Category: Devotional

As we opened the front door, a bat flew into the house. My daughter screamed, while my wife and granddaughters jumped from their chairs and barricaded themselves in the bedroom. The bat found the guest room where it flew in large circles looking for a home. My son-in-law grabbed a broom and attempted to guide…

“I think I may be in a rut,” I thought as I wished yet another acquaintance a “Merry Christmas.” How come it’s a Merry Christmas, but a Happy New Year, a Happy Birthday, and a Happy Thanksgiving? Can’t these other occasions be merry? Can’t Christmas be happy? I suppose, but I’ve never heard of such…

I hate endings, but I find myself racing toward them. Then when I get to the finish line I find that I miss the process. I suffer from the day after let-down. Anticipation is better than remembrance. So why am I in such a rush? I find this race to finish ironic. Quickly, let’s finish…

Do you stay for the credits when you go to the movies? I did last night. They usually run for about five minutes rolling hundreds of names up the screen. Each time I watch, I am amazed at how many different people it takes to make a movie—and most of them are not actors. Movie…

Why would anyone drive from Florida to South Dakota to see an eye doctor? You might understand if Jesus was offering to spit in your eyes, but only if you came to see him in Siouxland. That was not the case with us. We went because we were already halfway there, we were planning to…

Blind guides. That’s what Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees, the teachers who had unquestioned authority over the spiritual lives of the Jewish people. I thought of this as I contemplated who has unquestioned authority over me. One who does is Jane, the disembodied voice of my GPS app. At least she did, but after…

There is something wrong with everything. I learned that again this past week when trading vehicles. We bought a new van a year ago but were extremely disappointed with the gas mileage. It seemed as if we were constantly on the lookout for a gas station and spending way too much time in line for…

My friend, Hal, is a noticer. I am not. For example, he and his wife traveled with us this weekend. As we checked into a hotel, he immediately noticed the desk clerk was wearing an unusual watch. I had not noticed anything about the clerk. Hal made a comment and the man’s face beamed (I…

4:00 AM. Deep sleep. BWAH! BWAH! BWAH! BWAH! Alarms are ringing. I’m suddenly awake along with everyone else in the hotel. Guests wearing pajamas and slippers drift down halls, through the lobby, and into the parking lot. Sleepy-eyed parents hug their young and try to reassure them. Fire trucks arrive, adding a festive, red-light show…

I dream of a world committed to the truth. No, that’s a lie. A world like that would mean that I would have to tell the truth and ever since Adam and Eve we humans have been addicted to lies. “The serpent tricked me.” “Eve made me do it.” “It’s your fault, God. You’re the…

I survived Hurricane Milton! What was predicted to be a category 3 storm when it passed over my house turned out to be only a category 1. The strong winds left a mess in my yard, but my home never lost power and it was not damaged. This was not true for everyone, as many…

Power. Everybody needs it, everybody wants it. Politicians are obsessed with it, egoistic heads are filled with it, and the oppressed long to overturn it. As Hurricane Helene stormed onto the Florida coast, marched across Georgia, and tore through the Carolinas, its power destroyed all other powers. Jet engines with over 20,000 pounds of thrust…

After a two month stay in Oklahoma, it is time to get back to my Florida home. Unfortunately, there is a hurricane between here and there, so I am searching for a path through the storm. As I do so, I recognize how closely this trip resembles my spiritual journey. First, is the reality of…

While visiting the Omaha Zoo, I peeked into an enclosure for Blue Dart Frogs, saw nothing, and moved on. Then a young boy stepped up to the same window and exclaimed, “Dad, look at all the frogs!” I decided to go back and take a second look. Sure enough, there in plain sight were at…

Searching for something heavy to hold open the door to his work shed the old man grabbed an espresso machine his son and daughter had given him on his birthday five years ago. Figuring out how to use it had been too much of a challenge, so he had put it back in the box…

Franklin D. Roosevelt stood before the Kiwanis Club of New York in 1921 and said, “It is highly unlikely that an airplane, or fleet of them, could ever successfully sink a fleet of Navy vessels under combat conditions.” Billy Mitchell disagreed and proposed a series of tests, in which bombing raids would be made against…

The colors matched, and the shape looked about right, but the piece refused to fit into the jigsaw puzzle. I turned it in every direction, but no edge would fit. I even tried to pound it into place, which got the yellow flowerpot to attach awkwardly to the head of a dog. I finally gave…

Special. Memorable. Romantic. On the eve of our wedding anniversary, I struggle to plan something worthy of the event. She likes to dress up, but there are no dressy events scheduled this week. A fancy meal? She likes it plain. A trip to Paris? We can’t afford it. What can make tomorrow special? Surprise! Tomorrow…

How many times can you use the word “comfort” in a sentence? Paul is able to pack a sentence with it five times, and then five more times in the rest of the paragraph (2 Corinthians 1:3-7). In contrast, he uses either the word “affliction” or “suffering” seven times in the same four verses. That’s…

This has been a summer of change, and change can be hard. The unexpected death of a sister-in-law, my mother moving to assisted living, and the cleaning out of her home each means that life will never be the same. I liked life as it was. The recent changes leave me with many questions: Will…