I am taking a week off to spend with my bride. I am posting “gently read” articles from the very early days of this blog. Some of these posts are like new…only read by little old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Seriously, many of you missed these offerings. I hope you find something to enjoy. Blessings, Dave   This little planet can be depressing at times. I picked up a magazine this week and came across three quotes that made me realize how desperate we are for a little hope. The first quote was an odd mix of funny and sad. Country singer Kenny Chesney had a very short lived and well publicized marriage to actress Renee Zellweger. His description of the pain he was feeling was like a parody of a bad country song. You know what I am talking about. Songs like My Girl Ran Off With My Best Friend and I Sure Do Miss Him. Chesney compared the
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I am taking a week off to spend with my bride. I am posting “gently read” articles from the very early days of this blog. Some of these posts are like new…only read by little old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Seriously, many of you missed these offerings. I hope you find something to enjoy. Blessings, Dave   I hope you read my blog about going to Homecoming last weekend at Baylor University. It was a wonderful weekend spent with family and friends. But I want these ramblings to be authentic and real. I have an embarrassing admission to make. I drove and parked carefully in Waco last weekend because I feared I was a wanted man. Let me explain. October 22nd dawned sunny and pleasant in scenic Garland, Texas. I blissfully strode to the mailbox to retrieve my daily dose of catalogues, junk mail, and bills. I sorted through the stack. “No annual fee for 12 months” – Correct. I
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I am taking a week off to spend with my bride. I am posting “gently read” articles from the very early days of this blog. Some of these posts are like new…only read by little old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Seriously, many of you missed these offerings. I hope you find something to enjoy. Blessings, Dave   If you read When Bad Christians Happen to Good People you know that I am not a fan of “Jesus Junk”. That is a term for the often tacky, sometimes offensive, and generally puzzling ways that we try to merge Christianity and our culture. The products range from the Jesus bobble head dolls to Christian breath mints. I had never considered bad breath to be a spiritual issue but I am still learning in my journey.   People now send me links to this stuff just to annoy me. Today I found out about  the new Talking Jesus action figure and it arrived just in time
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Two summers ago Joni and I did not have to turn on the morning news shows for visual entertainment. Every morning as we got ready for the day we would hear a familiar THUMP! That was the sound of crazy bird returning for his morning concussion. Our bathroom has a large half-moon shaped window near the ceiling. Every morning this bird would fly to the window sill, sit there for awhile, plan his attack, fly back a ways and hit the window full on. THUMP! He would do this over and over. Day after day. (This is a stunt double bird…not the actual bird)      Photo Courtesy Janesville Gazette Because I like to think I am smarter than that bird I would laugh and make fun of him…mindlessly hitting the same window day after day after day. Stupid bird. Then I would go out and imitate this poor creature with my own daily behaviors as a Christian. Day after day I would go out and slam
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I never missed the Lone Ranger television show when I was growing up. I suppose the portrayal of Tonto would not be politically correct today but what a young boy in Ohio saw was not stereotypes or politically incorrect images.  What I saw were men who cared about each other and had each other’s backs. I saw men who valued law and justice above personal vengeance. I saw two loyal friends. I was remembering those “thrilling days of yesteryear” recently as my bride was going through another round of chemotherapy. I began to consider my role as Joni’s sidekick in this brutal journey. I was thinking how I could be her Tonto to ride alongside her. Remember Tonto’s greeting to the Lone Ranger? Tonto always greeted the Lone Ranger with the expression “kemosabe”. Wikipedia reports that the origin of this expression is somewhat unclear, but James Jewell, an early director of the radio series, said the name comes from a boy’s
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Welcome to a  bonus Holiday edition of “Ask a Bad Christian”. The question came from a long time friend in the television business who asked “Bad Christian” the following question. Hello Dave,  I was wondering if you could do a story on grace and what it means to you. Thanks, Pat I decided this was a good time to write about grace. Why? Because I needed it desperately this weekend. I wrote a lovely little piece last week about the happiest day of the year. I wrote that I thought picking a day based on circumstances and formulas is silly. I noted smugly that we should choose to focus on the Lord and our joy should come from Him. I wrote that I was going to choose joy that day. What was I thinking? Those who are honest about this journey know that when we determine to be more obedient we are often given pop quizzes. I hate the spiritual pop quizzes as much as I did
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