Nick’s Walk

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I have a couple of last minute tips. I realize that these may fall squarely in the “none of your business” category but I mess in your business every day so why should Thanksgiving be any different. First, I pray that you have someone special in your life that makes you look forward to tomorrow. If at first you draw a blank, I suggest you aren’t looking hard enough. I have several: all the women in my life, my wife, my daughter, my grand daughter, my great grand daughter. If you were thinking something else, shame on you. There are lots of others too. But without sounding too spiritual, there’s Jesus. He makes me look forward to tomorrow which I know with Him will bring another chance to get it right and another chance to start over. Thanks for them all. Next, please join me in boycotting Black Thursday. Enough is enough. Do we really have to rush through our dinners and abandon our families to get to the mall and the box stores on Thanksgiving Day? Are you really going to save that much? Is it really worth it? The folks you will be abandoning […]

It really is the holiday season. The stores are decorated for Christmas. Remember when they used to wait until after Thanksgiving? I am already thinking about Christmas cards and gifts. It seems to me that we miss one of our great opportunities as Christians during the holiday season. You would think that beginning with Thanksgiving, folks would be thinking of spiritual things. After all, we give thanks to God and then we begin to focus on the birth of His son. But it doesn’t seem to work that way. We have managed to have Thanksgiving without being thankful to GOD and the war to take Jesus out of Christmas is waging stronger than ever. You don’t even see the “Keep Christ in Christmas” signs any more. People seem to acknowledge the value of being thankful or of giving gifts. They just don’t want to talk about the Gift Giver. We seem to believe that we can separate Christian Values from Christ.  A recent letter to columnist Carolyn Hax of The Washington Post seemed straightforward enough. “I am a stay-at-home mother of four who has tried to raise my family under the same strong Christian values that I grew up with,” the […]

It must be the holiday season. I’ve gotten the first of many “What Do They Need” calls from relatives. They want to know what the people I know a little bit better than they do “need” or “want” for Christmas. I find these calls difficult because I don’t usually have a good answer and I never know sizes or favorite colors. It is the season for trying to fill needs. The big problem is that we don’t really know what we need, let alone anyone else. We will hustle around for the next month looking for the “best” gift for folks we care a lot about and those we just feel “obligated” to buy something for. On Christmas morning we will nervously watch the gifts being opened in the hope of seeing a genuine look of delight instead of the smile covering the “I don’t know what he was thinking” face.  It’s a good time to examine what we need ourselves. Much of our gift buying and meal planning and decorating seeks to compensate for what we didn’t quite live up to during the year. We might buy a loved one something a little more special than usual because […]

 Last night I took the grandkids to the UL football game. It was a great experience. They enjoyed getting their faces painted and listening to the music before the game. We sat where they could play on the hill slope in the end zone. They didn’t watch much of the game but had a blast. There was a terrific half-time show honoring the military and a beautiful fireworks display. The game was great, full of exciting plays with the lead changing sides several times. But with five minutes left and the Cajuns down by ten points. We headed cold and tired and a bit disappointed to the exit. We listened to the rest of the game on the way home. The Cajuns scored 14 points in 5 minutes and won the game.  As Nicky said, “I’m so upset we left before the game was over.”  That will preach. There was one disturbing moment during the game. At half time, two UL graduates were honored as outstanding. One of them was Judge Brown, the first black woman appointed to the federal bench in Louisiana. She has an impressive resume’. As the announcer was reviewing her resume’ he mentioned that she […]

It’s hard to believe we are already in Christmas week. I had trouble sleeping last night and the station I had the television on kept showing the number of days until Christmas. Where did the year go? On Thursday we will be, rightfully, spending some time thanking God. At least I hope we will find time between the overeating and the parade and football watching. It seems to me that maybe we should also spend some time thanking others. Does it seem to you that the simple “Thank You” is a bit rarer than it use to be? I know that the guy who bags your groceries or hands you your Big Mac is getting paid to do it, but a “Thank You” is so easy to give. They aren’t getting paid much and they have to put up with a lot. Why not say thanks to all the people who serve us each day? If we are willing to say thanks to those we don’t even know, maybe we ought to spend some serious time thanking those who really make a difference in our lives. We are all thankful for our families and our friends. On Thursday we […]

Yesterday I had the privilege of substituting for Bill McKee at Maison du Monde in Abbeville. I always enjoy these opportunities and am always amazed at Bill and Ann’s faithfulness in handling two nursing home teachings every week.  It’s tough to come up with a teaching on short notice so I did what I normally do. I stole from our Pastor’s last sermon. It was a good sermon about being a Friend of the Holy Spirit. I take good notes at church so I had a really good outline which I generally followed. I did personalize the teaching. I used my friend, Joe, from my high school days, and my friend Jack from my older days, as examples of human friendship.  What came out was the essence of the original sermon. God wants to be our friend. We can know God and feel His presence through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to share with us His power. He wants to act as a reminder and be a Comforter.  It was the same sermon, only different. It wasn’t better. It was just different.  My point here is not so much to tell you, as I […]

“Hear this, you elders; listen, all you inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors? Tell your children about it, and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation” (Joel 1:2-3). I felt I had a particularly productive morning yesterday even though I didn’t post on my blog. So I treated myself to the new James Bond movie in the afternoon.  It’s the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series. Skyfall may be my favorite Bond every. After 50 years Bond is beginning to show his age. Without committing any “spoilers.” He’s a step slower. He has to cheat to pass his physical. There are lots of unbelievable chase scenes. But the new “Q” looks like a teenager and when he goes to equip Bond there are no fancy gadgets, just a gun and a radio. “M” looks like she’s about 100 years old. There are beautiful women, of course; but they seem to treat Bond more like an interesting older uncle. It seems that all of England thinks that the whole Bond team is old fashioned and out of date. Turns out […]

Matthew 6:33 New King James Version (NKJV) 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Yesterday was an interesting day in college football. I sat in front of the television watching two of my favorite teams, the Cajuns and the Gators, play football. The Cajuns didn’t have much of a chance and I planned on an easy afternoon. However, the Cajuns went to Gainesville to play and outplayed the top ten Gators. They only lost on the last play of the game. I was proud of the Cajuns and relieved for the Gators. It that wasn’t enough fun the Tigers won and the evil Alabama Crimson Tide lost. I love Saturdays in the fall. Last night Rose and I gathered with some of our best friends. We shared about out trials and our walks with Christ, but several times a couple of us check the football scores on our iphones. Sometimes football can be a distraction. In fact, during our conversation with these dear friends we realized just how much of what we deal with in life isn’t the main event, but just distractions. I have to admit […]