In Gennesaret

I don’t often find myself arguing with a “daily devotional” I’m reading. That’s probably because most people writing “daily devotionals” seem to stick to pretty general principles that all would agree with. The goal here is to lift our spirits and inspire us for a great day ahead. And last Saturday’s daily devotional was of that nature. It addressed a verse in Psalm 23 – the one about God preparing a table for us in the presence of our enemies. The author says that God is a place of refuge for us in difficult times (oh, yes). He says, “In his presence one can find comfort, cleansing, renewing, and peace” (amen). He says, “I never leave His presence disappointed, discouraged, or downhearted.” (Um . . . wait.) That statement stopped me short. I mean, it sounds good. It sounds like something that would get a big “Amen!” in a worship service. But then I really thought about it. Are you saying, sir, that when you spend time with the Father in prayer, all feelings of disappoint...

Because of the generosity of families at my school, I had a decent chunk of money to spend on myself for Christmas. So I started a list of things I needed. Top of the list was clothing – I’ve lost weight and most of my work slacks are falling off of me (which is a good problem to have, of course). Courtney, my fashion-forward friend who helps me not look stupid, told me where to shop, and I picked up some goodies. After that, though, I had a hard time thinking of what else I might want to spend this money on. At one point, I grabbed a shopping cart at Walmart and just started walking through aisles, looking for anything that might jump out at me. And nothing jumped. Which was weird.  I don’t shop much in stores anymore. Most of my purchases come from Amazon because it’s so easy . Also, the pandemic opened the door to curbside pickup for stuff I need to buy locally, and I’ve become a big fan. It's great to be able to just pull up in a parking spot and have someone bring my pur...

I haven’t blogged in a couple months. You don’t need to tell me if you noticed that or not. 😊 But now that I’ve called the fact to your attention, you might be wondering why. And that’s a valid question. But I’m not sure I have a good answer. At first, I just got very busy. We had a certification visit at my school, and being on the admin team, that meant I had a lot of responsibilities for the week. Then I was tired after that and gave myself permission to rest up. And then it was “Warrior Week” at school, our equivalent of Homecoming with all the craziness. And then was Thanksgiving with people visiting . . . and I got sick that week and took a while to recover (I was so stinkin’ tired ) . . . and then . . . oh, I don’t know . . . I just didn’t have anything to say. And frankly, that’s a dumb answer because in all honesty, how often do I have anything to say here? I mean, anything of real importance or significance? I’m mainly just dumping my brain onto my keyboard to keep...