The heatwave that hit much of the country the first week of July did not spare northeast Indiana. It was hot.

One of those hot days a friend asked me if I still went out to run in the warm mornings. Yes, I did (virtue signaled, please acknowledge – if virtue is its own reward, virtue seen is a close second). I am usually out at daybreak, and so avoided the worst of the high temperatures, but with a 75-degree morning the coolest part of the day, the 86-degree “real feel” put me well into the warm-running category. The 80% humidity didn’t help.

There’s a lot not to like about running in the heat, but there was something invigorating about it, too. Despite the sweat, it felt great. Was it a runner’s high from the heat causing more endorphins to be released? Were my muscles and joints more limber than on cold mornings? Or was it just the reward of my virtue? I asked Google why I was feeling so good, and I was told that one of the advantages of warm-weather running is, “increased maximum cardiac output (measured in liters/minute of blood flow) and increased blood plasma volume, both contributing to an increase in VO2max. (VO2max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption, often referred to as the size of one’s ‘engine’.)”

Nothing makes you feel good like an increased VO2max.

This week’s morning temperatures, even “real feel,” have been back into the lower 60s. No virtue in such running and I think my VO2max may have decreased a bit. Still, there’s a lot to like about running in the cool(er) of the morn. Looks like we’ll be back to hot by the middle of next week, however. Get ready to rise, VO2max!

The hot weather runs have me thinking not only about my virtue, but about how heat helps the heart – and how that may be spiritually true, as well.

Right now, I have several friends in uncomfortable situations – health, employment, relationships. They are feeling the heat, but rather than getting out of the proverbial kitchen, they are clinging to Christ and the promises of his word. Their spiritual VO2max is on the rise. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the strength he found in times of weakness, “(Christ) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. ’Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10)

No virtue signaling for the faithful, just a humble dependence on grace.

I am preaching at our church in Ossian on Sunday and very much looking forward to it. The text I was assigned (I really do like being assigned a text as opposed to being left to my own devices to choose one) is 1 Peter 2:9-17. My sermon will be the middle sermon of a three-part series on “Seeking God’s Best for the Places we Call Home.”  This past Sunday our pastor preached on “God’s Best for our Community.” Next week a visiting missionary will talk about “God’s Best for the World.” My topic is “God’s Best for our Nation.” Yes, it fits well with July 5 and the semiquincentennial (I may even say that word in the sermon – our pastor said it Sunday) of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Oh, there will be a tiny bit of red, white, and blue in the sermon, but the point that comes from the 1 Peter text is that we Christians, while citizens of various earthly nations, are called to be a different kind of nation, “God’s holy nation,” Peter says. Unlike Rome’s goal to spread Caesar’s rule, our nation’s purpose is to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9) Continue reading →

I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all that you have done;
I ponder the work of your hands. Psalm 143:5

I was in Denver last week for the General Assembly of our denomination. While it was, I think, a good meeting in terms of content and outcomes, my greatest joy, as always, was the time spent with friends. I especially enjoyed a lunchtime conversation with someone I have known for a lifetime, dinner with friends from not so long ago, and what has become an annual face to face with a former colleague now a continent away. Perhaps my greatest joy came from the group of fellow pastors staying at the same hotel and with whom I shared more than one dinner or evening of good conversation. And they’re all young – young, as in young enough to be my sons (SPECIAL BONUS: Our son Christopher, the Air Force chaplain, was among them!).

Our last evening we were sitting around a patio table on a warm Colorado evening. Food, drink, and conversation were good. As it often happens when friends are together, we began to share stories of times past, the good old days. I decided it was best for me to just sit and listen.

“Remember when your parents had to print a map from MapQuest before a trip?” one of the thirty-somethings said, sweet nostalgia in his voice. Stories of MapQuest dead ends and Garmin failures followed. Continue reading →

It is photo directory time at our church. Most church-goers know the drill. Every member or family or regular attender is asked to sign up to have their photo taken by a professional photographer.  Around December each of us will receive a copy of the church’s photo directory with the portraits, names, phone numbers, and street addresses of all of those who participated. In the meantime, the directory company will try to sell us multiple copies of our portraits to give to family members and loved ones as Christmas presents. It’s designed as a win-win. The church members get photo directories, and the company makes money off the portraits it sells.

For all the hassle the process tends to be, I am all in favor of church photo directories.

“Who is that person who always sits on the left side towards the back?”

Right now our church is at the point of trying to get as many of us as possible to sign up to have our photos taken. Becky and I have made our appointment. Continue reading →

With apologies to all you N.T. Wright fans, I think I like the idea of “a home on God’s celestial shore” from the old Gospel hymn, I’ll Fly Away. (Theologian N.T. Wright insists that we should avoid talking about “going to heaven” and think more about “heaven coming to earth.”  He has a point often over-made by his enthusiasts. Psalm 90, the Psalm of Moses, however, reminds us:
                The years of our life are seventy,
                                or even by reason of strength eighty;
                yet their span is but toil and trouble;
                                they are soon gone, and we fly away. Psalm 90:10 [ESV])
 
I’ve been thinking about when I come to die not because of any health problems or other concerns – I’m hoping to make at least eighty years of life by Moses’ reason of strength before I fly away. What has me pondering death is a disturbing article in the Wall Street Journal. Under the headline “Inside Putin’s $26 Billion Quest for Longevity,” the story tells how “Russian state scientists appointed by Putin have focused on two key technologies: bioprinting, or 3D-printing living tissue, and xenotransplantation, or growing human organs inside mini-pigs, a porcine breed deemed genetically compatible to humans.” Continue reading →