I recently asked a church musician what he was learning about God as he led worship. He told me he had been so focused on worship that he couldn’t think about God. His admission shocked but did not surprise me. It simply pointed out how easily worship can become idolatry. To worship something is to…

My granddaughter was headed for surgery, and I was concerned. With a few quick text messages, I was able to add warriors to the already impressive list of people who promised to pray. The day came, and we were all nervous. Would our girl be alright? Would the surgery be effective? Would the pain be…

Yes, I believe in TD (total depravity), but there are some days when it seems to me to be more total than it does on others. First, I suppose that I should explain total depravity to those readers who may be unfamiliar with the Reformation. TD is one of the five points of Calvinism, and…

After more than a week of nighttime temperatures dipping into the twenties, Florida looks like it has added a second season—Fall. Leaves have fallen, and the grass, flowers, and shrubs have turned a barren shade of brown. I asked my yard man if I had lost all of my landscaping and would need to start…

Florida weather reports in February are normally mundane. If I were a weatherman, I would record one on February 1, then replay it for the rest of the month. “Today will be sunny and warm with a high temperature of seventy-five degrees. Now back to Ben at the sports desk.” At this time of year,…

The note on my mailbox says that mail left for more than ten days will be returned to sender. This could be a problem for me because I am often gone for a month or more. It’s not that I even want most of the mail sent to me. I would love to have the…

Sometimes the simplest truths can be the most profound. One that I’ve had churning in my head lately is this: “Anything other than God is not God.” This truth allows me to divide everything in the universe into two categories, God and Not-God. God=God Nature=Not God Science=Not God Angels=Not Gods Me=Definitely not God Buddha, Allah,…

Where is home? That’s not an easy question for me. I grew up in Southern California, and in many ways, it is still home for me. My mother lives there. So do my brothers. However, the last time I had a California address was 1979. I own a home in Oklahoma. This is not a…

I could tell that the cardiologist wanted to diagnose me with sleep apnea. The problem for her was that I don’t have it. Still, as we talked, she kept steering the conversation back to the problem she wanted to treat. “Do you snore?” Only a little. “Do you wake up feeling tired?” No. “How is…

Let’s play Three Questions: New Year’s Edition. OK, I’ll go first. It will be fun, or else it won’t, but the questions are all about you, so you can’t get them wrong. Ready? Question 1: Who are you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What brings you joy? What are your passions? When do you…

Why do we always tell each other to have a Merry Christmas? Oh, occasionally someone will tell me to have a blessed Christmas, but mostly it’s merry. I looked it up. Merry means jolly, gleeful, and festive. In England, it denotes being slightly drunk, as in, “You seem a bit merry, Old Chap.” The opposite…

Roberto, the Uber driver, cruised slowly up and down the avenue, searching for a nonexistent roadway to my house. With each pass, he became more frustrated. A street had to be there—his company supplied GPS said so. On his fourth pass, he spied me sprinting across the empty lot and waving my arms. “This happens…

Words were heated as we thrashed out ideas for a title. Dueling thesauruses cut down one lousy suggestion after another. Is this study about a kingdom or cleansing? Is it directed toward people who are persecuted, oppressed, unclean, burdened, hopeless, or just plain confused? How much do I care? I have spent the last four…

It’s December? What happened to the rest of the year? Did we skip it? It seems to me that the older I get, the shorter the years become. I thought of this as I read Psalm 90 this morning. Here are some of the verses that stood out to me: “For a thousand years in…

Have you ever noticed that many of Jesus’ stories had punchlines, but weren’t funny? As an example, did you hear the one about the deacon and the thief who walked into a church? You’ll find it in Luke 18:9-14. The deacon said, “Whoo boy, God! I’m thankful that I’m one of the good guys who…

Brrrrrrrr!!! It’s been cold! I skipped my morning walk a few days last week because it was just too chilly. Okay, the temperatures were in the low forties. I live in Florida where we consider that frigid, but you might live in International Falls where it would be a great day for a picnic. Words…

Explaining why we had been issued pencils without erasers, our instructor said, “This is a drawing class, not an erasing class.” I’m sure she was right. We had only 30 minutes to draw an animated character, so if we focused on fixing our errors—and mine were numerous—we would not have completed our drawings. Although my…

I watched a mammoth twelve-foot alligator glide through my lake with attitude. I call it “My Lake,” but Mr. Gator would clearly disagree. This is his lake. He and his species exert power and control over these waters. Signs around the perimeter warn me to stay out or be eaten.  Unfortunately, “My Lake” is not…

The delight of the girl riding the Banshee next to mine was contagious. She couldn’t have been more than five or six years old, and the Banshee in question was part of a ride at Disney World. Everything about the ride was new and wonderful to her: a tummy tickle before take-off, swooping and swerving…

A mighty splash broke the silence of my prayer walk. It was followed by frantic squawking and flapping as an alligator nabbed its breakfast of fresh heron. I felt sorry for the heron until I realized that if the gator had missed, I would need to feel sorry for him. It’s a fact that all…