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  • Getting Organized

    If you think there will be some good advice or helpful tips here, you might want to click on. Getting organized is one of the hardest things I do. Staying organized is harder. And that is what I am doing this morning with my home office, my papers, my email, my computer files, and whatever…

  • No Nothing

    In the first place, I take it as a matter of faith that there is no nothing. Not now. "The earth WAS without form and void and darkness covered the face of the deep." Not now and never again. There is always something. What we perceive as nothing, that which is beyond our comprehension, is…

  • Nothing Is New

    Nothing is absolutely new in this world. It is recycled, reconstituted, repackaged, or rediscovered, but it is not entirely new … Except today. Today is entirely new and we are new in it. Every thought, idea, experience, dream, and individual is new. I am new and renewed today by grace. God's blessings are new every…

  • From Ponderosa, CA

    I was able to slip away for a few minutes to a coffee shop with WiFi a mile from camp. But first … I watched a ripple in the pond this morning. I could not tell whether it came from below or above. It did not matter. Nor can I tell where it goes when…

  • Going to Camp & Offline

    I am leaving for camp in a few hours where I will be camp pastor for the week. There is no Internet access there (or very slow and borrowed) and my cell phone does not work. It is my annual week without contact, blogging, Twitter, Facebook, CompuServe, email, or even news of the outside world.…

  • Eyebrows and Countdowns

    I raised a couple of eyebrows when I told some folks I was doing a wedding vow renewal ceremony on a Tuesday morning. Those eyebrows practically levitated when I told them where. In 25 minutes, I will be conducting this celebration of a 25th anniversary at the Clovis Cemetery.

  • Be Vulnerable; Get Real

    “We would do well not to be enamored by the kind of leadership that is so prized by politicians and CEOs, the kind that is conspicuous and, as we say, “effective.” Forget about charisma, go for character.” – Eugene Peterson, The Unnecessary Pastor (adapted) When I encourage people to be vulnerable, they sometimes look at…

  • Sizzling Like Bacon on a Saturday Morning

    I like bacon. I like its taste, smell, and the sound of it sizzling in a pan on a Saturday morning. I like success too!

  • Ye Shall Not Be So

    We try to meld, but not so much that we don’t push ourselves to the front or climb over others to get to the top. Into that context, Jesus introduces a counter-cultural, counter-intuitive jab in the sides of our psyches, “Ye shall not be so.”

  • The Kind of Jesus He Is

    “I want neither a terrorist spirituality that keeps me in a perpetual state of fright about being in right relationship with my heavenly Father nor a sappy spirituality that portrays God as such a benign teddy bear that there is no aberrant behavior or desire of mine that he will not condone. I want a…