RUMINATIONS OF A REVEREND

I woke up to the news that Vladimir Putin authorized “special military operations” in Ukraine. I am no geo-political expert but from my simple viewpoint that sounds like Russia invaded Ukraine.  The ramifications of this act are significant yet not fully known. I do know there are immediate consequences for border countries like Poland. Poland has already begun receiving refugees. I know some missionaries working in Poland, who will be housing those displaced because of the military action. They will need extra financial resources to provide for the refugees fleeing the chaos. I would encourage you to consider how you may help, and if you don’t know how you can help, message me and I’ll put you in touch with them.   But even before this invasion, I could have accurately written the same title to my blog. The news headlines sink deeper in slime every day. You read about a “four-year-old boy found dead in a freezer,” “Elderly Chicago couple are beaten senseless by a stranger i...

Anyone with children has likely heard the appeal, “Look at me!” Maybe the child is spinning in a circle or standing on one foot or throwing a ball in the air, but the petition begs for attention. He wants his mommy to focus on him and watch his antics, whatever they may be. “Look at me!” I remember such a plea booming from my lips while I practiced wheelies on my bicycle as a child. I had sped down our black top multiple times, yanking on the handlebars and elevating the front wheel off the pavement (even if only for a couple of seconds) and was ready to show off to mom. “Watch me, mom!” I implored. Mom graciously stopped in the yard and turned in my direction while I zoomed down the drive. Halfway down I yanked on the handlebars- lift off. The front tire rose from the ground for a couple of seconds and landed perfectly in front of fist-sized rock in the middle of the drive. My bike stopped immediately but my body embraced Newton’s first law of motion to the fullest. I soared over th...

You failed. Welcome to the human race! Spoiler alert: you will fail again. That’s the reality of being human in a broken world. The biblical list of people who failed would exceed the space I have in my blog. From Adam in Genesis 3 to John in Revelation 22 who fell down to worship at the feet of an angel you find scripture filled with people who failed. But that’s life as human beings. Our society, however, has conflated failing with being a failure. We rush to tag a person with that label once they fail. The result: paralyzing fear of failure. Such fear stifles drive and minimizes risk taking. In such a climate, nothing of great value is accomplished.  Heaven forbid we should fail! Imagine if the disciples decided they couldn’t pull off the whole “make disciples of all nations” thing so they didn’t even try. Maybe they could just stay in Jerusalem with the people they knew and pat each other on the back and that would be good enough. They could succeed at that endeavor. No nee...