That is the question I’m exploring. I’m no expert, just a man with lots of questions, and no answers. There will be no sage advice, I have nothing for you. Probably you will read it anyway 🙂. And if it bores you, blame my cooking skills.  I started to think about that question while I was at a symposium at Mt. Sac college for those who experienced…

Many years ago, my cousin Neil Stern built a set of stained glass windows for the Upland Brethren in Christ church. If you grew up in a church with weird church words, they sat between the narthex and the sanctuary. If you prefer normal words, they sat between the entryway and the auditorium.  Regardless of what words that were used, they lived there for forty years.  During…

You might ask, cost you what? Well, that's the question I'm struggling with. I was decluttering my office, cleaning up some of the files that are laying around, and organizing my bookshelf. And I saw a white notebook sitting in a line of notebooks that I didn’t recognize. What is that I thought? So I picked it up and opened it. I was looking at a schedule…

I have a document on my computer called “Ideas”. Something I started after my stroke. One way to deal with my memory woes is to write things down. How original is that? Some of the ideas that are listed came from my daily bible reading. Some of them came while I was dealing with my recovery. Some of them came from just living my life. They are…

Gripping Tug-of-War — StockCake Slow Demolition versus the Renewal God Offers In my last post I talked about the star over Upland.  It was fun to reminisce, looking backward and looking up. And it struck a chord for me and many of you. It is pretty cool when you can see the good that happened. The post before that was certainly different. It was about demolishing and…

I was 10 years old when my dad built a house in the foothills above Upland. We lived there for 6 years. My growing-up years. It was a great place to grow up. At the edge of civilization, at the edge of the wilderness. The view over the valley was amazing, 30 miles in every direction when the air was clear, and at night, 30 miles of…

Five years ago my life was renewed, I like how that sounds, renewed. That happened because five years ago my life was demolished. Man, I don't like how that sounds.  Demolished, I want to say Aarrrgh. Renewed, I want to say Yoo-Hoo! I guess I need to decide which side of the equation I'm on.    The Demolished Side In general I like the word “demolished”.  Maybe because…

I’m thinking back to where my journey began. On that day, when I stood up and switched to another chair, the thought came, am I sitting on God's lap? As I thought about it I felt foolish. It sounded weird to me. Sitting on God’s lap? Well, that was 5 years ago and every morning  I am still sitting on the same chair. And I still feel…

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.      Eph 5.15-16 So I'm exploring this idea. What can I do with the time that I have? What can I do today, this week, this year? Obviously how much time we are allotted is unknown. But man, hour by hour, day…

What a weird title for a sermon about Genesis. It was a metaphor of sorts to supplement the sermon that was preached the week before. The sermon the week before dealt with a serious question, why bad things happened to good people. It was based on the story about Joseph (Genesis 37-50). A heavy topic with no pat answers. But with some observations. Obedience to God does…