Stories and other stuff

It's been a minute since I posted something on the blog.  I've been not writing mostly because I haven't really had much to say.  Things are, well, what they are.  Since I last wrote, we had our president impeached.  That may be historic, but it's also, sadly, most likely necessary.  The more we learn, and we learned something through not the President letting Congress have documents, but through a dogged use of the Freedom of Information Act process we did not know before last Friday night, the worse it gets for the President. Over the last week, I got to see the reasons why it's good to be a-political.  I learned this through a publication of an editorial and a further statement from a publication called "Christianity Today" which talks about the damage the undying support of the religious right's unyielding support to Mr. Trump has done to the Church in America.   You can read one of the articles  here . I agree with this.  It's...

I finally had a chance to catch my breath from the events of the last six weeks or so.  As I write this, there's a grey and white pussycat sitting on top of the table that now serves as a desk in a bedroom that has been re-purposed as a den.  Executives have an office.  Lions have dens. Tom thinks he's a lion.  At the moment, Mr. Lion is trying to lick his tail.  His front foot that he's trying to use for balance keeps sliding across the glass.  It slips, he puts it back, and he tries it again.  He'll figure out in a minute it won't work, and he'll try something else. Tom's official title in the den is "Senior Vice President in charge of being floofy".  Tom is a very fluffy cat...so fluffy, he's floofy  (pronounced floo-fee). Miss June is now in Indiana.  She called just a while ago and left a voice mail.  She's in possession of her own telephone.  I hope it's a smooth transition.  That she's alive is a miracle....

The following story has nothing to do with me.  I was just there.  The glory belongs to God. A friend of mine and I have been having coffee together for a few weeks now.  My friend recently made his way back to God, and because God can use anybody for anything, I was a part of that story just by being me. I've been watching God move mightily in my friend's life.  His stories are his to tell, not mine.  I've just been able to see part of it and I'm grateful to have him as a friend.  Anyway, sometimes things change in life, and opportunities to do ministry change with it. My coach, mentor, and close, close friend, Pastor Karl and I started doing a Bible study at the Rescue Mission in Ogden.  A few months ago, it became evident to me that a change needed to be made in the structure of the way other people along with us were doing Bible study there.  On the upside, my friend, who is also the chaplain at the Mission will bring some (I think anywa...

  The ex has a three year old whose nickname is "monster".  Because he is.  The child has an impish grin and is faster than freakin' Superman.  Bucky has a hard time keeping up with this kid, and that's sayin' something.  But then again, Buck is getting old and lost a step or two. Last year, for Christmas, I asked for Hobby Lobby gift cards.  I was on a decorate the joint kick and wanted some stuff from Hobby Lobby.  Ten months later, I finally spent the last bit of money on a shadow box for my military stuff and some glass votive holders for a couple of wall sconces I have hanging on the wall.  They look a lot better holding what they were designed to hold, by the way.  (I'm going somewhere with this, I promise). I get home today and start the project.  I want pins to hold the medals in place and I had to go to Walmart and get some picture frames for some odd sized items for the room I'm decorating.  Walmart didn't have just pl...

One of the most important things I've learned about being a Christian is that it's not about religion, but about a personal relationship with the Risen Lord.  And part of that relationship that we can have with God because of Jesus is one where we're listening for God's voice. I do that.  Sometimes I hear it through His word, and last week I could kind of understand some things that God would have me do.  I've been waiting for something and I may be waiting for a little while longer.  It's not an answer I wanted to prayer, but that answer was more than one that involves just waiting. God reminded me through some things that I need to be living my life. I know these verses from Jeremiah 29, but this premise was explained to me in a couple of different ways.  These are from Jeremiah 29:4-7   4  This is what the  Lord  Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried  into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:   5  “Bu...

I have long ago abandoned any idea that I have control over my life.  I surrendered that long ago when it became abundantly clear that fighting for control from God was akin to spitting in the wind.  I'm surrendered and plan on staying that way. Yesterday at church, one of my fellow church members shared this thought with me:  You're always so busy doing this or that.  You really need to take ten minutes out just to have coffee and a chat.  I can always make time for that; there's always time for making time for important things like that.  The problem is that I work nights and he's retired, so his idea of me making ten minutes typically looks like a Tuesday morning at far earlier than I want to get up. My week looks like this: Monday:  Bible Study. Tuesday:  Mow the lawn at the church.  I like to do this on Tuesdays because every other Tuesday is hot dog day. Wednesday:  Whatever gets thrown at me Thursday:  This is the da...

One of the things that interests me these days is the argument people make about how they don't believe the Bible because it was written by man.  That's true, and the argument I would make is that it was inspired by God and written by man. I had a lesson in that today while preparing a sermon for tomorrow night's chapel service at the Rescue Mission.  I still can't believe I get to do this once a month and as usual, I never have any idea what I'm going to write about, past an idea.  My idea was to talk about peace.  I know I need God's peace in my life and I try to chase the peace.  When I have it, it's a huge indicator to me that I'm where I should be and looking up instead of anywhere else tends to invite that peace into my life.  That's another story, though. I googled some Bible verses about God's peace which led me to Isaiah 55 which is an invitation from God.  A sermon that was supposed to be about peace turned into an invitation from ...