Think About It

Ah … Spring is finally here!  So what! I know a lot of people look forward to spring and that’s great.  There are a lot of neat things that happen during this time of year.  There is new growth and new life all around us.  However, spring is not the panacea that it appears to be.  In fact, truth be told, according to several sources, suicide begins to peak this time of year.  (Actually, winter is when the fewest attempts occur – especially in December.) Now, the reason for this sobering news is to help us remember that happiness and contentment don’t come from some mystical formula.  We can’t just hope that the coming of spring, the beginning of a new job, a tax refund or anything else will produce a lasting change in our lives.  Sure, they may help provide temporary relief, but until we address the underlying struggles, we probably won’t really feel better.  That’s the bad news; but there is good news.  If you are hoping to feel better,...

When the Old Testament prophet, Malachi, was recording God’s message to the people of Israel, he pointed out that God told them He wasn’t pleased with their worship. The Lord was dissatisfied with what the people were passing off as “sacrifices”. They were presenting the lame, sick, blemished and stolen animals to their spiritual Father and religious Master! While this was bad enough, we get the impression that the people were upset with God’s disdain for their giving less than the best. The problem is summed up in the Lord’s rebuke, “You also say, ‘My, how tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it,” says the Lord of hosts, “and you bring what was taken by robbery and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?” says the Lord.” (Malachi 1:13). The Israelites seemed to whine about how difficult it is – almost saying, “We are doing the best we can!” … but is that true? At one point in the discussion, God wishes that someone would s...

Even though my sister was born on this date, outside of our family, she is not the most famous person to have a March 20th birthday. There are several people who celebrated birthdays on this day, one of the most influential in modern times is Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers wasn’t dynamic; but his calming, caring nature influenced a lot of people. One of my favorite quotes from him states, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”. As I thought about this, I started reflecting on many of the crisis scenes I have seen and, while there is typically a focus on victims in a crisis, if you look deeper, probably in the background, you’ll see helpers. You will see people who are willing to give of themselves – people who are willing to exchange their peace to reduce other people’s crisis. These helpers make life livable! As I thought about this statement, I was reminded that, as h...

I have become pretty good at being Dr. Google. When I, or someone I know about, experiences a symptom, I jump on the internet and come up with a diagnosis. Now, when you combine my love of research and my tendency to be compulsive, I can spend a lot of time diagnosing stuff. While this doesn’t mean that I am right, it does show a propensity to try to help others. As I thought about those of us who spend a lot of time researching physical ailments I wondered how many of us could do the world a favor if we had the same fervor dealing with spiritual issues? What could happen if, when we realized that we or someone we cared about was struggling with a spiritual concern, we investigated the issue in the Bible? The presence of online bibles has made it so much easier to do research and share information quickly. If we care enough about people’s physical health that we dive into the sources to help them feel better, imagine how much good we could do if we went to the Source to help them...

When I was growing up, I often heard the phrase “opposites attract” and if you were to know me and Jeane back in the day, you could affirm it’s validity.  While there were many things about which we agreed, our personalities were quite different.  I guess there is credence to the concept because after over 40 years we are still together.  We are proud of what we have done, but there is another couple that puts us to shame.  For over 60 years Carl Dean was married to Dolly Parton.  Dolly was about as flamboyant as they come and Carl seemed content to stay in the background.  I don’t know what their relationship was like at home, but at least on the surface, they made it work. The reason I bring this up is to remind us that even though there is credence to theory that opposites attract, we have to be careful to make it work.  The excitement of two people with different personalities can turn into an annoyance if it isn’t cultivated.  What we found i...

Five years ago our world was in an uproar!  We were reeling from the information that something called COVID-19 was invading our world.  Not only did the unknown aspect of the virus cause a lot of concern, its presence brought a lot of changes.  Few, if any of us, could have imagined the way this bug would shutter our recreational activities; but I doubt that any of us realized what was about to happen to even our most sacred activities.  Folks, I have never experienced anything like the pandemic and to be blunt with you, I never want to do it again! Now, the reason I bring this up is not to rekindle bad memories; rather it is to remind us to enjoy the restored freedoms we have.  I know it is tempting to fuss about what is going on today – and I realize there are people going through difficult times – but most of us can move around our communities freely, not afraid of the unknown.  I feel for those who are dealing with their own personal challenges, but fr...

Happy Pi(e) Day! Now for those of you who might not be familiar with Pi, it is  a mathematical constant equal to 3.14159.  Since March 14th is often written as 3/14 someone decided it would be cool to do something special on Pi Day.  My first experience with it was a pizza place in Florida that did some kind of promotion with their pizza pies.  I thought it was kind of cool, so through the years, we have often done something on Pi Day that involved pizza and dessert pies.  Now, my ability to explain Pi Day is much easier than explaining the concept of “Pi”.  According to Wikipedia, Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.  Okay, you need to know something about me – I was a business major in college so anything related to math (other than accounting) and science is pretty much lost on me.  Maybe that is while I relate Pi more to eating than to equations. The reason I bring this up is that sometimes, maybe we should just enjoy t...