My Mom died this weekend. There is the sadness of loss that is tempered with the joy of seeing her relationship with the Lord Jesus in her final months. The last year of my Mom’s life caused me to think of Al Michael’s famous question from the 1980 Olympics. “Do you believe in miracles?” I do believe in miracles. I have seen one. I loved my Mom but our relationship was challenging. She was raised in a family where love was not expressed. She could be very negative and her comments had stung me over the years. I knew that she loved me fiercely but I will admit that I grieved for a more gracious expression of her love. My Mom could be really difficult. As her health declined I prayed that her relationship with God would be clear to her and to her family. Last summer I journeyed to Ohio to visit her. A group of Christian friends in
Continue reading...

Mother Teresa was alleged to have said, “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle.  I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much”.  I think I understand how she felt. Regular readers of the humble ramblings know about Joni’s journey through breast cancer treatment. As she completed the bulk of her treatments I looked forward to the new year. Maybe 2007 would be better. But we never got to the ball dropping in Times Square before more troubles came our way. Joni noted that “bad news seems to come in waves”. I told her this was more like a tsunami. Just before Christmas we learned that one dear friend had entered hospice care. On December 27th the father of other close friends died unexpectedly. On New Year’s Eve I received a call that my Mom was not expected to make it through the night. Today I received a call that the 21 year old son of
Continue reading...

Sometimes this humble little blog effort touches me deep in my soul. It is an odd phenomenon that you can feel the pain of strangers by reading their words and feedback. I have been writing about a topic that God has been working on in my life for many years.  Forgiveness. I still have a long way to go. But I have seen the debilitating effects on individuals, families, and churches when there is no forgiveness. During my series on God’s Weight Loss Plan I received this heartbreaking message from a very honest reader who called herself “sinner”. Here is that post. I doubt I will ever be able to forgive the pastor who hurt my family. We lost so much, so many opportunities were taken from my children, precious years are gone forever. I asked for help and got used instead and all these years later we are still dealing with the consequences of that pastor’s negligence and lies. Our own pastor made everything so
Continue reading...

We have been outlining God’s Guaranteed Weight Loss Plan. With this plan you can lose the weight of bitterness and anger caused from lack of forgiveness. If you are carrying around an unforgiving spirit it is weighing you down spiritually and emotionally. Days one and two set the stage. Yesterday I outlined six facts about forgiveness. Today we wrap up the list. Fact 7: Forgiveness is not denial of the hurt. Pride will often cause us to “not allow the person who hurt us the satisfaction” of knowing we are wounded. That is absurd. Acknowledge the reality of the injury, but make the choice to be healed. Fact 8: Forgiveness eliminates revenge as an option. The late author Lewis Smedes makes a brilliant point about revenge. No matter how much we try “we cannot get even; this is the inner fatality of revenge.” When we start trying to get even, we have lost. How many times must I gossip about you to
Continue reading...

We have been outlining God’s Guaranteed Weight Loss Plan. With this plan you can lose the weight of bitterness and anger caused from lack of forgiveness. If you are carrying around an unforgiving spirit it is weighing you down spiritually and emotionally. Days one and two set the stage. For the next two days we will look at some things I have learned (usually the painful way) about forgiveness. Fact 1: Our ability to forgive is rooted in the depth of our gratitude.The parable discussed in yesterday’s post is the basis for our first fact. The foundation of forgiveness is our gratitude for the undeserved forgiveness we have received through Christ. Take some time to meditate about how much you have been forgiven. In the gospel of Luke we read about a sinful woman who washes Jesus feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. Jesus said, “Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very,
Continue reading...

Get out your pencils and paper and I will begin to outline God’s Guaranteed Weight Loss Plan. With this plan you can lose the weight of bitterness and anger caused from lack of forgiveness. If you are carrying around an unforgiving spirit it is weighing you down spiritually and emotionally. Forgiveness may be the most unnatural thing that the Lord asks us to do. Forgiveness flies in the face of all the inborn sense of justice that we possess. A man once commented to theologian John Wesley, “I never forgive.” Wesley responded, “Then, sir, I hope that you never sin.” The Gospel of Mark seems to set the forgiveness bar at an impossible height to clear. “Be alert. If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,’ forgive him.” Really now.
Continue reading...

I have to admit that Joni and I are not teary eyed to see 2006 slip into history. It has been a hard year. Don’t most of us see next Monday (New Years Day) as a fresh start? Don’t most of us hope and pray that the  New Year will be better? We make steadfast resolutions of how we are going to do better next year. The reality is that January 1st is just another day. We could just as easily resolve on May 18th or August 3rd that we are going to change how we live. But there is something psychologically powerful about the New Year. January is named after the Roman god Janus. He was unique because he had two faces…one to look into the past and one to look into the future. Today Janus the two faced would be a very successful politician. Someone once accused me of being two faced and I won the debate by asking this question. If I
Continue reading...