Christmas time doesn't take much to throw you off schedule. You can find yourself on the move to the point you aren't sure of your destination. My opinion is that we can end up exhausted from all of the activity once we return to normal in January. I will be honest about something here. There was one church that had so many holiday parties that my level of irritation grew out of control. It seemed like there was something going on every day or night of the week. This was years ago so do not think it a recent occurrence. Our schedule here reminds me of the third bear's porridge. It is just right.

Today was a school meeting for my youngest. Every year teachers and other school people gather to review his progress along with make plans for the future. Painful is an understatement when it comes to the early days of these gatherings. I am very proud of my boy for his growing in all things academic. He is making remarkable strides in his studies. But the point of saying this returns back to the Christmas calendar. Time is a precious commodity this month. Perhaps it is just as important as money. How is it that the story of the first Christmas slowly reveals itself over almost a year while we try to cram ours into a single month? No wonder we wake up on December 26 wondering how it flew by so fast.

This will be a short post so here is my idea for the night. Could it be we need to examine how we spend our time during the holidays? How much of our hectic schedule honestly draw us closer to the One that we are celebrating? Our study for this Sunday focuses on John the Baptist. He is the man who would "prepare the way" for our Lord. His core message will be one of repentance no matter who you are or think you are. Perhaps we need to be reminded that his words are a divine invitation to new life. We are challenged to let go of actions or attitudes that cloud our way. John might even tell us to be sure we don't let our calendar dictate our heart toward God. His message could be one that helps us see how activity is never a healthy substitute for honest spiritual growth. Don't let yourself be so wrapped up in preparing for Christmas that you forget to celebrate Jesus. How sad would that be?

Bro. Trey

Attempting to remain fresh in the blog can frustrate this writer. Odds are good that there are posts throughout this site which are very close to duplicating other topics. Blame must be laid at the feet of the author. He alone takes on the challenge of putting words down on a regular basis. He alone is responsible for what a person reads here should they stumble upon this blog. Creativity is a hard thing to grasp. Our world tends to stifle our God given ability to remain new as we live. Humanity seems most comfortable with recycling ideas or actions that will not reveal our desire for sameness. Such behavior exists in every area of life.

Children can serve as our model for such open minded thinking. This is one reason I love to sit with school age kids. Their imagination carries them places we adults forgot about long ago. But before long they are told not to color outside the lines along with other messages that eventually lead us to the status quo. The very young know what it is to live 365 days per year. Adults can settle for living the same day 365 times. We carefully color our world inside lines that others create for us. Traditions become heavily guarded ideals rather than reasons for authentic celebration. Ideas become fixed norms in our mind rather than the beginning point of growth. Faith deteriorates into a finite box of beliefs instead of being alive with divine presence.

Toleration for the creative is an elusive target at best. Again, our human tendency is to baptize ideas of any type as fixed and eternal. Columbus lived with his share of doubters who fully expected him to fall of the face of the earth. Galileo faced violent opposition in his idea that there may be more to our universe than what we see. Henry Ford once said that the Model T would be the last automobile needed in our world. Long before all of this we find a young Jewish teacher experiencing all types of backlash to His work. Jesus serves as a model for the divinely creative life God offers. But do we follow in line with His approach or settle for joining the naysayers?

Remaining flexible is a key component of healthy faith. God's truth is indeed unchanging but how it fits in our world demands creativity. Aging is one area affected by this reality. What we need to know when we are younger may not be all we learn. Our age calls for that constant openness to God as we mature. My tenure as a parent will reach nineteen years next summer. Being a good dad means that I need to learn from God not just at the start but also remain open to guidance always. Maybe you get the point. Creativity is a gift from God. It is the result of staying close to God's heart. Not only will it change your world but it will help you change the world of other people.

Bro. Trey

Holiday time can make it awful difficult to blog on any regular basis. Time spent on the road does not always bring me in contact with a computer. Plus, there are the occasions when my youngest uses the computer for all of his activity. My initial hope was to do some writing over the last few days but that obviously did not happen. One question will be did I get out of practice while busy? Maybe since my writing is not quite the quality of professional writers it will not be too damaging to my efforts. All we can do is aim for a better week of putting down my thoughts here than we did during Thanksgiving.

I do hope that you were able to enjoy the holiday. We will tend to have bittersweet moments during any special time of the year. Losses in life or the ongoing crises that are part of our world cannot be isolated from even the best of holidays. The darker occasions in life do not hesitate just because the calendar says that we should be happy. My encouragement is to remember those whose struggles seem to take on a new dynamic during this time of the year. Pray that God will be gracious to those who are hurting through His presence. Just know that these next few weeks can be very hard on even believers as they recall various points of grief.

Thanksgiving day went pretty well except for a few moments while we were out. This year our choice was to go eat out rather than wrestle with a huge meal. Our destination was a restaurant on the west side of Fort Worth. All went smoothly until my youngest brought the celebration to a standstill. He totally lost his stomach for some reason while the place was full of hungry people. This was not a small wave of nausea. His was a full blown expression of digestive upheaval. I ran to help him along with nudge him toward the restrooms. My little guy was just not handling his moment well. I finally got him back behind closed doors where we could commence his clean up. He was fine after that. One could not ask for more patient people than the ones working there that day. It looked like they did not charge us for some of his meal perhaps due to his display. Tough way to get a discount.

Now you have living proof that even our best efforts may fall short when it comes to the perfect celebration. Maybe the whole point of these holidays is how it connects to even the messy stuff in our world. Just seems hard to have genuine rejoicing when it is not related to our usual pattern of life. Our families come in all shapes and sizes along with more than a few Grinch's in the bunch. Some may travel quite a long way even when their destination may come with its share of painful memories. Real celebrating will always remind us of our ongoing process of living. Here lies the secret of being merry even when our moods run contrary to that idea. Just be who you are while rejoicing for what you have. This way you avoid the added stress of pretending with others. You may have some messy moments but you may be much happier in the long run.

Bro. Trey

Christmas time is here. Just ask my son if you don't believe me. He told me that he would help get out the boxes of holiday decorations today. Turns out that what he meant is he would assist me in finding his boxes of Christmas stuff. He left the other boxes for me to handle. Soon comes the time to take down fall decor and replace it with the tinsel and holly. My hope is to still make Thanksgiving more than just another day before shopping. It appears that my efforts are failing with him. But we will just keep trying at least until Friday morning.

Did you know there are stores who are advertising their opening times as early as 3:00 in the morning? Who in their right mind gets out in the middle of the night for shopping? Odds are the stores will be dangerous enough in the light of day much less with sleepy people rampaging the aisles. This action may be good for the economy but can it be healthy for human beings? Also, are you aware that some people are already staking out places in front of stores for the Friday morning economic crusade? I will not judge anyone's behavior but some actions may leave room to question sanity. Should you be one of those who are getting up to shop when most people are asleep do not feel the need to honk. Go and enjoy yourself. Perhaps you will be the wiser for knocking out your gift lists early.

Sunday begins the church season of Advent. It marks the time of preparation that leads up to Christmas. I try to utilize the calendar along with the resources for this time. We will start on Sunday by taking a look at the second arrival of Jesus in order to prepare our heart to celebrate the first one. We know the date of Christmas yet many people are often scrambling to finish getting ready up to the last minute. Stores are often crowded with people in the midst of panic trying to find a present before it is too late. I confess to getting out in stores on Christmas Eve to watch the action. This can be especially satisfying if you are finished with all of your plans. The point of this is to say that we can know the date of Christmas yet still not be ready for Jesus. Amazing is one word to use when that happens. Tragic may be the best one of all.

We will suffer the crowds in our shopping yet avoid being with God's people during the season. It may be we spend lots of money on presents while neglecting to remember just what the true gift is all about. Carols can be sung without noticing the powerful message about our Lord within the music. We can even promise to do better this year than the last one. Just think about making time to experience God's gift during these next few weeks. Then do something out of the ordinary to make this time count. This is my first Christmas wish for you.

Bro. Trey

One can only hope that the blogging tonight goes better than yesterday. Sometimes the words just do not flow easily while typing. To be honest, nothing comes easy with typing. Not sure that I passed my high school typing class with a passing grade. Still do not have my last report cards after over thirty years. But they let me graduate so perhaps it all works out in the end. My very small talent at typing is the result of more error than trial. At least today we have computers where corrections are far more easy to do. Typewriters were my weak point when it came do doing academics. Thank goodness that there are programs now that will point out all of my mistakes as soon as they happen.

My original point was to say that there will be occasions where my opinion of my writing will be less than a passing grade. Then again, you may think the same thing when you read some of the posts. Tonight is one of those times where my mind wanders in several different directions. For example, today is an anniversary of the passing of my beloved grandmother. My count says it's been seventeen years since my phone rang with that news. I really need to tell whoever reads here about her story someday. She was a woman way ahead of her time. This reminds me to mention that there are often people in our churches who may not have a happy holiday season. This is one of the things I say repeatedly in my congregation prior to major holidays. Just be sensitive to people around you during these days. Your one word of encouragement can make all the difference to those who experience sadness as much as they do happiness.

It's also the time of change around the house. One of my goals this evening was to switch out clothes in the closet. The summer shirts go into another room while the winter shirts move into the main closet. Then we have my daughter already making plans for college. She went to visit her best friend tonight who is going to a different school not too far away. Life is going to be very different for me before long. My son is already getting into the Christmas spirit. He came home from our errands today with a hat that plays jingle bells. Tomorrow we will initiate the process of changing house decorations from fall to Christmas. My guess is he will at the very least get his stuff out and into his room by the time he goes to bed. Tuesday has the promise of being a very interesting day.

Change happens. We either adjust or get left in its wake. Let me return to our recent theme. My best suggestion for the young minister is to know that change happens but let it be something divine and not forced. Young ministers will far too often attempt changes without there being a sense of direction from God. Churches often pay a big price when this occurs. God will always lead you in fresh ways when you remain close to Him. He will also prepare the way in a church so the pain of change isn't so unbearable. We do not have to copy what works in other places. God will reveal methods to each church so they can fulfill the divine potential. Let's not damage congregations just for the sake of seeming like we are creative. Pray for God to do His best in each of us. That will soon become the place where eternal change begins.

Bro. Trey

Thanksgiving week is now in full swing. Our weather may not reflect the calendar but it looks like we will get a bit chilled by the end of the week. Our school is on a fall break this entire week. Tomorrow will be a day for my youngest and I to run errands in town. We will go by the clinic for my lab work along with cleaning my thing implanted in my chest. Neither one is really painful but both are part of the process of being a good patient. Other errands will surely come up as my son considers what he and dad can do while out. My daughter and I went this afternoon to the movies. Our tradition of seeing certain movies continues. One of my great pleasures as a dad is going with her on outings. We started this during her very first year with no end in sight.

This evening was our annual community Thanksgiving service. We had the honor of hosting it this year. It is always a good thing to see members of our churches in one setting for worship. Food was plentiful after the service so everyone had the chance to fill their stomach. I probably attended over twenty such events over the years. Some of them were wonderful gatherings among the community. However, sometimes the outcome does not match the expectation. My hope is that those who came this evening were able to sense God's presence. Being with people of other denominations is a good thing. Most of my experiences with other congregations in my area are positive ones. On rare occasions there may be some interaction that fell short of positive for whatever reason. I still look forward to the times when I can get together with other ministers.

Here is another suggestion for me to make to young ministers. Never miss the opportunity to get together with people from other churches even if they may be much different than you. Some of the best learning experiences take place when you step out of your usual norm. You may have to hold back on some personal preferences but genuine dialogue is always a plus. My experience contains encounters in various ways with people from most if not all of our major denominations. I shared in leading weddings with both Episcopal and Catholic ministers. Seems like I delivered sermons in churches of all kinds. Funerals are often moments when you share with people of all theological persuasion. These are all fond memories for me. Ministry with all types of believers makes us stronger in my opinion.

It appears that young ministers are not so hesitant in doing this. What I hear from them is that as long as someone is doing Kingdom work that they have no qualms joining together. My prayer would be for them to remain open to this behavior. We are all in this together. Being a help to one another is a far better use of our time and energy than being critical of each other. Just live to learn so you will remember there is more than one way to do the business of the church.

Bro. Trey

The computer is again giving me fits tonight. At least the thing is working now. Looks like it may be over whatever the problem was so we can try to write for a few minutes. What frustrates me is how we become dependent on technology then are totally lost when it fails. Ever tried to take a cell phone away from a teenager? You might as well fight a mother grizzly bear over one of her cubs. The truth is we adults are just as bad. What would we do without computers or cell phones? My guess is that the meltdowns would be too numerous to count. Makes me wonder if we would rethink our decisions to become so connected to the stuff we take for granted?

Maybe this ties into something that is running through my mind this evening. It came to me while doing house stuff. I wonder how many decisions would be different if I could know then what I know now. Maybe the details wouldn't have to be known but it might be nice to have some understanding beyond our years. Odds are that some career choices would be different than they were. This is not to say that where I am is a bad place. It could very well be that life would still be right here. This is also not to say that everything would be different. Many things in my current condition would hopefully remain. It would still be fascinating to see what might be altered along the way.

We will keep this short and just focus on a single issue. I would like to think my core decisions would improve if given the chance to start over. I would want to do a better job guarding my alone time with God. Let me confess to the human tendency of allowing other stuff to interrupt that part of life. I am sure there are choices made along the way that perhaps suffered from not protecting that private time. Another issue for me would be to not think of myself better than I am. Not sure pride as we think of it is a problem but perhaps having too much confidence in my abilities is a setback. I would tell any young minister or believer to prize your time alone with God. My other suggestion is to know what your gifts are but never allow that knowledge to eclipse your connection with God. You can go further by yielding to God's presence than by thinking you can handle life alone.

We are going to stop there for the night. Perhaps our next blog adventure will make the time to dig deeper in this along with other areas. My wish would be for anyone who stumbles on this blog to learn some lessons without a lot of pain.

Bro. Trey

So today my favorite daughter was accepted into her first choice for college. This means that next year will be the first one in almost twenty years that she isn't at home on a daily basis. My heart swells with pride over this honor. She works very hard at her grades along with any other academic project. My heart also hurts at the thought of her being three hours from me. I was lucky enough to be there at her very first breath. One of the nurses let me slip back into an area where she was cleaned up. It was my hands that changed the very first diaper. There is a closet at home that contains hours of video of her first year. It was so bad that she was often videotaped while pretty much doing nothing! To paraphrase the great Lou Gehrig, "Today I am the luckiest dad on this planet."



I suppose that my mind will never understand why a man would not wish to be a father. Being absent was and is not an option for me with my two children. This is in no way any type of profession of perfection. God knows my limits in being a dad. I also know that there comes a time for children to grow up to set out on their own. Shouldn't that age be raised to about thirty or so? Letting go does not at all mean not holding on. To me they are two sides of the same coin. No father with any amount of love for his child would stop holding on with his heart even when it is time to go. My case will obviously have some differences. Though my daughter is beginning her journey into adulthood it will not be the same for her brother. I am probably always going to hold on to him since there may be no letting go.



Does it occur to you that even some of the best moments in life may be bittersweet? Exciting times often are an indication of change. We graduate from school only to face a new reality. We perhaps get married but face the adjustment of constant companionship. Maybe we land that perfect job that leads us to relocate. Like it or not, our world is constantly changing. It's what we hold onto or let go with reluctance that defines who we are. Through all of this we can be assured of the biblical truth that we also have a Father who holds us close. God doesn't even have to let us go when we belong to Him. Could it be that His heart mirrors ours when it comes to His committed love? It seems to me that He may even have some level of excitment that one of His own is moving forward in the journey. God and I are both very proud dads tonight. How can it get much better than that?

Bro. Trey

We live in an age where controversy is often the measure of most anything. Notice how often the word itself is used in any given day on cable news channels. News outlets often will mention something as controversial in order to get our attention. Entertainment outlets will more times than not call the latest movie or song in this way so we will pay attention to it. Seems to me that the best way to market your movie or music is to have something in it that people can argue about. You can usually find some preacher in our country doing a series of messages on controversial issues at any given time. The reason is to again draw your attention to a subject that can be the root of disagreement. It's very hard to imagine news, entertainment, sports or even church information being presented without tagging it as controversy.

So let us go ahead and wander into something just like that. Believers will often disagree if not flat out fight over topics that are on the fringe of spiritual life. This is not to say those matters are not important. It is to say that we can be so swept up in our point of view that we totally ignore any other. Contemporary life is filled with issues that scripture has no direct direction to guide us. We are forced into understanding biblical truth so we can apply it to a situation. What we cannot understand is how some believers just cannot see our point of view. Here is where conflict begins when it could be avoided. God's word is truth. Surely we can agree on that. Out of that truth will grow convictions about who we are and how we conduct our life. For example, truth says God is worthy of our worship. Our conviction then becomes that we should offer Him that recognition on a regular basis. Then we move to the last stage of our preferences. Some churches are very tradition or liturgical. You find some congregations who are extremely contemporary in music and style. More than a few churches try to straddle between the two ideas. Then you have some churches where contemporary means cowboy or some that reflect a more rock and roll method. The list is endless but perhaps you can see this point.

Odds are good that I get in trouble over my preferences in the spiritual life. There was a time when my approach was to isolate myself from anything that had even a hint of not being biblical. This worked for me for where my spiritual life was at the moment. Eventually it seemed to me like we had our own set of extremes. Instead of secular rock music you could just feast on godly rock. You can find quite a few fiction works in the Christian section of the bookstore so you do not have to read those secular romance novels or even mystery thrillers. Also, does a frisbee that contains bible verses fly better than the original ones? My purpose is to say that there are indeed times where we should be immersed in biblical stuff. But we need to also remember that not everyone is going to be in agreement.

I mentioned somewhere in this blog that one of my best religion teachers was a liberal, divorced, Catholic history professor. Her comment was that if we do not know why we believe what we believe then we may not be able to defend it. Those words still remain as one of my core values. Of course there are limits to applying this approach. One does not have to look at so called adult material in order to know its danger. You probably don't need to listen to vulgar music to know the basic crassness of the message. One does not have to swear out of control to see how it changes character. My view is that in areas of life or culture that there may be times when we need to learn even from our opposition. Thinking is not a bad character trait for any believer.

Spiritual growth will always lead us toward God's best. Our aim should be much more than just being correct on a given issue. You can be right in your approach to controversy yet forfeit your argument by being ugly about it. There will always be other believers who are still maturing who will not be encouraged by our criticism. Some will struggle quite a bit in becoming fully developed. We may even find some failing horribly in moving from one level to another. Real controversy is not about whether or not everyone agrees with you. It is about our willingness to engage those who are growing with a view to their being complete in faith. Let's not lose those who need a hand to lift them up by pushing them away for where they are in the journey.

Bro. Trey

It gets awful quiet in my house at night. Silence rules once everyone goes to bed. It's one of those things that can be good or bad. There are times when the quiet reminds me of all the noise of the day. I can still hear my son telling me today that my hair is coming in grey...or white. My mind thinks about all of the sounds of being the father of two very different teenagers. Some nights the absence of noise becomes a bittersweet moment. Next year my daughter will be away at college so there will be less of her friends coming by with all of the chaos that follows. This school year is already flying by much too fast. Quiet nights like that are not always pleasant.

We write on quiet times probably too much on here. My preference for this does tend to lead me to express my thoughts on it far too often. I do enjoy the sounds mentioned above. Games being played by my son will get loud but it means that he is home. Volume is a good thing. We do spend a great deal of time at church encouraging people to sing aloud in worship. Our building will be quite loud tomorrow night with all of the students and children doing their thing. It may get a bit hectic at times when that happens but it sure beats hearing crickets chirp. I would much rather have all of the energy that comes with the volume than not have young people enjoying time in God's house.

So we are left with the obvious conclusion that balance is always the key in this matter. The issue to me is that too many people don't know what to do with the quiet. There are even some people who are afraid of silence. It hits at the fear of being alone. Some avoid quiet in drastic ways. One of the ways to be spiritually healthy is knowing that silence can be golden. Those are times when you and God can talk about stuff going on in life. You can learn how to read through scripture with an open heart. Maybe it can be time to ask God to bless other people in your world. We all have down times when we can take charge to do something positive without feeling sad. Who knows? Maybe if we make better use of the quiet then we might have something better to be noisy about?

Bro. Trey

Let me report that my hair is slowly trying to return. At the moment it is my beard that is leading the way. Haircuts are still a long way down the road for me but there is progress. People ask me about the color of my hair. White is the predominant shade of hair that is coming back. Time will tell if that ends up being the final shade. People who come through the chemo process remind me that what returns is often very different than what was there at the start. My family keeps trying to tell me that my hair is showing signs of being darker. All I know is that at the moment my resemblance is to the actor Richard Dreyfuss. All of this is just part of the process in recovering from treatment. Let me say that I do like my appearance much better now than a few weeks ago.

We will just hit some topics tonight. This may be on the boring side but it's where my mind is this evening. Our former president is making the rounds talking about his new book. His book deals with how he made decisions both in his life and in the White House. I like George Bush. He did make some mistakes while in office but what president doesn't? His book seems like an interesting read. I had some time to glance through it last week. He does a good job putting his decision into context as to why he made those choices. It's fun to hear him after two years out of office. Only time will tell how some of his decisions play out in the passing of history. Some will always judge him harshly. My best guess is he will get better reviews in the years to come.

Did notice a news item while getting set up on the computer tonight. A non-denominational pastor in Georgia announced to his congregation that he is gay. It goes without saying that it was quite the shock to his parishioners. He says that his current wife knows but still remains with him. There was no report on how this will affect his job status. His is an independent church that he started so one can never tell about the response. The reason behind his announcement revolves around the recent media attention to bullying of gay teenagers. I already stated my opposition to such behavior not too long ago on this blog. We can and should defend biblical truth but never with violent methods. The same scripture that tells us that homosexuality is wrong also tells us how to relate to those outside God's will. His decision is for him to make. One can only hope that he remains open to God in order to find His best.

Making decisions is a constant in life. It matters not if you are a president or just a typical human being. What we fail to see is how our big decisions can often be the result of many small ones. Here is why God's will or guidance is crucial to our life. The question should never be about if we will obey God but how we do this. We need to also remember that few choices are made on their own. Other people are always involved in what we choose to do. Our lives are lived in relationship to others. Our behavior cannot help but impact our family, friends or others we may not even know at the moment. You can never predict how your choices may change the future. Obeying God's direction means you can rest assured those changes will also follow His guidance. People may not agree with our every decision. We can aim for obedience so our God is pleased regardless of what others think. He will be the one to call us good and faithful if we can live this way.

Bro. Trey

My youngest is already counting down the various days for the holiday season. This is going to be a very long month and a half. He is beginning with Thanksgiving even though his goal is to get to Christmas as quickly as possible. The minister in me keeps reminding my well meaning son that Thanksgiving is also a significant holiday. Right now I cannot be sure that he is buying into that idea. Somehow his vision is fixed on the presents that he expects under the tree. It might be a good idea to do Christmas sooner rather than later. His gift list will not get much longer if we can get to the big day in a hurry. His list began with only two items on it. We may be up to a few more than that now.

Have you noticed how Christmas music began playing in stores of all types just as soon as we put away the Halloween pumpkins? Now it is true that very few Thanksgiving songs have a catchy tune. But we are reaching the point where Christmas now requires two months of preparation time. I walked into a bookstore the other day to find A Charlie Brown Christmas already going full blast on video. One writer defines all of this as his "unified theory of Christmas creep." You can find commercials for the big day beginning in September if you watch carefully. Just makes you wonder what is wrong with Thanksgiving for it to draw the short straw in terms of holiday celebration.

Maybe we should also be a bit concerned as to how we actually celebrate Thanksgiving once it arrives. The media tells us that it is a holiday for family. Lots of time and money is being spent by business to show happy families gathering around the dinner table. Know that I enjoy being with family as much as anyone but that is not the point of Thanksgiving. Also realize that even I know full well that the day is not about sports. It just may be possible that the initial pilgrims were able to give thanks without the Dallas Cowboys or Detroit Lions. Do you remember that the newspapers will be much larger than usual on that Thursday? You will need to set aside some time in order to wade through all of the sale circulars in preparation for Friday shopping. Now it is likely that I will take my youngest over to Rangers Ballpark to do some holiday shopping on that Friday. It still does not define Thanksgiving as an economic boost for a struggling economy.

Trying to keep a good handle on this holiday is a struggle. What I do know is there are many new things in life for me to give thanks. God does deserve some credit for the past year despite the obvious obstacles. Giving thanks has a way of opening our heart to His goodness. It reminds us that we are still human who will not replace God no matter how we may try. We will also do well to recognize how many do not even know God in a personal manner. These people may find solace in family or football but they will exist without that wonderful sense of God's presence. Our church is hosting the annual community service on next Sunday night. My hope is to find words to capture at least a snapshot of gratitude. We will gather together to ask the Lord's blessing as the people of God. I can only hope that our rush to Christmas will not detract from our recognition of just how much we need that encouragement.

Bro. Trey

Sorry about missing the blog yesterday. It was a late night getting in from our high school football game. The kids ended the regular season undefeated along with being district champions. If you look at our scores it appears that they only had one close game the entire season. Some of those games were very close for about three quarters. Our fourth quarter efforts were pretty impressive. Now it is on to the playoffs. This year our team gets a week off before the first game. Some say that we have a good chance at being state champions again. My view is we better keep improving in several areas before going to be fitted for a ring. I will be along for the ride no matter what. If this is my last year filming games for the coaches it would be fun to go out on an undefeated season.

We may miss a few days blogging this week. Part of me wants to spend sometime just getting my bearings back. It does seem like you never know all that a crisis takes out of you until it passes. This old body feels better with each passing day. Amazing what not being poisoned on a regular basis will do for your system. My brain seems to be still be recovering. You may remember that one of the side effects of treatment is chemo brain. I still have the occasional moment when a name or a word escapes me. Some will say that its just age catching up and that is surely possible. All I know is the memory slips out of gear more than usual. Judging my spiritual health is probably a little beyond my view. I would like to think that it is also getting better daily. It is still a very long way from perfect but I am grateful for any lessons learned during the last few months. My desire to improve is stronger than in the past. This is to me still the best sign of wherever I may be.

One thought remains for the night. We go through our journey with all of its ups and downs. There are times when it seems as if we could not be any closer to God. There are also times when we may feel as if He is a billion miles away. Hopefully we get times of great excitement in our life. I know we all have times when we struggle just to make it from one minute to the next. I do not think that the aftermath of any of this is to return to normal. That is a definition for where we were before the events of life. Being a believer means always moving to levels of a new normal. I cannot and do not wish to go back to where life was prior to my diagnosis. My view is that God sees us through the good or the bad to get us to a new dimension of faith. Here is why it is so critical to remain close to Him. You can grow even through the most harrowing of times. Circumstances do not limit our capacity to mature. They do not hinder God in being gracious to us. What we learn in the darkness carries us into the new light of spiritual health. What we experience in the light can anchor us to God while walking through any valley of shadows. God does have a purpose for each one who is a follower. We just need to cling tightly to Him so we make that purpose our new normal.

Bro. Trey

Can life ever return to the mundane after a miracle? That is the question that popped into my mind just a little while ago. You can imagine that at that moment I was doing the usual house stuff before closing for the night. There are always clothes to wash. I can usually find some amount of cleaning that could use my attention. One cannot ever overlook getting the coffee ready to go for in the morning. Routine is just part of our lives for better or worse. My guess is that most people on the planet follow some manner of routine no matter where they live. At some point in the next 24 hours someone in China or Africa will finish their day much as they did the one before. My theory is that we enjoy parts of our regular patterns each day. Somehow it grounds us when other parts of our world remain beyond our control. So we return to the original question. Can our life return to mundane issues following a genuine miracle of God?

You may want to think for a minute before you answer. Our first response would probably be to say there is no way the mundane could be possible after a great act of God. This is where my life is at the moment. Miracle or medicine and perhaps a combination of both allowed me to receive a healthy prognosis after treatment. For this result I am very much grateful. It may not be that I did not deserve such a result but that will not stop me from being thankful. Now my goal is to regain some sense of normalcy as the days go by. Life will not ever be the same for me but does that guarantee my avoidance of the ruts? How often do we just glide through life only to basically wake up one day to see how deep we fall into the rut? We may not be able to always do things that takes our breath away. It could be that too much excitement is as dangerous as having too little. My guess is we want to find a happy medium between both extremes.

I would like to think that my complaining about the tedious moments of life will be kept to a minimum from now on. There are times when you go through trials that you just long for any semblance of the usual. Here is an example from today. My youngest needed a haircut so we went to accomplish that chore. It's been perhaps six months since my last haircut. Odds are that it will be a few more months before my hair will need scissors. Sometimes I would just like to have a reason to go for myself. Doing my usual house stuff is far from usual for me. Sure it can get a little overwhelming but at least I can still do it. It's amazing how a big miracle can make the smaller moments of life take on new meaning.

People in scripture often experienced wonderful events by God's own hand. We can read there stories in either the Old or New Testament. You can also notice that having significant divine encounters is no promise against messing up. God acts in their world in awesome ways yet they miss out on more by letting the small stuff seem mundane. Moses will forget God's word while trying to handle a crisis on his own. Simon Peter who walked on water will be so scared that even a servant girl can drive him to denial. You and I are just as human as these people were. Do not imagine that having a miracle will somehow rescue us from the routine. We have to learn how to let God turn our routine into something more. Being mature is not merely having a great story to repeat. Healthy believers continue to let God write more to the story on a daily basis. Maybe you are one who feel as if you walked on water in a crisis past. But can you know that same presence while trudging through the familiar paths each day?

Bro. Trey

We mentioned how my congregation surprised me with a tenth anniversary recognition about two weeks ago. Words cannot express my gratitude for this unexpected moment. You may pick up on occasion that just reaching ten years is a serious accomplishment. I know it is something that seemed impossible at times over the past years. This is still the longest time God allowed me to remain in one place. Most of my career is broken up into four year cycles. Having shorter tenures is not always a positive. But the nature of my ministry in those settings may mean that it was the best scenario at the time.

My usual time of ministry was one of doing whatever possible to bring stability to a situation. Some of the congregations faced serious issues both in the present as well as the future. I will have to thank God for any success that took place. Do not think of me as some brave person who enters the scene to do miracles. God just seemed to bless the efforts made under His direction. Not every church followed through on the possibilities after my departure. Some did continue to develop into even stronger churches. This is a sign of a successful ministry. It always seemed to me that you should leave a ministry in a better position than when you began. Mark this as one of my core principles for the work. A job like this one is not for those who need their ego stroked on a regular basis. There is a reason Jesus spoke of service as a key element of ministry. Time has not lessened that role no matter how some ministers may behave.

One of my major goals was to lead a church to fend for itself. We may be referred to as shepherds but it does not allow for dysfunctional relationships in church life. Some pastors seem to want their congregation to be solely dependent on them for everything. You can find some who want to be in charge of every committee or decision in the church. You can find some who are afraid of anyone learning to think for their own benefit. You may find some who honestly need to be needed rather than wanting to help others mature. This is true of my own tribe of Southern Baptists. My guess is that it is true of other denominations. We end up with congregations that become rigid in management issues rather than being sensitive to God's direction. I followed more than a few ministers who did just that. My greatest obstacle became finding and developing people to carry out the work of the ministry. This always seemed strange to me. We as Baptists claim to cherish scripture but do not follow through on one of Paul's ideas for being the church. Just my opinion but we seem to be reaping what we practiced over the years.

Here is what got me to thinking about this topic. It's been ten years since my arrival to begin a work here. Without boring you let me just say that it's been ten very long years in some respects. All is going very well now but there are more than a few moments in this last decade where it did not look so good. Again, some of the blame can and should be laid at my feet. But some of the struggle lies with others who had different agendas than mine. You will not hear me complain or point fingers at anyone. To be honest, most of my emotion on this is disappointment or sadness rather than anger. Back to my original point now. We are just now ready to learn how to do church without training wheels. My intention is to take those wheels off and leave them off. Now is the time for us to share all of the work of ministry.

You will find very few things in life will give the sense of accomplishment as knowing you are doing God's work. This holds true for the professional as well as the church member. You absolutely must trust others in order for this to happen. A sense of shared purpose is critical for every group in a church to aim toward the same goal. People must model the biblical attitudes such as grace or patience for real life to occur. Maybe only when a church can grow on their own can it really begin to share the work with a pastor. This is one of my aims as I move beyond a disease. Now we will see if we are ready to be the church God truly wants us to be.

Bro. Trey

Let's start tonight by doing some housekeeping chores. We did have a great time last night at the World Series. My daughter and I were there even though our team lost. It was a blast to see all of the people, excitement and celebration in person. We even got home at a decent hour. This is one of the best things that I can ever remember doing. Our arrival time meant that I was fairly rested for my bone marrow procedure today. Today was procedure number two over the last six months. Some talk about it as an act of physical torture. It is not easy to be sure but things went very smooth. My view is that if it has to be done then there is no reason to get upset about it. Let's just hurry up and get it over with. The ladies who worked on me did a wonderful job despite the potential for pain. Time was left in the day to go vote. My daughter voted for her first time today. Some of my people won. Some of my people lost. Such is the nature of the American democracy.

If you read much of this blog then you know that history and politics matter to me. They are areas where much of my leisure reading takes place. Ours is a fascinating history when it comes to politics. Blogging is not really a new invention. You can find people writing their individual thoughts on politics all the way back to our initial revolution. People then used the printed word rather than computer addresses. Some of our founding fathers contributed to all sides of any argument while even doing it anonymously on occasion. One of the modern miracles is that our system of government survives today in spite of occasional failures. Sometimes it is the candidate or the elected official that falls short. Sometimes it is those of us who do the voting that fail to understand the candidates and issues. Yet we are still here continuing to vote after all of these years.

Personally, I do not subscribe to the straight party ticket idea. Every political party has a few people who just do not need to be in office. All that I will say is that my vote today went to people of both parties. This is not to say that mine is the only way to do this. Perhaps my habit grows from trying to understand the people along with the issues. I also do not think that any one party has all of the answers. I am again only speaking for myself. It just seems to me that part of being a citizen of this nation means to be involved and informed. It may be that voting means choosing the candidate who is the lesser of two evils. This happened to me years ago while living in Louisiana. Then again, this happens a lot in Louisiana.

We who are believers also need to remember that God is not limited by elections. He can work out His purpose even in places where freedoms are much harder to come by than they are here. This does not mean that we take those liberties for granted. This is where we absolutely must be informed and involved. We take our stands on truth for every area of life. However we tend to forget that any or every political party would want to gain our vote even if it means being a bit deceitful. Again, we should always know that God is still bigger than politics. Let us cherish and extend our freedom as we vote. But let us also trust that He can do awesome things no matter what party is in charge.

Bro. Trey