Stumbling Over the Truth

     I was flipping through the pages of my Bible when it popped out, a picture of my daughter.  The picture was from her first Christmas.  She was such a happy baby.  In fact she made everyone around her happy--it was infectious.       Becoming a dad was nothing I was (or for that matter am) prepared for.  Everyone I knew had told me about the practical side of parenting.  People offered advice about how much kids will cost me, eat me out of house and home, and take from me.  I was made too painfully aware of the every rising expenses of diapers, baby food, clothes, education, and other miscellaneous items.  What I was never told was how much my kids would give me.           As we approach another Father's day, I am worried.  Once again my kids will head to who knows where ( Wal -Mart most likely!) to get some kind of gift that Hallmark has deemed a necessit...

I hate phone calls.   I remember getting the message that my mom had called.  Something wasn't right.  Mom had been experiencing chest pain and was in the hospital to find out why.  She had been in for several days and was wanting to come home.  I walked to my office and dialed the phone.  What I wasn't prepared for was the message that day. . . cancer.  Mom had contracted breast cancer ten years earlier, and won -- or so I thought. My mom was the strongest person I have ever known, but that day there was a definite quiver in her voice as she gave me the news.  What had puzzled us for the past couple of days was now clear. . . cancer was back.  Somehow the previous cancer had survived and had gotten into her spine.  Mom was not strong that day on the phone.  In fact, she had called me, her youngest son, her baby, to be her strength.  She broke into tears on the phone as she sat in that lonely room telling me of her fears....

Yesterday I had a heart attack!!! It wasn't my first, though it may be the first time that I have acknowledged one. After years of suffering from reoccurring heart attacks, I have finally come to realize that this deep pain I am experiencing is a result of when I allow my heart to stray from God. Winston Churchill said, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." This statement is definitely true of my own life. For years I have felt the pains of my sins but never really associated them with a heart issue. Like a physical heart attack we should recognize the true pains in our spiritual heart as we ignore a loving God. More than my pain though is the thought of the pain that God experiences in His heart as I fail to love Him with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Relativism has quietly crept into everyday thinking and is one of the pain killers Satan uses to help numb us from our h...