Author: Nick

I know that gifts are an overemphasized aspect of Christmas. They often are a response to a sense of obligation, but they can also reflect pure love. I was certainly blessed this year. My wife once again did her best to upgrade my wardrobe. Those rare times I look okay, it’s because of her. She’s a love.  We pull names in our family. My daughter moaned when she pulled mine. Turns out I am the one nobody wants to get.  I buy things before anyone can buy them for me. I managed to do that this year, buying a fitness tracker when the one my daughter ordered for a gift was en route from Amazon. Hers was mucb nicer than the one I bought for myself, but she returned it and responded beautifully with a great alternative. I hope she has the bad luck of pulling my name again next year.  My grand daughter Sammie painted the above for Rosemary and me. She told us the darkness represents a dark world. The heart figures are Rose and I as protectors of the family from the darkness. The light inside with the cross reflects Jesus who is our light, our center and our […]

There’s a documentary on Netflix, “Minimalism – A documentary about important things.” It’s about a movement of those who have “discovered” that material things don’t bring happiness, but are, in fact, chains to the unimportant. It’s nice to know this generation has made this startling discovery. I’m making this discovery myself. I have gone through “my stuff,” cleaning out storage, reorganizing drawers, throwing stuff away. I don’t want to die and suffer the embarrassment of my heirs discovering what a materialist I was. I have two of everything. I live in a house twice the size of anything my parents had and I still need a storage unit. This Christmas I found out that I’m the least favorite name to pull. Apparently I am impossible to buy for because if I need (or want) something I just buy it. Now that’s materialism.  Some of my generation ditched materialism, for a while, over fifty years ago. We called them “hippies.” They realized that their parents had fought the great war to live mundane lives in cookie cutter VA financed homes. They turned away from making the same mistakes in Vietnam and took on drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Most […]

How Much Jesus? This article appears in the December edition of Covenant Spotlight. It’s a great issue so check it out.  It seems the world is having more trouble than ever accepting the babe born in a manager. We are feeling the effects. His followers are stereotyped, marginalized, intimidated, prosecuted and even persecuted. We shouldn’t be surprised. The tiny one whose parents could not even get a room in an inn or give a clean place for his birth scares the hell (yes I said “hell” pun intended) out of most. Maybe it’s because like the Magi, deep down,  they recognize this child for all that He is. They gave Him gold in recognition of his kingship, not just earthly but divine royalty. This little one possesses great power. He is ruler of the universe, a role hidden in a dingy manger and not fully realized until His final return, but ultimate ruler nonetheless. They gave Him frankincense because they knew Him as priest, not just any priest but the Great High Priest who would advocate for lowly man with the Most High God. He would replace all the rituals and ceremony of religion with the reality of relationship.  […]

Among the many effects of the Trump Train, was the illumination of the great Christian divide. Conservative followers were willing to forgive  character flaws in exchange for social slide to the right. Liberal churches and their members saw Trump’s moral question marks as further evidence that Hillary was the right choice. Maybe both wings of the church can learn something from Trump. a.  There’s a hunger for the message. Americans sense that America is no longer great; they yearn for a return to a perceived prior greatness. Trumps opponents fatally failed to recognize that hunger. It will be great if America can become greater, whatever that means. Even if that happens, we won’t find the satisfaction we seek. Our hunger isn’t fueled by a national malaise, but a personal emptiness. Only Jesus will fill that. Without Him, hunger remains and the Word has an eager audience.  b. It’s not you. It’s your message. Trumps opponents made the mistake of paying too much attention to Trump. He’s brash, inarticulate, obnoxious, with bad hair. It was never about him. It was his message. It also wasn’t about Moses, or John the Baptist or Paul. We are all imperfect messengers. It’s always […]

Recently in Youngsville, a business was giving away its product. This wasn’t a marketing scheme or ownership gone mad. The electricity was out and the computer based cash register wasn’t working. There was access to the cash drawer but NO ONE WORKING AT THE TIME KNEW HOW TO MAKE CHANGE. So the business was giving away product.  I realize that the use of cash is way down. I don’t carry a checkbook anymore and very little cash. I use my debit card for everything. It provides a record of my expenses and is very convenient. There is obviously less need for cash handling skills. Nonetheless, shouldn’t everyone be able to make change.To my generation, this isn’t complicated.  There are videos online explaining how to do this. Really? I know the “younger generation” isn’t stupid they can do lots of things I can’t. It seems that because it’s a skill that isn’t often used, why teach it. Similarly, schools are no longer teaching kids to write in cursive. People don’t write much anymore by hand. When necessary, seems like printing produces a more readable product. I wish they had come up with this when I was in first grade. I […]

  Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21; Man plans and God laughs. Yiddish proverb and the thirteenth studio album by American hip hop group Public Enemy.  I gave much thought this weekend to living in the moment. It’s in fact, the only way to live. The past is gone and the future is unpredictable. Yet I waste much time regretting the past and worrying about the future.  I gave the matter much thought on an intellectual plane, until it was driven home by reality. I had simple plans for Sunday afternoon, take a nap, watch the Saints while finishing up my Christmas cards. For Monday I was going to prepare for and have a meeting with a client. However, I woke from the planned nap with a burning fever and chills to the extent I couldn’t stop shaking. I could have cared less about the Saints or Christmas cards. I rescheduled my Monday meeting. These were not monumental plans, but they could have been.  I don’t really think God was laughing at my plans. I do think my 24 hour bout with fever and chills was within God’s […]

I have a new fitness tracker. It is with me 24/7, when I sleep, swim or shower. It tracks my heartbeat, my steps, the flights of stairs I take, my sleep, my burned calories, the calories I ingest (if I’m honest with it.) It reminds me to move, to sleep, to wake, to eat, to stop eating, to answer my texts and emails. It is changing my life. It doesn’t do things for me. It just makes me aware. Being aware reminds and motivates me to do things. It’s great. It helps me focus on important things like activity, nourishment, and rest.  I need trackers in other aspects of my life. I need a fiscal tracker. One that makes me aware of what I am spending and not spending, earning and not earning. I need a social tracker that makes me aware of the people around me. I need to know what they need, what they are wanting, what are their dreams, their fears. If I was more aware wouldn’t I act differently? I need a God tracker. I need to know about Him. I need to be more aware of His presence. His desires for me. His warnings […]

In a recent conversation with my grandson, he said, “There are no shades of grey in marriage. That’s why the groom wears black and the bride wears white.” It took a few moments for the profoundness of that statement to sink in. There really are no shades of grey in marriage, or are there? Confusion on this point has been the source of much misery for generations. In marriage there are roles. We have greyed those roles. It has led to confusion and disintegration of the marriage institution. For years, husbands tried to be wives and wives to be men. I’m really not a chauvinist. I am not fighting women in the workplace or equal pay for equal work. I am saying that God created them man and woman and not something in between. He made them different because different talents are required to raise healthy kids and to live healthy lives. He never intended that one sex raise kids and the other make a living. It was always supposed to be a team effort. For centuries, families were teams. They made a living making a product or raising a crop along with the kids. The industrial revolution took […]