November 22, 2014 · 2:24 pm

It’s not Thanksgiving without . . .

So what’s your Thanksgiving dinner “must have”? What do you look forward to more than any other menu item in your annual Thanksgiving feast? Turkey? Dressing? Ham? Sweet potatoes? What leaves you saying, “It just isn’t Thanksgiving without . . .”?

I’ve used that question as a conversation starter with folks before. It helps if you are in the season of Thanksgiving. They don’t look at you quite as perplexed as they would in the middle of July. I like the question because 1) it makes people think (usually about something that makes them smile), and 2) it often produces not just an answer but a story. As in, “this is my favorite Thanksgiving food, and let me tell you why.” Sure to follow are tales of Grandma’s favorite recipe for a cherished dish, or a family tradition of feasting that goes back generations. Continue reading →

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November 19, 2014 · 4:37 pm

Contentment

Ask an average group of people what it would take, financially or materially, for them to feel content and you are likely to get a wide range of answers. Some would probably indicate a salary figure or set of material assets that is somewhat beyond their current reality. Bigger house, larger paycheck, better benefits = contentment. Others might talk in terms of paying off debt or having a steady job. Still others might be in a place where they are able to say, “I am content. I want for nothing.” The point is that financial contentment is a very subjective thing, often defined by personal circumstances and histories.

When my wife and I were first married we were poor college students. Continue reading →

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Filed under Christian Faith, Ministry

November 16, 2014 · 9:16 pm

A November Ride

There is something different about a November bicycle ride. Different from the promise of a spring ride. And most certainly different from the heat and green of a mid-summer outing. November rides are all about stark and barren landscapes, wind that bites and drives home its chill, and daylight that is fleeting – filled with shadows and ever ready to dip below the horizon.

Twenty miles one late November afternoon on my bike remind me of these truths. Gone are the flourishing cornfields and acres of soybeans, harvested after another season of production. Continue reading →

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November 12, 2014 · 11:37 am

Cultivating Gratitude

My agricultural heritage often surfaces in my thinking.  A recent case in point would be my work on a stewardship sermon on the theme of “gratitude.”  I keep coming back to the thought that gratitude requires cultivation.  To become a truly grateful person, one must work at or develop that quality.  One must cultivate gratitude.  Agree?

Let me further puzzle this one out with you:  Cultivation is all about preparing, developing, and improving soil conditions for maximum growth and production.  A well cultivated garden or field is absent the invasion of weeds that compete for nutrients.  It also contains soil that has been worked up, broken up, and made ready to receive seed or plants.  And it may benefit from some additive fertilizer, or a cover crop that has been tilled under.  These small but important steps will yield a more productive crop from a well cultivated environment.

Isn’t the same true of cultivation of our lives? Continue reading →

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November 12, 2014 · 1:58 am

God’s Abundance All Around

The motto for our regional body, the American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky, is “Together on God’s Abundant Journey”. It’s a phrase our Executive Minister, the Rev. Soozi Whitten Ford, has introduced through her ministry among us. The Scripture reference Soozi draws from for this thinking is Ephesians 3:14-21:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with the power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God. (vv. 14-19 NRSV)

Now, that’s quite a prayer! Continue reading →

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