First Fruits vs. Easter
Today, I am going to be taking my two daughters to an annual church activity whereby they place little plastic eggs on the ground filled with candy. Some of these eggs will be hidden, most not so much. Then my daughters, along with a bunch of other children, will be let loose to go find these eggs. It will be a great time, full of smiles and children laughing. Sunday morning, they will have a special basket to go through which their mother will have prepared ahead of time. It will also have little candies, treats, and toys in it for them to go through before we head off to church that morning. It is a celebration of Easter, and quite frankly it has little to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let me be clear on one thing. Easter, in fact, was...
A $640 Million Question
While prime time news outlets devoted at least some of their broadcasting to the record-breaking lottery jackpot that ended with several winners last night, I must say it was a bit of fun conversation between my wife and I about what we would do with so much money. To be honest, my main thoughts seemed to keep navigating toward finding a way to preserve both my anonymity and my sanity, and the best way I could think of to do this would be to take a very long vacation out of the country – maybe for a year. By the time I came back from vacation, it would be hoped, another world issue/problem will have found its way to center stage. All that money is kinda fun and scary to think about at the same time. Fun to think about what you’d do with it, and...
When You Just Cannot Help
I remember having a parakeet in the house when I was a teenager. This little bird did not seem to care much for me or anyone else, that is, until it wanted something. The cage had a small vial for food and another one for water, but whenever I tried to remove the small containers to change out the food or water the bird would be at the edge of the cage trying to bite me. Same went for whenever I tried to put them back. It became very annoying, so I began to let the food run out completely before trying to replace it. That is when something strange happened. Instead of being at the edge of the cage trying to bite me, the little bird actually seemed to be friendly. To test the theory, I opened the cage and held out my finger for the bird to stand on. ...
Never Wrong
Going to church and calling yourself a Christian is easy, but actually living what you believe can be difficult to endure sometimes. Not because being a Christian is hard, but because the world we live in tends to penalize anyone, not just Christians, for doing what is right. Take the case I ran into just this last week. On the job, I was trying to help a company who had taken over a hotel because the hotel had gone into bankruptcy. The previous owner of the hotel not only had defaulted on the loan, but just about everything else, and the hotel was decaying and falling apart because of neglect. Worse yet, to save money, the previous owner lied about the room count on the hotel. The management company under order from the bank, came in to rehabilitate the...
A Good Mystery
I love a good mystery. While I never read Nancy Drew mysteries (those were for girls) I did read a few Hardy Boys stories and listened to the Sugar Creek Gang some mornings. Later, it was the Sherlock Holmes stories when I could get hold of one, and today I still love a good book or movie with a bit of a puzzle or mystery to solve. That kind of curiosity led me to study out the Bible with questions like, “Where are all the 2,000 year old men?” answered last week. What is even more curious though, is that the question answered last week was not where I initially started, but rather ended. For there was another verse in the Bible that sparked my curiosity, and led me to study out an entire chapter, which then led me to the verses talked about...