Think About It

What does it mean to love someone?  Here is where one answer does not fit all.  There is a special kind of love that I have for my wife that is unique and can only be shared between her and me.  There are other types of love that might be shared between close friends and family.  Then, there is another kind of love that is what is owed to humanity at large … and it is this kind of love that tends to get us tripped up.  The Bible in general and the New Testament, specially, calls on us to show love to mankind.  In verses like, “If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” (James 2:8) we find a command that demands love – but what does that mean?  Interestingly, this decision is not as confusing as we often make it out to be.  In many cases, love is basically just welcoming people with good will and practicing respect.  It is simply showing t...

          I think the older you get the more apt you are to look back at your life and take inventory of what you have done.  It’s not that we aren’t excited about what’s ahead of us, but we can see the influence we have had on the lives of others, and the impact life has had on us.  As I look back, I have gotten to do a lot of incredible things.  Not all of them have been enjoyable, but even in the worst of times, I have been able to be involved in memorable experiences.  As I recently thought about this, I realized that I am not the most talented and resourceful person there is, but one thing I have tried to do is say, “Yes”.  I have been willing to go and do.  In the beginning, it was particularly hard to put myself in difficult situations, but with each opportunity came the confidence to keep being present.           Are you looking for a way to make a difference?  The best ...

On this day in 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor.  Most people readily recognize “Lady Liberty” as a symbol of the growth and development of the American way of life.  While her grand size is incredible, there is something even more special about her.  At the base of the statue is a poem by Emma Lazarus entitled “The New Colossus”.  In a tribute to a new way of thinking, the poet speaks for the statue by noting, “‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she with silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’”.  Through the years our nation has struggled with uniting cultures and today is no different.  While there is no way 340 million people will see eye-to-eye on the best way to build our neighborhoods, as we go through the process we should...

I try to write things that impact the broadest number of people possible, but every-once-in-while I feel the need to address specific groups of people and today is one of those days.   As the federal government shutdown grinds on, I want to say “thank you” to our government workers.   We live on the outskirts of several military institutions and just outside the Beltway where a lot of government business is done, so we are constantly reminded of the impact politics is having on our friends and neighbors through no fault of their own.   I know a lot of people who have chosen to work in the public sector to make our lives better and safer and I want you to know that your service and sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.   Whether you are furloughed or still working but not getting paid, you are in our thoughts and we hope that this will be put behind us as quickly as possible. I would like to encourage all of us to take a minute to remember these federal workers as they ...

I have a lot of gadgets in my office – most of which require charging to work.   They run fine as long as their batteries have enough electricity to keep them going.   I doubt that you find much interesting in preceding sentence, so here’s my point:   what happens when I don’t plug them in and recharge them?   I can have the best of intentions and even set them next to a charging station, but until they are plugged in and getting the juice they need, they are little more than clutter.   Now, again, you might be thinking I have a firm grasp of the obvious, but there is a lesson in this observation.   Where are you going to be spending your weekend?   How many of us have good intentions to go to worship – but, more importantly, how many of us will actually be there?   Many of us know the value of joining like-minded believers in worshipping the Lord and fellowshipping with other Christians, but are we going to do it? There are a lot of things that...

          I have been reading a book by Randy Harris called “Living Jesus:  Doing What Jesus Says in the Sermon on the Mount”.  In the section where Jesus observes, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’   But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you …” Randy asks how many of us actually have enemies.  There may be some people who have sworn enemies that we can’t stand, but a lot of us don’t have relationships that have deteriorated to that level.  So, can we ignore this verse?  Unfortunately, the author challenges to us think about the “irritants” in our lives.   How could this passage change if we reworded it to include, “But I say to you, love your irritants and pray for those who irritate you …”.  Ouch!  That’s not as much fun as passing over this message because we get along with most people, but I really believe it is a vit...

          Sixty-three years ago, the whole world was holding its collective breath!  For almost two weeks in October, 1962; two international superpowers – the United States and the Soviet Union – stood toe to toe in a conflict over the presence of missiles in Cuba.  There was a lot of back and forth that included threats, responses and reactions; but for a period of a couple of weeks the world waited for the other shoe to drop – and feared that the drop wouldn’t be another one of Khrushchev's  shoes but a nuclear bomb.  Since we are here to report the history, it is evident that things had a positive outcome, but for those who lived through those days, things were scary!           The reason I bring this up is to encourage us to stop and breathe for a little bit.  Sure, there are some things that aren’t going well in our world, nation and society now; but this is nothing new.  What we...