SO IN WALKED THESE TWO WIDOWS
God has this thing about widows. Maybe God has favorites. But then God has this thing about all sorts of people, orphans, the homeless, the sojourner, the hungry, the lost, the sick, the suffering, just about anyone who is vulnerable or in need. But today we hear about widows. Come this spring my Grandfather […]
All Saints Day 2009
Grave robbers. Usually they go after buried jewels and precious metals. In horror stories sometimes they go for certain body parts for magical spells or experiments like in Frankenstein. Except this grave robber is different. This Grave robber isn’t about stealing anything, in fact this grave robber is about restoring. The life that […]
NOW MY EYE SEES YOU
Why do you follow Jesus Christ? I was asked this question last week. It was a serious question. I realized something. I follow Jesus because he gives me eyes to see. When I was eleven or twelve years old there was a special art program at my school and I ended up having extra […]
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND
It was a dark and stormy night. Both outside and inside. The children were scared, they had been hurt, they were grieving. The parents sat down with them and opened up the Bible to the first page, and they read about the beginning, about God creating the heavens and the earth, page after page of […]
PASS THE SALT!
I once knew a man who had an emotional breakdown. He realized one day as his life was crashing down, both around him and within him, that he had wasted most of his life. He realized that his dog had more to offer to the world than he did. He realized that he had done […]
WHICH WAY IS UP?
In our house we have three ladders and two step stools, and one of those fold up things that goes to the attic. Lots of ways to climb up to different high up spots. It is interesting how ladders are usually associated with climbing up more so than climbing down, though, on a good day, […]
A DESERTED PLACE
God worked hard for six days creating the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day God rested, the Sabbath, the time to rest. And on the eighth day God got up and got involved in the world. Not every day is like every other. Not every place should be treated like […]
Haunted
Haunted houses. Ghost stories. Things that go bump in the night. Goose bumps, that shiver that goes up the spine and down the arm, hair raising. All that. Waking up sometimes in the middle of the night and walking around the house listening for something that can’t be heard. King Herod was haunted. […]
Independence Day
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the […]
WHO INDEED!
One of my most favorite things to do is to build sand castles, massive wandering piles of dripping sand, with spiring minarets, flying buttress and gravity defying arches. I wear a big floppy hat and a long sleeve shirt. I’m an embarrassment to my children. I like to build the castles close to the water […]
HOSPITALITY
Have you ever not been welcomed? Have you ever not welcomed some one else? Have you ever been a good host? A bad host? Have you ever been a bad guest? A rude visitor? Hospitality. Hospitality can be complicated. Very few of us are natural hosts. Very few of us are natural guests. It […]
REDEEMING COMMUNICATION
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” One of the great movie quotes of all times, from Cool Hand Luke 1967. It was before my time, my Dad loves that movie. I remember the Jackie Gleason version of the quote from the movie Smokey and the Bandit from ten years later. I went […]
GAZING UP
Down by the runway, giant jet liners roar up and down the black asphalt, the road to the heavens. When they are taking off they go faster and faster, the nose starts to lift up and slowly the wheels lift from the ground, they climb into the sky, pulled upwards by the mystery of […]
I WILL RAISE IT UP
Imagine Jesus played by Clint Eastwood in a spaghetti western, he comes riding into town and the bullets start to fly. Except it isn’t a gun, it’s a home spun whip made of cords, and instead of bullets its yelling and the cracking of the whip, riding herd on a bunch of evil doers, starting […]
40 DAYS
A long, long, long time. Have you ever done something new for a long time? Or gone somewhere new for a long time? Have you noticed that when you finish or when you get back home that things are different? Everything seems smaller, or is it that we’ve grown, become larger? There is […]
A WASTE OF TIME
The ashes of wasted love. Burning up something that is precious and priceless. The wreckage of the love of which we are capable. Wasting the gift of being alive. Sin. Today it is quite literally rubbed in our faces. The ashes are brand new, I just burned up the palm fronds from last years […]
VISION
Have you ever used the wrong kind of tool and regretted it? Like trying to use a screw driver to pry something apart and you bend or break it? Or using a shovel to uproot a stump and snap the handle? Or tried to shovel a pile of mulch with a shovel rather than a […]
THE RIVER
I remember learning how to swim. It was a painful, long and drawn out process, spanning several summers when I was 5 and 6 years old. When my Dad learned to swim he claims that his dad just threw him into a lake up near River Falls, traumatic, quick and very effective. I have always […]
WHERE WE COME FROM
I once spoke at a men’s breakfast prayer group. I gave my spiritual journey, my testimony, how I came to faith and my experience of God’s grace. When I finished it was silent for a few moments and a man raised his hand and said, “Are you John Hardaway’s boy?” I said, “Yes sir.” He […]
WILDERNESS
An old road in the middle of no where. It used to be a country road, but all signs of agriculture had ended a century ago, now it was simply a road through a wild forgotten place. Even all the old fences and barns had long ago turned to dust, the under growth had […]
WELCOMING THE KING
Surprise! Do you remember a big surprise? Perhaps an unexpected gift or a sudden glimpse of beauty that takes your breath away? Then there is the other kind of surprise, a bad surprise. A theft, an accident, a failure, sudden shame, when we are mugged by the gruesome violence that is so often hidden away, […]
RUN!
Football. I am one of those poor souls who just doesn’t get it. I grew up going to Death Valley. My youngest brother was the kicker when Greenville High almost won the State six years ago. I even played lots of neighborhood football and I never progressed beyond awful. But, I remember one time, I […]
BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL
The rehearsal party for a wedding, but something strange happens, the party just goes on and on and on, the wedding never arrives, eventually people just wear out, or lose interest, they fall asleep or they wander away… A pep rally the day before the big game, but something strange happens, the rally just […]
ALL FLAME
After we are born as Christians the first words we hear are of welcoming, we hear, “We receive you into the household of God.” We are not met by an empty doorway or an empty house, but rather a full household with people waiting eagerly at the door to welcome us. The second thing we […]