The afternoon was mild and warmed with welcome fall sunshine. Ten consecutive days of rain had created a muddy mess all around the barn, but none of us gathered there minded the mud so much. I was standing with my two brothers and father on a concrete slab layered in...

There is so much in life that is not fully appreciated until it is a memory. Relationships come quickly to mind. When Amy and I were newlyweds we lived on a very meager income, rented a garage apartment that smelled of mothballs, and did not have a television for the...

Every child wants to know, and many have the courage to ask, “What does God look like?” The adult in all of us wants to quickly answer in a theologically correct way saying, “God cannot be pictured. An image is idolatrous because no one image can ever be complete.”...

Several weeks ago I was making my routine Sunday morning rounds during the Sunday School hour. It is one of my favorite parts of the day as I stick my head in classes, say “good morning,” grip and grin and maybe snag a pastry (any pastry will do) on the way out....

Since 1985 I have kept notebooks and journals to record personal thoughts, make notes, list needs to be remembered in prayer, and offer reflections on everything from the weather to a new idea picked up in a book. For the better part of a decade I have also kept a...

Last week I was in North Georgia plowing through a forest service road looking for a spot to pitch a tent and count some stars. To the uninformed and uninitiated, a forest service road is off the beaten path of the comparatively tame asphalt byways. This particular...

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden   On a morning that radiated summer heat, several of...

Last month while on vacation my boys left a couple of days before the week’s end to head back to Augusta, work, and friends. As I was hugging them bye and seeing them off, I thought about how it never seems to be “enough” with my boys who are now young men. Never...

A beach is a lovely place for me to go to escape, but this year there was no escaping some of the big events in our country. The Charleston tragedy was just over a week old on the day I left for vacation. That same day with my Jeep loaded with chairs, towels and swim...

It has been a difficult seven or so days for this country, but especially those at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. We all know what happened there, so there is no need in repeating what we know. We know it was horrific. We know it was...