...and a time to speak...

I have not yet seen the movie The Greatest Showman but have heard from an overwhelming majority of people how absolutely amazing it is. I can not wait to see it and hope I will get to while it is still on the big screen (come on babysitters!!). This is a classic underdog story where the forgotten people with “differences” come breaking through out of the shadows and into the limelight. They have seemingly insurmountable odds stacked against them and a boat load of really hateful people pointing fingers at them, but they prevail in the end. Now who doesn’t love a story like that? If you don’t, you might have a black heart. Just kidding, but seriously, it’s just good stuff. Everyone reading this probably loved that first paragraph. Nothing really to contend with (other than the fact that you might be among the .0000001% that didn’t care for the movie). Now here comes the hard part. The twist in my blog “plot” that some will agree with and some will not care for one bit. And that is th

Over the last year or so, my church has been challenging us as a congregation to learn how to tell our faith story summed up in about 2 minutes. We were provided with printed t-shirts and buttons that say “Ask me my story” and are encouraged to wear them out to the places we always go. The thought process being that it’s not always easy to strike up a random Jesus conversation with someone who is in the line next to you at the cashier, but if they see your shirt and ask what it means, there’s your in. I still haven’t quite figured out how to boil down my story into 2 minutes, but I am working on it because in 1 Peter 3:15 it says “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” I should be able to tell someone in 2 minutes how my life was transformed from being someone filled with “intellectual beliefs” to someone filled with “saving faith.” Oh there is a difference. Huge one. For me, the difference was literal darkness to

You want to know what I consider to be one of the most alarming (yet hopeful) verses in all of the bible? Revelation 3:16-20 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Alarming… why? Because I look around me day after day and realize that I live in a virtual sea of lukewarm-ness. It is rampant. I see men, women, teenagers and children going about their daily lives in complete and

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 A Time for Everything There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak , a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. I’ve wrestled with the idea of starting a blog for quite some time now, because in all honesty, does the world need another one? Probably not. But, here I sit at my computer all the same because there are just some things that are bursting within me that need to come out.