For Wilshire Baptist Church
Sometime after LeAnn and I were married, our youngest nephew Ethan was staying with us and he discovered a sock puppet app on our iPad. He started creating short puppet shows, and the one we remember most was a sock puppet wedding where the two characters faced each other and repeated these vows, dictated by Ethan:
“Do you appreciate this woman?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And do you appreciate this man?”
“Yes, I do.”
Continue reading “Appreciation”For Wilshire Baptist Church
Watching the Olympics over the weekend, I saw several false starts in the heats and final for the men’s 100-meter run. In every case the runner knew immediately what had happened: In a split second — quite literally 0.1 second — years of training and dreaming were lost. There was no complaining or negotiating with technology that measures foot pressure on starting blocks. The runner was escorted away from the track and off the world stage.
Continue reading “Good Finish”For Wilshire Baptist Church
I often come to these weekly writings with something that is jumping up and down in my mind and it just spills out on the computer screen in front of me. At other times, I have to push and pull to get something going. And then there are days like today when my head is full of so much noise and static that I can hardly think. I need silence.
In a loud, chaotic world, sometimes silence is a good place to be for a while. There is so much swirling in the news and in our personal lives that we can get caught up in the noise of it all and become overwhelmed. My personal news feed ranges from the crucial to the superfluous: the ongoing pandemic, work projects and deadlines, fate of Big 12 athletics, climate change, health and happiness of loved ones, justice and equity, maintaining the house and yard, trying to be a good husband, brother, son and friend. You have your own list too.
I can’t fix many of the things that concern me, and talking about them feels futile. So, silence feels right today. Silence can be a prayer. Silence can be a place to wait for and listen to the Holy Spirit. Silence can soothe and heal the soul.
