Pastor John's Digital Journal

As I sat at my office desk this afternoon an MSNBC headline caught my attention: “100 Things to Do Before You Die” co-author dead at 47. I clicked on the link and read about the death of Dave Freeman who had died after hitting his head in a fall at his home. It seemed sadly ironic as I read Mr. Freeman, according to his relatives, had visited only about half the places on his list before he died. As friend and co-author Neil Teplica noted, “He didn’t have enough days, but he lived them like he should have.” All this set me to wondering are there 100 things you and I should do before we die?

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If you are like me and many others around the world the Olympics have at least been on your radar, if you are not, in fact, suffering from “Olympic Fever.” The Olympics are certainly a world-wide celebration of humanity focused upon the sports community. I am beyond amazement at what the human body and spirit is capable of in the gym, in the pool, on the track and in all the other Olympic venues. However, I want to share a different kind of blog with you today about a young eight-year old athlete with a “just do it” attitude.

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Sometimes pastors come to the realization that others have the ability to communicate truths with a profundity of wisdom and life experience that they simply do not possess. A church member recently reminded me of this by sending an email of former White House press secretary Tony Snow’s testimony. I recalled this originated from the July 2007 issue of Christianity Today.

After re-reading and reflecting on this article I want to pass it along in the hopes that Tony Snow’s dying might provide insights for us on learning how to live!

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Several years ago my stepson, who is now a senior in high school, had a fifth-grade teacher named Mr. Tebo. This wonderful teacher placed a poster in his classroom that provided words of truth and inspiration for his young students to orient their lives by. Over the years I have found these words to also be incredibly applicable for adults. This poster profoundly posited, “You’re responsible for your behavior!”

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I have just returned from a restful and relaxing two-week vacation in the wilds-of-Wyoming complete with hiking, camping, fly fishing and a fifty-mile detour caused by a bomb threat. It was about thirty minutes into this detour driving through an oil field on a gravel road that I came to the grand conclusion that life is not convenient.

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As a young “wet-behind-the-ears” pastor in the 1970’s I had the good pleasure to meet Doug Manning, author of two million-seller books, Don’t Take My Grief Away and When Love Gets Tough. I will never forget a speech I heard him give about the power of healing, not through the laying on of hands, but by something he called THE LAYING ON OF EARS.

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I am blessed to be a part of a faith-tradition that uses a Book of Worship that provides liturgy, order and discipline for both private and public worship. The United Methodist Book of Worship includes a wonderful resource of prayers that I use both devotionally and in corporate worship. While on vacation resting and relaxing from the rigors of pastoral ministry, I am also praying for discernment as I ask God to continue revealing His will for my life. Here is the prayer “For Discernment” (#510,BOW) by Hugh Cameron, Scotland, 20th Century that I am praying:

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One of my favorite singer-songwriters is Fernando Ortega. On a recent CD “The Shadow of Your Wings: Hymns and Sacred Songs” (Curb Records, 2006) he has recorded a song called "Grace and Peace" based on 2 Thessalonians 1:2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (NRSV). This greeting in some form is found at the opening of all of the Apostle Paul’s letters but as Al Hsu notes in his “Kingdom Sightings: Grace and Peace” (Christianity Today, June 2008), “What many don’t realize is that Paul coined a new phrase…[when he] combined a Greek greeting and a Hebrew greeting to create a distinctive Christian greeting.”

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Years ago my wife and I discarded an old water bed putting it on the curbside with a sign announcing to the world it was “FREE!” I will never forget the gentleman in bib overalls getting out of his old rusty pickup truck, sauntering over to examine the merchandise, then looking at me suspiciously as he asked, “Is it really FREE?” With the approaching Fourth of July holiday this week perhaps we should stop to reflect on our independence and freedom as we ask ourselves, “Is it really free?”

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One year ago this week I “penned” my first online journal blog and included the classic-rock lyric:
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends

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