The Eagles Rock N Roll Theology Listening to the Eagles on Spotify, I came across the song Learn to be Still and could not remember knowing it, though maybe I did at some point. The song arrested my attention, so I listened to it on a loop for a while before looking up the lyrics….
MOJO: where did it go and how do I get it back?
I lived, for awhile, in Odessa, Texas when I was a boy. My Dad and his partner, a fellow named Earl, owned and operated Basin Battery & Electric in Odessa, and my grandfather was pastor of some little independent Baptist church, the name of which I do not recall. If I had to guess, I…
My Independence Day Heart Attack: A Near-Life Experience
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. -The Apostle Paul to the church at Philippi, Philippians 1:21, the Holy Bible For most Americans, Independence Day 2022 will be remembered as a day of tragedy and triumph. The triumph of the American ideal of ‘liberty for all’ continues to hold sway…
42
Today marks our 42nd wedding anniversary, Donya and me. Forty-two years of marriage. Forty-two years of marriage. Forty-two! My good friend and coworker Keith Craft, when teaching someone about something that is difficult to accomplish, likes to say, ‘It sounds easy if you say it real fast.’ I don’t know if you can say 42…
Poller Opposites: How pollsters, polls and “popular opinion” manipulate us
“There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Mark Twain It starts with peer pressure There is no pressure like peer pressure. ‘Everyone is doing it’ is more than a young teen’s cry when trying to get by with wearing a too-short skirt or drinking or smoking weed at a party. It is the pressure we…
Lessons about longshots and losses from kids I know who aren’t kids anymore
“Out of the mouths of babes…” He is my baby sister’s only son. My sister is seventeen years my junior. Our father was gone well before she was grown and married…thus way before Zac, her son, was born. Zac grew up under the influence of a father who struggled with alcohol, drug, and various other…
The Mayor of Greenhill Villas
I went to see Mom the day before Mother’s Day. She was in high spirits and, as always, so grateful for the visit and the gifts I brought. While we ate lunch with my baby sister and her crew, one of mom’s friends, the lady with the walker, who is, you better believe, a walker. She motors and weaves about that large facility from stem to stern and back again. Mom noted she was especially unsteady that day. She seemed distraught. Mom called her over.
“Happy Mother’s Day, baby girl,” Mom said to this woman who is her contemporary in age..
The lady burst into tears.
What do Pharisees and Woke Folk have in common?
I was thinking the other day, as I read about another woke person getting trapped in her wokeness and being fileted by the people she was trying to impress, just how familiar that seemed. I was raised in a traditional Christian home, a fundamentalist Baptist home. I do not regret that one bit. On that…
The worst Thanksgiving prayer
Did you ever see a Thanksgiving social media prayer that looked like a brag montage? They are just so thankful that they are so wonderful and blessed with such skills, beauty, and excellence. It’s basically a (somewhat) subtler version of the NFL’s notorious Terrell Owens’ declaration, “I love me some me!”
The screaming of the crickets
A couple of weeks ago, my ear started ringing or whistling or screaming. I have struggled to describe it perfectly. It is a constant high-pitched sound that never ceases. The best description I can come up with is this: It sounds like a screaming, pissed-off cricket is trapped under my eardrum.