“I am unleashed. I am sprinting.” I wrote those words in my journal a little over a year after my divorce. They would soon come back to haunt me. In my pastor’s “State of the Union” address, he went in to detail about how our church, New Heights, went with a much lower staff ratio …
As a young adult I attempted to minister to one of my pastors in a small church in Sandy, Oregon, during a time of deep pain in his life. The women of the church had gone on a weekend retreat, and came back in time for the Sunday morning service. As the pastor’s wife shared …
“God, I will go wherever you want me to go, and do whatever you want me to do.” The words spilled out of my mouth as I really prayed for the first time in my life. Just as quickly as they spilled out I immediately thought, “What did I just say?” Raised in a Christian …
Sometimes the best prayers are the ones we make without really thinking about what we are praying for, and without thinking that God might actually answer the prayer. I had a prayer like that shortly after my divorce. I was going on a day trip to the beach with a group of singles in their …
Several years ago I began getting to know a 94 year old customer, Wilma, at the large retail center where I work. Though she is small and frail physically, I quickly discovered that she has a sharp mind and a quick wit. Every Tuesday she meanders with her walker across the large store to the …
A new medical transportation driver in Tillamook County, Gary was warned that George was a very mean and angry passenger. A recovered drug addict, he required a trip from Nehalem to Tillamook three times a week for dialysis just to keep his drug-destroyed body alive. As is often the case, there was a trigger in …