In the Zone

When I was a newspaper reporter, we used to have this kind of unofficial contest among the news office.  As we would write stories and captions for stories, we’d always try to come up with a new vocabulary word to use in the paper. It sort of became this one-upmanship amongst us.  Yeah, it was kind of nerdy, but we were all writers, so this was the equivalent of playing horse in basketball. Every week, someone would try a new word in a story in attempt to gain this weekly crown.  One week, one of our writers used the word CADRE.  She wrote that a cadre of police officers gathered on the scene. The editor didn’t want her to use the word.  She didn’t think it fit.  So the writer defined the word.  CADRE:  An elite or elect group that forms the core of an organization and is capable of training new members. A cadre of police officers certainly fit the definition.  The word ended up in the story and neve...

A few years ago, Sara and I had a scare. It was a Wednesday evening and my chest had been hurting on and off all day.  What's worse, I was having troubling breathing.  Just to take the stairs left me extremely winded.  Feeling exhausted, I confided in Sara about how I felt.  I was run down, extremely tired, having trouble breathing and my chest was pounding. She didn't hesitate to make a call.  Even though it was a church night, we were going to the hospital.  RIGHT NOW.   As I got into the car, it wasn't even a debate.  I wasn't stopping by the office or lining up a lesson for a substitute.  I was going straight to the emergency room.  No passing Go.  No collecting $200.  When I got to the ER, I was immediately taken back to a room.  No waiting in chairs for an hour trying to get an empty bed.  Within five minutes, I was on a gurney, my shirt was off, and instruments of various types were being hook...

My mom likes to tell this story: When I was a kid, we went camping.  We stayed at this camp ground and I always wanted to get my big wheel out for a joy ride.  Well, finally, my parents granted my request.  I got my big wheel, but I had to stay in sight.  That lasted all of five minutes.  Before you knew it, I was flying down a big hill and blasting away from my parents, all the while my mother is running after me. I don't remember that story, but I've heard my mom tell it plenty of times.  I relate it to you to remind you of disobedience.  We are all, at our heart, disobedient.  We don't like to follow the rules or do what we're told.  We test boundaries.  We push limits.  We see what we can get away with. It's part of our human nature to disobey.  We're hard-wired to do it.  It started with Adam and Eve and continues into the present day. Yet, here's the thing.  In Hebrews 5:7-9, the writer of Hebrews...