Some people are supposed to live forever. I know better in my head. But my head isn’t the space where I’m roaming at the moment.
Since 1972, when I first heard him preach, I have looked to Fred Wolfe as my pastor. Over time he became much more than that. He was mentor, friend, and profound encourager. A discipler in his own way. A mentor and coach of preachers, including the dozens of men whom God called into vocational ministry out of his.
I was one of those.
You could always tell when I had spent any time with him – I came away talking just like him. Other people, me included, try to shed the accents of their childhood. Not Brother Fred. He was as true to his South Carolina roots last month as he was when I first heard him. In my eighth-grade reckoning, to me he sounded like Jerry Clower.
UPDATE: The giveaway has been moved to Tuesday, May 29. (Forgot it was Memorial Day Weekend.)
(Shameless Plug: Be watching Sunday, May 27, for our first-ever prize giveaway.)
The Thanksgiving holiday is still a long way off. The turkeys are still strutting around the barnyard as if life will go on forever.
Nobody’s playing football on TV, though I did hear that Peyton has started working out with his new team and somebody else has joined the sue-the-NFL club.
School is out this week in a lot of places, so maybe families will be getting together for the Memorial Day Weekend holiday. But I fear as a nation we’re just as thankless on Memorial Day as we typically are on the fourth Thursday in November.
So. Since nobody’s going around the table making you share what you’re thankful for, what are you thankful for? Since you haven’t eaten yourself into a ‘bout-to-pop stupor, what are you thankful for? Since nobody is having a pre-Christmas sale right now (that I know of), what are you thankful for? [click to continue…]
“I’m not a smart man – but I know what love is.”
-Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump
Attending a Christian worship service is a very different kind of experience for many different kinds of people. For me on most weekends, it’s Game Day. All hands on deck. Because of the responsibilities I have, it’s something of a 90-minute rehearsal taking place in my brain – rehearsing sermon points, announcements, and service order points that will unfold in a matter of seconds – all under the theme, “What comes next?”
This weekend was no different in that regard. We had three services with lots of moving parts, and I was tracking with all of them. And yet for reasons I have yet to understand, I was surprised to find my heart stirred by special faces in distant places. I found myself so aware – so drawn – so surprised by love – at one point during one of the offertories, all I could do is sit there and weep.
In short, I was beautifully startled by the people who attended the services in my West Texas church this weekend. [click to continue…]
I’ve done reunions badly, if at all. Never went to a high school reunion. And while I do have my share of sentimentality, somewhere in my brain is a switch that flips with life changes. “Move on,” it says, and typically I do.This year was different. Somehow in one of those once-in-a-lifetime periods of alignment, I had two reunions in exactly the same location within a week of each other. [click to continue…]
“I’m not a smart man – but I know what love is.”