lifestyle-religion

In the Gospel of Matthew, an incident is recorded in the life of Jesus that is worth some thought. The disciples of Jesus were in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee at night when a storm arose (they do that fast and without notice on the Sea of Galilee!) and the disciples seemed to be fighting the waves, the wind, and the water. Jesus had been praying on the mountaintop, but saw they were in trouble and came walking to them on the water. The disciples, terrified by the storm, thought he was a ghost, but when he spoke to them, they calmed down, even though the storm did not.

When we for the first time were investigating life in this central Florida community where we now live, one of the places our good friend Bob showed us was the archery field and the targets on the field there. Just seeing those targets brought back the memory of a little kid (me) about 12-years-old at a summer camp in southern Ohio called Camp Arrowhead, just outside of my hometown of Jackson, Ohio.

When I was a child, I remember spending the summers often with my grandparents in Tennessee. My grandfather, in the later years of his life, left his grocery business to serve as a church-planting missionary in the area between Nashville and Knoxville in that state. One of his strategies for starting a new church was to go into a town to see if there was a church building that, for whatever reason. had closed down.

New Vienna Community Church is hosting its annual “Bring a Friend Sunday” Sunday, Aug. 20, featuring a Christian band called Soul Scape.

The dictionary says it clearly right there on the printed page: “drift – verb intransitive – to become carried along subject to no guidance or control.” The illustration given is of a conversation “drifting” from one topic to another. My church history prof was a great “drifter.” He often would take questions in class and would wax eloquent on whatever the subject was for sometimes as long as 30 minutes. Then, as though coming to his senses, he would look at the student who initially sparked his response, and say, “Does that answer your question?” By that time, the student, and most of the class as well, had forgotten what the initial question had been. The prof had “drifted” far away from the initial topic.

Conversion is a new way of looking at the world. How many liters are in a gallon? This is 3.79 liters. Whether I call it 3.79 liters or a gallon, it is the same amount. Conversion is a different way of seeing things in life.

It is a true statement that great leaders are hard to follow. Ask any college athletic director who has had to find a new football coach after the old one, who has been there for what seems like forever, has retired. They will tell you that the likelihood of finding a successful coach who will last as long as the last one, and do as well, is pretty slim. In fact, the statistics demonstrate that if a coach has been in his position for ten years or longer, his successor will most likely remain in that position for three years or less. There are exceptions to that rule, but in many, if not most, cases, it is true.

“May I? Pleeease Mom!”

It may seem redundant, because I have already reflected on my marriage in a recent edition of this column, but the subject of marriage has been very near and dear to my heart lately, and specifically, my marriage. We both are still basking in the afterglow of multiple celebrations with family and friends and the encouragements that continue to buoy our spirits for the journey ahead.

The Unified Christian Men’s Chorus will present the first concert of the 2023 season on Saturday, July 29 from 6-8 p.m. at the Wilmington Church of Christ, located at 909 W. Locust St. in Wilmington.