When I walk into a bookstore, any bookstore, I become a treasure hunter. I am looking for just the right book to treasure, at least for the moment. Sometimes the treasure is the bookstore itself. Discovering a used bookstore is, for me, like finding a new outlet mall for some I know. I try to poke around in bookstores wherever I may be traveling. My favorite kind of bookstore looks like my church office did before the great disruption, with stacks of things piled here and there.*

Dorothy and I spent a wonderful few days one April wandering the streets of Paris. After visiting Notre Dame Cathedral, before the great fire, we crossed the street and sat down for a cup of coffee at one of those outdoor cafes we had always seen in the movies. We watched the people and talked of the blessings God provides. As we started walking back toward our hotel, I spotted one of the most famous bookstores in the entire world, Shakespeare and Company. Of course, we went in it.

This discovery was like opening a treasure chest filled with gold coins and precious jewels—stacks of new and used books filling shelves, nooks and crannies everywhere. The shop is three stories tall. An old cat kept an annoyed eye on the place. People with legal pads, laptops and even portable typewriters were writing their inspired thoughts and future bestsellers. It was part avant-garde commune and part Airbnb, with cots here and there and little rooms for people to sleep—some staying for weeks. Many famous and not-so-famous writers got their start researching and writing at this bookstore. Its scandalous early years add to its mystique. And the elderly owner at the time of our visit, George Whitman, directed all the apparent chaos of a typical day in his store. Mr. Whitman died a few years ago at the age of 98. In the midst of all of his books, George Whitman hung a sign that paraphrased Hebrews 13:2—Do not be inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Look for treasures (and angels.) And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

*The great disruption refers to this time in history where my eclectic pastor’s study has been turned into a neat and orderly looking video studio. Finding where things were put away is also a treasure hunt.

In the weeks following my high school graduation my parents and younger sisters moved to Birmingham, Alabama. The next year I moved to Birmingham to live with the family and a newborn baby sister, Dawn, and finish college. After graduation, I moved to Ft. Worth, Texas.  Two weeks later my family moved to Atlanta, except for my sister, Denise, who had married in Birmingham. I had never been to Atlanta, so finding their house that Christmas was a real challenge. When I graduated from seminary my family moved to Greenwood, South Carolina, except for my sister, Diane, who had married in Atlanta. A pattern was emerging; every time I graduated my family moved further away. Dorothy and I had this running conversation about me never really knowing the way to my own parents’ home. Over their 20 years in Greenwood, my parents and youngest sister lived in at least three different places. Mom and Dad made the move to a small town called Pelham, Alabama for their final years. 

Dorothy’s parents, on the other hand, lived in the same house for 52 years. The highways between Tulsa and Waco, Texas were the problem—always under construction.  They were constantly littered with multiple detours and by-passes. The map lady at AAA became our friend. If we had only bought stock in that orange barrel company.  Dorothy and I tried to alternate visits with our parents every other year to spend as much time as we could with our families, who lived hundreds of miles in opposite directions from Tulsa. We came to learn that home, for us, is less about geography and more about deep connections. It’s less about place and more about relationship. It’s less about destination and more about shared love. 

During this season of disruption and confusion, you may know someone who is having trouble finding home again. They may feel like they are lost in a maze with broken connections, broken relationships, and broken hearts. Listen to their stories. Introduce them to the family of faith. Share the gift of grace. Invite them home to God.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Find the way home. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

I was expecting better than this in 2022. There are still no flying cars. We were supposed to have robots that would serve us breakfast in bed. By 2022 we were supposed to have rid the world of hunger, cured the worst of the diseases, and be nations working together for peace and security for all. America would be a united and “shining city on a hill” for all the world to see how democracy really works. I thought if I ever lived long enough to see 2022, the world would know of Jesus and Christians would be the salt of the earth. But here we are. The future is today, and we are still a mess. As someone recently put it, “We are all going through similar storms, but we are riding them out in very different ships (dramatic pause) or floaties.” 

I  was expecting better than this about Covid-19. Here we are again, only it is still 2,000+ Covid deaths per week in the U.S., even with this “milder” variant. Omicron is “milder” mostly for the vaccinated. Out of an abundance of caution, as the disclaimer everywhere says, we have closed in-person worship until the end of January at least. In our somewhat older congregation, too many have reported being exposed and quarantining themselves. I take my lead from the area school districts who are making the open/closing/virtual decisions only for about three days at a time. Positive cases of Covid are racing through our schools, students and teachers alike. Yet above all, we have a faithful God who shelters us, heals us, and is with us even to the end of it all.

I was expecting better than this in 2022, but here we are. We live in a sinful world with some of sin’s consequences painfully visible to all. We are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin, sin’s pay day, is close at hand. Paul calls the wages of sin death. But we have the gift of God, His son Jesus. Undeserved, unearned, unmerited in any way. The theological term is salvation—gracious forgiveness. We are empowered by God’s Spirit and guided by His word. We are His disciples because we obey Christ’s teachings to love, heal and forgive unconditionally. Christ expects better of us. The future is today. The Good News is real. Everyone around us was also expecting a better future. Let them see Jesus.

 Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Tell the Good news. And let’s experience the love and power of God together while we are apart.

How are you acting and reacting to others in this on-going pandemic? As Christians, we are challenged to live according to the ethical standards of Jesus. This is not as easy as it might sound. Daily applying the biblical lessons we have learned is a rigorous test of our faithfulness and love. Life has grown even more complicated in our time of Covid. What is the greatest ethical teaching according to Christ? Luke 10:27, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

I was confronted with my own set of ethical Covid challenges this past week. On Friday I was notified that I had been exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid-19. I had spent prolonged time over a few days with the person who had taken ill on Wednesday night. Now what are we supposed to do? The general rule is to be prayerfully honest with yourself about your situation. Tell anyone you had close contact with to allow them to assess their own circumstances. Direct exposure is different than indirect exposure, depending on the length of time spent together (over 15 minutes), masked or unmasked. Next, decide if you should be tested and when. My last long exposure had been on Wednesday, now it was Friday. In a preacher’s world, Sunday is coming soon. Dorothy and I both got tested later that afternoon. We exhibited no symptoms, but that was little help in this situation since even asymptomatic persons can be contagious. The results were expected on Saturday. They did not come through on Saturday.

Here is where the temptation to take unethical next steps gets stronger. The right thing to do was to isolate until we knew what we were facing.  We rationalized, we could go to church Sunday, stay in the office, and only come out to for the worship service, and not speak to anyone up close. It is a big room after all. Or we could do the ethical thing—isolate until we knew what we were facing. We prayed, notified the appropriate people, printed a new service bulletin, and swallowed the pride of our self-importance. We learned late Sunday that we had both tested negative.  Here is my unasked-for advice: get your mask back out and wear it in public until this wave passes by. It is the ethical way to love Him—heart, body and soul.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Love your neighbor. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.