When I think about it, I have three (I think) speeds. And by speed, I mean by moving around, but also in my approach to things. Cars used to have three speeds, bicycles had three speeds, and I guess I do too.

 Now, in a car or a bike, the three speeds are slow, medium, and fast.  I think of my speeds as a little different.  The first one is “relaxed.”  These are the strolls watching the dog run around off leash.  Relaxed is sitting on the front porch with your grandpa, rocking away the afternoon just because you can, enjoying the company.

The next speed I would call “intentional.”  Now, it’s not called a stroll.  This is the speed that I go when walking by myself.  Now the number of steps recorded on the Fitbit matter, and the amount of time it takes matters.  “Intentional” is the speed of the conversation you have with the check-out person, or customer service (after waiting 16 hours for them to pick up.)  Intentional is the speed you use writing a business email, not a love letter.

And then there’s the speed I call “Costco.”  Have you seen this speed? If you belong to any of the insanely big warehouse clubs, you may have noticed that they trigger some kind of noticeable acceleration in people. Not everybody. You may not be one of these people. I offer more of a confession than anything else here: I am one of them. I see it in myself and am not proud of this speed. I confess this problem to you. The impatience starts out on the street because you must start looking at the line for gas while you are still on the street. You muscle your way to the shortest line of cars to get that elusive (inevitably middle) pump opening. Then you race to any open parking space to go inside. You do the Costco sprint to the collection of grocery carts, and that’s when the Costco bumper-car race starts. Oh, the slow people in the aisles! You have things to get, so get out of the way! And then, the same hunt for the shortest line at the gas pumps starts again for check-out, and then the final Costco dash to get past the people that stripe your receipt. And the diehards finish well with a dash to the car.

You may not have three speeds. You may not have these specific three speeds. But here’s my question. At what speed do you come to church? Are we sprinting in, sprinting out? What are our conversations like – with fellow believers and with the Lord? If I had a dime for every time I’ve heard someone say, “let’s say a quick prayer,” I’d be rich by now. I’m afraid that few are the prayers that I say which happen at the “relaxed” setting. Usually not “Costco” either. But God has all day. God has all year. God has eternity, and He’d love to sit on the porch and rock some time away with you on one of those Cracker Barrel rocking chairs. Do we have time to be relaxed with God?

Remarkable things happen when you just sit still for a bit. Out in the woods you start noticing animals. You feel the breeze. On a front porch you share more deeply. In prayer you remember others. In your own thoughts, God speaks.

Linger here today. God’s patting the chair inviting you to sit. There’s a lot to talk about. And to praise Him for. And things to ask.

Taking a breath,

Craig

We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you’ve done are all we’ll ever want. Isaiah 26:8 (The Message version)

What makes you smile?  A joke, a child, a scrumptious meal?  Maybe something interesting or new on the news?  Hearing about a bear hibernating in a house’s crawlspace this week made me smile, and cringe all at the same time.  Watching a diminutive muntjac deer face off with a gentile rhino made me smile – you may have seen these videos.  And car stuff makes me smile.  I read this week about an SUV with 1400 horsepower.  It can do 0-60 mph faster than a rumor sprinting through a small town.  And particularly funny this week was when I read about a guy who repeatedly breaks records of a human travelling in a trash can.  Yes, a trash can.  Current record?  65 mph.  Isn’t that something you wish you could do?  If the garbage can would do that down my driveway on its own accord, that would truly make me smile!

I think we need to smile more.  I know so.  Listen to what the Bible says:

A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

There are times when our hearts are full of sorrow.  And should be.  We lose a loved one, or a job, or our health.  And the Bible teaches us to mourn with those that mourn.  I’m not suggesting we ignore reality.  But this world does offer a lot to smile about.  And as Christians we have plenty to smile about – we have an eternity to smile about!

The above verse from Proverbs 15:13 says that a smile comes from a glad heart.  We can fake a smile, and sometimes we must, but a genuine smile comes from a glad heart.  What is in our heart?  If Jesus, if His Holy Spirit, fills our hearts, and not worry or a steady diet of angry news on TV, then we will smile.  We will be happy.

The next verse in Proverbs 15 says:

The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.

I’m not sure about all that verse means, but it does say to me that our hearts are nourished by what we put into our heads.  And when we feed our minds folly (there I read useless and maybe even harmful stuff), we end up with hearts that don’t make us happy.

The last verse of this section says:

All the days of the afflicted are evil, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

Being cheerful feeds itself apparently.  A virtuous cycle is created when we feed on good things, and the good things make us smile, which makes us want to consume more good and helpful knowledge which makes us happy, which makes us wan…. You get the point.

I am pursuing happiness today.  It’s why I am in church.  I come to please the Lord, yes.  But the idea that God might be pleased with my praise and my worship makes me smile.  Which makes the Lord smile, which makes me smile, which…  Oh, here we go again!

Glad to be in church,

Craig

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.  Psalm 122:1

The pharmacist told me he would have my medication in about 15 minutes. What do you do with 15 minutes? Go back home? Take a walk? Go to Taco Bell? Fifteen minutes…

I wandered towards the front of the store and happened to walk by the magazine rack. “That’s what I’ll do, I’ll sit and read their magazines!”  They didn’t have a single car magazine, so I had to see what else they had to offer.  A million women’s magazines…. no.  National Geographic and Time special magazines—Jesus is big at Christmas time. But as I paged through them, they seemed just like last year’s edition, same old questions and same old responses. 

And then, I found one I had never seen before.  It’s called, descriptively, Conspiracy Theories. What has this world come to that we heed the siren call of conspiracies to such an extent that they can produce a magazine about it!?  “Conspiracy Whatever Theories” is the way they present it.  Yes, the Epstein File redactions have made it into the collective consciousness so much that we associate a black marker redaction with conspiracy theories. Every page had varying degrees of black marker lines in it – those black lines graphically elicited the paranoia very simply and effectively.

And the conspiracy theories?  Let me list a few.  Was 9/11 an inside job?  Was the pandemic real?  Are contrails really poison in the sky?  (I was in Cuba many years ago and a pastor’s wife quietly told me that when jets leave those long cloud trails, it means that they are spying on you—that was a new one!). Did NASA actually land on the moon?  They elaborated on at least 20 conspiracy theories, so many my medicine was ready before I could learn whether the Clintons left a trail of bodies in their careers or not.

Christians are well acquainted with conspiracy theories.  Many skeptics have questioned the virgin birth, claiming it had to have been Joseph. God couldn’t do that! The Sanhedrin accused the disciples of conspiring to hide Jesus’ body while claiming He had risen. God  couldn’t do that! The feeding of the five thousand wasn’t a miracle of multiplication of bread and fish, it was a miracle of sharing. God couldn’t do that!  And as we start reading through Isaiah this month, many a conspiracy theorist cannot believe that a prophet could so accurately predict what foreign powers would do to Israel in the future.  God couldn’t reveal that to a prophet!  The book had to have been written after the events to get them right! I read just last week about a carbon dating test done in 2025 that suggested that the Dead Sea Scrolls version of Isaiah predates the last prophesies of Isaiah, hundreds of years after he died. Hmmm. Who’s conspiring now?

Conspiracy theories have their place. I think journalists and police need to pursue them routinely. You never know sometimes.  But when the questions rise to the level of magazine subscription levels, skepticism leads to disillusion at best, and madness at worse. Miracles demand faith, no doubt (so to speak). I believe that Jesus’ was a virgin birth. I believe that God raised Him from the dead.  Why?  Because listening to those stories explain why Jesus has transformative power in my life and in the life of others that I know. The reality is that Jesus makes a difference in your life. Prayer asking for intervention makes a difference. Heeding His teachings has changed civilizations and history itself.  How could that happen? Well, because Jesus was Emmanuel (Emmanuel means “God with Us”) on Earth and His presence and power today can only be explained by His eternal life received at the resurrection. And any hope that I have for an eternal zoe in the future is based on
Jesus receiving his bios back 2000 years ago.  (If you were in church last Sunday, or know a little Greek, you will know what I refer to here.)

I want to embrace the stories of the Bible. The conspiracy theories on the other hand?  Not worth the paper they were printed on.

Back from the pharmacy,

Craig

These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.  John 20:31

It doesn’t happen very often, but this particular Friday evening I had double-booked myself.  Not wanting to miss Circle of 8, I told my friend that I would have to show up late to the Panther’s game that he invited me to. I scarfed down my dinner and hustled to the car to get down to Sunrise for the game.

I got there right at the end of the first period and they were down 1-0.  It’s no fun to go to a game where your team loses. We settled in during the intermission, and the game resumed.  They, not us, scored again.  And then, in the third period, with 9 minutes to go, they scored again.  Three to nothing, I was depressed, the whole stadium was silent, except for a couple of jerks, I mean, brave souls way off in the
distance, who dared to chant “let’s go Hurricanes” – we were playing Carolina.

To that, a big guy right behind us yells out “We are going to win it!”  My eyebrows went up in disillusionment as much as surprise.  “You have to have F-A-I-T-H!” he bellowed again.  What?!

My theologically-trained mind met my disheartened soul, and I leaned over to my friend and said, “there’s a difference between faith and wishful thinking.”  I struggle with that in our Christian world.  Preachers, usually wanting a large donation, will say that if you just sow a seed of faith, that God will reward it ten times over. That for a small gift sent to their “ministry” they will pray and God will give whatever your little heart desires.  A Lexus?  Try it!  A big boat?  Send your $19.99 in and find out!  And that is not faith.  It’s wishful thinking (on the part of the televangelist if he thinks the gimmick will work on me!).  I digress.

There were 9 minutes left in the game.  We were down by 3.  And the energy the Panthers had put into this particular game made you wonder if they were trying out for figure skating, not NHL hockey.

And then, in the usual rhythm of the game, almost by surprise, they scored. The crowd cheered, but quickly sat down, not wanting to let too much hope back in their hearts.  And then two minutes later, they scored again!  At this point, I turned around and high-fived the faith guy.  Yeah, not me the preacher, but the big guy behind us.  He was the faith guy.  And then, in the last minute, came goal number 3. The
stadium, with all that ice even, began to bounce.

One of the things that turns happiness into joy is when the end you expected for a long time takes a dramatic and unexpected positive turn.  I think we all experienced joy that evening…except those brave souls from Carolina across the stadium somewhere.

The game had gone into overtime.  For showing up late, and starting with a disappointing score, I was getting one remarkable show!  The three-on-three yielded no score, so then we went to shootouts.  And the Panthers won it!

My glee was tempered by the doubt I had shown about faith.  Why did that guy behind me have it more than me?  Do I lack faith?  I don’t know, maybe.  That same guy probably went to the next game, brought his “faith” line to the subsequent game, but they lost that one.

No, the lesson to learn didn’t have to do with hockey, or the Panthers specifically. But it did have to do with the idea that hope and faith can shine in the darkest moments, in the times when the answers to our prayers seem the most unlikely to be answered. Hope in the One whom we ask never needs to be extinguished. No circumstance is beyond the capacity of God to resolve. A crazy hockey game reminded me of it.

Schooled at a Panthers game,

Craig

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  Hebrews 11:6

Having to buy tires the other day, I decided to get my car aligned.  Getting your car aligned is an invisible (please do not confuse with “transparent”) service done to the car.  Unless the car pulls to the right or left, you can’t tell, after paying the bill, whether they did anything to it or not.  You can’t look at it like you do with new tires, or clean oil, or new cabin filters, it’s just something where they wave a magic wand over your wheels and say they’re done.

And furthermore, they made up a whole vocabulary test to impress you with the value you’re getting for the waving of the wand.  They claim to adjust the camber, and the toe, and the caster, and my favorite, thrust.  You cannot divine any of these measurements from their names – knowledge of the English language offers no advantage in this part of the shop.  They tell you one is the measurement of whether the wheel is aimed too much to the right or left, and whether the top of the tire leans to inside or the outside, but even after learning that, the terms don’t help much.  Kind of like port and starboard on a boat.

Then, at the end, they give you a computer-generated report, with red highlights where the alignment was off, and theoretically the corrected alignment highlighted in green.  The problem was, for me this time, that the whole report looked like a Christmas tree, green and red highlights appearing both in the “before” and “after” report. 

I’m not sure I would go back there. But it did get me to thinking about alignment, and how that needs to be true in my life.  Am I aligned?  With, or in reference to, what?  Well… with what I claim as important.  How does my life track with the values that I espouse?

I’m not going to get into camber, toe and caster.  I’m not smart enough to make spiritual correlations with those.  But I do like thrust.  Have you ever seen a truck going down the road and it looks like it’s crabbing?  The truck will be travelling straight in the lane,  but the whole body of the truck looks like it’s going off to the right, or to the left.  You know it’s been in a serious wreck when it’s that visible.  Its thrust alignment is way off.

That can happen spiritually.  We can get out of alignment with the values that we hold.  We can claim to be Christians, going in the Way of Christ (Christians were first known as people of “the Way”), but when people look at us, we look (sound?) like we’re trying to go off to the right or left.

I’m no mechanic.  I’m no expert on car alignments.  But it seems to me that the thrust of the car is right when the frame is straight, and all the other adjustments are aligned within spec.  I think to align ourselves with Jesus means that we make adjustments in various places.  That we align with Christ as people who speak the truth.  That we love others in visible ways.  That we strive to become like Jesus in all that we think, and say, and do.  I don’t know which one of these is toe or camber or caster.  It doesn’t matter.  But I can see, in my own life, and sometimes in the lives of others, how I am not tracking straight with the Way the Lord would have me go.  I can “get sideways” sometimes in The Way.

Christmas offers an alignment check.  We measure ourselves back to the original, the first, message of salvation.  Do we still believe and claim the gift of the Savior?  How are we doing with that?  I suppose Easter is the same way.  And, well, every Sunday when we come to church.  And, for that matter, anytime we decide to spend a little time with the Lord.  All of these experiences check our spiritual toe and camber and caster, so that our thrust in this spiritual journey is straight ahead.

Letting go of the wheel,

Craig

But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him:
Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.  1 John 2:5,6