O-Dark-Thirty

The World did not end. That is normally not news, but today it will be and I’m sure my blog is only one of millions with the same title. In case you’ve missed this obscure bit of news, Harold Camping, an 89-year-old Christian entrepreneur, predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. That was yesterday. We’re still here. Some of us are disappointed. Yes, I count myself in that group. Let me think about my two options. 1.      Heaven for eternity, tomorrow at six. Get your ticket. Don’t be late. 2.      Life continues on Earth, with inflation and war and famine and tough interpersonal relationships. And bad blog posts. I’ll take option number one, thank you. With those options, you’re probably agreeing with me. Maybe not. Yet, as I drove down the road on this sunny, hot and humid morning, coming back from First Church (that’s another story) I looked at all the cars on the road and thought of all the people driving them. Then I thought ...

Micah 6:8 NKJV He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 KJV He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 is probably my favorite passage in the Bible. In a single sentence God gives us His requirements for our behavior. I won’t say the rest of the Bible is commentary on that single verse, for surely the Bible teaches us more than how to conduct ourselves; it also gives us insight into God Almighty.  But for behavior, this sure sums it up. Some versions state to "seek justice", or to pursue the law as written by God. Seeking justice can be easy. We’ve all been wronged at some point, and we all want to see wrongdoing punished. However, justice is to be tempered with mercy. Not so easy now. Remember that Jesus showed us mercy w...

One of the central aspects of my life in the last eleven years was my wife’s mother. For the purposes of this blog, my wife will be referred to as “Darling” and her mother as “Frau.” The reason for the former is clear, if you are a fan of Disney movies. I call her mother Frau because I once tried to refer to her as “Mom.” It was during an early conversation and I was smiling when I said it. She was not smiling when she responded. She clearly stated she was not my Mom and I could call her Mrs. (Darling’s maiden name goes here). From that point onward I did not give her a title when we spoke. She reciprocated. However, whenever I referred to her in other company I used the term “Frau” which is fitting since she migrated to the US from Poland via Germany shortly after WWII. At some point in our relationship I had issues with Frau, mostly small and of little significance. But I had to find some way to combat the annoyances. Talking to Darling on these issues often just upset her. Frau is h...

In the middle of March, 2011, my wife and I went on a mission trip to Africa. How this came about deserves its own post, and will probably get it. A few weeks after we returned, though, the pastor who led the trip (Pastor Don – bless his heart) asked me to say a little something during church. He said I could talk a “couple minutes” and I understood what he meant. I wasn’t supposed to give a sermon. I’m not a pastor. It never works out that way, though. I put together thoughts about the trip and they encompass a book. So, even pared down, they took more than a couple minutes to convey to friends in our church. Essentially, though, this is what I said, changed a bit for the blog. And it is fitting that it would be the first post in the o-dark-thirty blog, since there were many, many o-dark-thirty times during the trip, and since. I could talk about how God whispered to me to go on this trip, and how He overcame each of my objections, in astounding ways. But God won, and th...