Life Goes On

Recently I preached on the topic "Loving God With All Your Strength". That the message coincided with the Winter Olympics gave me ample metaphors from the world of sport. For the week prior to the message we had seen via TV athletes who "played hurt" because participating in the Olympics meant so much to them. One athlete fell into a ravine, clamored out and finished the ski race. A post race exam showed that she had four broken ribs and a punctured lung. Oh that American Christians had such "grit". In our day, a headache, sniffles, allergies, being "worn out" from being a week end athlete on Saturday and any number of other minor maladies will often take a believer out of action on Sunday. Amazingly, healing takes place in time for work or school on Monday. We can play through pain and tiredness for the sake of a grade or a paycheck, but not in service for our King. I recently read a quote by C. S. Lewis which said, "God whispers t...

I live in a 55+ community. Lately I've observed that, emotionally, many adults stopped maturing in Jr. High. I was in the fitness center of our complex the other day. A guy and his wife were working out together. He was the loud sort. You couldn't help but hear him all over the room. He proclaimed for the benefit of everyone how much weight he was lifting, how many sets & reps he was doing, and how it all was in spite of all the drinks he had consumed the night before. (he even named each one) Another man entered the room and was immediately challenged by the LM (loud mouth) to add weight to the max on the chest press machine. Several times on the golf course I've noticed "mature" adult men trying to out-cuss each other. It sounds just like middle school kids who are trying to impress their peers with their "tough" vocabulary. They seem to think that dropping "f" bombs somehow makes them appear masculine. The sad thing is, I...