Leave the Rest to God

Interesting how certain new phrases weave themselves into our vocabularies. Have you heard, "the new normal"? It's alliterative; it's succinct. But I would like to consider where it's abusive to use in some difficult situations. Recently, we were stunned by the killing of 50 worshippers in two mosques in New Zealand. What stunned us was the number of people murdered in a relatively placid country. "Well," somebody said, "This is a part of the new normal." Violence is a staple of our lives. In our own country, school children, worshippers in Jewish temples, Sikh temples, Islamic mosques, and Christian churches have been slaughtered for the "crime" of gathering to pray, read their holy books, and listen to a message from their spiritual leaders. Is this "the new normal"? Is this what we have to accept? The only answer to a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun? This is "the new normal"? Why does it ha...

New Testament scholars remind us that the Greek word, "charis", means both "grace" and "gratitude". From the standpoint of the person offering love, it is called grace. From the one receiving that love, "charis" is gratitude. Fred Craddock challenges us by saying that the final work of God's grace is to make us gracious. When I was a child, my parents taught me to say, "Thank you". Then, "What do you say, Chuck," my mother admonished when someone gave me a gift. "Thank you." My mother has died, but I had always wished that she had let me take the initiative. After countless, "What do you say, Chuck?", I could have said it without any prompting. I have been thinking a lot about Bob Payne. I started attending Training Union (which many of you don't remember). Bob was in his mid-20s, a banker and a graduate of Florida State University, where he had been a campus leader. I think Bob started me on th...

When I started attending a Baptist church, I discovered the power of hymns. Songs like "Amazing Grace" and "Great is Thy Faithfulness" became embedded in my memory and helped to shape and strengthen my faith. This is a time when we used hymnbooks, which says something about my age and generation. The important thing is that the words of the older hymns became a part of the fabric of my life. Especially, in difficult times, I would reach into the barrel of my memories and pull out the phrase of the hymn that would give me balance when I felt off-balance. I know that today in many churches, screens have replaced hymnbooks, but as for me and my house, give us a well-worn hymnal and ask us to turn to a song like "Great is Thy Faithfulness". While I thought that I knew the message of this hymn, it was in the fall of 1984, that some pain in my life and pain in the life of my family opened me to a deeper meaning of "faithfulness". In 1984, I was t...

Often, I have met people who have been raised as children in almost idyllic circumstances. Their parents listened to them, went to their ballgames and their piano recitals. The parents baked cookies for their events and took interest in their lives. Every Sunday, the family went together to church. Of course, there were some bumps in the road. Remember your adolescence? You wanted to forge your own identity. You were not sure that you wanted to be seen in public with mom and dad. At the same time mom and dad were wishing that you were 8 years old again. But other than the normal bumps, the road from birth to when you left home was filled with good smells, good vacations, doing things together as a family, stability at home and great love for each other. But what if the family system of which you were a child wasn't like that? What if you were playing baseball in the street in front of your house when your dad came home, got out of the car, and staggered into the house. You were...

First, I want to talk about the purpose of this blog. The blog is part confessional, but more than that I hope it can be of help to other followers of the One whom I'm trying to follow: Jesus, the Christ. I just turned 76, so much of my ministry is viewed not so much with anticipation but with memory and reflection. I still preach, do interim and supply ministry, and try my hand at writing. I do some coaching of ministers, especially in the area of preaching. I have been the pastor of several churches, taught preaching and concluded my formal ministerial life as the Dean and then Professor of Preaching and Church Leadership at the Gardner-Webb School of Divinity. I am in that season of life when the phone calls for me to do something in the church are fewer. I liked it much better when I was at the ages when I felt more wanted. Don't tell me to take up a hobby such as golf. I tried it when I was younger, didn't like it, and so I'm not going there. I have other thi...

Inspired by a statement from Dr. Fred Craddock, "Leave the Rest to God", I want to focus on the need for all of us to trust in and depend on God in our lives. This doesn't mean that we do nothing and simply wait for God to do everything. What I want to do in this blog is to share some of my thoughts as well as the thoughts of other people that have given me strength for the journey. In a way, this is therapeutic for me. As a retired pastor and teacher of preaching and church leadership, I can see that I worked extremely hard at what I felt called to do, but often felt the anxiety that comes when you depend on yourself and your own efforts. We are called to work hard. However, working hard at our vocation can sometimes keep us from depending on the God who calls us to follow that God. I hope that some of my experience, both positive and negative, will be of help to people like me who have committed their lives to following the God of Jesus Christ. This blog is int...