Lord, teach me. . . .

I’m the kind of person who just can’t wait to get on a train and not know where I’m going. I definitely want to live life to the fullest. And that’s the type of person I’m attracted to—somebody with that spontaneous spirit. –Summer Altice My church recently lost a beloved member of our staff and family. Desmond battled cancer, literally, for decades. He was a true warrior; seldom did he let the disease slow him down even a little. At one point, I drove Des to one of his appointments. He had had to fast beforehand, so afterwards, we stopped at Steak n Shake for a hamburger, fries—and a black raspberry chocolate chip milkshake, with whipped cream and a cherry. The burger and fries were great, but when he got to the milkshake, Desmond’s eyes lit up like a child. From the first taste to the last drop gurgled through the straw, he smiled and savored. Then, when the cup looked empty, he took his finger and cleared the last bits of dark chocolate from the sides of the cup, sigh...

Life is not a race. It’s a journey! –Avery, age 6 There are a lot of different kinds of Christians, and for the most part, that’s a very good thing. We believe we can all commit ourselves to following the Christ, but find different paths along the way, making our journey ours alone . Some folks really focus on salvation, for the next life. They believe the most important part of Jesus’ work was communicating the need to profess faith in Jesus, perhaps say a little prayer, and know their eternal soul will be saved. They will, someday, reside in heaven alongside Jesus. So their lives are spent seeking the lost and offering them the eternal gift of salvation in Christ. And that is a really good thing. I admire those who follow the Christ in this way. Others of us believe that because Christ has given us the gift of grace, we should share this loving gift as widely as possible, right here, right now , in this life. Their day-to-day living reflects the generous heart o...

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. –Benjamin Franklin A French physiologist is credited as the first to tell us, You are what you eat. The computer-age equivalent of this is Garbage In; Garbage Out . Whatever goes into my mouth has a direct effect on how my body and mind looks and feels and functions. It seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? The same holds true of our “spiritual bellies.” Whatever we feed our spirit day after day after day forms and shapes the way we view the world around us. It influences how we grow to interact with our fellow travelers on this journey called Life . As Christians, we are instructed to feed our spirit on whatever is true, noble, right, pure and lovely ( Philippians 4:8 ), and to cultivate the fruits of the spirit ( Galatians 5:28 ). These are the things we need to grow stronger in our faith and more Christ-like in our walk. By contrast, the evening...

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.  –Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was a Black American orator, social reformer, abolitionist, writer and statesman. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American or even recent immigrant. This week, in recognition of both Douglass and Black History Month, pause and meditate on his words. I would unite with anybody to do right, and with nobody to do wrong. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. One and God make a majority. A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it. The soul that is within me no man can degrade. We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and the future. I was not more than thirteen years old, when in...