When I was around 10 years old, I would spend my afternoons after school at my Great Grandma Standish’s house. Her house was walking distance of my parent’s home and sometimes I would just walk there from the school bus stop. I remember one day vividly. I was sitting at her kitchen table that was … [Read more…]
Our Acts reading gets to the point of what the early church and those earliest believers were to look like. It is almost a utopian society for those of the early church. They shared all possessions, all things, they did not act in mere human ways, but always with the Spirit. This was the hope … [Read more…]
Now there may not be too many of us who have experienced adult baptism, or can even say that they remember their baptisms. My first baptism happened when I was 5 months old and recovering from chicken pox. I have no memory of my first baptism. My second baptism was done by the same clergy … [Read more…]
Last week, we discussed remaining hopeful and using our life experiences for the work of God no matter how challenging they may be. However, I understand that is easier said than done. Paul and Silas make it look so easy to just pray and sing and remain hopeful amid beatings, slander, imprisonment, and possible death. … [Read more…]
I had a close friend in seminary that was going through some challenging times in her life shortly before entering seminary. In one year, she and her husband lost everything they had in a fire, her dad died, and she lost her job. Anybody experiencing what she did would have been more than a little … [Read more…]
As a teenager, my favorite past time was talking on the phone with my friends. The worst punishment for me, at that age, was to ground me from the telephone. It was my connection to the outside world. It allowed me to find out what was going on in the group’s gossip, to discuss the … [Read more…]
When I was a child, my brothers used to get together with some of our cousins to go to one of the family fields to play baseball, or to go camping, or to go help my father and uncles in the wood lot, or to go fishing. I remember that I always wanted to go … [Read more…]
When I was 10 years old, all my friends were getting braces except for me. I wanted to be just like my friends. I didn’t want to stand out in any way. I remember praying to God that I would get braces like my friends. I prayed that I could be just like them. I … [Read more…]
The greatest thing that anyone can do in life is to do something kind for someone else. We have probably all experienced the healing powers of the kindness of family and strangers. This past week, I was at the grocery store picking up a few things. I thought that I really didn’t even need a … [Read more…]
The easiest time to have faith is when life is going as we would like it to go when everyone is healthy, happy, and we are successful. This is when we feel the graces of God the strongest. The hardest time to have faith is when everything is going wrong and life is just one … [Read more…]
