Woot (You will either like it or you won't)

Prop 8 Musical (Really Funny)

Nothing Lasts
Two summers ago when I flew into Ecuador we landed in the capitol city, Quito, and drove two hours to our ministry site. On our way we stopped by to see the Equator. We learned on our trip that the Incas built incredible stone masonries. Archeologists and settlers found enormous stone areas that match and work there way across the country from East to West. Doppler radar has located that these stone areas are actually built on the same latitude across hundreds of miles. Even further, the Incas built these probable worship sites exactly on the Equator. This is before trigonometry. Incredible.People over time have created incredible things. The Great Pyramid in Egypt is e

God Bless You
God bless you. Frederick Buechner says, The word blessing has come to mean more often than not a pious formality such as ministers are continually being roped into giving at dinner parties. But in the biblical sense, if you give me your blessing, you irreversibly convey into my life not just something of the beneficent power and vitality of who you are but something also of the life-giving power of God in whose name the blessing is given. Yet the word blessing still falls deaf on most ears. It carries little to no depth or meaning. I would argue “luck,” of all words, hits closer to home because w

Our Saints
November 1 is All Saints Day in the Christian calendar. This day is the day we (the Church) remember all the saints throughout church history. Frederick Buechner says, “It’s in God’s holy flirtation with the world where we occasionally see God drop a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.” Many people think of saints as plaster saints or moral exemplars, men and women of such paralyzing virtue that they never thought a nasty thought or did an evil deed their whole lives long. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterizing themselves that way. On the contrary, no less a saint than Saint P

Here's What I'm Trying to Say
And in a soft whisper and almost tired breath, the preacher looks out from her notes and says – Here is what I am trying to say . . . From a seminary preaching professor's standpoint, this phrase may get you an C+. But I've learned over the years this phrase can be the best part of the sermon for the listener. “Now that I have said all that – here is what I am trying to say!” It’s like a trigger. The sermon is almost over. She’s making her last point! It may or may not be a good one but it is almost over.I have a memory of when I preached for one of the first times in a church that was not my home church. They

Hopelessness Rationalizes "What Is"
Hopelessness rationalizes and adapts to ‘what is.’ A mother who lost her child has to adapt to a world without her son. A teenage pregnancy has to adapt to a world in which dreams are slowing down. A man laid off from work has to adapt to the precariousness of the economy. All of these situations sometimes feel like hope is gone and God is not responding. Personally, I have never felt more hopeless in my life than the day after my college graduation party. I stopped the night before at a gas station to fill my car up with gas and placed my wallet on top of the car. Sure enough – I filled up with gas and drove away never realizing my wallet, full of hundr