Life at 3 miles an Hour

Music is a powerful thing. It amazes me that most of the rest of the known world, third world and otherwise, has identified this truth, but we’re still fighting about it in our faith settings. I remember back when I was in college learning about effective methods involved in starting new churches. One of the first things I was instructed to do was to get a demographic study on the listening habits of the people in the area where we would be located. The theory was if you could identify the listening habits, then you could identify with the people. My first ministry was a case study in this classroom theory. Located in what might be considered as a backwoods community, their listening preference was of course country. My personal philosophy at the time was, “friends don’t let friends listen to country”. Can you guess how that experiment turned out? We had a great time there. Some of our closest friendships developed during that time of our ministry, only I think because they were so gra...

One of the aspects of life here that I’ve not really adjusted to is traffic. I admit that I was not ready for it when we moved here. No one really clued us in. I guess that it’s not the thing to put into a recruiting presentation. It was certainly avoided at all costs during our tours of the area. I am so amazed that one stalled vehicle on some remote off ramp somewhere off the beaten path can still created gridlock five miles away. I doubly amazed that a fender bender on the opposite side of the interstate can back up traffic for miles on my side of the freeway. I heard all the reason for it from poor road design to too many cars on too few roadways. I’ve seen so many ridiculous attempts at solutions. Van pools, fast trains, light rail plans and even an ill fated attempt to build a monorail have all been touted as the magic pill that could eliminate our traffic woes. All of these seem futile when where dealing with SUV driving, environmentalist minded, global warming worrier...

I am blessed. I only tell you that as a reminder to myself because I often forget how blessed I am. In my life and occupation I often, sometimes minute by minute wrestle with issues of faith and grace and blessing and assurance. I just decided that if I put those issues together I could conclude that because of my faith in God’s grace that I can experience the blessing of assurance. The older I get and the more I experience the more that I am blessed by assurance. I used to think that faith was enough for me. I thought that faith would carry me. This may not be very TC (theologically correct) and my Bible professors might cringe when I say this, but I think that life is too hard for the average faith to withstand. Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly and in my gut believe that I have been saved by grace through faith, but the book of Hebrews talks about faith being defined in terms of hope. That’s where I’m weak. Hope for me is sometimes, how can I put this, too hopeful. Som...