Nick’s Walk

I got mooned last night. That’s call a “hook.” Are you hooked? I attended the monthly men’s meeting at The Bayou last night.  Moon Griffon was the guest speaker. I have listened to Moon since the days his show originated from Yankee country, Monroe. I had never met Moon or heard him speak in person. His presentation was impressive. I won’t share the personal aspects, because…they’re personal. I will share his main points. Live today. God’s been hitting me with this message a lot lately. It’s very biblical. “Give us this day.” “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” It’s just so easy to regret yesterday and fear for tomorrow. Today is the only thing we’ve got that we can do something with. Moon did a great job of reminding me of that.  Be thankful for everything. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” James 1:17. Good things come from God, the problem is that they are often packaged, as well, problems. Just because we can’t see […]

  Sometimes I come across something so true and so well written it deserves repeating at least in part.  This is part an email adapted from Richard Rohr, an unpublished talk, Canossian Spirituality Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 3, 2016 emphasis supplied.    Our religion is not working well. Another year has ended—a new year begins—in which suffering, fear, violence, injustice, greed, and meaninglessness still abound. This is not even close to the reign of God that Jesus taught. And we must be frank: in their behavior and impact upon the world, Christians are not much different than other people. The majority of Christians are not highly transformed people, but tend to reflect their own culture more than they operate as any kind of leaven within it. I speak especially of American Christians, because I am one.  Let’s be honest: religion has probably never had such a bad name. Christianity is now seen as “irrelevant” by many and often as part of the problem more than any kind of solution. Some of us are almost embarrassed to say we are Christian because of the negative images that word conjures in others’ minds. Young people especially are turned off by how […]

I dozed off a couple of times during the new Star Wars movie. That alone should not be condemnation. I fall asleep during most movies. However, producers beware, my 15-year-old grandson slept through a substantial part of the film. Not good news. This new one has all the previously winning Star War elements. Nifty space ships. Strange looking aliens. Space battles and laser shoot ups.  Nice looking young people.  It has the same theme: a seemingly hopeless struggle against the ominous and very evil empire. Star Wars came out on May 25, 1977. I was twenty-eight years old, still in the Navy. I had hair and young children. I am now sixty-seven, little hair and little great grand children. Carrie Fisher was a girl. Today she’s dead. To this generation, the Star War elements are historic and not revolutionary. A lot has changed since 1977.  Perhaps the saddest thing is that maybe the theme is now out of date, the  seemingly hopeless struggle against the ominous and very evil empire. Donald Trump won.  To half the country the rebels are in charge and the evil empire is being vanquished. To the other half, the evil empire is about to […]

In yesterday’s mail I got a copy of Super Lawyers, Louisiana Edition. Since I have been practicing law in Louisiana for 35 years I am familiar with many of the lawyers featured in the magazine. Some are pretty good lawyers. Some not so much. None are “super.”   SuperLawyers.com puts out the advertising packed magazine. As the Journal of the American Bar Association has reported, ads in Super Lawyers can cost super bucks.  Super Lawyers puts out a promotion kit for their “Super” lawyers advising how to make the most out of their “Super Lawyer” status. The kit warns the “Super” lawyers to be careful with words:  HOW TO TALK ABOUT SUPER LAWYERS: OKAY TO SAY: She was included in this year’s Florida Super Lawyers list. NOT OKAY TO SAY: She’s a Super Lawyer. OKAY TO SAY: Super Lawyers selected three people from this firm. NOT OKAY TO SAY: This firm has a lot of Super Lawyers. OKAY TO SAY: Sally was selected to the 2017 Wisconsin Super Lawyers list. No more than five percent of the lawyers in the state were selected. NOT OKAY TO SAY: Sally was recognized by Super Lawyers, which means she is in the […]

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 […]