Nick’s Walk

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 My wife and I are celebrating New Year’s Eve in our traditional fashion. We are staying home. I am watching football and she is researching on the internet. I pretty usual night. It all started back in 1970 when we were dating. Rosemary got all dressed up to go out on New Year’s Eve and I showed up to pick her up in jeans and a t–shirt. She ended up agreeing to marry me anyway and we’ve never gone out on New Year’s eve for the last forty-five years. I’ve never understand the big deal over New Year’s anyway. I understand the fondness for newness. Who doesn’t like the smell of a new car or having anything “new?” The “newness” of the first of the year is pretty artificial. Frankly, for most of us, our lives are no different on January the first from what they are on December 31st. Even when we used to write a lot more checks it would take me weeks to update to the new year. I don’t know anyone who really makes long-standing […]

31“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” John 12:31-32 Millions world-wide are wrapping up the celebration of Jesus’ birth. I recognize that many of those celebrating don’t know Jesus as savior or even much about him. To many it’s just a really great holiday. That’s okay. It’s  part of the process. The nature of our Savior is that He continues to draw us closer and deeper. Our relationship with Him is never enough. There is always more. With Jesus, it’s just a higher form of the relationship we might have with any special person. A magnetic personality draws us closer and deeper. Jesus is the super magnet. We can never get enough. Of the millions who celebrated Christmas just as a great holiday, there will be some who are drawn closer wondering how a birth two thousand yearsago could still be bring joy. They will want to know more about the child. They will be draw closer. Of the ones who come to believe that Jesus was a real person and, yes, maybe even the son […]

I know it’s cliche’ to say that Christmas is more about presence than presents, but this year I experienced the truth of that like never before. As we age, family begins to experience conflicts especially around the holidays. It’s hard to be everywhere we are expected to be and even want to be. In modern society, this is more stressful than ever because there are more “step” relationships that multiple the obligations. Yesterday, from where I sat, I could see each person climb the steps to our back door. Someone would announce who had arrived and a bit of relief and excitement would spread through those already gathered. Not once was there a single moan or exclamation of “I hoped they wouldn’t make it.” I was thrilled with the presence of every single person who “made it” for Christmas. The time for Christmas presents has passed, but the opportunity to give our presence continues. The week between Christmas and the return to school and work after New Years Day is an excellent opportunity to continue to give presence. Perhaps for the first time ever I was unable to make my extended family gathering on the 23rd. I hope this […]

The message of Christmas is simply expressed, yet enormous in impact and miraculous in execution. Since the miracle at Bethlehem, God is now with us in a universal, savior of the world, sense as well as a God is with me personally sense. For this there is amble evidence. For the universal evidence,  there are stars in the east, skies filled with angels, travelling wise men, and a stack of fulfilled prophecies. The personal proofs are, of course, various and individual but just as convincing. Last April, for example, I was cured of rotator cuff tears in both shoulders. I don’t know if the tears are still present. All I know is I can now raise either arm, lift a reasonable amount, and swim as much as I want without pain. That’s God individually present. I have experienced God providing escape routes out of situations that seemed hopeless. I have known nearly sixty-seven years of faithful provision. I have seen God in loving eyes, felt him in reassuring hugs, and heard him during dark times of doubt. God’s task of keeping us aware of his presence is tricky. He doesn’t allow the lives of his children to be so […]

I have to admit that it just doesn’t feel like Christmas. I’m not sure exactly why that is. It could be the weather. Frankly in south Louisiana none of us expect a white Christmas but temperatures in the eighties, rain and tornadoes? Ho, Ho, No. Maybe it doesn’t seem like Christmas because life isn’t exactly jovial. This year has been a great challenge and 2016 doesn’t look better. Our family has dealt with a lot and will deal with a lot more and I know we are not alone. How did Christmas get so connected with winter weather, fabulous food and spending too much on gifts?  I grew up in south Louisiana and the Christmases I spent away from home were in places like California and Vietnam. No snow,  sleigh rides or fabulous feast on those Christmases past. The good Christmases I do remember involve wearing out the Sears catalogue trying to decide on the one gift Santa could afford that year for me and my eight brothers and sisters. There weren’t a lot of extra presents under the tree, a box of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups from Nan Mil was about all you could be sure of. Lots […]

Do you ever listen carefully to the songs of the season? Sometimes the words give cause for pause. Take Come all Ye Faithful. This is one of the oldest Christian Christmas songs. Written in the 1600’s by monks, originally it was sung in latin, Adeste Fideles. It’s certainly one of my favorites. It’s the opening line that has me thinking. Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. It’s a call to come and worship the Christ child. The strange thing is that the child is just born. Where could we expect to find “faithful, joyful, and triumphant” folks before God’s salvation plan was executed? The world was dark and lost and in need of a savior. Even now, two thousand years after Jesus paid the price for our sins, faithfulness, joy and triumph are rare. As I write this I can see a Christmas card set up on our kitchen counter with a single word on it, “Joy.” It comes across not so much as an experienced reality, but a hopeful possibility. I have experienced times of joy, great joy in fact, but it’s not nearly my normal state. Joy doesn’t describe my daily life, but rather something I experience […]

A follower of Christ is centered on him. He is “in Christ.” Satan’s game is to distract us from Christ. It doesn’t take much. While swimming last Friday I hit one of my hands on the rope that separates the swimming lanes. I apparently lodged a tiny piece of the rope in the area near my  nail. It’s been very painful and even got infected. It’s certainly not a horrible injury to look at but it has been completely distracting for a week. It doesn’t take much for Satan to distract us: a minor injury, an unexpected expense, a disagreement at home, a tragedy in the news. It doesn’t even have to be something negative: sports, hobbies, friends. Any moment the enemy can get our eyes of Jesus is a moment when we are not growing more like him, not advancing the kingdom, not being truly blessed or a blessing. We are all sometimes distracted. It’s a loud and busy world out there. Our task is to keep distractions to  a minimum and to keep them from becoming afflictions. An affliction is a state of pain, distress, or grief; misery. Put another way, an affliction is an obsession with a distraction. A distraction can become so intense […]

Most of the football fans around here have suffered through disappointing seasons. The Cajuns who went to and won four bowl games in a row couldn’t beat anyone this year. LSU, at one time rated Number 2, ended up almost firing their coach. Then there are the Saints. How far the  mighty have fallen. On the other hand, the Florida Gators had a great season. They ended up in the SEC championship game and will play Michigan on New Years Day. Now the gators lost three games so far, just like LSU. The difference is expectations. LSU hoped to contend for a national championship. Florida figured it was going to be another rebuilding year. No one expected them to do as well as they did. The difference between satisfaction and disappointment isn’t so much fact but expectation. Fourteen people in California expected to have a nice time at a Christmas party and ended up dead. The family of a teenager in Lafayette expected a fun basketball game and ended up with a dead teen age son. We expect to be safe in our daily lives. We expect our kids to outlive us. It doesn’t always happen. Perhaps we need […]