Sheila and I have built a tradition of a day trip on our birthdays. In May, we usually hit the beach or coast. For her. For January, I choose the mountains, usually wherever we get the most snow. This year, four days of storms preceded the day, but the storms stayed in liquid form. So between Big Bear and Julian and Idyllwild, I went with the latter. The Cranston Fire devastated the region last summer so I wanted to discover the extent of the damage, hit the local candy store and our favorite mountain restaurant. South of town…
Read MoreRock Star!
The guitar in that pic above was to be my ticket to fame and fortune. Determined to become the next big rock star, back in high school I bought a guitar. A Sears Silvertone, black with an orange starburst . Pretty cheap, about $25. My good friend Ken and I began practicing, and the first obstacle emerged. I couldn’t tune the blasted instrument! Oh, I knew where to press the strings and frets to match the tones of adjacent strings, but my ear couldn’t hear the differences. A minor obstacle, but…
Read MoreGrace and Truth
In the spiritual journey, people tend to slide toward the extremes. Emphasizing grace, that we’re forgiven , regardless, and minimize the truth that faith has a hard edge with consequences. Or emphasizing truth, that what God said matters, that bad choices have consequences. The former run the risk of sloppy agape, the latter lean to legalism and rigidity. Both miss key elements of Jesus. Let’s find how to combine those.
Read MoreTime to Quit?
Knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em only comes not only from a lot of fishing but a lot of living, a lot of analyzing, and even then mistakes occur. I wish I’d learned this principle of life earlier. As pastor of one church, I …
Read MoreAtheist Pastor Keeps Her Job
“Atheist Pastor Keeps Her Job” Fake news? Sadly no. The headline on cp24.com was all too true. Before a trial for heresy began, Rev. Gretta Vosper, the church she pastors in Toronto, and the denomination reached a settlement, leaving her free to pastor the church. The Right Rev. Richard Bott, head of the United Church in Canada, proclaimed his pleasure…
Read MoreSelective Obedience
Last week I made a Facebook post, “Things You Can Do at the Same Time,” discussing that following Jesus’ command to love others as we love ourselves means that we can care for American people and interests and for international people and interests as well. Check it out if you like. A couple of people stressed following the laws of America, and I semi-jokingly asked if they also obeyed all speed laws. One acknowledged he did not, and he wondered if he got stopped if he could ask for asylum! Being a fellow lover of going fast, I said…
Read MoreEMT or LEO? A Lesson from Borderline
Young adults enjoying the dancing at College Country night at the Borderline Bar in Thousand Oaks. Several there had survived the Las Vegas shooting just a year before. Then some pops were heard, some thought balloons or doors slamming. But some recognized the source: gunshots. Before the firing ceased, 11 attenders and a sheriff’s deputy lay dead. But, as so often happens, good rose. Here’s one example, and what we can all learn…
Read MoreLeave a Legacy
God moves in unexpected ways through minor events. While we dined in a Palm Springs restaurant, I spotted three paintings of local scenes on the opposite wall. One colorful pic intrigued me, so I consulted our waiter. He knew it was close, maybe 40 miles away, at Slab City, an abandoned military fort where snowbirds and unreconstructed hippies and artists roamed. That pretty much exhausted his knowledge. A little research revealed the name, Salvation Mountain and directions and distance—about 80 miles. Even so, we took off one afternoon to…
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