Tag: Joy

  • Christmas Lights

    Christmas Lights

    When I drive to my mom’s condo, I drive through an adjoining neighborhood which has become extremely interesting to me, of late.  The “interesting” began back in November, with the very “UN-interesting” practice of putting up Christmas lights. Many, but not all the houses in the neighborhood put up some semblance of Christmas lights ……

  • Serendipitous Joy

    Serendipitous Joy

    I am driving home from church this past Sunday, and as I make my way through the lower end of my neighborhood, I see what looks like checkerboards bouncing around down the street from me.  As I get closer, I realize that the checkerboards are actually people … people who are all wearing identical pajamas…

  • Labor

    Labor

    Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. —1 Corinthians 15.58 We find ourselves less than a week away from Labor Day, the federal holiday that is just over 135 years old … created to celebrate…

  • Past, Present and Future

    Past, Present and Future

    Whatever moments are to come, this moment is forever.  Nothing that will come to be can make this moment otherwise.  Everything that ever happens in life goes on being a part of that life, not just the thing that happens last.  The man on the cross is also the babe in the manger, the child…

  • Out of the Tombs

    Out of the Tombs

    New Day Sermon Easter Sunday Easter is about joy. Pure undiluted joy. But do we always know how to live in joy? How does the Resurrection gift you joy today?

  • Rejoice?

    New Day Sermonadvent 3 Is it up to us to muster up hope and joy this holiday season? When circumstances make it difficult, joy, like faith can only be received from God. What we need to fill our spirits is available, yet not always accessible. Why?

  • Snowmen of Grace

    Snowmen of Grace

    I’m a little cranky.  I know, you can’t believe it, can you?  (Evidently, you don’t spend enough time with me away from church.)  On this particular day that I am referencing, I’m cranky because while I love to shovel snow, what I love about it is seeing the results of my labor. On this day…

  • Heaven on Earth

    It was not heaven, but it felt pretty close to me.  I fell asleep in one room (Operating Room) and woke up in different place (Recovery Room).   I woke up pain free … I experienced a sense of excitement as I tried to process what was going on around me … and I felt like…

  • Carrying Your Cross with Hope … and Joy?

    traditional sermon   LENT 2 The 8th chapter of Mark’s Gospel from which we read today is a challenging piece of writing to be sure.  This past Wednesday morning, my weekly Bible Study class studied this very chapter, and discussed the change in spirit that occurs in the roughly fifty verses of this chapter that stands in…

  • I’m Especially Fond of You

    EMAIL DEVOTIONAL week of Epiphany 5 Papa: Mack, you may not know this, but I am especially fond of you. This brief dialogue is from the movie, The Shack.  It is part of a conversation between the movie’s main character, Mack … and God … who Mack calls Papa because it is the way his…