Stumbling Over the Truth

      I am considering making an appointment to see my doctor about my memory.  Actually, I may need to call the Center For Disease Control (CDC) because I am scared that there is an epidemic of memory loss.  It must be something that is happening all over.  Why just the other night I saw a commercial for a liquid that you could purchase to help with your memory.  In fact I would have called the number to order some of the product, but I couldn't remember the phone number.        Over the years of marriage, my memory has faded.  My wife often tells me that I don't remember things correctly, and then she proceeds to instruct me as to how things really happened.  I find this very odd because when I tell her about something or ask her to do something for me, she often forgets.  Now that I think about this, I have to wonder if there some kind of virus that attacks only certain memories.  You see my wife can remember the most minute detail about something that happened twenty years

     "Failure is not fatal.  Failure to change might be."  --John Wooden      My dad is celebrating his 79th birthday on Sunday.  As a family we have been at a loss to think of what to get him that really will be meaningful for him.  I think when you reach a certain age, all of the things that were so important to you as a young person just don't mean so much.  Oh sure, you can always find a gadget or toy that would be nice, but to really get a gift that is meaningful is another thing.  I also realize that getting a gift for him in comparison to all of the wisdom, experience, and truth he has imparted to us just doesn't really match up.        Now that I am in my 40's and I have three teenage kids, I find the wisdom of my dad much more important than anything else I could possess.  You see youth is cursed with vanity and pride.  For some of us, we never out grow it.  It is a constant battle that we face for years and years.  In fact, some may never get past th

     Have you ever felt like trouble knows your address?  It seems to me that no matter where I go, problems seem to find me.  I remember years ago taking a road trip with several students to go see a college in Missouri.  The homeward journey was long, so it was the plan to stop at a point about halfway to get some much needed rest, and then head out bright and early to finish the trip.   Having driven this route a couple of times, I had already decided the exit I would pull off the interstate as it had plenty of clean motels to choose from.  It was just between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m. at night as we approached the off-ramp for the desired exit when I heard it.  There was a pop or banging noise and then the bus started driving very funny.  Yes, you guessed it, we had a blowout!        We were sitting on the side of the interstate highway within fifty yards of the exit ramp. How frustrating to be so close yet so far away.  After inspecting the outside of the bus, I found that we not only

     As a kid growing up my family didn't take many vacations.  In fact I can only remember a couple of times going on a vacation to visit some family in Tennessee.  When my wife and I were married, we wanted to try to make sure that we took some kind of family vacation every year once the kids were old enough to do this.  Over the years I can look back and say that we have been able to stay at some nice places for vacation.  Picking out nice places though has been a task that can be very difficult as we have always had a shoe string budget to work with for our vacations.      When the kids were very little, we could just get a nice motel room and put three kids in one bed and my wife and I in the other.  Doing this brought us all closer together, but there were difficulties to this.  Rebekah and Caleb, my oldest and youngest were very restless sleepers.  Daniel, my middle child, was always the light sleeper.  Even to this day he can't stand to have noise (other than a fan) wh

      I hate to wait.  Maybe it is that deep need to control every aspect of life that causes me to hate to wait, but I have to admit I struggle with waiting.  This character flaw has been something I have battled all of my life.  As a kid, my mom would make me take naps on Sunday afternoons.  That was pure torture to me.  I just wanted to get to the next thing.  Though I hated getting up early, my nature to not wait made it more natural to need to be up to experience the activities of the day.        As the baby of the family, all I ever heard growing up was, "You'll get to do ___________ when you are older."  What I really heard was, "Just Wait!"  Consequently, I have never been good at waiting or surprises.  It is dreadful for someone to tell me that they need to talk to me . . . later.  (That just about kills me.)  As I grew older, I constantly found new things to have to wait for, and I focused my yearnings on the passing of those events.  I couldn't w

     In 2 Corinthians 10 the apostle Paul answers some charges of people that he is no always real about his faith.  These people claim that Paul is one way when he writes, but a totally different person when he is face to face.  Paul answered these claims with the fact that the only power to live by in this world today is the truth of God.  Paul goes on to speak of that power in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:   "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."       A stronghold takes our minds off of God and His Word.  It steals our focus.  It causes us to feel controlled or mastered--and powerless to fight against it.  Paul real

  "Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved."  Psalm 55:22      Having done a little traveling internationally, I can tell you baggage is the worst thing to deal with.  Several years ago, I was on a trip with a church group heading to Africa.  We were in London's Heathrow airport awaiting our connecting flight.  We had been told a gate number, but it was not showing on the departure board.  Several of the guys in our group wanted to go check out the shops, and get something to eat, leaving two of us to sit with the carry-on luggage and drink our coffee.       Time passed, and glancing up at the departure board it showed our connection at a totally different gate.  In fact, the new gate was quite a hike and none of the guys who had left their carry on luggage had returned.  We waited patiently for some time, but when one of the airport terminal workers told us how far the gate was from where we were sitti