by Greg | Feb 18, 2009 | Blog Posts
I love the rich breadth of Christianity, which means I am open to “new” ways of experiencing community with fellow believers. Observing Ash Wednesday (this year it is on February 25) is an old practice for believers around the world but fairly new to most Baptists. I have attended many such services, but this year will be the first time I will host one. I have taken the liberty of turning to many resources including books, the internet, our minister of music Stan Pylant and Episcopalians! In fact, the ashes we will use are compliments of our sister congregation, The Church of the Good Shepherd. I decided I had too much on my mind than to try to figure out how to burn, sift, and mix ashes for the service. The dear chair of the altar guild offered to give me a can of ashes, which she would have waiting for me at their church. Yesterday I arrived to pick up the can (formally cashews, but didn’t that surprise anybody that reached in for a few nuts). On the lid of the can was written: Ashes – Greg DeLoach (he is not in here). This is an important disclaimer of which I am happy to confirm. Yet is this not what Ash Wednesday is about? – a time to reflect on our own mortality as well as repentance. Philosophers have long exclaimed that the way to prepare for life is to contemplate death. Morbid? I don’t think so. Often Jesus spoke of the need to release one’s life (which is in itself an enormous act of faith) in order...
by Greg | Feb 11, 2009 | Blog Posts
I have a not-so-secret confession to make – I love classic soul music. Sure, I recognize that some may think I should listen to more respectable if not conventional music. Stan and Keith listen to the arias, Rodger is rather fond of Broadway tunes, and Andy listens to country. I certainly do not have a problem with their iPod playlists, but if I were on a deserted island, give me the music of Marvin Gaye, Barry White and Luther Vandross! This genre of musically is usually labeled as “rhythm and blues” but most everyone knows it is “soul music” plain and simple. Good soul music sings of love lost and love gained. When I hear Ray Charles sing “Georgia” I smell red clay and green pines and love growing up in this state. When Marvin Gaye sings “Mercy Me” I long for an imagined past of better times. And Amy and I cannot help dancing in the kitchen when Barry White croons “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love.” Nearly all good soul music is rooted in love. In fact, all good music is rooted in love. Music speaks to our heart’s longings, our desires, and our hopes. When George Jones wails “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” we don’t have to have the same experience to identify with the song. Love lost and love gained connects us. No wonder that Paul the apostle described love as the greatest gift. We are shaped and given life because of God’s generous love. We love and are loved. It is what we desire and it is what we need. Love is the foundational...
by Greg | Feb 2, 2009 | Blog Posts
Not so long ago I made the suggestion to my beloved that we should take a yoga class together that is offered at the “Y” next door to the church. You read this correctly: yoga…together. I have never taken yoga in my life but I did as a kid love the television series Kung Fu and the characters often looked like they could at least lead a class in yoga, but I digress… Last Friday we started our first yoga class. I figured how bad could this be? I am in good shape, jog regular and lift weights. Yoga is just stretching, right? Amy and I joined a group of ladies (yep, I am the only man in this class, but I am okay with that) who were all far more experienced than the two of us. I have to admit that the class itself was not that bad. True, I have the balance of a hippo on a high wire. At times the instructor would have us place our legs in positions that my body has never seen except for that time I fell off of a silo as a kid. But other than some rather impossible contortions and strange positions, it was not so bad. I barely broke a sweat. The next day, however, is another story. I was hurting in places I did not know existed with muscles I did not know I needed! I did a little reading on yoga and discovered that its history goes back to ascetic practices in the Hindu tradition. “Oh,” I am thinking to myself, “it is suppose to hurt.”...
by Greg | Jan 27, 2009 | Blog Posts
…was one of those metal types. I hear there are people who collect them. I still have this lunchbox complete with thermos and they are both somewhat prominently displayed on our bookshelf. It is a bit scratched up, but otherwise is in pretty good shape and if you open it up it still has the faint smell of peanut butter sandwiches and potato chips. This lunchbox has the cartoon characters from Peanuts on all its sides. Each day of the first grade Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and Woodstock would join me in the cafeteria of Eatonton Grammar School for lunch. Nine years ago alongside many around the world I mourned the passing of the creator and illustrator of Peanuts, Charles Schulz. His death was somewhat poetic in that he died literally hours before his last strip was to be published in the Sunday paper. In the course of fifty years of Peanuts, many of us grew up with good ol’ Charlie Brown, and the rest of the gang. I am not sure if I ever missed a Christmas without watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” I practically learned to read, along with millions of others, due to my love of comic strips like the Peanuts. One of the things that I admired about Schulz’s life (and death) was his commitment to create right up until the very end. He understood that God had placed him here on this earth to positively contribute to his culture. He brought smiles to faces of all ages. He gently challenged and prodded our assumptions and prejudices. He wove in theology and spirituality and...
by Greg | Jan 3, 2009 | Blog Posts
…That is what it has felt like anyway; that we were packing away Christmas. We waited as long as we could but honestly the tree was becoming a fire hazard. It has been up since a day or two after Thanksgiving so I suppose it was time. Ten or eleven years ago when we lived in Chickamauga our Christmas tree was completely, 100%, bonafide dead a full week before Christmas day. On the 23rd I finally accepted the truth after I inadvertently sneezed on the tree and there were no needles left. Fortunately I found an abandoned tree lot and found a perfectly good tree resting in a ditch! This year our tree held up much better, but nonetheless it was time to pack Christmas away. This past weekend Amy and I carted box after box back up into the attic, each filled with Christmas decorations that marked another Christmas in Augusta. This is always such a melancholy chore for me. Our house was festively marked with Christmas present and Christmas past. The ornaments we used included those we have acquired throughout our marriage including some cookie-dough ornaments we made as newlyweds. We had about a half-dozen ornaments from my grandmother’s tree that she used when my father was a baby. And each year we receive several special ornaments that are added and find their place among our collection of ornaments. Once the ornaments were placed back in their box, the tree was the last to go. There is such sadness in stripping a tree of its ornaments and lights. Standing by itself, its branches dropped and dry, the...
by Greg | Dec 16, 2008 | Blog Posts
I wrote the following article a couple of years ago, but I thought it was worth repeating. Every year I am amazed at the lengths people go to in decorating their homes for the holidays. I say, “go for it!” I use to poke fun at some of the gaudy decorations I would see in people’s yards. Over time, however, I have come to better appreciate the efforts people make so that their houses are festive. When I jog through the neighborhoods I know the houses that will use nothing but blue lights, and the ones that will decorate with blinking lights. I can take you right to the home that has an electric candle in every widow – the bulbs are bright red. The last few years I have seen more and more yards festooned with those giant inflatable characters. With every home that hangs quaint evergreen wreaths there are two more homes that have a giant inflatable bear in a toy soldier suit. By comparison, our yard is rather drab. We have some garland hanging over the banisters with magnolia leaves as accents. Right in the center hangs a Moravian star. That’s it. The star doesn’t sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas and the lights on the garland to not change from purple to blue and then to red. When my children were younger they begged for gaudiness. They wanted lights, and lots of them. One year we added a few white lights to the shrubbery but that was not good enough. They want multi-colored, disco-infused, dancing lights. “Too gaudy” I say. But I think I...
by Greg | Dec 9, 2008 | Blog Posts
A few weeks ago our associate pastor Dr. Rodger Murchison gave a delightful children’s message centered on the joy of giving. In it he recollected when he was eleven years old and made this discovery in planning, preparing and giving his mother a Christmas gift. As I listened to him I tried to think back when I “learned” this lesson. To be candid, I am not sure if I have although I do remember the many times I took sincere pleasure in giving someone a gift. About every few years I can come up with a good surprise and give Amy something for Christmas or her birthday that she does not expect. Sometimes I will surprise her with a trip to some place we talked about wanting to see. A couple of times I actually took the bold step and selected jewelry to give. One year I collected several reels of her family’s 8mm home videos taken when she was a little girl and had them converted to DVD (I forgot to pay for a sound track for the background so it is a “silent film”). The joy of giving a gift happens for me, I repeat, only every few years. It is not that I do not like giving, but let’s face it, we are at a place and time in our life when we have what we need and creativity invariably has its limits. Gift giving for people we love often ends with frustration and desperation. Crocheted covers for the toilet are not as appreciated as they once were (trust me, I know). Is it really better...
by Greg | Nov 25, 2008 | Blog Posts
I have added a few more books to my reading list for 2008. Like I have said before, not every book was a good book, but every book gives me an opportunity to dialogue. If you would like to dialogue further about any of these books mentioned here or those I have listed elsewhere on the blog, by all means write me. Fiction The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho and Alan R. Clarke. The story is a simple fable, a bit inspiring, and twenty years later still influential to the vast numbers who have read it. It is a journey, and what I am about to say will sound cliché, towards spiritual enlightenment. The Shack, by William P. Young. This is not a book I would ordinarily read but due to its popularity among many church members and that many fundamentalists have marked it as heresy, I had to read it. My thoughts are mixed. First, the author does a reasonable job in creating a “fantasy” envisioning the Trinity. Because of that, a reader is given the opportunity to dialogue about such important theological ideas like Trinity, incarnation, theodicy (the problem of evil) and such. While there are plenty of gaps in his theology, I did not find them heretical. It was simply incomplete. Christians with an ultra-conservative bent may have a difficult time with how he portrays the trinity (using masculine and feminine images) but the book itself rightly denotes that God transcends gender. I thought the book was poorly written, and therefore made for laborious reading. I did not care much for the story line or how he...
by Greg | Nov 20, 2008 | Blog Posts
Charles Dickens penned this opening line in his book A Tale of Two Cities almost 150 years ago. Could these be such times today? Our financial structures have been shaken to the core and whether you are a custodian cleaning bathrooms or an executive pondering spreadsheets, the trust in markets and commerce has all but completely eroded. It is not just finances that have us so worried. Wars outside our borders and violence within have us anxious. It is difficult to read the papers these days because there is so little to give us courage, or hope, or purpose. In spite of finally putting the election behind us, the letters to the editor, the comments, jokes and in some cases acts of racial violence remind us how divided we seem to be as a nation. To be a person of color is no longer about ethnicity, but about blue states and red states. It all seems so discouraging. Yet I am encouraged. This is our time – we who call on Jesus as Savior and Lord. This is our time if we remember whose image we bear. I was pondering this notion last night as I was teaching the weekly Wednesday night Bible study. I was addressing the familiar story of Jesus who was cornered by religious authorities and asked whether or not it was lawful to pay taxes. Most of us know the story well. Jesus asks for a denarius (the coin used to pay the poll tax in question), which he was promptly handed, and asked: whose image is on it? (Luke 20:20-26) What is interesting about...
by Greg | Nov 18, 2008 | Blog Posts
There is so much in life that is not fully appreciated until it is a memory. Relationships come quickly to mind. When Amy and I were newlyweds we lived on a very meager income, rented a garage apartment that smelled of mothballs, and did not have a television set for the first six months of marriage. It seems so long ago and as I now recall that first year of our life together my heart is warmed with gratitude that Amy and I said “I do.” A few years later children forevermore changed our lives as they do for all parents. I remember those early days when our boys were infants and the midnight feedings and diapering and the long sleepless nights of colic. To be honest, it was just about impossible to notice and be grateful. Yet looking back I am grateful, even for those grueling days of early parenting. Through the years we would gripe about driving all over the state to visit relatives during the holidays and wonder if we should just stay home. Now many of those same relatives are dead and we wish we could just share a sandwich. We do not always see our gratitude until it is a reflection of the past. And then we are often rushing right past gratitude on the way to something else. Perhaps it is too obvious to point out our indignation that Christmas decorations have been out since early fall. Already there is a radio station playing Christmas music 24 hours. I am not Scrooge, but I have a deep problem with our rush to Christmas...
by Greg | Nov 6, 2008 | Blog Posts
I try to keep a log of books I have read each year. Throughout the year I make periodic updates to this blog as I finish a book. Please visit the above tab titled “Reading Lists” that covers books I have read since 2005. Not every book was a good book and not every book I would recommend. Still, I find it helpful when people share with me what they are reading and why. I hope you will too. If you have read something of late that you would recommend, I would appreciate hearing from you. Just post a comment here and share the book with me and other visitors. Happy reading,...
by Greg | Oct 30, 2008 | Blog Posts
You could say this is “Part 2” from last week’s article. We have returned from our camping trip and, as always, there are more tales to tell along the hiking trail. This time I had company – my family. It was Amy’s idea that she and the boys join me and I thought, “Wow, that’s neat. We will hike into the mountains together as a family just like they do in the movies.” I picked out a trail loop that was just under six miles and followed one of the creeks. It also had several beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. Around mile two things were not going so well. Amy failed to factor in that mountain trails are, well, hilly. She was getting tired, did not bring water, and by mile four was wondering did the trail ever go down hill. She looked at me as if I designed the mountains that way on purpose. At mile four I leaned over to Aaron and said that in a few minutes we would reach the top and then begin a rapid decent back to camp. I was planning to move ahead “double time” and fetch some water for Amy. At about the time I shared my plan a heard a bumbling commotion alongside the trail and a black blur rush by. I turned around to Amy and Clark and said “catch up with me, there is a bear.” About that time Clark was staring at the bear’s face and Amy just passed all three of us on the way back to camp. A little motivation goes a long way!...
by Greg | Oct 30, 2008 | Blog Posts
Earlier this month Amy, the boys and I camped somewhere in the middle of the Great Smoky Mountains. We try to camp there at least once a year and every year has a new adventure: poison ivy from the firewood; an unexpected rain coming through an unexpected hole in the tent, ants in the smores, and of course bears. Many of you have heard me recount the bear story but it “bears” repeating (sorry, I know it was an obvious pun but it begged to be written). Last year I was out hiking by myself on one of the back-country trails. The views are always glorious and the trail is nearly always peaceful. I am armed with a walking stick, some water and a pocket knife. A cell phone is not much good on such long hikes since there is no coverage, but I carry one anyway just in case there is a need to identify the body. Around mile five of the hike I began to smell the distinct odor of a wet dog and in my mind I thought, “Oh great, there is a bear in the vicinity.” The odor would not go away and so I developed a mental plan of action of what I was to do if I met a bear on the trail while so far away. I decided my first plan was to turn around and head back to camp. Still, the smell of the wet dog followed me and so I assumed was this heretofore unseen bear. As I was walking and pondering my mortality as well as my escape plan...
by Greg | Oct 8, 2008 | Blog Posts
Last weekend it was out with the old and in with the new. I am referring to my small raised-bed vegetable garden. I cleared out the old tomato vines and pepper plants and reconditioned the soil with a mixture of horse manure and organic fertilizer. Finally it was ready for my fall planting and so I set out a few cabbage plants and scattered seed for collard greens. Collard greens! I love that plant; especially boiled on a stovetop with a healthy slab of fatback or ham hocks (I am not picky). We eat them on New Year’s Day because it is tradition, but from Fall through Winter we eat them because we like them. Actually, just Amy and I like them. Neither of my boys can get past the smell. I was the same way when I was their age, but one day they will grow out of it. Collard greens may smell bed, but they are good for you and a meal unto themselves if accompanied by a generous wedge of cornbread. They are, as my daddy is fond of saying, “good for what ails you.” The best part of keeping a garden is the anticipation. Every day I walk out and look at the seeds half expecting full grown plants. Of course at the time of this writing the seeds have only been in the ground a few days. Still, the waiting and the expecting is part of the journey. Much of what we do in this world is about planting and anticipating. Too often we rush to the end result not realizing that God has...
by Greg | Sep 23, 2008 | Blog Posts
I am a newbie to the “Facebook” world, but through the persistent persuasion of our younger ministers I am now an official Facebook account holder. To the uninitiated, Facebook is an online networking site that is yet another way individuals can connect with one another through the internet. It is a version of a “blog” that can potentially connect you with millions of people, assuming you actually know millions of people. I must say I have enjoyed it in spite of myself. Through Facebook I have reconnected with friends from college days and former churches. I am also discovering that if you want to communicate with youth, Facebook is the way to go. One of the interesting things about Facebook is that a user can create a virtual identity. What I mean by that is the user can create a profile through pictures, books, music and a many other categories. In short, it can be a way to be somebody, electronically speaking. I am thinking about profiling myself as a superhero, like the Hulk or Batman. For me its most amusing feature is the notion of being a friend and inviting others to be a friend. The way a user connects with others is to ask to be a friend or a “friend request.” An email is sent making the request and the other person can accept the request, deny the request, or ignore the request. Making friends through Facebook is rather simplified. It reminds me of my days in Eatonton Grammar School when I was a first grader and asked this beautiful second grader would she be my...
by Greg | Aug 27, 2008 | Blog Posts
…Well, not really. But the pair of shoes I am currently using for jogging is in need of replacement. Over the years I have developed quite a pile of smelly, worn out shoes. Some I retire to yard work. Others are still in decent enough shape to wear casually. Still some are suitable to donate to charity. There have been one or two pairs that Amy has insisted I bury deep into the woods at an undisclosed location. Years ago my method in replacing running shoes was pretty simple: replace them when the soles are worn smooth to the point that you could see my socks or the shoe itself fell apart. I have since learned that if you wait that long to replace shoes you are doing harm to yourself. For a person my size (about 205 pounds, give or take a cheeseburger or two) I should replace my shoes every thirty hours of running. At this point the shoes are not particularly worn to the visible eye. There is still ample tread on the soles and aside from dirt and, well, the aroma of sweat, they are in decent shape. The reason they need to be replaced is that the shock absorption of the shoe is dangerously diminished. The shoe helps take in the pounding of a heavy guy like me and therefore saves my feet, knees and back from too much wear and tear. I suppose there are all sorts of life analogies that can be made: the danger of wearing others out beyond repair; guests that hang around too long stink; or save your “soul”...
by Greg | Aug 20, 2008 | Blog Posts
There are few things in the world that generates more excitement in my life than an opportunity to eat. Going on picnics is a bonus. I do not know if it is the fried chicken or the deviled eggs or chasing yellow jackets, but I enjoy a picnic. When you think about it, what is so great about eating outside? Unless you are an etymologist, few people want to eat their food in the company of ants and flying creatures. The picnics I like best are the ones that are shared in the company of others. Ten or so years ago I attended one of the most interesting picnics ever in my life. Instead of hearing phrases like, “pass the fried chicken” or, “put another hot dog on the grill”, I heard remarks like, “falafel anyone?” and, “would you like some more dumas?” The red clay and pine thicket of a campground on Lake Allatoona was transformed into a little Kurdistan. I was part of the Georgia Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s effort to resettle Kurdish refugees, and all the participating churches hosted a picnic for our guests. Everyone was invited, but our special guests were our Kurdish friends. There were more than 200 Kurds attending this great picnic. Some of the Kurdish families had not seen one another for some time because their persecution in Iraq had separated families and friends. You can imagine the joyous reunion many of them shared at our picnic. Perhaps this was a small example of what Jesus meant when he prayed, “thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” On a hot,...
by Greg | Jun 18, 2008 | Blog Posts
The other day I was out pulling weeds and snipping some roses while Aaron was supervising (yes, I know that the roles are reversed). Aaron noticed that we were being watched…by a squirrel…more specifically a baby squirrel. Upon closer inspection it was not just one baby squirrel but several. A family of squirrels is living in our bird house designed for bluebirds. Over the years I have chased away woodpeckers, chicken snakes and occasionally neighbors but never had I faced the notion of an eviction notice for squirrels. Of course baby squirrels are too cute to kick out on the street, so I suppose I will just have to learn to live with them for a while. Several years ago I read with amusement that Dr. Bill Self, pastor of Johns Creek Baptist Church, preached a series of sermons entitled: Squirrels in the Attic and Water in the Basement. I have much respect for Dr. Self but I have no idea where he was going with that series. He certainly had my curiosity, which may have been the point. For me “squirrels in the attic” is personal. Over the years I have had a few squirrels who have attempted to take up residence in our attic. Now that I reflect on all this a bit further, maybe what Dr. Self meant by the title “Squirrels in the Attic” is that in the course of life we are inconvenienced by the uninvited. One day we have squirrels in the attic the next our child is sick with the flu. Sometimes the surprises are relatively trivial. But we all know there...
by Greg | Jun 12, 2008 | Blog Posts
I own several Hawaiian shirts, but none came from Hawaii. I have bought a couple from Target and who knows where they were originally made. My favorite is from St. George. It was a second hand shirt, presumably found along the beach and I think I paid five or so dollars for it. I take it with me every vacation down there. Amy and I were browsing in a department store last week and we looked at a nice selection of Hawaiian shirts, but they were all in the $100 price range – no thanks! Recently I learned of a shop that sells vintage Hawaiian shirts (in Hawaii of course). It is called “Bailey’s Antiques and Aloha Shirts” and is evidently popular with the rich and famous. Jimmy Buffett, guru of all things laid back, allegedly bought one for $4000! And I thought a hundred bucks was a ridiculous sum. I will stick with the ones washed up on the beach or if I must have a new one Target will be sufficient. I like the idea of moving from power suits to swim suits, from starched shirts to Hawaiian shirts. Chilling out, as my teenagers put it, is just a contemporary reordering of the words of the Psalmist: It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved. (127:2) Taken to the extreme it is a recipe for laziness, but understood properly God would have us, I believe, chill out more and stress out less. How about it? Do you need...
by Greg | May 12, 2008 | Blog Posts
She would arise in the dark hours of the morning and see to it that my sister, brothers and I awoke to a crackling blaze in the fireplace. While we were not the wealthiest family in Putnam County, we ate like royalty. Biscuits were her specialty, but she was not bad with fried chicken or mashed potatoes either. Everyone in our family called her Nannan – my grandmother. She died just over four years ago and I still miss her. There is another mother in my life. I have known her for only 19 years, but she is solidly part of my family. Every few weeks I join my siblings along with our own children to return to the place we still call home and share in one another’s laughter, career woes and boast of our children with this special mother. She is my father’s wife, and we affectionately call her Diane. There is one other mom I should introduce to you. She can spot a fever on a child’s brow days before a thermometer can register one. She organizes the home, puts up with my sophmoric humor and critiques my sermons. She is not bad at making biscuits either! I have known her for more than 21 years – 20 of which we have shared in marriage. My children call her mamma or sometimes just plain ol’ mom. They sometimes get exasperated with being told to pick up their rooms or hang up the bathroom towels, but they never question her deep love and devotion for our family. There have been other mothers in my life – Sunday...
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