Years ago, when I was a young pastor in California, some well-meaning chowderhead gave me a book titled, Dear Preacher, Please Quit! (If you were that chowderhead, I apologize…for not telling you sooner.) The book’s author was no Rhodes’ scholar. Nor was he much of a theologian. Nor was he a writer. His name…
The Greybeard Chronicles: Why I said nothing at the moment of truth
What will you do when standing up means standing out? It is easy to talk tough until it is tough to talk. Everybody is ready to do something until something must be done. The reason we revere the founders of America is because they pledged everything their lives, their lands, their liberties for a…
The GreyBeard Chronicles: “Do I Disappoint You, God?”
I was speaking with a Christian friend yesterday. She said, “I think I am such a disappointment to God.” To this, I replied, “No, you are not.” It is, I believe, impossible to disappoint God. We may displease Him, but we cannot disappoint Him. Disappointment is born of unfulfilled expectations. We anticipate a certain day…
What Do You Do When the Life has Gone Out of the Life of the Party?
Susanna Kim of ABC News has written a sad, sorry story about former NFL sensation Terrell Owens. Terrell Owens was despised by almost every fan of every team on which he did not play and by many on the teams on which he did. He was seen as selfish, self-centered, a Prima Donna. In…
Irony (or Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire)
I don’t miss you when we’re apart. I am just as well without you. I don’t need your approval. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me. You’re just another pretty face. There are plenty of fish in the sea. You aren’t the best thing about me. My every heartbeat doesn’t echo your name. I won’t love…
12-Step Program for Making the Most of 2012
Smell that? It’s the freshy fresh freshness of a brand new year. Happy New Year, everyone! I don’t know about you, but I always approach a brand new year with the nervousness of a kid opening his “big” present on Christmas morning. You know what I mean, right? That kid braces himself for disappointment,…
The Greybeard Chronicles| Christmas, 2011: Too Soon Past
Seven months and counting. That is how long I have been away from home now, working in Mobile, Alabama, doing my thing or, what passes for “my thing” until I can really do my thing. I came in May and now it is almost January. I would ask where the time went, but a…
The Greybeard Chronicles, Thanksgiving 2011: I Have Never Journeyed Alone
Dateline: Mobile, Alabama, Thanksgiving Day, 2011 And so it was in my fiftieth year, I spent my very first Thanksgiving Day alone. Some of my fondest memories, both from childhood and adulthood, center on this day. The sweetest people I have ever known, the finest food I have ever eaten, the best football I have…
The GreyBeard Chronicles: Choices and the Men Who Make Them
I do not choose this road I take; It chooses me by the choices I make. ~Yours Truly This morning, I woke up thinking about my life. Where I am. What I’m doing. Where I should be. I thought about the difficult correlation between the sovereignty of God and the free will of a…
Almost is the Bitterest Pill of All
Almost is the bitterest pill of all. Just ask the Texas Rangers. If the Rangers fail to win game seven of the 2011 World Series tonight, they will go down in the long and storied history of Major League Baseball as the team that came the closest to turning “almost” into “we did it.”…
The Greybeard Chronicles: Small Minds, Large Appetites
I am in a McDonald’s…in a mall…in Mobile, Alabama. A girl with vacant eyes waits rather impatiently behind the counter for me to decide. “I will have a Number Two, please.” For the uninformed, that is two small cheeseburgers, fries and a drink. “Medium or large?” “I’m sorry?” Might have been a slight eye…
“Gimme a ‘B’! Gimme an ‘S’!” This Blogger Takes on Corporate Greed and Customer Satisfaction
We interrupt regularly-scheduled programming to call BS on a few business items of local and international interest… First, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and all the rancor over corporate greed is BS. Surely, by now, you have seen the doctored photo that pretty much says it all? If not, here it is: …
The Greybeard Chronicles: Will You Carry On, Sir?
“Will you carry on, sir?” I am standing at the American Airlines ticket counter in Mobile, Alabama, getting my boarding pass so I can fly home to Dallas/Fort Worth for just the second time in nearly five months. Ordinarily, I would use the electronic check-in device, swipe my debit card, grab my boarding pass…
The Greybeard Chronicles: 50 Years of Sowing and Reaping
Listen up, kids! A half century goes by faster than you think. One minute, you’re doing a cannonball in the Brazos River. The next, you’re praying your wife does not put fifty candles on that carrot cake: Not just because of the potential wildfire they may ignite or the fact that you could singe…
9/11: One Moment, Please
One silent moment A thing so small To offer those Whose loss was all. One wordless prayer One teary eye One more bowed knee One last goodbye One vow that we Whose hearts beat still Have not forgot And never will One still, small voice Says, Do not fear I feel your pain And silence,…
The Greybeard Chronicles: The Prince of Thieves in the Land of Venti
Once upon a time (this morning), in a land far, far away (Mobile, Alabama), a handsome young prince or pauper, if you will (yours truly), journeyed (by pickup) to a dark swamp in a dense forest (Starbucks) where highway robbers lurched in waiting (behind the counter) to pounce on unsuspecting innocents (customers too stupid…
The Greybeard Chronicles: Obama, Elvis, Jesus and Me
President Obama said that Congress needs to get busy serving the American people, rather than campaigning for the next election. He said this WHILE in IOWA, where he was CAMPAIGNING for the next election. Meanwhile, Rick Perry, the Texas Ken doll of a governor, whom I suppose I am supposed to love because he…
The Sons of Lady Liberty
See, Freedom Fighter Your strength ignitor There is no one else beside her See her torch against the sky She for whom you fight and die See her grace and majesty She will keep you brave and free She beckons masses ‘neath her wing She teaches foreign tongues to sing O beautiful for spacious sky…
To All the Girls I’ve Loved: Reflections of The World’s Luckiest Dad
To Ashley: Your birth did more than make me a dad: It made me a man. For the first time in my life, I had another human totally dependent on me. For Mom and me, your birth was the first great, defining moment of our life together. You were our joy and our pride…
Come See About Me—A Call to Action
Come See About Me I’m a fatherless child ‘Cause my Daddy’s gone; I’m a widowed woman, Now on my own; I’m a disabled child, Watching other kids play; I’m a man on the street, Who’s lost his way; I’m an overwhelmed Dad With bills I can’t pay; I’m the pet who got lost— They call…