Blasphemy

If you ever find yourself in front of a court, look very carefully at the American flag. If it has a yellow fringe, that means the court is declaring itself an admiralty court, and they have no jurisdiction over you. (Note: This is NOT legal advice! Don’t do this!)....

Bless Your Heart

I detest running. When I think of people who say they enjoy it, I say to myself, “Bless their heart.” I thought that same thing about the drill instructor long ago who told us we were in a hurry, so we would only run for 45 minutes. Why did the military compel us to...

Right Hace! Forward Harch!

I remember learning to march. The drill instructor was very patient and repeated a command as many times as necessary for all of us to get it. We carried refreshments around with us on our belts. We smiled a lot. It was spring. It was beautiful. Or maybe not… The...

If it looks like a duck

We identify things by comparing their qualities to the qualities of other things we know. Consider the following description. It is round. It is oval. It is white. It is in a carton with 11 others just like it. It must be an _____. (See answer below.) In John 13:35,...

I’ll Sell You Two Surgical Masks for $200

Price-gouging means that someone offers little in exchange for much. It is not a new concept. Faithful Jews were coming to the temple to offer God worship. Unfaithful Jews were selling over-priced offerings of oxen, sheep, pigeons, and even official money with a...

Encouraging Words

We started at oh-dark-thirty. The jungle-like heat gave promise of another 90/90 day – 90% humidity and 90º F. The air was too thin to drink and too thick to breathe, much less run in at such an ungodly hour. Four miles in, staff started showing up like a cloud of...

Denying Jesus

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Not me! That’s a fun song for small children, but when the question is, “Who is a Christian?” how shall we answer? The answer is of paramount personal importance. In John 18, Peter denies Jesus three times (vv. 17, 25, and...

Fickle Fate

A long time ago, an English teacher taught her class rare words we would never use again. One of those words was “capricious.” When we couldn’t guess the meaning, she defined it for us. What strikes me about “capricious” is that “fickle” can replace it in most...

It Doesn’t Make Sense…At First

It was a new job outside my career field. That meant learning new acronyms and new regulations. It also meant dealing with a lot more civilians. At first, so much didn’t make sense. By the time I left the assignment, I had a firm grasp of what didn’t make sense at...

A Simple Question

Sometimes people are highly motivated to learn something new. It could be house repair, a foreign language, or how to cook a soufflé. With all of the resources available to us via the internet, we can literally have someone show us how to do these things at any time...

New Testament

God Has a Better Plan

God Has a Better Plan

Two thousand years ago, Elizabeth wanted children. In her culture, children were her priority. She didn’t have any, therefore others looked down on her. Her society wrote her off as too old to be a successful Jewish woman. She was too old to have children. She was...

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Greek Yogurt Is Terrible

Greek Yogurt Is Terrible

Johnny stood, mouth open in disgust. “It gets stuck between your teeth, is too tough to chew, and tastes like day-old Dr. Pepper. Greek yogurt is yucky!” He wrinkled his nose even thinking about it. Jen paused her spoon an inch from her open mouth. “Have you ever...

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Come and See!

Come and See!

Nurses just know. They’ve been there, done that. They say, “Just slap a bandaid on it and stop complainin’!” But that same gruff nurse who blows off our ouches and owies as an annoyance will soften like butter in the warm, Texas sun when confronted with a patient who...

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Old Testament

Change Is Tough

Change Is Tough

The Air Force provides a lot of training, very little of it on a volunteer basis. One of the trainings I took was in “Change Management.” It may have had a different, more military sounding name, something like “Non-linear Progression of Leadership Requirements” but I...

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The A-Team

The A-Team

When the Air Force stationed my dad overseas, the only real disadvantage of living “on the economy” was a lack of US TV programs. If you lived close enough to base, you could watch the Armed Forces Network, but we lived too far away. Somehow, one of the American...

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