“I like to compare the holiday season with the way a child listens to a favorite story. The pleasure is in the familiar way the story begins, the anticipation of familiar turns it takes, the familiar moments of suspense, and the familiar climax and ending.” Fred Rogers It seems like everyone is ready for Christmas…

Focusing on silver linings and noticing God’s grace is good for our health.  “We’re living through unusual and trying times.  The COVID-19 pandemic has people feeling stressed and frightened.  That’s why it’s perhaps more important than ever to focus on gratitude.  It’s good for your mental and physical health; it can help you relax, and its effect can help…

It has been quite the week, quite the month, and quite the year. It is one of those years that many people cannot wait to get over with. Before the entity that is 2020 has left us, we should not let the opportunity to reflect upon the events that have occurred in the past year.…

Dear Thankful, Dr. Paul Brand wrote a book with Philip Yancy in 1993 titled “Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants.” In the book Dr. Brand described what it was like to be in London during World War 2. There were nightly terrors of falling bombs, but all were sustained by the sense of community that developed below the…

The Psalms cover a whole array of emotions.  The intro to the Psalms in my bible says they were written by a number of people but Jewish tradition credits David with the writing of at least seventy-three.  They were written between the time of Moses (about 1440 B.C.) and the Babylonian captivity (586 B.C.)  We read emotions such…

Thankfully we live. In yesterday’s worship, Pastor Dave shared Luke 17:11-19 about the 10 lepers who were healed but one foreigner returned to give thanks. May we live with heads down in humility and prayer and hands up in gratitude. If you missed being with us check out photos here and watch here. See photos…

I wanted to write today about being thankful and about gratitude, but I think you already know that being grateful brings so many good things to life. Instead, I will tell you that I am grateful for you. I am grateful to walk the faith journey with you. I thank God for your kindness, your…

Merry Christmas!!!  Oh wait, I mean, Happy Thanksgiving!!! With Christmas music already playing in stores and over the radio and Black Friday deals and steals going on everywhere, it may be easy to gloss right over the November holiday. In a world where our holiday traditions will not look the same for many of us and…

I was listening to a podcast this morning called The Bible for Normal People.  It is billed as “The only God ordained podcast on the internet.”  The hosts, Pete Enns and Jared Byas were interviewing Emilie Townes, a professor at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.  The topics were wide ranging, but one topic caught my attention.  Professor Townes spoke about…

Dear Sinners and Saints, The great theologian Karl Barth was often accused of not being able to tell the difference between sinners outside of the church and the saints in the church, or even of having a more positive attitude about the ultimate fate of those outside the church than those who were in. Barth blurred the line between…