by Greg | Nov 5, 2014 | Blog Posts, Uncategorized
As far as demographic monikers go, we frequently read and hear about Baby Boomers (those born 1945-1964) and Millennials (1985-1994). Baby Boomers were at one time the largest demographic, but Millennials are a close second. Advertisers, marketers and churches have spent the last several decades scrambling to reach these two sizeable generations. Somewhere along the way a generation was labeled, but soon forgotten – Generation X (those born 1965-84). You guessed it – this is my generation. We are not sizeable enough to warrant the attention of marketers, or anybody else for that matter. At one time my generation was labeled the “Slacker Generation” which is now considered ironic because Generation X statistically holds the highest education levels among other age groups. The Pew Research Center has described my generation as America’s neglected “middle child.” Oh well, in time all generations will be forgotten. I guess my generation has a head start. As a people of faith our motivation is not to “target” one generation above another. We are here, to put it simply, to love one another. It is a faith issue. It is a justice issue. It is religion at its most basic. As I write this article, mid-term elections have just finished and now we will see if the victors will live into the promises. Here is my hope for my generation as well as all generations: That every life be valued. This includes the citizen who holds membership with the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as the immigrant trying to start over; the Native American living in poverty on...
by Greg | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog Posts, Uncategorized
It happens, doesn’t it? You walk on this earth long enough and there will be times when what you have stood upon, depended upon, slips out from under your feet. I got the call the other day from my stepmother asking me to come home. Daddy was cutting the pastures along the creek-bottoms when the bank of the creek gave way and down tumbled my dad, tractor and all. Thankfully my father is okay – bruised and shook up, but otherwise okay. It was an accident that could not be prevented and it happened as suddenly and surprisingly as the earth simply disappearing. There are times in every life when the earth just falls away beneath our feet. It can come as an accident out of nowhere that disrupts or our normalcy. Sometimes a nagging anxiety of failure shakes our sense of grounding. The earth falls away whenever we experience a disappointment or a breach of trust. How have you experienced the ground from which you stand give way? A demotion? A bad grade? An illness? A death? What gets you back on solid ground? For my dad it was my brother and nephew who were “first responders.” Lifting him out of the cab from the muddy waters of the creek onto the solid ground of the pastures restored his sure – but shaken – footing. We all need someone who will reach into the darkness, into the calamity, into our fears to give us a steady hand of assurance and stability. The joy of belonging in friendship and family is the peace of knowing...
by Greg | Oct 21, 2014 | Blog Posts, Uncategorized
There is one thing we all share in this world – for better or for worse, we come from a family. Families shape us and mold us and are the singular most influential force in our life. Some of the most enduring images of God are birthed out of our experiences with our mothers and fathers. Some families take interest in learning about their family histories. Over the years I have asked questions, done some research, and listened to the stories as shared by my “elders.” The stories I like best are the sensational and scintillating ones that have passed through the generations with a bit of embellishment added in the passage of time. My great-great grandfather, for example, was arrested on Christmas Eve for swindling someone out of fifty cents. Today it is a humorous story. At the time I feel certain it was not so funny. He was the same guy that shot the locks off a church door just to get out of a revival meeting – or at least so I am told! Not so long ago I was hiking up in the Great Smoky Mountains and took a side trail that was not on the map. It had to lead somewhere, or so I thought, and so I hoofed up it, zig-zagging through the woods, going up, down, and through ravines, bends along the path, until I finally round a corner to a small level place of ground. It was dotted with headstones, primarily unmarked, of an old family cemetery. These were folks “left behind” as mountaineers left the land when it...
by Greg | Oct 16, 2014 | Blog Posts, Uncategorized
Not only is this the month of the Blood Moon, we have also witnessed a lunar eclipse. The moon in all of its full glory was glowing an eerie shade of red affected by the earth’s shadow. I read that the best place to view the eclipse was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I believe our side of the hemisphere proved to be a lovely spot too. I noticed it while I was out jogging, which is a great time to watch the stars when I should be watching where I am going. While we admire the Blood Moon and this rare eclipse, the ancients often viewed such celestial events with a foreboding sense of dread and fear. Not knowing what they were seeing, it was assumed that it was a portent of things to come. Now we know better and even can predict the next one (in April, 2015). A few hundred years ago it was thought that the earth was the center of the universe. Now we know that not only is the earth not the center of the universe, but it is not even the center of the solar system of this galaxy. Furthermore, our galaxy, according to some astronomers, is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies. Our solar system is more like a suburb among the other galaxies, known and unknown. The very thought alone draws me into a sense of Biblical awe and reverence. Long before telescopes the Psalmist thought as much. In Psalm 8 David wrote (and no doubt sung) “When I look at your heavens, the work of...
by Greg | Sep 11, 2014 | Blog Posts, Uncategorized
Amy and I are toying with the idea camping next year in Yellowstone National Park. We have camped in Yellowstone one other time. We were newlyweds about to move from a garage apartment in Rome, GA to seminary housing in Louisville, KY. As we were boxing up our few belongings we determined we would have one great adventure before seminary, churches and children make the impracticality of such an adventure immutable. That was twenty-five years ago. Here are a few things I remember: we drove for three days in a small car with nothing but a road atlas. Today that sounds simply foolish since we are pampered by GPS, smart phones and the internet guiding our every move. I remember that Yellowstone was cold; freezing actually. We prepared to camp as if we were setting up a tent in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina in June. June in Wyoming is something altogether different. Each morning we awoke with the inside of our pup-tent glazed in ice, formed from our breathing during the night. I remember that mountains were bigger than anything I had ever seen in my life, and yes, those mountains were covered in snow. I remember waiting a long, long time to watch Old Faithful erupt (note: Old Faithful is not as faithful as it used to be). I remember taking a short hike to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and was dumbfounded at its size. I also remember seeing the remains of the great wildfire from the previous year (that was in 1988) and felt strangely sad by this act of nature....
by Greg | Aug 27, 2014 | Blog Posts, Uncategorized
Silence can be deafening, especially when you are anxiously waiting to hear from someone: a call, an email, a text – anything to provide a bit of hope or assurance that all is well and all will be well. If you have been on the receiving in of a pathology report you know all too well what it feels like to wait in silence while your misery commandeers your imagination. We have been there with God too: waiting for a word, a nod, or at least a glance to reassure our fears and our anxieties. As a church we have journeyed alongside Israel in the opening pages of Exodus where God has mostly been passive and silent. Meanwhile we read of kingly insecurities that lead to murderous conclusions. A baby of no particular merit is saved because three women step in and this baby grows up and makes some mistakes and flees the scene in exile and fear. Meanwhile God is nowhere to be found. So the people of God cry out. It sounds a lot like Job, another character from our Bible whom is remembered as the embodiment of suffering the indignity of God’s silence and apparent absence. We need to stop right there and linger for a moment or two around the phrase absence of God. It seems disloyal to say it, let alone think it. It has an air of apostasy to it. Yet it is a valid expression in the Hebrew tradition. Listen to this one Psalm to get an idea of a cry of absence: How long, O LORD? Will...
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