I love to play games. Board games, video games, card games… One of my favorite ways to spend time with family is to grab a deck of cards and play all evening long. Pinochle and 500 in particular. In both, there is some luck involved in the hand you are dealt, but also a lot…
J&MES: Preparation & Opportunity
We talk about preparation all the time. Am I prepared for retirement? Are we ready for school to start? Are the teams ready for the rivalry game? Or, the conversation around here lately… Are we prepared for Rally Day? We want to be like those who seem to be the most prepared and we…
J&MES: Faith & Action
This month in worship, we are going to be focusing on the book of James in the New Testament. It is all the way in the back of our bibles… just after Hebrews and right before a couple of shorter letters that lead into Revelation. This book is actually a letter written by James to…
Two Texts: Privilege and the Beloved Community
In my life, I have been pulled over by a police officer perhaps half a dozen times. One was for a broken taillight and the rest were for speeding. Every single time, my heart rate rose and my palms got sweaty. I was nervous. I felt guilty. I knew I was in trouble. But never,…
Two Texts: Pope Francis, the Environment, and Relationships
This summer, Pope Francis issued a letter to the world, “Laudato Si’” or Praise be to You which calls upon all people to care for our common home, our sister, Mother Earth. And while it made the news this summer, one of the first thoughts I had was that, as United Methodists, we had a…
Two Texts: Greece, Debt, and the Jubilee
2008 was a tough year for everyone financially. Wall Street had faltered, global markets took a tumble and nearly everyone felt the pinch. It was pretty much an accepted fact that there would be a long, tough, uphill battle to get back on track… not just in the United States, but globally as well. Just…
Two Texts: Iran, Cuba, and the Gerasene Demoniac
This month, our “Two Texts” series takes seriously the advice of Karl Barth… that we should take the bible and take the newspaper and read both. All sorts of stories have caught our attention over the summer and have led us to wonder what the Bible might have to say about that. What do people…
Apps and Folders
How you categorize something matters. It speaks to the importance you place on it and the function it serves. My smart phone has the ability to create folders for my home pages and various apps go in them. I have one for tools (flashlight, calculator, etc.). There is one labeled fun (Netflix, Pandora, and whatever…