Author: Nick

Tonight is the last night of VBS at Amana, my home church. I really needed it, for lots of reasons. Some I anticipated. Some came as a surprise. I needed to serve. We talk a lot about service. Most of us don’t get the chance to spent every night for a week actually serving. There is no experience like it. I needed to bond. It has been great being with other Christians. I learned a bit more about a lot of people. almost all really good. I needed to be silly.  Wearing a hat that makes you look funny. Doing a little dance, only if it’s just a couple of steps. Cutting up with kids. These are all activities that none of us get enough of. I expected much of the above. The rest I got I didn’t expect. I needed to get away. As soon as the week started my calendar filled up with stuff. I have deadlines staring me in the face from many different directions. The stress started to mount. I considered dropping out. God said, “don’t.” I got more done this week than in weeks in which I don’t do any service at all. Getting away […]

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1: 15. These are the first words of Jesus recorded in the gospel of Mark. John first records the question and the invitation, “What do you want?” and “Come and you will see.“ Mark begins with the message. The time is now. The Kingdom is here. Repent. Believe. It’s amazing how much more complicated than this we have made it. We love to wade in the whys and hows. We relish the apparently complex theology. Is it all to avoid the simplicity of the invitation and the message? No doubt. What do you want? We want something different, something meaningful. We want more than the world we can see and touch offers. We want to have eternal purpose. Come and you will see. “Follow me,” Jesus says and you will see. I will answer your questions. I will give your life meaning and purpose. I will do it all. You just come and follow. The time is now. Jesus doesn’t start with theology. There is no discussion of the great truths.We get no emotion evoking sermon or shame inducing lecture. […]

Wouldn’t our lives be infinitely better if we began every relationship with the question “What do you want?” Those are Jesus’ first words in the Gospel of John. 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” John 1 I guess I expected that my research on the words of Jesus would begin with some great truth about Him. Instead, it begins with me. What do I want? It’s really the right place to start. Dissatisfaction with the church, or Jesus, or Christians is really based on failed expectations. Lots of folks seem not to be getting what they want and what they have come to expect from Jesus. I know my own expectations have been vague and inconsistent. Sometimes I want Him to save me, from the ravages of sin or just from the messes I’ve gotten myself into, or just from […]

My wife advised me recently that she wanted to see a movie. We reviewed the choices and I was somewhat surprised that she chose San Andreas, an earthquake disaster movie. As is true far too often, she made a wise decision. It was a fun couple of hours as we watched huge shifts in the earth’s substructure cause massive destruction. I’m not sure what it says about us that we enjoy watching mass destruction but there you have it. One of the lines in the movie struck me. The quake expert, when asked about whether a massive earthquake was possible responded, “It’s not a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when.’” Doesn’t it seem to you that something massive is going to happen? Doesn’t it seem like it will be sooner than later? I also like the “tags” used to market the movie, “Where will  you be? Who will you be with?” I guess it should be “whom” but it’s Hollywood not Harvard. If something massive is about to happen, I know with whom I wish to be. I’m not sure where I’m suppose to be. I hope that clears up soon. Massive shifts seem inevitable. Things are at a […]

I have been a member at the Fontana Center since my knee replacement surgery in 2012. I am the kind of member that makes these places possible. I have a couples membership and hadn’t been at the facility for years until last week. They have to love monthly fee payments from people like me who write a check every month saying, “I’m going to go this month” but don’t. Several factors sent me back. I lost 15 pounds between checkups. I swam with my grandkids on vacation. I remembered there was a pool at the Center. So on Monday I began my “get healthy” campaign. I went to “work out” every day this week. It’s been great. I’ve lost another 5.2 pounds. I have been more relaxed, had more energy and have been sleeping great. The one thing I hadn’t done is join any of the many classes that are offered at the Center. The timing just wasn’t right. However, I noticed that there was a PowerWaves class on Saturday mornings at a good time. I should have noticed a couple of things. First, the name, PowerWaves. That should have been a tip off. Second, it’s a ninety-minute class. […]

It was a strange coincidence that I learned about the Supreme Court’s decision on Gay Marriage while distributing this month’s Covenant Spotlight magazine.  Part of the focus of this month’s issue is “Church and State.” Talk about good timing. Let me begin by saying that, as a lawyer and as a Christian, I believe the decision is legally wrong. The reasons are many and others are better than I at articulating them. I’d like to offer something else. I’m hoping and praying that this decision will shake up the Christian community and maybe not in the way you might expect. Move on. I think in many ways some of us Christians need to move on. The whole “gay rights” thing has occupied a ton of “Christian” energy and focus. It has distorted the view of many in the church as well as the view of many on the outside about the church. I understand the concern about societal changes. I understand all about sin. I am way too personally familiar with sin.  I’m not saying there are not important issues here. I am saying these are not the only issues. These issues deserve some, but not all, of our focus and […]

I sleep with my phone. I don’t mean I sleep with it on the nightstand. I sleep with it. It’s in the bed with me. It’s attached to me by headphones. How weird is that? Now on the positive, I do that partly so I can go to sleep listening to music and, yes, it is mostly praise music. Yet I have to wonder if I’m sleeping with the enemy. For example, today I woke at three a.m. and immediately started tapping icons on my phone. I quickly came across this article, Six Wrong Reasons to Check Your Phone in the Morning.  That’s kind of eye-opening when you are checking your phone at three in the morning. The article was pretty good. In summary, the author feels there are three “candy” reasons and three “avoidance” reasons that it’s wrong to check your phone in the morning. In the “candy” group are: Novelty Candy. We want to know what’s new and we want to be one of the first to know so that we can be tellers and not “tellees.” Ego Candy. We want to know if someone “liked” us. Did we get reposted or retweeted. Did someone comment on our […]

I have these periodic compulsions to take on “manly” projects. I guess it’s an attempt to prove my manhood in a society that doesn’t give a lot of such opportunities. Recently it was my “cable” project. I decided that all of the paraphernalia that comes with cable service, and which had for years been in my upstairs office at home, needed to be in our den. I boldly disconnected every device attached to the cable. I bravely moved the modem, wi-fi, ATT signal booster, TiVo,  signal attenuator, and telephone connection to the den. There are now miles of cables in the room. I insist that just because the “cable” guy has paid many visits to our home since my project began, this is not because of any inadequacy in my project execution.  After several weeks, we now have fully functioning television, phone, internet and security service, like we used to have when it was all upstairs. I feel very macho. The feeling doesn’t last so just a couple of hours after the cable man left I felt the need for a new project. We have done major work in our yard, tearing down the kids’ rotting playhouse, removing landscape timbers, trimming […]