Personal Writings

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“Have You Ever Put a Worm on a Hook?”

Tonight, in my almost nightly conversation with my former Alabama neighbor “Dear Hellen” (aka Miss Hellen!), we went from topic to topic as we often do. She tells me about her day and I decide what to tell her about mine…tonight…she mentioned the new neighbors now have ten chickens that free range and go in and out of the coop I built. That makes me do a happy dance! For many reasons. I wish I could write funny stories about...

‘Stop Telling Us What God Has Said’

I go through times where I’m troubled in various ways and often find myself awakening during the night into times of prayer, contemplations, song…and last night…even into dance at the foot of my bed. When we are pressed by many cares, and have many cares for many things and many others, where else can the Jesus follower turn but to Jesus? I was unnaturally worn out last night and was in bed rather early. During the night I awoke, and...

The Power of Two

I had not been vertical for very long this morning and was about to go downstairs to start my coffee when something sort of unusual (for a Saturday morning, or any morning, or any time of the day actually…) happened. Perhaps in your world this wouldn’t be too unusual, but in my world it felt unusual. I had heard a firm-but-light knocking at my front door. Yep, that is unusual. Perhaps I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but...

When Joy Does Not Come Quickly Enough

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,    but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12, NIV) “One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5, NET) “In thy right hand are pleasures forever.” (Psalm 16:11, LSB) __________ Imagine a world where there are multiple, overlapping and seemingly never-ending sundowns and sunrises (many situations and conditions), and in that, you might get a different glimpse of the landscape of the human soul. It is...

The Blessing

In the past year or more I have gravitated toward many thoughts about blessing and cursing, and seem to listen for these elements in many Psalms, Old Testament stories and New Testament references these days. As I look about me I increasingly see a world that is slipping not only into stupidity and madness but into seemingly newly-invented forms of deep evil as well as the resurrection of age-old forms of evil practices of all sorts. I don’t know that...

Shame

The summer of 1981 was a time I came face-to-face with my own proclivity to do a variety of shameful and youthful things. One day in August, I had an experience where I believe the Holy Spirit overcame me with a deep sense of conviction of my sinfulness and need for Jesus, and I consider that moment forward the beginning of my desire for a new life, in God. As I went on into adulthood, there are some times when...