Loving, Learning, and Leading

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5:3-4) While we have different pain thresholds, all of us avoid pain.  Its not that we are weak, but its instinctual.  The sensation of pain is to make us aware of something that is immediately dangerous or damaging.  Inadvertantly touching a hot plate sends an immediate and intense sensation of pain that yells to get our attention that the plate is causing serious damage.  Pain responses often do not relay through our higher brain functions (cerebral cortex where we think and reason) but reside in the lower brain functions and brain stem, in the form of emotions and reflexes.  You do not so much think about the hotness of the plate as you simply react to it. People are made in a way that we can not only experience physical pain, but emotional pain as well.  Emotional pain tend...

As many of you know, I love to read and share readings that I find particularly insightful.  Summer is often a time when people find time to read an interesting book or two.  I wanted to make ten suggestions regarding particularly interesting books that you may wish to engage this Summer. 1. Naked Spirituality by Brian McClaren This book takes the process of spiritual formation and identifies how we grow in our relationship with God.  Raw, honest, and authentic.  For anyone who has wondered why their experience of God has not been smooth.  Highly recommended. 2. The Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton Provocative writing that connects the act of worship with being an agent of social justice.  He explains how we have developed false types of worship that are divorced from the things that actually matter to God.  Well written and convicting. 3. The Social Animal by David Brooks Creative book that looks at how people develop social skill...

13 Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn't accept them with pleasure. 14 You cry out, "Why doesn't the Lord accept my worship?" I'll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. 15 Didn't the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. 16 "For I hate divorce!" says the Lord, the God of Israel. "To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. "So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife." (NLT) Malachi 2:13-16 This week is typical in for me and many pastors all over ...

Is not wisdom found among the aged?  Does not long life bring understanding? Job 12:12. Day after day, from the early breakfast shifts through the dinner shift, all over the United States, Tribunals have been organized in the dining rooms of urban McDonald's restaurants.  These tribunals are made up of older African-American men, who put everything on trial.  In the McDonald's in which I frequent most often, on the corner of Upper Falls Blvd and North Clinton in Rochester, the tribunal takes up the eastern side of the dining room.  Filled with lively discussion, boisterous claims, passionate denouncements, and carefully worded arguments, these informal tribunals discuss life, politics, relationships, current events, neighborhood issues, religion, and occasionally, the food.  Voices are raised loudly in passionate attempts to persuade, laughing is raucous and contagious, and the anger displayed is sometimes biting.  It is a forum where the realities of l...