Every Valentine’s Day for the past five years has been different. Oh, I have the same Valentine but having her as my Valentine means a little more each year. In just five weeks we will celebrate four years as a cancer survivor for my bride. Walking with Joni through eleven long months of chemotherapy and radiation made my love and appreciation for her grow even deeper. I was listening to the old iPod and a song by the Turtles summed up the current state of the marital union. Cue booming announcer voice… Let’s take you back forty years to the spring of 1967 when a California rock group hit number one with this song…Happy Together. I think about you day and night, it’s only rightTo think about the girl you love and hold her tightSo happy together I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but youFor all my lifeWhen you’re with me, baby the skies’ll be blueFor all my life We are so happy to be together. More than ever. Solomon wrote
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A song by Rascal Flatts made me ponder a larger question today. The song is called “My Wish” and the lyrics are really nice. My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to, Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small, You never need to carry more than you can hold, And while you’re out there getting where you’re getting to, I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too, Yeah, this, is my wish. We wish a lot of things that good. We wish good health for those we like and love. We wish that friends and family will prosper. But if I could have one wish for you what would it be? I think I would wish that every one would be able to experience the safety and acceptance of a community of grace. And if that wish is too big then I would wish for a room
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They woke up Punxsutawney Phil Tuesday morning long enough for the prognosticating rodent to let us know whether six more weeks of winter must be endured. According to Phil you should plan on bundling up for next month and a half. Phil looks about as happy as I do when when I am disturbed in the morning. Seventeen years ago a funny and underappreciated  movie came on the scene. Groundhog Day told the story of a self-absorbed news reporter (redundancy alert?) that finds himself stuck in an endless repeat of the same day. Bill Murray is perfect in the role of reporter Phil Connors. Since I live in the odd world of broadcast television I can relate to the cynical personality of Murray’s character. Reporter Phil is less than thrilled that he has been assigned to cover Punxsutawney Phil’s annual peek outside to predict winter’s duration. He feels he is “above” such an inane assignment. Connor’s looks into the camera and cynically reports:
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(I received a little e-note from Robert today. “Thanks for the insightful discussion of Bev Shea’s signature song. As today is his 101st birthday, I’ve posted an article about him, plus a video clip of the song, on my daily blog on hymn history, Wordwise Hymns. I invite you to take a look. God bless.”  Check out his site if you are interested in some of the stories behind the great hymns of our faith. Here is the article about Mr.Shea and his signature song.) I have been doing this church thing for a lot of years. I have sung hundreds of songs over the four decades or so that I have been darkening the church door. Some songs have great meaning to me. Some lyrics moved me to deep worship of God. Some times I really meant what I was singing. Other times I was singing through the motions while thinking about lunch and when the kick-off was going to happen. Gotta think
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The Wall Street Journal reported that more and more employers are enlisting happiness coaches. Love that image. “Line-up for smile drills. Jones, why are you frowning? Give me 25 guffaws pronto!” The actual concept is a trainer or speaker who will teach you how to practice new behaviors, cheer up and stop stressing out. The Journal notes that the methods these trainers teach differ from the skills coaches usually promote, such as advancing your career or learning teamwork. Instead, they draw on psychological research and ancient religious traditions to teach inner peace, gratitude, kindness and resiliency in the face of adversity – of which there is plenty in today’s workplace. Employees are urged to meditate, send daily e-mails thanking their co-workers for things, write in a journal about things they’re grateful for or help someone without expecting anything in return. It seems I have read a lot of those ideas in a text once…what is called…oh yeah…the Gospels. Okay, the e-mails weren’t mentioned by Jesus but I
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We have been watching a miracle of God’s healing grace in the lives of some dear friends. It made me think of a favorite go to song during difficult parts of the journey. The song, Bless the Broken Road, became a hit for the group Selah. Here are some of the lyrics. I set out on a narrow way, many years ago Hoping I would find true love, along the broken road But I got lost a time or two, wiped my brow and kept pushing through I couldn’t see how every sign, pointed straight to you It is so interesting to look back over the landscape of over three decades of this journey with Jesus. I can see God’s hand in so many events and even heartbreak in my life. My early church experience was a broken road of legalistic and judgmental Christians who crushed the spirit of a young and fumbling Christian. That experience became the basis of my books. I
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I read with sadness a story about erstwhile singer/actress Heidi Montag. She admitted that she’s “obsessed with plastic surgery” after undergoing 10 procedures in one day. Seriously? Only ten makes you obsessed? The 23-year-old discussed the 10 procedures in a People cover story interview in the magazine’s January 25 issue. “No one is perfect. But I am obsessed with plastic surgery and with maintaining my looks,” she told People. Montag shared these confusing statements with ABC’s Good Morning America. “I think that I do look like myself, I just think that I’m a different, improved version of myself.” Despite the plastic surgery, Montag insisted that her “main message is that beauty is really within.” I would suggest that her actions suggest that she doesn’t believe that at all. “I’m in the limelight, I’m in a different industry, and I have to do things that are going to make me happy at the end of the day,” she explained on the Good Morning
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