In Gennesaret

Last week while my daughters were home for Thanksgiving, I had one magnificent night of the best sleep I’ve had in MONTHS. And people . . . it was downright glorious. For one night. I’ve mentioned my sleep issues before. They are significant and long-standing. I don’t want to take the time and space to describe the history in detail here. I do have pills – prescription and otherwise – that I make use of at times (although I’m reluctant to overuse them after having been quite addicted to Ambien at one point). More importantly, I have solid routines and strategies in place to try to combat the problem. For example, I have all sorts of things memorized that I use to try to divert my brain from thoughts that keep me awake. Lots of scripture, but also just a whole bunch of lists. The states and their capitals. Countries in the world – by continent and in alphabetical order. Books of the Bible – in canonical and alphabetical order. The presidents – in chronological and alphabetical ord...

I have to give credit to Chris in my Sunday School class; he’s the one that brought it to our attention. We were talking about the passage in Mark when Peter acknowledges that Jesus was the Messiah, and Jesus sternly warns the disciples not to tell anyone. The class was wondering why he gave them that warning, and we came up with some possibilities. The one that rings most true to me is that the Jews of that time were looking for a political Messiah. If word got around that Jesus was that, the excitable radicals might have started balls rolling that would have gotten authorities involved (including the Romans), and the real plan could have been thwarted. But Chris pointed something else out that really stuck with me. This is a great example of Jesus living out a principle we all need to understand: just because it’s true doesn’t mean it’s helpful to say right now. Oh, my goodness . . . on the nose, my friend! How many times have I heard people justify unkind, judgmental words to s...

I have a Don’t Let Yourself Lie speech I give to my students. The 8 th graders have heard it two or three times now over their middle school years with me and will probably hear it again before the year ends. It usually comes up when I have an assignment that they could cheat on easily – like getting their parent’s signature on something. I point out to them the cheating opportunity so they know I know it’s there. And I point out to them that they could cheat and I would probably never know. But they would know – and God would know – and they would be lying. And lying is a terribly destructive habit to allow yourself to fall into. Yes, this would be a somewhat inconsequential untruth, and you’d probably get away with it. But that would just make it easier to lie about bigger things later . . . and then about even bigger things . . . and I know people who have almost destroyed their lives through deception. But it starts with little perjuries. “Yes, ma’am, that’s my mother’s signatur...