Lucy and Charlie Brown are going through their psychiatrist-patient routine in the old Peanuts comic strip. She only charges 5¢, you know. Charlie asks about his dreams and why they occur. Lucy matter-of-factly replies, “The dreams of the night prepare you for the day that follows. At night when you are sleeping your brain is really working—trying to sort out everything for you, trying to make you see yourself as you really are.” Charlie Brown gets up and as he turns to leave says discouragingly, “Even my brain is against me.”

Who wants to see themselves as they really are? I would rather like to see myself as the hero of my life, faster than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. You know, Super Me. Turns out I am more flawed me than I would like to admit. Charlie Brown found himself living each day somewhere between hope and despair. His hopes were always high, but his reality always seemed to bring him to despair. Is that why we like Charlie Brown so much? Is there a bit of Charlie Brown in each of us?

When it comes to “trying to make you see yourself as you really are,” my first inclination is, “I’d rather not.” Yet that seems to be the pull, not only of our brains, but also of the Word of God, which is like a mirror before our souls. The spiritual truth is, when we hear or read the Scriptures, we see ourselves the way God sees us—sinful and not very strong at all. That might even lead some people to say, “Even the Bible is against me.” We need our sleep so our brains can process our lives. We need God’s Word so our lives can mirror God’s grace. Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors. (Psalm 119:24)

Read a few sections of Psalm 119 to see the power of reflecting on the Word of God. As you remember, in the original Hebrew, Psalm 119 is poetry set forth as an acrostic. The psalm is divided into equal sections according to the Hebrew alphabet. Each section has 8 verses. The first word of each verse starts with the same letter that heads the section.

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

Share this webpage:

You may have noticed that it is hot—triple digit hot, as the weather guessers like to say.  Also, it has not rained for over a month now. Dorothy and I took a little excursion to Porter, Oklahoma over the weekend to buy some of the best tasting peaches anywhere. I have family in Georgia and the Carolinas that can brag about their peaches too. Except I can truly say this year that we bought the sweetest ugliest peaches ever. I last wrote about Porter peaches in 2018, a year that was very hard on the peach tree farmers. Last year was a hard year because a late April freeze destroyed most of the budding fruit. This year is hard because of a massive hailstorm and excessive rain followed by this heat wave and drought. Farming is hard work and dependent on good weather. The peaches are beat up but still juicy. The prettiest peaches are sold in the grocery stores and on display at the peach festivals. The rest show the bruises, scars and gouges left by the hail. Ugly peaches are the cheapest. Ugly peaches take a little longer to carve out the damaged areas and cut up. Our ugly peaches are beautiful on a bowl of vanilla ice-cream, baked in a cobbler, or sliced on a bowl of cereal. 

It is always about 103 when Dorothy and I travel to Porter. This year we skipped the festival and went straight to the Livesay Orchard. We always remember Six Flags. Near our first wedding anniversary, Dorothy discovered that I had never been to Six Flags over Texas. We skipped work and enjoyed an afternoon together, but she was amazed that there were no lines of people waiting for the rides. There were other people there, but no one seemed in a hurry. It was only as we were traveling home to Fort Worth, that we heard on the radio that the temperature that day had reached a high of 108. In those days the heat index had not yet been discovered. Even though it was a hot day, we still had a great time.

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

Share this webpage:

(This is an adaptation of my article for the Center for Congregational Ethics for July 6)

The editorial cartoon in the Tulsa World (July 12, 2022) shows a night sky over tombstones with the words in the sky saying: Too Many Things That Loom. The tombstones read: Fuel Crisis, Food Crisis, Climate Crisis, Housing Crisis, Mass Shootings, Nuclear War, Ukraine War, Homelessness, and Worse Inflation. It is a crowded cartoon. Our woes run deep and our fears are wide. 

I have been trying to make my peace with this little word “woe.” Is it self-pity or is it a curse? Woe is Me and Woe to You. I have found some insight through the Cambridge English Dictionary definition for woe—big trouble, or big sorrow. In the biblical context, the meaning is two-fold: 1) An exclamation of current trouble; or 2) A prophetic word of future trouble, both with an implied “unless…”  Unless we change direction, unless we re-frame our days, unless we are gentle with ourselves and others, our lives will be lived out as one long tale of woe. Big trouble.

The Bible readings are a portrait of the woes of despair, Psalm 6; the woes of circumstances, 2 Kings 6:1-7; and the woes of warning by Jesus, Luke 10:13-16. The psalmist exclaims his big trouble as he finds himself fearing death and surrounded by people he cannot trust—unless he prays God would intervene. The workman exclaims his big trouble when the borrowed axe he uses cutting down trees flies off its handle into the Jordon River—unless he turns to Elisha and the others for help in recovering the iron blade. In His commissioning of about six dozen followers sending them “to every town and place where he was about to go,” Jesus gives the warning woes of big trouble coming for the individuals who might reject the message of the kingdom of God—unless they listen and repent. We are in a world of woes—big trouble.

Our daily world of woes come in all sizes of pain and grief. On the days our own list of woes has quieted down, someone always seems to amplify the greater woes besetting the nation, the earth, or the dangers down the street. Some tales of woe are anxiety inducing, others are just plain gossip. All could use a measure of compassion.

Neighbors and strangers alike are looking for faithful and trustworthy people to share the burdens of their multiplying woes. Big troubles are everywhere unless, we, too, go where Jesus is about to go, sharing words of grace, hope and God’s love.

Share this webpage:

I’ve been thinking about family pets lately and came across this old narrative:

If you can start the day without caffeine, If you can get going without pep pills, If you can resist complaining and boring people with all your troubles, If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time, If you can overlook it when something goes wrong through no fault of yours and those you love take it out on you, if you can take criticism and blame without resentment, If you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him, If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend, If you can face the world without lies and deceit, If you can conquer tension without medical help, If you can relax without liquor, If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion or politics, Then, my friends, you are almost as good as your dog.

It is simply amazing how attached we can become to our pets, whether dogs or cats or even little birds. We can simultaneously delight in their antics and clean up their messes. We love them in our laps or at our feet. We smile when they are happy and cry when they are in pain. Our grief is all too sharp when we lose one. I called my first dog Nickel because his mother’s name was Penny. Nicky listened to my troubles, chased mice and other critters and ran beside me when I rode my bike. I do not know if our animals go to heaven when they die. I do know that the Bible indicates that heaven is filled with all manner of animals and creatures beyond our imaginations. If we can love our creatures so deeply, how much greater is God’s love towards us today?

The Psalmist wrote a song we sometimes call “Creature Praise.” In Psalm 148 all of God’s creation and all of His creatures, including people, are encouraged to praise the Lord. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. (v. 13)

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

Share this webpage: