I am a successful failure. Does that sound like an oxymoron? In my nearly 69 years of life I have experienced many successes, and close to as many failures. I became pretty savvy mechanically in working on cars as a young man, but not until after enduring several failures. For example, there was the time […]
It begins on the playground when we stand among the leftovers when teams are chosen. I remember as a young boy in the late fifties when the jocks in the neighborhood were choosing teams for a game of sandlot baseball. I have vivid memories of what it felt like to be the last man chosen. […]
Nancy and I entered into fulltime pastoral ministry when I was 29 years of age. We were appointed to our first church on August 10, 1980. It was a struggling congregation of 18 primarily elderly people in an old building that needed a lot of TLC. We were blessed to enjoy 10 fruitful years there […]
You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. –Psalm 139:1-3 We live in a very voyeuristic culture. Almost everyone carries a phone with […]
I used to enjoy listening to Paul Harvey on the radio. His distinct voice, wit and wisdom made him a media star. On top of all that, he was simply a good man. He had a tag line that he repeated often during his broadcasts. It went, “And now, the rest of the story…” I […]
Rocky Balboa – the Italian Stallion – is a fictional movie character created by Sylvester Stallone who has inspired audiences for over forty years. Nancy and I saw the first Rocky movie in 1977. We watched it pay-per-view in our hotel room at the Lowe’s Summit, 569 Lexington Avenue, NYC. We were on a weekend […]
A few weeks ago, Mistie Osterhouse asked me to play with her and a few other musicians at the Gateway House of prayer on a Saturday night. It had been a while since I last picked up my trusty Fender Telecaster, so I needed to replace the strings. I knew I bought five sets of […]
A.W. Tozer wrote, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” Those are difficult words to read and harder to comprehend. Honestly, we don’t want them to be true. But they are. At least that’s been my experience. My first significant memory of trauma and […]
I remember the day so very well. It was Sunday, July 4th, 1977, the morning I was asked by my pastor to fill in for him while he was away for the weekend. He knew I was sensing a call into the ministry and wanted to give me my first opportunity to stand in the […]
Loss. We are all acquainted with it, and it never feels good, does it? We feel the pain of the loss of a job, health, and financial security, to name a few. As a pastor for nearly forty years, I have had people leave the church, and, regardless of how loving or contentious the […]