Happy Thanksgiving!

If all goes right, this blog will go out before the Thanksgiving turkey goes in. I pray it is a special day for you and yours, and that you give focus to the many blessings that can elicit great joy when seen in the light of the One who has provided them for us.

In three decades and change of pastoring, I have taken my place beside hundreds of people going through life’s unexpected intrusions. I’ve had a gift, I think, for helping folks calmly embrace those realities and find God’s peace, strength, and hope while staring down life’s most uninvited uncertainties. So on Halloween Eve, it seemed both odd and normal to be looking up from one of those beds being told what I already knew – I was becoming a full fledged member of the “cardiac event” club. I can honestly and thankfully say that I got in with a much smaller initiation fee than most. After few hours of discomfort, good drugs, diagnostics, and a couple of stents, I felt amazingly well. It was a surprise, having had no family history and low risk factors for such things. But seemingly other factors did prevail. Anyway, I’m getting closer to full strength, and trying to take the kind of advice that I have given so many over the years. Take it easy. Lighten up while you still can. Just find a place and make a stand. Don’t let the sound of your own wheels make you crazy. (Evidently the Eagles spoke words of instruction by way of the morphine and ativan.)