In a recent post I described the healing power of a room of grace. In that room you find acceptance instead of rejection. Understanding instead of judgment. Sadly such a place of God’s grace seems more the exception than the norm and that was communicated in this thoughtful response from a reader. But where do we find that room of grace, where we are accepted, where people run to us in acceptance, instead of running from us for being broken? Too many in the churches are broken-hearted themselves, are facing terrible situations they don’t know how to cope with. Most don’t seem to even know we are in a battle with Satan to discourage us so much that we don’t know how to seek God with faith. Those who CAN’T attend church are mostly forgotten or invisible. (I’m not even speaking of those who don’t want to go.) That honest and heartfelt lament made my heart sad. Where do you
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(The latest iPod Devotional. Check it every Monday at theFish.com) One of my failed career bits was as a disc jockey at 1000 watt powerhouse WCHI in Chillicothe, Ohio. This was back in the days of turntables and actual vinyl records. I got to pick my own playlist that was mainly Top-40 pop. Unfortunately my playlist was often influenced by my emotional state. I didn’t even realize I was doing that until a friend pointed out that I had played a whole set of depressing, losing at love songs on that day. So I would play B.J.Thomas singing “Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” followed by “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” from the Bee Gees followed by “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates. I might as well have gone to commercial with “I’ll be jumping off the broadcast tower right after this”.  Not sure the sponsors (except maybe beer and counseling centers) wanted me to be an electronic
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This has been a tough stretch in our little television freelance community. We are an odd lot of characters who bring sporting events and live television into your homes. I often say that we are basically like carnies except with fewer tatoos (although that gap is narrowing). We go into a town, set up the show, perform, tear down the show and go on to the next town. But one of the things I love about this business is the sense of family and community that we develop. So hearts are heavy in our world with the passing of two wonderful members of our television family. We have a lot of good guys in our business. But two of the best died just days apart. Cancer claimed our friend Jay Hamlin and a massive heart attack took our friend Tom Cox. When I remember old friends the first thing I generally think of is their smile. Jay’s smile was mischievous.
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(Latest edition of the iPod Devotional. Check it out each Monday at theFish.com) I think a lot about the church. The decision by Anne Rice to leave the church was no surprise. I have received hundreds of similar stories in response to my book “When Bad Christians Happen to Good People”and my blog. If a modest selling author and blogger like me gets that many responses then you can extrapolate that this is a big problem for the American church. A study by the Barna Group among unchurched adults shows that nearly four out of every ten non-churchgoing Americans (37%) said they avoid churches because of negative past experiences in churches or with church people. My heart aches when I hear stories of people who have been wounded and even abused by the churchgoers, leaders and pastors. I used to get angry and self-righteous. “How can they call themselves a Christian?” But now I am more inclined to ask the
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I have not written much about the church plant that Joni and I were a little part of six years ago. We had prayed and discussed with Nelson and Suzie Tull and Don and Cindy Moore a crazy idea to start a new church in the Wylie, Texas area. We hoped to start a small gathering of committed couples to begin that dream. That plan lasted about a week. Word got out and on a hot August night (Neil Diamond no-showed) nearly one-hundred folks crammed into our home in Garland to hear about the new vision and to prove that they could out body heat our desperate air conditioners. That session led to a temporary meeting spot at a Dallas business (ironically next to a “gentleman’s club”) and then to an elementary school in Wylie. Along the way fifty of those folks journeyed to Nashville on an epic bus trip to see how another church had started from scratch. At Fellowship Bible Church in Nashville we heard sobering and inspiring advice.
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One of my favorite comedians is Brian Regan. He is off the charts funny and his material is family friendly. Written excerpts don’t begin to do justice to his delivery of the material but here is just a bit of one routine. Regan laments about how he often speaks without thinking and uses phrases incorrectly. Like the phrase “you too”. I’m just trying to go through life without looking stupid. It’s not working out too well. Sometimes you’ll say the right thing but at the wrong time and feel stupid. Something like: “You, too!” I was getting out of a cab at the airport and the driver goes, “Hey…Have a nice flight!” “You, too! You, too, you have a nice flight, too…in case you ever fly someday.” Don’t anybody look at me; I’m a moron. Don’t know when to say the “you, too” phrase. I can’t handle it. – Brian Regan But the “you too” phrase can be a blessing
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(This is the latest iPod Devotional that appears each Monday at theFish.com) One of my peers recently noted that “getting old is not for sissies”. Indeed. Even if you escape personal difficulties you will undoubtedly have family and friends who are going through physical, emotional and spiritual trials. One of the songs that I default to when I am walking through valleys with others is from singer/composer Rich Mullins. The song is from his CD called Songs and it is simply titled “Hold Me Jesus”. Well, sometimes my life Just don’t make sense at all When the mountains look so big And my faith just seems so small Right now I am in a pretty good place in my life and journey with Jesus. But then I started thinking about the many friends and loved ones who could relate completely to those lyrics in their current situation. And I can certainly remember seasons of my life when those words accurately reflected the condition of my
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