A little Boomer nostalgia here. We used to play the license plate game on road trips. You remember, looking for a car from every state as we drove along.  It was easier back then because every state had just one license plate – two colors, either a dark background with light letters and numerals or a light background with dark letters and numerals. Rumor had it that the states had their license plates cut and stamped by the inmates in their penitentiaries.

Advanced players in the license plate game could also cite the state motto that was stamped onto many of the state plates. We knew exactly where we were if we traveled across America’s Dairyland to 10,000 Lakes, from the Empire State to the Keystone State, the Heart of Dixie to the Peach State, or the Evergreen State to Famous Potatoes.

Wyoming did not have a state motto on its license plate, but they had that famous cowboy on his bucking bronco. Was there one inmate whose job it was to stamp that cowboy onto every plate? Continue reading →

Red poppies growing near the castle wal at Monsaraz Castle, Portugal

Lots of news in the world out there this week.  The news of the world in here is of lots of time with family.  We love it!

But thinking of the world out there, in this week of lots of news, the president has called on us all to “lower the temperature” in terms of our political discourse.  Another president more eloquently  called us “with malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds…”

I am a bit of a news junky and can find myself sucked into the high temperature discourse with its malice and lack of charity.  So, how do we lower the temperature, rid ourselves of malice, and become people of charity for all?  Yes, we must discipline our discourse, but even before that, we must order our thoughts.  Disordered thoughts lead to disordered dialog and disordered deeds. Continue reading →

This is not political commentary, though it is occasioned by events in the world of politics. And as I write about the reality of aging, I don’t intend a subtext of confession or concern.  I am 72 years old and growing older, but, as far as I know, with no cause for alarm as to my physical or mental abilities. Those of you who think I should turn in my car keys may message me privately.

President Biden’s age, or perhaps more accurately, his aging, has become the central topic of political conversation since his first debate with Donald Trump on June 27. What appears to be a decline especially in some of the president’s cognitive functions is raising questions as to his political future and the viability of his plans for a second term.

The political issues are important, to be sure, but perhaps the personal reflection and inner conversation kindled in many of us by the public discourse are of greater consequence. Continue reading →

I’m preaching in Ossian this coming Sunday (livestream/video here).  There are lots of reasons to feel honored and privileged at the opportunity, and I thank Pastor Andrew and the elders on the Session for their invitation and for trusting me with the pulpit.

The summer sermon series comes from the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5 – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and at week five, I have been given kindness as my topic.

Kindness also appears on the virtue lists found in Ephesians and Colossians. Kindness is one of those self-evident virtues; I can’t use some exegetical magic to bring deep theological insight to the Greek word or understanding of kindness as somehow between patience and goodness.  Kindness means, well, it means kindness.  The opposite of meanness, something like that.  We think of being kind to animals and helping an elderly person cross the street.

In the sermon I will be going over to Romans 2 to develop the idea of costly kindness as an attribute of God. God’s costly kindness is meant to lead us to repentance.  We’ll see how the sermon goes. Continue reading →

Politics and politicians. Not exactly positive words in our world.

This edition of Observations will drop Friday morning, the day after the first presidential debate of 2024. You can read about that political event elsewhere – or turn off your news feed and try to ignore it all. There are 130 days until election day, though we know elections never seem to end. Many of us will tolerate these 130 days and all the political chicanery they entail as a necessary evil at best.

Especially in our age of partisanship and polarization, politics can be relationally toxic, emotionally trying, and intellectually tiring.  And to what end?  The winner as one of the two least-liked candidates in anybody’s memory.

That said, politics and things political are not just a necessary evil, but, in fact, an absolute good.

Last week Becky and I were in Memphis not only to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and 6-year old grandson – the best part of the visit, but also so that I could join a thousand other Presbyterians at the annual meeting of our denomination’s General Assembly. Continue reading →