Month: November 2016

The last thing I hear every night before I drift into sleep is my wife’s prayers. It’s a good way to end a day. Last night, she prayed this: “God, if we do not see tomorrow, you have given us more in fifty years than many people will see in an entire lifetime. We are blessed and we are grateful.” This from a woman who has walked through some deep valleys with me and is currently the primary caregiver for her aging parents – a role that puts some hard miles on a person’s soul right quickly. And yet she … Read more…

Sometime around his 45th birthday, my nearest brother called me, and there was some urgency in his voice. “Guess what I found,” he said. I honestly couldn’t tell if he was excited or anxious, but since he wanted me to play a guessing game, I quickly calculated that he had stumbled upon something good. Me: “You found Jimmy Hoffa’s body and have claimed the reward.” My brother: “No. Not yet, anyway. I found Paw Paw’s car.” Paw Paw was our mother’s father. Olive Grover Adams – O. G. for short. He holds near mythic status in our memories because of … Read more…

This past May, Lisa and I checked an item off our bucket list – visiting the Reagan National Library in Simi Valley, CA. (Okay, so yeah, we’re big Gipper fans. I mean, come on – love him or hate him, he was one of the most influential leaders of the Twentieth Century.) Anyway, one of the exhibits I was most anticipating was Air Force One – the flying White House. This particular airplane actually served seven U.S. presidents including Nixon, Carter, Ford, Bush (41), Clinton and Bush (43). We’re talking about some serious history here. Besides, it’s a plane and … Read more…

Maybe I’m not giving it enough credit, but the barrier standing between Joshua and – the Jordan River – doesn’t seem all that imposing. The oceanic obstacle that Moses faced forty years earlier – the Red Sea – now there’s a world-class, sea-sized obstruction if there ever was one. The Red Sea was an impossibility. The Jordan, even at flood stage, was an inconvenience. Which is exactly how Joshua 3:1 presents it: Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there … Read more…