In the Zone

Recently, my daughter broke a piggy bank. She had stacked a load of stuff, including a coat, toys and her piggy bank, on top of a desk in her room.  As she reached for her coat, she tugged it off, crashing many of the things, including the piggy bank, to the floor.  Pickles the Piggy Bank didn't survive.  The plastic split in two, chipping part of his "face" and spilling coins and money all over the floor. Immediately, she began to cry.  "I broke Pickles," she wailed.  Over and over she cried about the loss of her piggy bank (even though she has two.)  I tried to use that moment to teach her a lesson.  I explained that had she not piled up her things on the desk, then Pickles would not have broken.  I wanted her to see that keeping a neat, orderly room prevented accidents like these. I'm not sure she got the message.  She was still crying at the time. We can know the right thing to do and still not do it.  That's the difference in knowledge and

"It's been three minutes.  Do you want to start chest compression?" I stood next to my wife, who had just given birth to our son, as the nurses and doctors, swarmed my son and tried to get him to breathe.  I knew almost immediately that something was wrong.  I never got to cut his umbilical chord and I had yet to hear him cry. I never prayed harder in my life.  I just watched as they scrambled to get my son to take his first breath.  Thankfully, a few seconds before chest compression began, he took a breath and let out a scream.  His heart rate climbed too.  After a brief 24-hour stay in the NICU, he was right as rain. I share that story to emphasize the importance of breath.  Breath gives life and without it, we cannot live.  Breathing allows us to move and function and provides necessary oxygen for our brain, organs and tissue.  Getting full breaths makes us awake, alert, and active. In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul writes that scripture--the Bible--is God-bre

My son likes milk. Well, I guess it's best to say he likes formula.  He drinks the stuff constantly.  Morning, noon and night that boy has a bottle all the time.  We order large cans of formula monthly and each month we use them up. He loves the stuff. Of course, he's an infant.  Babies drink milk.  He doesn't have teeth (at least not yet) so steak and bacon is out of the question.  So he drinks milk because that's what babies use for nourishment.  That formula provides everything he needs to grow and develop. (And trust me, he grows a lot.) Peter compared the Word of God with milk for babies in 1 Peter 2:1-3.  He says like babies crave milk we should crave the Word of God. Unfortunately, times haven't changed all that much.  He admonishes believers to crave the word then because they weren't reading it.  The same is true today. A recent study of Christians found that only 19 percent read the Bible daily.  Only 25 percent read it weekly.  So less tha

Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. That's always been a personal motto of mine.  From time to time, people criticize my thinking, calling it negative or pessimistic , but I disagree.  I hope the best happens.  Yet, I prepare for the worst possible scenario.  I want to be ready in case the best thing doesn't happen. You see, preparation is important.  Athletes practice and practice and practice so they are prepared when a certain situation comes up in a game.  They shoot free throws, hit balls off tees, drill tackling dummies or practice that last second play.  They want to be prepared. That's the idea behind Paul's words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5.  Paul encourages Timothy (and by extension us as believers) to be prepared to preach the Gospel in season or out of season.  Be ready, no matter the circumstances, to preach and talk about Christ. In the heat of the moment, when someone is eager to hear the truth about Christ, we don't want to tell