You may have seen the story last winter about the Connecticut couple who have been married for eighty years and were recognized as the “longest married couple” in the country. It’s a wonderful story and if you watch the video you will be amazed at the love and vitality of John and Ann Betar. As it turns out, and the story acknowledges as much, the Betars really don’t have the longest lasting marriage in the country. According to Wikipedia (so it must be true), the Betars are #15 on the worldwide list and only #9 on the U.S. list.

As the story goes, John and Ann married on November 25, 1932, having eloped because the marriage was contrary to Ann’s father’s wishes. Apparently a case of father not knowing best. Continue reading →

The elders at LPC never passed a resolution declaring us to be a church in love with the whole world. The congregation never took vote to define ourselves by our embrace of all people – from those just outside our front doors who come seeking hope and purpose or a bag of groceries to make it through the week to those who come seeking healing at a place called Kibuye Hope Hospital in the tiny and impoverished central African country of Burundi. But by the grace of God that is who we are becoming and will always be becoming. A church in love with the world. Continue reading →

One of the many joys of this season of life at LPC is the increasing number of visitors and new members and attenders who are becoming a part of our family or faith. It is a joy and a blessing from God for which we should be grateful and humble. Visitors come having found our website or passed by our building. They are invited by friends and family. But in the end, this is God’s doing. Whatever image best describes it – the Good Shepherd seeking the lost and the endangered, the kind Teacher calling the children to his side, the Hound of Heaven in his relentless pursuit of us – this is God’s doing. Continue reading →

September 20. Today is my birthday. Yeah, another one of those. We’re not making much of it, and despite telling all of you about it, I am just as happy with not much being made of it.

As in most things in life, my childhood is probably to blame. It might be that as a twin I always shared my birthday with someone else. Or maybe I was born too early – before the age of blow-out birthday parties (you know, rent-a-clowns and hot air balloons; we were pretty much stuck with pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey). Besides, a September birthday usually meant that we received back-to-school clothes for birthday presents.

Whatever the reason, I know for sure that “receiving gifts” is not my primary love languague. My long-suffering family knows all too well my lack of fluency in receiving (and giving) gifts. Continue reading →

If you can still find a used book store in our digital age, you will still find them there, Bibles once given to a new reader in hopes that he or she might allow the words to seep deeply into heart and mind as life unfolded and joys and challenges came. But there they are on the back shelf of a used book store. There’s often a presentation page with the name of some unknown person and then on the “presented by” line the name of a church or maybe just “Love, Mom and Dad.” I am sad when I see those Bibles, no longer used or wanted by the person whose name appears on the presentation page.

Publishers still call them award Bibles, from the time when they were given as an award for perfect Sunday School attendance or memorizing the books of the Bible in order. Continue reading →