

Shameless Commerce Division
Today’s blog is brought to you by our Shameless Commerce Division. My friend, Pr. CJ Ransdell, is spearheading an Israel trip January 21-30, 2023. I am going, and a couple seats are still available. Having been on an archaeological dig, my standards for these things are pretty high, and this trip looks and sounds like a good one. To help make this a truly spiritual experience, at each site we’ll be given a Biblical reference and a summary of what God was doing in that place.


Golf
I like to play golf. I like the challenges of trying to coerce a small round object into proceeding forward to a final destination. And, I appreciate that in a regular round of golf I have 18 of these opportunities to move the unforgiving object from a unique starting point to a final resting place that is situated on a specially designed smooth surface. Ah, the 18 final resting places. These destinations usually change every day. Occasionally I will find that a perverse grou

No Gymtimidation
I have a gym membership. I meet a pastor friend twice a week and work out just hard enough to feel good. But that’s another story.
On Monday this week my friend and I were noticing the signs posted all over the gym:
No Judgment Zone
You belong
No Gymtimidation
And one of us said to the other, “Why aren’t these signs posted in our churches?” OK, the last one doesn’t exactly fit, but the first two do fit. And I’d add a third, “No Shame Zone.”
It’s not that there is no Judgem


In This Together
“Totally out of control,” I said to my supervisor when she asked me, “How’s it going?” Then I asked her the same question. “Kind of the same,” she replied. For her, something had snagged on a picture as she walked through her door, leaving glass shards all over the kitchen. For me, well: Sunday had been pleasant: clear and sunny, if a bit chilly. Yesterday, I woke up to the gentle sound of rain, and an occasional roll of thunder: Good, I had thought; northeastern Colorado i