One More For JC

  “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.     Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)   Two Saturdays ago, I had one of those non-stop days.  I got up early and had hours of intense office work to do.  After that, I took a break from that to help Dee get the Christmas decorations up.  After that, I switched to get some urgent outdoor items done before the Minnesota frozen tundra took over for the winter.  I capped the day by switching back to the intense office work for a couple hours.   At about 9 pm I was ready to collapse in a heap when Dee said, “we have to get the Christmas shoeboxes put together so we can take them to church tomorrow”.  After thinking about it for a minute, I reluctantly agreed.   Thankfully, Dee had taken the lead on buying everything for 4 boxes (...

“He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.” (Proverbs 18:22)   July 1st marks Dee and my 25 th  wedding anniversary.  How could time have gone so quickly?  It seems like just yesterday Dee was walking down the aisle, and here we are looking back at so many years gone by.     Those years have been filled with not only many mountain-top moments, but also times of hardship and sorrow.  Thankfully, those difficult times have helped bring us only closer.  As time has gone by, we’ve navigated toward doing almost everything together – we’ve found through times of separation, we simply work better together as a team.     The success of that team is not a mystery to us – on day one we put Jesus at the center of our marriage and there He shall always remain.  Oh, the many times He’s been there to right and steady our ship as its sailed thru stormy seas.    I’d be remi...

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.  Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon.    When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the  Lord ! They took Dagon and put him back in his place.   But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the  Lord ! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained.  (1 Samuel 5:1-4)   2025 has been a challenging year right from the start – with a variety of issues and battles thrown our way, one after the other.  From a work perspective, it hasn’t been much better – I’ve been assisting with a project that by the time it’s over will likely be the second worst I’ve ever been on (only to be eclipsed by the project detailed in 2004 in "...