toddcast

The Bible often uses animals to teach us something - sheep, goats, serpents, wolves in sheep's clothing, and there's even a talking donkey.   This past week I learned something from my dog. For Father's Day I got a new gas grill, so last Saturday I set out to put it all together.   That's never an easy task, especially for a DIY flunkey like me, but I accepted the challenge and unloaded all the pieces on my back porch.   It was moderately warm outside, so I opened the door to let our dog inside assuming he'd enjoy the air conditioned house rather than be outside with me, but to my surprise he refused and took a place on the back porch as I worked.   In all, it took me about an hour and a half to put the grill together while Zeebo, our dog, lay on the deck.   At one point I took notice of him and there he was with his panting tongue hanging out, and a thought dawned on me.   He would rather endure the heat and be close to me rather than be mo...

Several years ago Henriann and I were invited to a "free" dinner.   We knew the meal came with a sales pitch for some home security equipment, but didn’t expect the degree of pressure put on us to invest in this life saving equipment.   The only way we felt like we could get out of the dinner before midnight was to agree to a meeting at our home where we would get some more information.   The sales visit came and went and we managed to not spend any money, but I did learn the old adage to be true - there are no free lunches.   I should have known better - no one asks you for dinner without having some agenda.   Some may be more noble than others but no one calls you around a table without wanting something.   And that's okay.   People need to sell products.   People need to pitch deals.   But it is a rare exception if someone invites you to dinner and they have no agenda.   After all, who has ever been invited to someone's hou...

Well, about a week has passed since Caitlyn Jenner appeared on the much ballyhooed cover of Vanity Fair.   As a Christian minister I still don’t know exactly what to think and really have decided not to think too much about the specifics of Jenner's plight.   She never asked me for advice and I doubt she reads my blog anyway! Yet, the event has caused me to think about aspects of my own life that I'm not quite so happy about.   And, as a preacher and spiritual adviser, it has caused me to think about how to counsel people who have lesser but similar issues that Jenner's plight has brought to the forefront.   How do I, we, deal with those things in our life that we would like to change? Let me explore this with three questions I need to ask myself when I feel uncomfortable or dissatisfied with who I am. Do I really want to change in the first place? I must be aware that I can be easily deceived into thinking that I need to be someone or something el...

With all this rain we've been getting I been thinking back to an old Vacation Bible School song we used to sing when I was young, The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock .  It's based on a story Jesus told in Matthew 7 at the end of his longest recorded teaching that is often referred to as The Sermon on the Mount.      When the rains came and the wind blew the wise man's house stood firm because it was built on the rock solid foundation of Jesus' teachings.   On the other hand, the foolish man's house, which was built on the sand, fell apart when the winds and rain came because it wasn't built on Jesus' teaching.     The song was always one of the favorites especially since it had fun hand motions.   All us kids would raise our hands and mimic rain falling down and the fun part was when the foolish man's house went "splat"! The plain message of the parable is that some lives will be able to weather the storms of life w...

The world was taken back last month when a plane crashed into the French Alps killing all 150 aboard.    While all plane crashes of this magnitude make front-page news, this one was even more chilling as it appears the co-pilot intentionally took the plane down in a suicide / mass murder.   When I fly I assume the pilots will do all they can to get me to my destination.   I assume they are all of sound mind and body.   I assume that all pilots are like my hometown's own local hero Captain “Sully” Sullenberger who six years earlier employed all his flying skills to save his passengers.     I don’t often give much thought to who is in the cockpit, but I guess it does matter. As strange as it may seem, in the aftermath of this disaster a popular bumper sticker from my youth came to mind – God is my co-pilot .   Of course, pilot or co-pilot is never used in the Bible as a metaphor for God, but I guess it serves as a modern day equivale...