Stories and other stuff

I read a story online from the Washington Post about the past two decades of the decline of my beloved Washington Redskins.  It didn't paint a pretty picture of things in Washington; from bad ownership to lackluster personnel in the front office, to a topless photo shoot of some of the cheerleaders a few years ago to entertain some important season ticket holders.  And then the team went out today and put up a donut against the Eagles.  I know it's been a tough season.  Four starting quarterbacks.  24 players on Injured Reserve (a team is a 53 man roster) doesn't help, either.  I get it's been a tough season, and I figured it would be when I first heard Alex Smith was going to be the team's starting quarterback.  I'm a big Alex Smith fan from his days in Utah.  I'm sad things didn't go well for him in Washington, and I hope he never plays football again after the horrific injury he suffered during the season. So, I did something today I've n...

We survived Christmas.  Sometimes, that's a blessing in and of itself.  My kids all made it to a meal with their dad, albeit not all at once.  I got to have dinner with my family, but again, not all at once. We had lunch on Christmas day at my sister's house.  It was nice to go to her house.  I missed cooking for them, but I got to cook for other people; one in particular, who had cooked for me on many different holidays.  Yup, I had Christmas dinner with the ex.  It was odd, but friendly. I got to see everyone I wanted to this Christmas and I got to help make the day special for someone who otherwise would have been alone.  I'm so thankful for that opportunity.  I mean that. My son gave me a wireless printer, which I just set up.  I've been off for days now, and I am almost caught up on sleep.  I took kind of a nap a while ago.  I should go eat.  I just got the house swept and mopped a bit ago and grocery shopping i...

My child has made me into somewhat of a Marvel movie fan.  One of the young guys I work with is also a movie fan, and we had a discussion about the new Avengers trailer last night.  A couple of weeks earlier, though, I told him I had this idea in my head that I needed to watch Dr. Strange again.  I'd only seen it once. As happens in my life, and totally verifiable if you search my Facebook profile, the next day I came across a story about a doctor who saved a woman's life while running a marathon.  His name, of course, was Dr. Strange.  I put it off though. And then I found out it was on TV tonight, so I spent some time watching Dr. Strange.  And then, I knew why I needed to watch Dr. Strange. There were some things I needed to do.  If you haven't read the sermon I just posted, please do.  It was a message given to me by the Holy Spirit and I was convinced of that when I went to church today and started talking to people.  Last week, we...

Scripture reading:  Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 1:68-79 Today is Peace Sunday, the second Sunday of the Advent season.  Peace is such an important topic, given the world we live in today and the lack of peace in it.  It’s that lack of peace in our world that led to the circumstances that caused the death of one of our community leaders recently.  In the span of a week’s time, our own police force, whose job it is to keep the peace have been forced to fire upon and kill two individuals.    We yearn for peace in our world, in our community, in our own lives, and all too often it’s a hard thing to find in our own lives, our own families, and in our own homes sometimes. A short time ago, Mary stood before us and delivered an inspired message about God’s peace.  If memory serves me, the title of her message was No God, no peace; Know (K_N_O_W) God, know peace.  I’m mindful that I’m not going to top the inspiring message she gave, but hopefully we...

I'm not sure what, if anything, God saved me from today, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it was something that wasn't good for me. It's been a weird week.  I was supposed to fill in for my pastor friend at his church in Murray today.  That was the plan, anyway.  I didn't get as much time for preparation as I wanted this week, either.  I was to deliver a sermon he wrote, so that kind of took the pressure off of me about writing one, but I still had to come up with a benediction and be prepared to officiate over communion. I've done that before, so it was not a huge thing to prepare for, but still, it's to me a very holy thing and I want to make sure that I'm using the right words.  The benediction was easy to come up with.  Today was the first Sunday in Advent, and the topic today was hope.  A candle would be lit, hymns sung, and the message.  Then communion, then the benediction, and that was that. My church had their annual holiday dinne...

What an unbelievable week last week was.  I had to go to a class in Mississippi for work and other than Basic Training, it's the HARDEST thing I've ever done in my career.  The hardest things I've ever done in my life are a post for another day. Anyway, someplace in that week, I tried writing the message for the Rescue Mission.  They keep inviting me back once a month to lead a chapel service and I love talking about Jesus, so I keep going.  Our flight left Biloxi at six a.m. yesterday.  That meant getting up at 3:30 to get to the airport on time.  That's 2:30 in the morning here.  I got home a little after one.  And I started to fine-tune the message I was working on, and I pushed something wrong on this little notebook thingie I have, and POOF, it was gone. OK, must be the wrong message.  The Holy Spirit gave me a new one.  After chapel service a man walked up to me and told me that he guessed what was holding him back was him ...