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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...
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...
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...
Come and See for Yourselves!
A friend from Germany visited Penelope, Texas. She had seen a map and intellectually understood that towns in Texas were separated by miles and miles. She did not truly understand it until she saw how long and empty the road was between Birome, Leroy, Penelope, and...
Really, Look for the Right Things!
Teaching chemistry can be difficult. You hate to ask the question, “What part did you not understand?” Mostly because you’ll get the answer, “That part starting after, ‘Good morning, class!’” To teach a single concept, you need to teach it several different ways. To...
Look for the Right Things!
“There’s your problem!” He found the problem. The air conditioner stopped, but that was a symptom, not the cause. A short in the outlet literally burned away the metal prongs. Fix the outlet, and the AC will sort itself out. Why did I need help to figure out the...
Reading Between the Lines
Have you ever been told, “Read between the line.”? Sometimes it is a subtle social cue, like not being invited to a wedding. Other times it is painfully obvious, like someone making a statement by wearing white after labor day…. Do we need to read between the lines to...
Their Hope of Gain was Gone
Money makes the world go ‘round. Might makes right. The ends justify the means. These statements have a semblance of wisdom and are confirmed by our historical bias. But are such sentiments really true? Is there something more important than money, power, or...
Looking for a Place of Prayer
The new year is upon us. Perhaps you are reviewing this past year. Maybe you are resolving yourself to the next. In all of the flurry of our daily lives, make time for quiet time. When you feel crushed by compounding and increasingly urgent priorities, push back and...
Just Because You Could
Just because you could doesn’t mean you should. I’m not sure who originally said it, but Jeff Goldblum comes pretty close in Jurassic Park. The scientists were so focused on making dinosaurs that they didn’t stop to consider if they should. (Spoiler: it didn’t work...
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...
“Did you dunk the cats yet?”
How would I answer that question? On the one hand, I didn’t dip the cats for fleas, but on the other hand, the cats would object. Violently. Hopefully, I misheard the question. Hopefully, I would make sure of what was said before I needlessly treat the cats...
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...
No Witnesses
Bob knew it was a perfect crime. He carried out in the dead of night. There were no witnesses, and there were no co-conspirators. Two years later, he heard the verdict and the gavel and began his long life of incarceration. How could Bob have found himself in this...
There Is Always One More
Some people are born to be in sales. I was not. Most aren’t. So what makes someone so good at sales? Is it the gift of the gab or an innate ability to convince others against their will? If we don’t have the gift, can we ever do a job that requires it? Yes! The secret...
Bring me a rock
In the Air Force, and probably the other branches as well, you don’t always get clear guidance on tasks. A boss once asked for a report on a long-range plan. After working on it for weeks, he said, “I was thinking something with more clouds to indicate...
But God Raised Him From the Dead
I remember my first office. No longer living in a cubicle, the trappings of the office were nice. It would have been easy to let it go to my head. The office didn’t exist as a reward but as a tool to do my job more effectively. The most important part was the job. The...
Those Among You Who Fear God
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” Without Google, I could not tell you that Shakespeare wrote that in his play, Julius Caesar. I must have read it at some point, probably in high school, and the phrase stuck with me. Why? It uses vocative language to...
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...
If you get angry, count to ten…
Mark Twain’s version was, “When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.” Are Christians ever allowed to get that angry? In Acts 13:6–12, we see Paul get angry. Elymas, a false prophet, knowingly placed himself between the gospel message and a searching soul....
Fighting Like Cats and Dogs
People fight, sometimes like cats and dogs. If that were not so, there would be no countries, politics, or generational gaps. It seems that people are drawn to conflict like mosquitos to a bug zapper. It doesn’t have to be that way. In Acts 13:1, there were five...
Silver-tongued Devils
Jim Jones promised his followers paradise. He could never follow through on this promise. Still, he placed himself above others by taking on the mantle of godly authority. What a tragedy! In Acts 12:22, Herod (an evil, self-serving king) accepted praise as a god...
How Could He Do That?
Sometimes this is a negative question, but sometimes a positive one. For example, Thom’s cancer came back with a vengeance. The morphine was no longer working, and he was in horrible pain. Then Violet walks in, and for the duration of his grandchild’s visit, he smiles...
Can Any Forbid Water?
“Sir, you’re dehydrated.” The sergeant was checking how long the pale, pinched hands took to regain color. After ambush training, he checked everyone, including observers. “I know.” There was zero chance of me taking a lift from medical staff, especially in front of...
Bumper Sticker
I once read a bumper sticker that said, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” I thought it was a great bumper sticker, and then I thought about it a little more. The middle part, “I believe it,” just didn’t matter. If God says it, that settles it. Our...
Legacy
“The one good thing this man did in his life was to die.” No preacher anywhere would actually say this at a funeral, and even fewer people would want to be remembered that way. So, what will people remember about us when we are dead? Hopefully, we will leave a...
Who are you, Lord?
Sometimes, life shows up at your doorstep, chews you up, and spits you on the floor. We make plans, work towards goals, and then life goes sideways. In those moments of life, we might cry out to the sky in frustration. In those moments, we can cry out to God. In Acts...
If Not Now, Then When?
When is the best time to plant a tree? Several years ago. When is the next best time? Right now. If you keep putting off planting a tree, it will never grow. So if you are thinking about planting a tree, now is better than never. In Acts 8:36, the Ethiopian eunuch...
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...
Such a small thing.
A tempest in a teapot. Making a mountain out of a molehill. All hat, no cattle. Never mind, the last doesn’t belong with the first two, but it is so easy to make a big deal about a minor point. In Acts 8:14-17, we read about when the Samaritan Christians received the...
He Goes to Church?!
You don’t expect to see some people in the church building. Maybe they are notorious in town, perhaps they were the school bully, or maybe they stole your date for prom. Think about that person. Now imagine them going to church. What does it tell you if that person is...
Down, but Not Out
We lose our job, or we are taken to court, or our character is assassinated by those we trusted most – there are so many ways others might make us feel down. When others hurt us, it is easy to feel down, but it is entirely our choice to feel out. In Acts 8:1-5, we see...
Stand Up!
Why do we stand up? Sometimes the reason is simple. Perhaps we need to move, or the meal is over. But do we ever stand up for somebody? Grandpa walks into the room, and we stand up to give her a hug. Grandma gets to the restaurant late, and we stand up to greet her....
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!)....
Sweat the Small Stuff
Rich Carlson has a book titled, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff. Sometimes we need to sweat the small stuff because it is big stuff. What might appear to be a pebble in our lives is a boulder in someone else’s. In Acts 6:1-7, we read of a...
Just What We Do
It had been a 100-hour workweek. An inspection was coming up, problems were cropping up, so our work hours went up. No one told us to work such hours. No one questioned the need for long hours. The mission dictated the workload, so we worked. It was just what we did....
Courage
People jump out of perfectly good airplanes. That may be a display of courage, but an equally strong argument could be made for recklessness. What is your view of skydiving? It certainly takes trust in the equipment, the packing, the reserve chute. It takes courage to...
If You Can’t Be Honest With Yourself…
“If you can’t be honest with yourself, who can you be honest with?” The lab’s technical director had great one-liners. Maybe he got this one from somewhere, but I had not heard it before. The obvious answer is “no one,” but another valid answer is “God.” In Acts...
Don’t Bury the Lead
Burying the lead means that the most important part of a newspaper article is not mentioned first. Newspaper articles are not meant to be read like stories because readers read ruthlessly. Editors expect readers to skip over articles that they don’t appear relevant,...
We Can’t Keep Quiet
Air Force’s first core value is, “Integrity First.” Every airman was required to learn what it meant. Two of the better definitions were: doing what is right even if no one is watching, and doing what is right even when it hurts. It takes courage to live with...
Why Won’t They Listen?
We all want to be heard. Sometimes we speak with a ballot, other times by standing up in front of a group of people. Even giving someone the silent treatment is a way to say something. But why won’t some people listen? It could be that our reputation does not match...
On the Outside Looking In
Not everyone gets included. Someone has to be picked last for kickball in PE class. Some kids don’t have parents to provide for them, much less buy them gifts for birthdays or Christmas. The weird guy at work is isolated because he is the topic of conversation, not a...
What Did You Even Ask?
The air was too thick to breathe and too thin to drink. Looking at the grass, which was now less than an inch from his head, his quivering arms finally gave out. Only 12 pushups, not 20. The recruit muttered to himself, “How am I ever going to do more pushups?” Like a...
What do I do now?
My crew partner admitted to saying, “But I haven’t got to that chapter in the book!” His wife’s water broke, but he hadn’t finished, “What to Expect When You Are Expecting.” The end of the pregnancy snuck upon him. At the crucial moment, he asked the question,...
You’re Not the Boss of Me!
Imagine an older child telling a younger, “You need to clean up your room.” Would it surprise you if the younger said, “You’re not the boss of me!” Have you heard this same conversation? This “conversation” is a microcosm of the world at large today. Everyone wants to...
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...
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...
He Already Knew
I was retiring. The Air Force had approved the paperwork and set the date. Unfortunately, that didn’t get me out of some formalities of paperwork. Once you have been in for a while, your record goes before promotion boards. The single most important part of that...
Why Did God Give Us the Book of Acts?
What did Bradbury mean when he wrote Fahrenheit 451? Many students of literature will give many different answers to that question. The easiest way to know what he meant was to ask him, “What did you mean?” But what if Bradbury is no longer available for an...
Why would the directions say that?
Hopefully, baby cribs are easier to put together today than they once were. Overlooking a small detail, like a safety catch, could send the side of the crib crashing down on your toe. Then the answer to, “Why would the directions say that?” became painfully apparent....
How Much Evidence Do You Need?
There are some things people just won’t believe, despite the evidence. Perhaps they reject the evidence. Maybe they don’t like the conclusion drawn from the evidence. It might even be that they fabricate evidence contrary to the truth. Reasonable people, however, draw...
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...
It Is Finished
How much longer? Maybe you have a countdown app on your phone, or you place a big “X” on the calendar every day. Sometimes it can’t just get here soon enough. A birthday, graduation, retirement, or getting out of a cast/quarantine can make time feel like it is...
We Have No King But Caesar
Happy New Year’s Day! Today is a day of thanksgiving that 2020 is behind us. Today is a day of hope that 2021 will be better than the last. Today is a day of promise that many start resolutions. What sort of resolutions are you making this year? In John 19:16, Pilate...
Cruel Indifference
It’s Christmas Day! What are you thinking about today? Hopefully, you spend time with family. Maybe you will have a good meal (or 5 or 6 with leftovers to spare…). Perhaps presents will be opened. Don’t forget to call your mom! Maybe cheer on your favorite team in...
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...
Seeking the Wrong Jesus
“Bring me a rock.” I hated getting taskings like this. We went and found a “rock,” only to find out the boss wanted a rounder rock, or smoother, or purple. We wondered if the rock we found was the right one. Of course, the military seldom looks for rocks, but some...
Double-take
Sometimes we have to do a double-take. We miss it at first glance, and we have to look at it again to really see it. In John 17, we read Jesus’ prayer to the Father. In this single chapter, Jesus uses the word “world” 18 times! How important was the world to Jesus if...
I Am an American…
The first article of the Code of Conduct is, “I am an American fighting in the forces that guard my country and our way of life, I am prepared to give my life in their defense.” The heart of the Code is love. Dying for the country is love. In John 15:13, Jesus says,...
That Sure Is a Lot of Work
There is a scene in McFarland, USA when Kevin Costner had worked in the fields until all he could do was lay on the ground, moaning in misery. Some people see Christianity like that and ask, “Is it worth it?” In John 15:1-17, Jesus talks to His disciples...
Yogi Berra
“Predictions are tough, especially about the future.” Yogi Berra had some great one-liners. This one is particularly appropriate right now. This was/will be a tense week. The election will have come and gone, but we might not have the results when this gets printed....
That Just Sounds Wrong
TV commercials sell products. If you remember the commercial but not the product, then the commercial failed. I remember a commercial that sold something, but I don’t remember what it was. I remember the commercial because a teenage daughter shouted at her...
Stoplights Are Not Suggestions
They have a purpose. Stoplights exist so that there will be fewer accidents. They tell us when we can safely go through an intersection and when we can’t. Imagine a world where people regularly ignored stoplights. Stoplights have a purpose. In John 15:17, Jesus gives...
Good Enough for Government Work
Lowest cost, technically acceptable. That is what we were told to look for, and it bothered me. The meaning of “good enough for government work” has really gone downhill. It now means as cheap as possible and barely able to do the job. The Bible is not the product of...
How Do I Love Thee?
…let me count the ways. Those are the opening words of Elizabeth Browning’s 43 sonnet. What strikes me as odd about the sonnet is that she described her emotions, but she didn’t list any actions to show how she loved. I don’t doubt she loved deeply, but if her love...
You Can’t Get There From Here
There was a story about a tourist in London trying to get to Big Ben, or maybe it was about trying to get to Great Bend, or perhaps I don’t really remember it at all. The point was that the tourist kept hearing, “You can’t get there from here.” The Bible doesn’t leave...
No Vacancies
Have you ever noticed the unlit “NO” before the “VACANCIES” sign at a roadside motel? It is a clever way to send one of two messages, “We have room, stop here!” or “We have no room, keep going.” Finding “NO VACANCIES” on a trip is frustrating, but living your life...
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,...
Inconceivable
“You keep using that word…” Some can quote The Princess Bride movie. Having seen it once or twice myself, I only remember bits and pieces of a silly dialogue about the word “inconceivable.” Wallace Shawn’s character kept saying it to describe the...
Parsimony is a Virtue
The colonel told me to keep it short. His exact words were, “Parsimony of word is a virtue.” I don’t know if he quoted someone famous, but it did reflect an ancient American proverb, “Waste not, want not.” In John 12:3-5, Mary opened very costly perfume, poured it on...
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...
Jesus Wept
Sometimes the significant figures of history seem distant with little humanity. George Washington is a monolith on the National Mall. Abraham Lincoln sits in a big chair, staring off into the distance. They existed, but don’t feel real. But Grandpa, I could relate to...
What Was I Thinking?
If I don’t finish a project before the end of the day, then there is a good chance that when I come back to it the next day, I will ask myself, “What was I thinking?” Until I remember what I was thinking, “I lose the bubble,” and just stare at it. Sometimes I think I...
Grenade!
What do soldiers or Marines do when a grenade lands among them? The most heroic among them might make a split-second decision to jump on top of it. Falling on the grenade usually results in the death of the one in hopes of saving others. That is heroism worthy of the...
Look! Do You Hear That?
His name was Joey. We were in high school together for two years. One afternoon Joey was just so amused thinking about the phrase, “Look! Do you hear that?” It was amusing because while the phrase was perfectly understandable, it didn’t actually make much sense. After...
Reject the Evidence!
Popular science assumes that nothing supernatural can exist. Since the only things that can exist are natural, any evidence for the supernatural is rejected. In John 9, the Pharisees assumed God could not work on the Sabbath. Despite this belief, Jesus healed a blind...
It’s All Your Fault!
The ground falls from underneath us. We tumble down in despair. We think, “What did I do to deserve this?” Maybe it is a medical diagnosis, death of a loved one, loss of a job, or a relationship breaking, but we feel a need to blame someone, anyone, for our problems....
Don’t Shoot the Messenger!
Why do we have that saying? Some news is unwelcome. The Jews didn’t like the message Jesus brought. They didn’t have guns, but they did have stones to silence the messenger. In John 8:39-59, Jesus continues to teach the Jews truth, but an unpopular truth. Rather than...
A Simple Recipe
Wrap the potato in aluminum foil. Preheat the oven. Stick the wrapped potato into the oven. How easy is that? Only two ingredients: potato and aluminum. After it’s cooked, you can add butter, or sour cream, or whatever else to taste. If you follow this recipe, you...
Wrong Side of the Tracks
Some people are just born on the wrong side of the tracks. By luck of birth, one person is socially desirable, and another is undesirable. The Jews thought Jesus was from the wrong side of the tracks. He came from the region of Galilee. His home town was Nazareth, a...
Hallmark Cards
Why does Hallmark make cards? Somehow they seem to have the exact right words for different situations. What do you say to someone in the hospital? Send them a get-well card! What do you say to new grandparents-to-be? Send them a get-well card too! What do you say to...
Ozymandias
“Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” That’s the only phrase I remember from that poem. We read it in high school and were taught that it had a double meaning. On the one hand, Ozymandias wrote it to terrify other kings into submission. On the other hand, it...
The Forest and the trees
In high school, we read Leaf by Niggel by J.R.R Tolkien. I completely missed the point of the story. The main character focuses on painting perfect leaves rather than the forest. I thought Niggel’s missing the “big picture” was actually the “big picture” of...
A Prayer
Holy God, You Who are Creator of All That Is, You Who are Love’s source and example, You Who are the great I am, You who are the eternal comforter, and You who are Redeemer of mankind through the ages – past, present, and future – please hear this prayer. You are...
Something was lost in translation
Language doesn’t always make sense. If you were to ask a new-to-English-speaker, “What’s up?” the logical answer is, “the sky.” That answer does not actually answer the question that was intended. America’s favorite Bible verse is kind of like that. We see it on...
Most Likely to Fail
When I was in high school, the end of the year brought the superlatives. Someone made a list with, “Most likely to ____.” Generally, they were positive and highlighted positive future accomplishments. Others were just cruel, “Most likely to fail.” Cruel. During Jesus’...
That Dog Don’t Hunt
A general stood on stage, quoting an old first sergeant from Georgia, “That dog don’t hunt!” What he meant was that something didn’t make sense. What he really meant was, “Something happened, but it doesn’t make sense to me that it should have happened.” Generally,...
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...
My Babies’ First Words Were Blub and Gulg
New parents place a lot of value on their baby’s first words. Will the baby say, “mahmah” first, or “dhuhdhuh”? Either mom or dad will get the bragging rights. But what if those first words are, “dohg-ee”!? Jesus’ first words as a human are not...
I Cried When Travis Shot Old Yeller
It was an emotionally intense scene with a lot of build-up. Old Yeller gets bitten, then he is penned up, then he gets sick, then he tries to bite, then Travis gets the gun, then…you know the rest. For a long time, I didn’t even want to watch Savage...
You Didn’t Say, “Simon Says!”
Do you remember playing that game with neighbors and friends as a kid? The idea was to get someone confused and not really listening, then you would gleefully say, “Jump like a frog!” Then one of the other kids would – but you didn’t say, “Simon says” so he...
God, Where Are You!?
In Mark 6:45-52 we read about Jesus walking on the water. In this account, Jesus sent the disciples ahead of Him to the other side of the Sea of Galilee while He went up the mountain to pray. It was very late at night/early in the morning and the wind blew, causing...
“So I Prayed to the God of Heaven”
Nehemiah was sad, and that was an occupational hazard. He was the scribe of the king, a king who could kill on whim. Anyone in service of the king was well advised to appear loyal, devoted, and sublimely joyful before the king — but Nehemiah was sad. Nehemiah must...
“Those Who Can Do. Those Who Can’t Teach”
My uncle said it. I am pretty sure he had never read George Bernard Shaw. Most of us who know the saying, believe it is a proverb— not something lifted out of a novel. The Bible, however, teaches us something different in Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had set his heart to...
I Am a Vegan, Except When I Eat Steak
That is a silly statement isn’t it? The vegans I know tend to be committed to the lifestyle. No one can honestly call themselves “vegan” and plan to eat steak every Thursday. In the same way, it makes no sense to say, “I am a Christian, except when I am a...