image courtesy of photobucket.com

I had a short yet interesting conversation with one of my Facebook friends last week. She is more than just a “Facebook” friend. I know she is an actual living breathing human. Anyhow…

The conversation was about the difference between our respective churches and they style of worship each uses. She is an Orthodox Presbyterian and I am a AOG Pentecostal. Opposite sides of the spectrum to be sure. What I took away from the short talk really had nothing to do with P&W choruses or doctrinally based denominationally-sanctioned hymns. Far from it.

I once again realized how different and how diverse we are in the Body of Christ. We all have our preferences in music, formal or casual dress, lighting, delivery, decor, and on and on and on. We often divide and splinter over these trivial subjects. These things in the end really don’t matter as much as we think they do.

I am not going so far as to say our strength is in our diversity. (I will leave that to former President Clinton.) But I think if we look a little deeper than our differences, we will find we are much more similar than we think. After all, we are in the same Family.

Early Church Father Constantine is often credited with the quote, “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.” Whether he actually said it or not, someone came up with a winner. Love conquers all. Even our differences.

JR

My inaugural book review…I am so happy.

First of all, the legalese:

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the
publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book
review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The
opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with
the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255
<http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides
Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Then Sings My Soul -Special Edition
Robert J. Morgan

JR

<photo courtesy of photobucket.com>

Procrastination is never a good thing. Especially if you want to write, or maintain a regular blog, or do any number of other things that pave the way to reaching your goals or dreams. Ouch.

So often just thinking about accomplishing a task seems enough salve to cause the bitter pain of failure to subside, but just for a while. At some point I have to get beyond the planning, thinking, marinating stage. That steak has to be thrown on the grill and sizzle it way to perfection. Maybe that was a bad analogy. <shrug>

So, I guess this is a step…a baby step. Get back in the game. The surest way to lose is to never step foot on the court. Some smart dude said that. Not me.

I always tell a good friend of mine, “One step at a time, one foot in front of the other.” Time to take my own advice.

JR

And the holidays are drawing to a close soon. So here is my Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!!!!!

Hope you are enjoying your family, friends, and your faith.

Time for a little audience participation. Nothing is more boring than a one sided conversation. They usually go something like this:

“Back when I was a kid…blah…worked my way through college…blah blah…drove an old clunker…blah blah blah…”

We have all been there. Not fun. Let’s open it up a little. I never intended for this blog to be one sided. So I am blasting the bars off the doors and inviting comments from my wonderful readers. Both of you.
No, strike that, I am not inviting them, I am begging for them. Please. PLEASE!!!

Kidisms is going to be a onging feature where I will post something great that one of my kids said. Having more than a dozen kids gives me plenty of material. Only kidding, I don’t really have that many kids…but close.

Anyway, then you all can respond with the brilliance that your little cherubs unleashed on the world recently. I think this will be fun.

A couple of rules:
1. Keep it clean.
2. Remember this is the internet…anyone can read what you are posting. Anyone.

Here we go…

I love it when I look at one my kid’s and they have that glassy look in their eyes. Looking a little deeper I can almost see the cogs turning in the little brains. It is then I know that the old synapses are firing and a jewel is about to pop out of their adorable little lips.

It was Jessie this time. Three years old, feisty, spunky, a little mouthy, with an inferno forever blazing behind her beautiful hazel eyes. She was lounging comfortably in a shopping cart. (As comfortable as one can on a cage of metal.) I was finishing up a purchase at American’s favorite money hole-Walmart. Jessie looked at me, nodding slowly and flatly said. “Daddy, when I get bigger, I am going to be a customer.” Sam Walton would have been proud.

Your turn. Can’t wait to read your comments.

Kidism #1

Image: Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We made it back from out little weekend excursion just in time to miss the rain. Actually as we were traveling north on Highway 81, our light conversation was interrupted when someone noticed the quick flashing in the northern sky. Miles above us, or so it seemed, a cottony blanket stretched for miles. The sun was dipping off to the east no longer highlighting the sky, making it all look peaceful…overcast, but peaceful. It was all a ruse.

Less than two hours later the overweight clouds flashed and boomed as they often do here in the Midwest. Nature’s laser light show was accompanied by occasional buckets of sloshing, flooding rain. Throughout the evening I checked in with the national weather service, who kept pushing back the end of the storm. It lasted all night. Flashing, booming, shaking, rolling, flooding, bursting. Quite a show that continued well into the next morning.

Ah, yes, the next morning. It was one of those days. You know exactly what I’m talking about. They usually come in the dead of winter. Outside it is cloudy, overcast, often earlobe-freezing cold, damp, blustery, drippy…entirely uninviting. You wake up and in spite of the responsibilities stacked up in the day ahead, in spite of the chores to be done and the schedule to meet, you just want to stay under the covers. An old friend of mine used to call it “marinating”. Burrowing under a blanket like a voracious mole refusing to be exposed to the bright sunlight. It was absolutely “One of those days”.

How easy it would have been to let everyone snooze the morning–and afternoon–away. Warm and snug like furry caterpillars in freshly woven cocoons. Didn’t happen. It was Sunday morning.

My mother taught me many things when I was growing up. One thing she drilled into my brother and I was to be faithful, especially in church attendance. “If the doors are open…” she would say “We are going to be there!” And we were. Time and again. More faithful than…well, Old Faithful. Even on mornings like Sunday morning.

Even though the covers were calling, the blankets were beckoning, and the warmth of my plush bed was so welcoming, we rallied the troops and made our way our post. The one we are at every time the doors are open: right side, three pews from the back. What a horrible, legalistic ogre I am.

FYI-
The warm bed was still waiting for us when we got home. I love Sunday naps.

JR

That is not a cliche. It is quickly becoming my life motto. Well, maybe it will. It is a tossup between that and:

“I am the gatekeeper of my own destiny, and I will have my glory day in the hot sun!”

That’s all. Back to work.

JR

No, doubt every blogger with even a drop of patriotic blood flowing through their veins will unleash upon the inner tubes their “unique” take on 9/11: Honor the troops. Don’t build the mosque. Build the mosque! Burn the Koran. Don’t burn the Koran. We will never forget. Remember 9/11. Todd Beamer was a hero. FDNY Forever. NYPD. Honor first responders. Restore honor to our nation! Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Don’t misunderstand me. I love my country and hate what happened on 9/11. But, it is very possible that everything that can be said, has indeed been said since the day that forever altered the way we live…think…exist.

For those that lived though it, September 11, 2001, can never be fully scrubbed away from the fabric of our psyche. Neither should we attempt to. But as we commemorate the ninth anniversary of the unforseen attack on our country, I have a question.

When was your last 9/11? I mean personally. Have you ever found yourself weeping amidst the rubble of the collapsed towers of your fondest dreams? Have you ever been chased by the swirling lung-clogging maelstrom of your greatest fears and darkest failures? Has the fear of the next attack, the next barrage, or the next ambush ever paralyzed you? Much like we were that dark September evening after the sun had set, the skies had emptied, and our hearts lay barren and exposed before the world? Has the weight of a seemingly hopeless situation ever morphed in to anxiety, despair, or even terror?

What does one do after your personal “Twin Towers” have collapsed, your own “Pentagon” is on fire, and your “Flight 93″ has plunged and disintegrated in a farmer’s field? Where do you find peace? Where do you find answers? What to do…what to do?

Not to oversimplify, but you learn from history. You do exactly what we did as a nation back in 2001. Our churches were full on the Sunday after 9/11. Our knees were bent. Our minds turned upward. Our hearts turned to God…to prayer…to where we should have been all along, but weren’t. (Look up 2 Chronicles 7:14 when you get a chance.)

By the mercy of God, we have not suffered another terrorist attack on our home soil. Another may come, we can’t know for sure.
For us individually, we most certainly will face devastation and tragedy at some time in our lives. For some of us, time and time again. The storms of life know no prejudice. Hard times favor no one person over another.

So, why wait until then to give our attention to our Creator? Why not willingly bend the knee now? Why not turn our hearts to Him today? Why not put our trust into the One who will not fail?

Then when that “day of adversity” comes and our “Towers” have crumbled and lie in ruin, our lives won’t…

JR

To…

Inspire
Encourage
Make you think

Cause you to reflect
Help you remember

Make you realize who you are
Help you realize who you aren’t

Point Upward
Bore inward
Shine outward

These are the reasons I write.

JR