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The Road

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In Christ alone, my hope is found He is my light, my strength, my song This Cornerstone, this solid ground Firm through the fiercest drought and storm What heights of love, what depths of peace When fears are stilled, when strivings cease My Comforter, my All in All Here in the love of Christ I stand The song above was one of my favorites to sing in church. It has a beautiful melody that is complex, yet easy to sing. If you are not familiar with it, you can listen to it here. Lyrically it is both poignant and succeeds in avoiding the sappiness found in many church songs. It has theological depth but is still accessible. It almost seems like a creed. In my opinion it is the best church song from the last 30 years. I would even argue that it is one of the top 10 hymns of all time. I thought about this song one night a while back while driving down the interstate. It popped into my head out of nowhere and I started humming it to myself. Nearly 20 years ago I stepped away from active invo...
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Less Is not More

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  I am a stickler for grammar. I know when to use you’re instead your. I am well-versed on the proper times for to, too and two. I have even mastered the ever puzzling who vs. whom quandary. When I hear or read grammatical errors it is like the proverbial fingernails on a chalkboard. It’s painful. To make matters worse, I live in a region where proper grammar is considered ... well it isn’t considered at all. Phrases like “we was” and “I done it” are commonplace and sometimes people will just make up whole new words like “hisself” (“So he said to hisself…”). These assaults on the English language trigger a visceral, almost painful reaction in me. I know that my grammatical snobbery says more about my character flaws than it does my linguistically challenged neighbors. Should it bother me as much as it does if a co-worker jumbles their tenses? Probably not. Is it normal that my neighbor using the wrong verb form in a participle causes me to visibly flinch? Nope. I have a problem and...
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Why I Shouldn't Blog

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Why do I have a blog? That is a good question and I don't really have an answer. Can I honestly even say that I have a blog? I started this venture 20 years ago and have around 50 posts. 25 of those were a series I did on the 25 Best Christmas Songs and five posts were written by a guest writer. So if you take those away, you're left with fewer than 2 posts a year. This year I have determined that I am going to write and publish more often. But that begs the question, "Why?" If someone were to ask me in person, I don't think that I could truly articulate my motivation. The fact is, I can think of more reasons why this project is not such a great idea. Let me share them. 1. I Have No Niche Conventional wisdom says content creators need to specialize. Find the one topic that you love or are an expert in and focus on that. Then find other people that geek out about the same thing and create a network.  I get that, but here's the problem. What I'm passionate ...
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Now What?

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When I went to bed last Tuesday night, things were not looking good for my presidential candidate of choice . By the time I woke up (quite early, by the way), it was over. The voters had made a clear choice. I was, and still am, utterly disappointed. As the reality of it set in, my gut reaction was a desire to confront Trump voters with words similar to the clip below. Fortunately, my intrusive thoughts remained just thoughts (for the most part), and I started asking myself, "What now?" The first thing I decided was that I need to have hope. Here is what I hope: I hope that I am wrong. I don't for a second believe that I am wrong about Donald Trump's lack of character or even decency, but I do hope that I am wrong about some of the policies he says he will put in place. I hope that I am wrong about his tariffs resulting in higher costs for consumer goods, making it even harder for people to provide for their families. I hope that I am wrong about his planned mass depo...
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Decision 2024

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 In 1984, I cast my first presidential vote for Ronald Reagan. In the elections that followed, I voted for, in order: George H. W. Bush (twice), Bob Dole, George W. Bush (twice), John McCain, and Mitt Romney. Are you sensing a pattern? Looking back, I don’t regret any of my choices. Based on the information I had available to me, and even with the clarity of history, I am satisfied with the choices I made. My GOP voting streak ended in 2016. As GOP candidates began their runs for the White House in 2015, I put myself firmly in the “never Trump” camp. I watched in disbelief as Donald Trump’s support started to swell and he began to take control of the primaries. I was especially dismayed to see that he was being endorsed by a number of Evangelical leaders while there were still viable and, in my opinion, more appealing candidates. I was baffled as to how these “men of God” could support a man whose life and rhetoric were so clearly the antithesis of the “Christian values” they claim...
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What I Miss About My Mom

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Today would have been my mom's 86th birthday. Five years ago she passed away. Sometimes I can't believe it has been that long and other times it feels like she has been away forever. I have always believed that when you love somebody you never lose them. You will always have them in your memories. But even with my memories of her firmly in hand there isn't a day that goes by when I don't miss her. Below is some of what I miss the most: Her sandwiches (Perfection between two slices of bread) Watching her with my kids. Getting the occasional old school, snail mail letter from her ( She never did learn how to use email) Seeing how she reached out and ministered to people who could be difficult or overlooked. Christmas breakfast at her house. The way her face would scrunch up out of nowhere when she started to cry. Knowing that if I was watching a Giants game she was probably watching it too. In her last couple of years, hearing her tell same story she told yesterd...
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Top 10 Christmas Movie #1: It's a Wonderful Life

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Some of the movies on this list were instant hits. Home Alone , White Christmas , and Miracle on 34th Street were among the highest grossing movies the years they were released. Others like A Christmas Story and Planes, Trains and Automobiles took some time to find their audience and take their place among the classics. It's a Wonderful Life is considered  to be not only a classic feel good Christmas movie but is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made (#20 on the American Film Institutes top 100 movies). But, when it was released in 1946 it was a box office flop and looked to be destined for obscurity.  Fate had a different plan. A clerical error caused the movie's copyright to lapse which made it inexpensive for local televisions stations to broadcast, This resulted in stations airing it repeatedly especially during the holiday season and bringing the movie back into the public's consciousness. What they discovered was not a corny, lighthearted fl...
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