Nick’s Walk

Everyone I know is excited to see 2020 come to an end. That’s surely understandable. 2020 truly sucked. A New Year brings hope and hope is a good thing. However, it would be wise to remember that it’s just a New Year, a man-made method of recording dates. It’s not a miracle. Much will be unchanged at midnight on the 31st. COVID-19 will still be here. Vaccines are great. It’s good that more folks are following guidelines to limit the spread of the virus. However, it’s still around. There will not be a magic date when everything will go back to normal. Hopefully, the danger will gradually reduce and we will, gradually, have an opportunity to go back to normal, but will we? Thirty Days to Become a Habit. I recall reading somewhere that if we start doing something new or stop doing something old, that it will become a habit after thirty days. We have been dealing with this pandemic for nearly a year. We have not all adopted the same new habits, but most of us have. For example, Do you still shake hands? Will you go back to that. Do you wear a mask when outside […]

One of the creations of this weird year is the focus on Safety Zones. To defend against the Corona virus we attempt to make our homes safety zones. We limit visitors for example. We don’t hug or grandkids or have coffee with out friends. We try to create mobile safety zones when we leave home by social distancing and wearing masks. In this year of social violence we hope our neighborhoods are “safety zones” and that the looters and rioters will limit themselves to other cities and other neighborhoods. We encourage policing and try not to attract political attention. We became upset, as Christians, when our ability to gather in the “safety zones” of our churches was limited. We proclaimed that the church is not a building, but we still longed to gather and failed to do anything really significant when we were denied access to our comfortable church family. Sadly, safety zones don’t really insure safety. Folks who ignored social distancing and didn’t wear masks caught the virus, but so did those who were fanatic adherents to both. Our churches aren’t really safe. In fact, their appearance of safety make them dangerous. We may see less of the […]

At 3 a.m. I awoke to the sound of my wife screaming. There was a tree roach in our bed. I made a couple of attempts to kill/capture the creature. He kept escaping under the bed. Eventually, I told my wife there was no way I could go back to sleep knowing the creature was somewhere under our mattress. So I retired to my recliner where I spent the rest of the night. I left my bride of 50 years to fend for herself. I never claimed to be a man of great courage. I’m thinking she probably won’t be cooking my favorite supper tonight. That was not the scariest thing I went through last night. That award has to go the Presidential Debate. I am a bit of a news nerd so I have been looking forward to the debate. I wasn’t looking for help in making my voting decision. That is long made. I guess I was hoping to cheer on my choice for President or get a sense of satisfaction in the failings of the “other guy.” I was grossly disappointed. What I saw were two old men who could not follow rules, inspire anyone, allow […]

2020 has surely sucked. I have been stuck in a pandemic. My wife has been fighting cancer. Our fiftieth wedding anniversary had to be “celebrated” alone. It’s been bad. But others have had it worse. Lake Charles an hour away by interstate has been demolished. Many have contracted the virus and many my age have perished. It hasn’t been all bad. I have been quarantined but I was “stuck” with my favorite person on earth, Rosemary Sigur, my bride of 50 years. I was able to work and earn money from home. Although not as much as I would have liked I have been able to see my daughter, grand and great grandchildren. It has been “relatively speaking” not nearly as bad as it could have been. I don’t want to think I have “lost” a year. I need to stop whining and find something to do. My wife is going to have surgery in a couple of weeks. I will nurse her as needed. I have found there is a “Fall color” trail here in Louisiana that peaks at the end of October. My bride and I will take a couple of days and follow that. There are […]

There is nothing so heart-wrenching as the cry of someone in pain, “nobody listens.” God has placed in each of us a need to be heard, a passion to communicate. Ultimately, this need is a call to Him. There is nothing more powerful and affirming than a desperate call to God in a time of need that is promptly and,  without a chance of coincidence, responded to. Nothing is more assuring than the confirmation that the God of the Universe cares enough to listen to our pitiful, tiny cries and to take time to respond. I have witnessed the power of listening in my decades of work with Kairos Prison Ministry. Our slogan is “Listen, Listen, Love, Love,” I have seen numerous times the power of a willingness to listen to someone whose voice is almost never heard and to respond without judgment but with love. Such listening is not an agreement in the correctness of what another thinks or has done. It is, however, an affirmation of the worth of the speaker. There is a grotesque lack of listening in our world right now. I know it’s a political season and that non-listening is exaggerated in such times. […]

I can’t believe how fast time is moving. No doubt the older you get, the faster it goes. It’s not just time that’s flying. The world seems like it’s sliding down a mountainside. At first, it was just a bit of instability but as it starts to slip the movement accelerates.  What at first seems stoppable, soon becomes inevitable. I don’t think I’m a prude. Maybe things are worse because it’s the “political” season. Things are said that are obviously not true, but they are said often enough to become accepted as truth. Burning and looting are acceptable means of “expression.”  A candidate for president gave an interview to a “singer” whose claim to fame is a song so disgusting as to be unspeakable in “polite” society.  We have a “right” to kill our unborn and our too old to be useful. The evidence of the slide is everywhere. But this post isn’t about the slide. It’s about not getting dragged down by it. To avoid getting caught up in a slide means identifying and grabbing onto something that isn’t sliding. The forces behind the slide will do all they can to blind you to that something and, should […]

It’ been kind of a rough week. One of my favorite ladies at my church died. She survived only a short time after her diagnosis. She was a “frontier” woman. She raised her family alone. She raised animals. There seemed nothing she couldn’t do. At the same time, my pastor ended up in the hospital with COVID-19. He’s going to be all right it seems, but it was sobering.  When the Israelites traveled from Mount Sina to the edge of Canaan, the Kohathites had the privilege of carrying the Ark of the Covenant and other holy vessels. Someone else, unnamed, carried the tent pegs, ropes and poles. Each job was very important. Every day we are supposed to be doing something for the Lord. For most of us, most of the time, it isn’t incredibly important or flashy; but it still needs to be done. My friend Laura wasn’t flashy and much of what she did most would not consider important, but she did those things. She did them well. She will be incredibly missed. The thought of losing my senior pastor made me consider many of the things he’s done. They were probably a bit flashier, but to […]

My Dad’s generation has been rightly called, “The Greatest Generation.” After all, they defeated Nazism, Fascism, and Communism at least for their times. They came back from the war and educated themselves and re-built America. They were fearless. This generation seems scared of its own shadow. It’s allowed Nazism, Fascism and Communism to re-emerge, not just in Europe but here at home. To this generation, wearing a mask is patriotic. I wonder what my Dad who had a friend on the draft board lie about his club foot so he could join the marines, would think about that. Their generation ran to the fight not away from it.  This generation is afraid of a virus, being called racist, being proud of its country. It generally flees from responsibility or service. It was willing to “fight” the virus as long as the government covered its unemployment benefits and went trillions of dollars in debt to send everyone a check.  What made Dad’s generation so great? It was fearless. It was unafraid of dying for the country and not intimidated by politicians. They were imperfect people of faith. If you have faith in Jesus, your future is secure; you have no […]