Recently I played an exclusive golf course that provided caddies. Normally, I prefer carts to caddies because carts cannot keep score, snicker, or laugh. I can explain my golf swing in baseball terms. It is a cross between a screwball and a change up. It is a screw-up. It made my relationship with the caddie […]
Comic Belief: Rumination, Meditation and Renewal
The Bible teaches that we must continually renew our minds. Otherwise we drift in our thinking and eventually our living. We must be in a constant state of renewal. That usually involves getting away from our daily lives to think about how we live. We must evaluate where we are going. When our outside actions […]
Comic Belief: Sacred Cows
One of our neighbor’s kids learned how to ride a bike at an early age. That was great, but he didn’t know how to stop. He panicked and searched for a bush to crash into to stop him. Life is difficult when you can’t stop. The end result is usually a wreck and serious injury […]
Comic Belief: Main Cog in the Synagogue
I spoke to a group of pastors in Phoenix. Ministry in Phoenix can be difficult. It’s so beautiful in the winter, heaven doesn’t motivate — and it is so hot in the summer, hell won’t scare them. Church work is hard everywhere. For many pastors, their prayer at banquets should be, “Lord, thank You for […]
Comic Belief: The Greatest Love
Most of life is about relationships. In my practice, I spent many hours in marriage counseling. It always surprised me that people paid good money to fight over things that really didn’t matter. I felt more like a referee than a psychologist. Relationships are difficult, especially for men. Last year, my wife said she wanted […]
Comic Belief: A Box of Chocolates
People talk about resolutions in January. This year I will burn off those Christmas desserts, tear up the credit cards and live a wonderful life. One pastor’s New Year’s resolution was to get to know his deacons. His next year’s resolution was to find a new church. Are resolutions a pointless ritual initiated by calendars, […]
Comic Belief: Funny-Looking Clothes
An interviewee for a job at a famous art gallery was asked, “If you could save one picture from fire, which piece would it be?” He answered, “I’d save the piece closest to the exit.” That is how we think — often just of ourselves. Singular thinking makes it difficult to walk together. Churches can […]
Comic Belief: What’s The Point?
An article in Psychology Today described a man who committed three hours a day for 10 years to finding something wrong with everything. He then either wrote or talked to someone to complain about what was wrong. He did that for 10 years of his life. Psychology Today concluded that his only accomplishment was to […]
Comic Belief: Random Pounding
We all come from the Adams family. Our family inheritance is our “earth suit” with its selfish nature. We are simply vessels of clay. As it ages, clay cracks, crumbles and disintegrates. We have also inherited a world that is cracking, disintegrating, corroding and falling apart. We inhabit a world that is moving in a […]
Comic Belief: People Pleasers
I grew up in a parsonage because my dad was a pastor. You see, it wasn’t our house; it was the church’s house. If we wanted to paint our rooms, the committee had to approve. Sometimes they inspected the house. They said things like, “Children, did you stop up that commode?” It made me want […]