Here and Now

With the Thanksgiving holiday here, I am taking to the blogosphere (with a million other people) to talk about all of the things I am thankful for.  It is pretty easy to come up with a list, especially as I sit here outside on my Macbook typing on my blog over my wi-fi while I smoke a cigar and enjoy the cool crisp fall afternoon as my daughter joyfully plays and laughs out here.  I have time to do this now that I have finished planning worship service for tomorrow at the church I have graciously been given to pastor where I have the privilege of preaching tomorrow for the people I love most in the world before I get to spend an afternoon watching football on a TV much larger that I need with some of my best friends as my beautiful wife makes us food and we eat way more than we need. So what am I thankful for? Well, I often feel guilty for what I have.  I know I have way more than I need or deserve, and pangs of guilt sneak in almost daily.  And I look at myse...

Let me tell you about George (not his real name).  George is a gentleman that I work with.  He and I get along very well, and I really enjoy my conversations with him.  George was raised a Roman Catholic.  He is married with two kids, but he told me recently that they are not actively practicing their religion.  In fact, he has not been to church in quite a while, and doesn't think he will ever go back. When I asked him why, he said to me that when he took a step back and looked at the lives of Christians and the lives of others, he didn't see that the Christians' lives were any different than anyone else's.  He told me "Christians don't have it any better than anyone else." Now, I am not sure what George's definition of "Christian" is, but when I asked him what he meant by "better," he told me that they don't have anything that non-believers don't have.  And, of course, this is typical of non-believers (and all too often,...

Let me tell you about Juliana (real name used with permission).  She is a young lady that I work with.  As far as I know, she is not a believer, though she is not antagonistic towards talk about God. She said something that struck me a few weeks ago.  While I was speaking to Jenny (see the post from a few weeks back here ) about her upcoming wedding, and as I was asking her about her fiancée’s church membership (or lack thereof), Juliana basically wondered, out loud, if I was trying to convince Jenny and her hubby-to-be to join RFH.  I explained that I was not doing that, but that I firmly believed that Christians should belong to a local church that was doctrinally sound whether it was RFH or not. Then she said, “You’re a religious drug pusher.” Interesting… Now, Juliana is a sassy young woman with a sarcastic streak.  I think she was only joking (though I could be wrong).  And I would hardly consider myself a religion pusher, a faith push...

Let me tell you about Mr. Kay.  He was a former investor in the company I work for.  He passed away last week from cancer.  Mr. Kay was very talkative.  He was, by all appearances and rumors, a very wealthy man.  And he was as atheist as they come.  He was nice enough to converse with, though he would dominate most conversations, letting me know what business ventures were doing well, etc. I cannot say that I had much affection for Mr. Kay, as our world views were polar opposites, as were, seemingly, our priorities.  He also saw my ministry as a great potential to make money.  As he put it: "there is a lot of money to be made in religion" because it exploited people's unreasonable fears.  As I said, we were pretty opposite.  I personally find it difficult to get the warm and fuzzies for anyone who holds making money in such high regard, even to the point of exploiting people's "unreasonable fears" to make some.  Definitely not my ...