for a bridal shower.

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Courting Disaster

For Wilshire Baptist Church

The TV news tease was, “Texas grandmother helps solve yarn heist,” but it was fake news. Not the heist part, not the fact that a grandmother solved it, but the picture painted by the use of that word, “grandmother.” The mental picture is a gray-haired, feeble old woman fighting off a bandit with her knitting needles.

But that’s not the truth of the story. The woman was perfectly healthy and mentally agile. Yes, she was a grandmother, but she was 59. There was no need to say she was a grandmother. It had no bearing on the story. It’s just a word used to paint a false picture to get your attention.

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