Nick’s Walk

We wrapped up a really nice Thanksgiving by taking our granddaughter to see the Peanuts movie. It was a fun movie. There is a new red-headed girl in Charlie Brown’s class and Charlie Brown is in love. He wants to get the attention of the new red-headed girl. Of course, his attempts to impress are met with extreme frustration. It turns out that the new girl is perceptive enough to recognize Charlie Brown’s good qualities through his bumbling attempts to impress. The dreams and desires of our youth don’t just slip away. I’m still trying to impress the little red-headed girl. I’ve met with varying success over the years. As the little red-headed girl gets older she’s tougher to impress. Our lives become more complicated with age. Our motivations seem more complex and our goals more advanced. However, at some level we never really grow up. We are still at sixty-six chasing the dreams of our youth. Those dreams may be fame or fortune. We may want to be sports heroes or to make great financial success. Or maybe we just want to impress the cute little red-head we’ve loved for years.

            Let’s face it. Thanksgiving is a pretty easy holiday. For most of us it’s eating, watching football and reading the newspaper circulars as we pray we don’t find anything we really feel a need to fight the Black Friday crowd to buy. Even the purpose of the holiday is pretty easy. Most of us, most of the time, have no trouble finding things we are thankful for. We have family, a bit of money in the bank, a job we can sort of count on, relatively good health and a few years left to do something. There are times for a few of us that Thanksgiving is a bit hard. Some years everyone we want to have around our table can’t make it. Health gets to be a concern as we age. The wallet is not as fat as we would like as we approach retirement. The years we have left to “make something of ourselves” are distressingly fewer. If the forecast isn’t exactly stormy, it’s not necessarily bright blue skies either. Sometimes Thanksgiving is a little work. We have to dig a bit to be upbeat and to find things to be […]

I voted this morning. I usually vote in every election. This was not my favorite experience. In fact, it reminded me of the awful choice we had when Edwin Edwards and David Duke were our choices for governor. I don’t like either of the remaining candidates for governor or for Sheriff of Lafayette Parish for that matter. These races have featured disgusting mud-slinging on all sides. I ended up voting by holding my nose and selecting the least offensive, to me, candidate. If the polls are to be believed, no one I voted for will win anyway. I guess this is the way it really should be. We can’t expect politicians to solve the problems we face or to lead us to the promised land. We don’t seem to select from our best and brightest when we go to the polls. I can see the same situation next year for the Presidential election. I have a favorite whom I would be proud to vote for. I just doubt he will still be in the race when November rolls around.  The system seems to chew up and spit out any good guys who dare to participate. I hope if you are […]

I am greatly saddened by the entire Syrian refugee situation. Not only is the situation in Syria awful, but our reaction to it hasn’t been sterling.  I don’t have solutions, but I do have some observations. First let’s recognize the facts. The war in Syria has no good guys. This isn’t a cowboys and indians situation. The parties involved are many and the history is complicated. It has been made worse by America’s failure to adequately respond. Our inconsistent and confusing policy toward Syria has just made things worse and has allowed the conflict to escalate and expand. As a nation, we bear some responsibility for the mess. There are real refugee victims. Let’s not forget that there are innocent victims to the conflict, many are women and children. Syria is an unsafe place to live. The victims include Christians and muslims. The government has used chemical weapons against their own citizens and ISIS has committed untold atrocities as well. Many need safe places to live and restart their lives. It’s not that the world doesn’t recognize the problem and the need. It is also likely that among the refugees will be those who will seek to take advantage […]

Most everyone I know believes in God. That really doesn’t mean very much. “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder.” James 2:19. It’s not that big a deal because Jesus came not to establish a new religion but to facilitate relationship. Frankly, I don’t understand how anyone could take a long hard look at this creation and not conclude that there was a creator. That alone doesn’t establish much about that creator. Whether He is still involved in His creation, whether He is a good and loving creator. What we need is not belief but experience. No one who has experienced God denies His existence. That experience, and even relationship, is made possible by the life and death of Jesus. Consider how important the “experience” reality is. It changes the whole nature of the great commission. We are called to “make disciples.” That doesn’t mean to teach facts, explain history or explore theology. It means to introduce as many as possible to God, most easily in the form of the Son, Jesus. It also means that the Great Commission is not as difficult as it may at first appear. Our task is […]

Last week we had more water in our back yard than we’ve seen in years. During a major rain event, our back yard floods and will hold water for a few days. Last week there was a lot more than usual. It was strange, because while the outside was wet, I was in the middle of the driest spiritual desert I can recall for some time. I haven’t posted for days because there has been nothing in my head or heart worth repeating. The desert isn’t a pleasant place. I don’t know why anyone would go there intentionally, yet Jesus did. “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” Matthew 4:1. He not only went voluntarily; he was led by the Spirit. He had a purpose “to be tempted.” Why would anyone seek a desert temptation experience? The desert is full of temptation. There is a temptation to hopeless abandon. There is a temptation to think God isn’t around, if He exists at all. Even if He is around He has no interest in me or my life. There is a temptation to give into loneliness: the conclusion that I’m […]

Halloween is a challenge for me. It’s amazing how much the holiday has grown since I was a kid. It’s a big deal today. For Christians, it presents a challenge. There is no doubt that there is a certain darkness to it and that it has roots  in very non-Christian practices. There are bible verses that seem to counsel against participating in Halloween Philippians 4:8—”think about pure, lovely, noble things” Romans 13:12—“put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22—“Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” 3 John 1:11—“do not imitate what is evil” Deuteronomy 18:9-14—”do not learn to imitate detestable ways, including spiritists, sorcerers and witchcraft” On the other hand I see my great-grandson dressed up as dinosaur and I have to wonder what can be wrong with that. There have been years where we hosted “harvest” alternative celebrations, where we just turned out the lights and hide in the bedroom, or where we passed out tracts with the candy. I am not sure what’s the best response.  I guess I like Kirk Cameron’s perspective: “Christians have always known since the first century that death was […]

There has been a lot happening in my life that I could complain about, until I look around. The sad truth is that I have been complaining, and worrying and generally being ungrateful. I found out today a friend has pancreatic cancer. I know someone who has lost a child and a spouse in the same year. Then there are those pictures taken in far away and not so far away places of children in hunger and pain. Then I take a close look in the mirror and tell myself, “Just shut up.” Just shutting up isn’t enough. The thing about being too mirror focused is that it keeps me from looking around at a world filled with folks with much bigger problems than I have or have ever had. You can’t do much looking in the mirror. Once you have shaved, brushed and combed, you have pretty much run out of useful activities. I need to spend more time looking out the window, checking out a world full of suffering souls. Even that should not occupy too much of my time. I need to do a lot more doing than looking at myself or at the world. Jesus […]