Improving communities by helping residents, one person at a time.
Again, I’m amazed at how uncanny it is that the Holy Spirit seems to continue to be working in overdrive. This past week I just got our taxes in under the wire – with all that was going on we absolutely had to get… Continue Reading “Whose Head is on this Coin?”
It is uncanny how the Holy Spirit sometimes seems to be working in overdrive. This past week Jai and I flew East to Connecticut so that I might officiate at our younger son Christopher and Alexis’s wedding. Jai and I headed out a few… Continue Reading “Just Who Let You in Here?”
A favorite character of one of the “Star Wars” films was the diminutive gnome, Yoda. Wise beyond words as he attempted to teach Luke Skywalker how to harness the power of The Force. At one point as Luke fails again and again, Yoda exclaims… Continue Reading “There is no Try”
Back some time ago when I was running our family’s construction company, “Forney Development Co.,” we had three projects in various stages of refurbishment in Lake Arrowhead. I would often be up there to monitor progress. One day I got up there, obviously none… Continue Reading “It’s Not Fair”
My friend Susan, a priest at All Saints, says that she is never disillusioned by the church. That’s because she has no illusions about the church. Whatever else the church is, it’s a fallible human community like all others. How often have I arrived… Continue Reading “Trust But Verify”
At my first assignment as a United Methodist pastor out in California’s Upper Mojave Desert, I served two congregations. One of them, the one in Randsburg, I was supposed to close after the church had received a bequest left it by the matriarch of… Continue Reading “The Sins You Forgive; the Sins You Retain”
When we lived on Green Street, I had a five-mile walking course laid out that took me up to Foothill then back down Towne to home. I would often do this route after dark. One evening as I was heading back down on Towne,… Continue Reading “All Means All – Take 2”
When I was a callow youth, my sights were pretty low. I thought that I would have made it if I had a 57 Chevy – you know the one, with the fins and all that chrome. That and a girlfriend. At the moment… Continue Reading “The Journey is the Destination”
In most dysfunctional families, various members fill different functions. There is the identified “problem,” the drama revolves around. A supportive cast is the enablers, the deniers, a co-addict, maybe a family clown, and if fortunate for all, a realist. I would cope by injecting… Continue Reading “Time to Wise Up”
How many of us boys early on got the message that big boys don’t cry? And just who told us that? In our house feelings were not allowed, certainly not tears. I still vividly remember the time Grandpa died. He had gone into the… Continue Reading “Who Told You That?”