Triple C News - October 9, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having a joy-filled day! And I hope…

“Hang on a sec…Joy-filled? Seriously, Tom? I mean, ‘joyful’ is reasonable…Or, ‘I hope you have some joy today…’ But ‘joy-FILLED’? Every second? That’s asking a lot!”

I can see that. 

I mean, not EVERY second can be joyful, I guess. 

Like, you have to sleep sometimes. 

And the other night I had a dream where James Bond 007 was speeding in a speed boat toward a beach and I was afraid he was gonna crash but the boat just plowed through the sand till it stopped and he jumped out and ran off. I have no idea why I dreamed something as random and weird as that! 

And it wasn’t a “joy-filled” moment by any means…

And to be quite frank, I’ve had to struggle a little more than usual for joy in my heart lately.

I wasn’t really sure why. 

I thought…

“With this hospital continuing education thing I’m doing, I’ve had lots to do and that always makes me happy!”

“Time with the Lord in the morning? Check.”

“Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, so it’s not Him! It must be me!” I thought.

Then I remembered what I forgot to remember!!

Last year when we were getting used to the Coronavirus, lots of the news was anxiety-inducing…

“Is hand-shaking over for good?”

“Will we ever see the inside of a stadium again?”

“It will probably take five to thirteen years for a vaccine to be ready. But will it be safe?”

So in order to not leave a crack in the door of my heart to let any creepy anxiety creep in, I came up with three mottoes…

(are they mottoes?)…

Or better, six words to keep in my heart.

1) “No judgment” 

2) “Cares to prayers”

3) “Today only”

(Hey! That’s seven words! I never realized that!)

1) “No judgment”…It helped me to feel peace if I determined to never criticize anyone about anything. I’m not sure why that is, but Jesus said “Don’t judge” so I figured He knows why it’s more peaceful to not!

2) “Cares to prayers”…Peter says “cast your cares on Him” so I tried to turn any anxiety thought (“cares”) into a prayer within 20 seconds.

3) And “Today only”… I focused on “today only”…

living one day at a time…

“giving no thought for tomorrow” as Jesus said…

and “forgetting what is behind” as Paul said!

In fact, two cups of “regrets about the past” (or fresh “shame” can be substituted if you’re out of regrets) and three tablespoons of “dread about the future”, stirring in one quart of cable news and you have the perfect recipe for anxiety!

So “staying in the day I’m in”, one day at a time, helped tons!!

“Am I forgetting one of those three??” I asked myself.

I’ve been working on “walking prayers”, talking to God while walking as things come up…

So “Cares to prayers” is good…

And in hospital work, it’s important to be an encouragement and blessing without criticizing anyone…

so I’ve got “No judgment” covered…

Wait!! 

With all the assignments I’ve had to think about…that are due “next Thursday” or “next Monday”…

And having to remember what my schedule will be for church stuff and hospital commitments in the days ahead…

I’m thinking a lot about the future and the week(s) ahead and I forgot about…

“Today only”!!

God gives grace for today! And tomorrow He’ll give me grace for that day when it becomes “today”

So “today” was the only day I should have thought about yesterday. One day at a time!

One assignment that had me focused on the future, was getting ready for a big day coming up, which happened to be last Monday.

That Monday, I had to be at the hospital at 8:00am for classes until 4:00pm and then I had the over-night, chaplain on-call duty. Which meant that I’d be there from 8:00am to 8:00am!

There’s a place to sleep if you can grab some, but it’s busy at night with folks needing a chaplain in loads of places and cases!

We’re rarely up past 9:45 so I was honestly a little anxious, thinking ahead.

But, when that Monday finally came…

my classes that day were really interesting, with lots of stuff to learn!

And the on-call shift had me running around…all over the place… literally all night! 

Trying my best to be a help and encouragement to everyone who needed some!

It was intense and emotional!

And when it was done, in spite of the fact that I’d been worried about it, I drove home sleepy and, strangely…happy!

And I could tell my joy was back.

“Hey, joy! Where you been, buddy?”

And then I knew!

With everything I had to do that day and night…

 I’d been intensely focused…

for 24 hours…

on nothing but…

“Today!”

Triple C News - September 17, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Can I tell you about something kind of stupid that happened to me a few months ago that touched my heart?

Well, it didn’t happened to me but I saw it happen to someone else…

I mean, it didn’t happen but it almost happened to someone…

Except it didn’t happen to someone, but it almost happened to someTHING…

I’m just glad it didn’t happen to it!

Tina and I were driving over in Turkey Creek with Henry and Maggie when we stopped at the light near the Chik-fila. Blowing along the side of the road was one of those plastic grocery bags you get at Krogers that are on their way out for environmental reasons. 

They do pollute everything so there was no reason for me to have any feelings towards it!

But Henry said, “It looks like it’s trying to get across the street…”

And it TOTALLY did!

This breeze was just slowly puffing it steadily and slowly across the sidewalk until it gently blew out into the road…

But when a car sped by, the tailwind from it swirled and blew the bag backwards really quickly like it was trying to jump back on the curb (like squirrels do).

And then it would inflate slowly with the continuing breeze and try again to cross the road…

Well, I mean it wasn’t “trying to cross the road” but it looked like it was.

(This could have been one of those short Pixar cartoons!)

It got its nerve back up and tried again.

Whoosh!! Another car! And back it twirled to the safety of the sidewalk…

Then it slowly inflated with the almost imperceptible wind and gave it another tenitive try.

When our Quincy is going to try something new off the diving board, like a head-first dive or a flip, he says he has to pause and “get a bolt of courage”. So we, his cheering squad, stand up and yell together, “Get-a-bolt! Get-a-bolt!”

By now I was whispering udero my breath, “Get a bolt, little buddy!”

It bravely wafted into the street and “WHOOSH!” again! A truck this time…

One more try? 

One…two…three…floating across and then…

SWOOSH! 

This time a car behind him swirled him FORWARD into the street toward another car coming the other way…

and WHOOSH into the air and backwards a little…

 And then with brave determination, he drifted steadily towards the other side…

but with a car bearing down, seemingly indifferent to his perilous journey through traffic to cross the road…

“C’mon, little guy! C’MON! YOU CAN MAKE IT!!” we screamed together!

And…he did!

I can’t believe I’m admitting this but I got a little choked up and misty about then.

I mean, it was just a plastic bag but it seemed like more…by then, it meant something more…to me.

Ever feel that way?

You’re being whisked about, blown and tossed, and all you’re trying to do is get where you feel like you need to be?

You’re trying to “get a bolt” but you wonder, “Does anybody know? Does anybody care?”

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you…” (Psalm 32.8)

There’s Someone watching you, cheering you, caring if you make it.

Because somehow, you mean something more…to Him.

Triple C News - July 23, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Hope you're having a beautiful day, filled with thanks, praise, love of life itself, excited about what God has prepared for this day!

If you are feeling this way, I betcha you might've had to make a decision or two upon waking up…

to transport your heart across the state boundary from the State of Sleepiness…

from the State of Confusion…

or even from the Great State of Grumpiness…

into the State of Gladness! 

'Cause some folks wake up from sleep…sleepy! 

Most days, your joy is the last thing to wake up!

The other day, I woke up just feeling heavy in my heart. 

I was just gloomy and down and I wasn't sure why. 

Then I remembered…

I had had the saddest dream in the middle of the night.

I was at a basketball game, cheering for my team…

(I have no idea who my team was. Maybe this came from last week's NBA finals…)

Suddenly play was stopped because a player had collapsed on the sidelines. 

Then he stopped breathing and died. 

And the saddest thing about it was that he was a duck. 

Just laying there, with his snowy feathers so still. And he had been playing so well! He was the only duck on either team. He was kind of a play-maker for his squad, dribbling up the sidelines just as easily with his left wing as with his right! 

And suddenly, he was gone.

I just remember waking up with such a feeling of sadness for the loss we all shared. 

Then I remembered…

Wait. 

Even tho' it seemed like it, that wasn't real! 

It didn't really happen! 

Ducks can't play basketball! 

That morning might've been a little extreme for my norm, but often I wake up groggy, mentally and emotionally disheveled and confused, wondering why coffee is so hard to find when it's always in the same place as the night before. Sometimes I wake up a little worried about I-don't-know-what. 

But if I wake up bubbly or bumbling, I just do what I always do. 

I sit down with a steamy cup, and open up the Scriptures and find out what is true! 

Not what my sleepy heart or the residuals of random crazy dreams might be telling me, but what God in His Holy Word tells me! 

About Himself! 

About myself 

And about the blessing awaiting me in the day ahead!

One of my all-time heroes was a British transplant from Hungary named George Mueller. You might heard of him! He built five orphan homes in Bristol, England in the days of Oliver Twist, and cared for 10,024 kids!

When he started in 1834 there were accommodations for 3,600 orphans in all of England and twice that many children under eight were in prison! 

One of the great effects of Mueller's ministry was to inspire others so that “fifty years after Mr. Mueller began his work, at least one hundred thousand orphans were cared for in England alone!”

One of the amazing things about him is that he financed all of the food, clothes, homes, and schooling for all those thousands of kids just by trusting the promises of God! 

He never asked anyone for one penny (or shilling!) 

He would just pray and ask God for help! 

What faith! 

What a heart! 

But I bet there were times when he didn't wake up that way! I bet he had kooky dreams and woke up groggy and confused just like we all do. 

But he had a morning plan! 

To nudge his heart across the line to the state of faith…Check this…

“The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished . . . Before this time my practice had been at least for ten years previously as a habitual thing to give myself to prayer after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted and encouraged…I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning early in the morning…searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my soul.” 

Wow! 

First thing…"to get my soul happy in the Lord!"

Open up the Scriptures and find awesome things for your own heart! 

About your Lord! 

About yourself! 

About your day!

And about what is true!

So you can have a heart of thanks, praise and joy!

Because no matter how real it seems, ducks don't play basketball.

They just don't.

Triple C News - July 16, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Praise the Lord! 

Today’s gonna be awesome!

Be careful to not get too much sun, tho! …

And have a wonderful day!

Whoa!

That’s pretty bossy.

I just told you to do three things without even thinking about it.

(“…praise the Lord…be careful…have a wonderful day”…)

Sorry, everyone.

These are kind of bossy times.

If you listen closely, people are always telling you what to do.

Like when we watch the news that we like the best, when some of the weather people come on (btw, Todd Howell doesn’t do this!) often they’ll use the definite article “the” when they shift from being meteorological to being peremptorical (ie, bossy)

“You’re gonna need the gloves today, the umbrella, and you’re gonna want to go for the run early before it gets too hot…Makes sure you use the sunscreen…”

“…the sunscreen”?

Wow! That’s a lot of unsolicited advice, my friend!

“You’ve gone from pronosticatin’ to meddlin’!”

And, good heavens! This last year, loads of people would tell anyone who’d listen (and even those who wouldn’t!) what they should or shouldn’t do about so many things! 

Folks you never met would tell you where you should put on your mask…

And others who disagreed would tell you where you could put it!

I don’t really mind when people tell me what to do. I don’t often know and welcome guidance.

But my quest is to learn better and deeper everything that Jesus told us to do and give my heart to leaning into that!

The Gospels say that He’s our “Teacher” 47 times! We listen and learn…

He’s called our “Master” 49 times in the Gospel of Matthew alone! It’s His job to tell us what to do…

In 1 Timothy 6, He’s even called our “Potentate”! When you have someone in your life called your Potentate, ain’t it your job to just do what they say?

So, one time I looked through the Gospels and wrote down every command or order Jesus gave to anyone, including the ones that are also for all of us.

If He told someone to “rise, take up your mat, and go home” I counted that as three orders. 

In the Gospel of Matthew, there are 186 commands Jesus gave to people.

In The Gospel of Mark, there are 101.

Luke recorded 167.

John wrote down 83.

“Wow! That’s a lot to orders!”

Well, it helps to remember that many aren’t specifically for us. 

Once Jesus told a young dead person, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”

So that’s obviously not for me. In fact, I’ve been kinda puny for a week or so but I’m feeling much better today!

(But you may need to quote that Scripture at your sleepy kids when school gets back in!)

Some commands He didn’t intend for folks to actually do. He told a woman once to get her husband, knowing she was “shacking up and didn’t officially have one. 

And it didn’t hurt her feelings; it really helped her healing!

But the sweetest thing about our Beloved Master and Potentate is that His orders are mostly just…kind! 

For example, He “ordered” some to…“Go in peace!”

He “commanded others (all of us!) to…”Believe the Good News!”

Commands like…

“Take courage!

“Don’t be afraid!”

“Believe in Me!”

“Abide in Me!”

were His directives!

Listen to this one…

“Come to Me all you who are weary and weighed down and I will give you rest!”

What a command! 

What a sweet Master!

He can boss me all day, every day!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

(Oops! Sorry! Didn’t mean to be bossy!)

Triple C News - July 10, 2021

Hey, everyone!

What an awesome weekend on the way! 

An awesome weekend of news, weather, and sports!

News? Good news! God will be causing all things to work together for good to those who love God! (Romans 8:28!) That includes all this weekend!

Weather? “Saturday: A mix of clouds and sun…Highs in the middle to upper 80s. Lows in the upper 60s Saturday night…”

“A mix of clouds and sun”…Just like life itself! If it was all clouds, that’d be kinda sad! All sun? We’d be so used to it that we wouldn’t appreciate it after a while! So just the right mix is awesome!

Sports? Lake Day! After worshipping our Lord together we’re headed out to Clark Park in the afternoon for swimming, tubing, and other Olympic sports! 

(“Is tubing really an Olympic sport?”)

Speaking of sports…

I saw something super unusual the other night on the game between the  Braves and the Marlins.

A manager got ejected!! 

That hardly ever happens any more!

With instant replay and video reviews of close calls at the bases made by a secret committee in New York, managers just don’t have lots of opportunities to register emotional upset.

But Don Mattingly got thrown out for yelling at the ump!

So “old school”!!

And it was on the very first pitch of the game!

The Marlins pitcher hit our Ronald Acuña Jr in the middle of the back! The Marlins have had a history of “beaning” him and folks were ready for it to happen again. 

Right after the ump hollered, “Play ball!”, it did! 

The umps decided, determined, and/or discerned that the “plunk” was intentional and threw the pitcher out. The Marlins manager came bellowing out of the dugout and colorfully “opined” until he got thrown out!

These things used to happen daily.

Bobby Cox, the Braves manager through the amazing 90’s holds the record for managerial ejections in a career (161!) He was threw out of a World Series game! Twice! Once in a seventh game!

One time a Braves player, Jeff Francoeur was thrown out of a game and he was pretty upset about it. 

“Ah, just go home, have a coupla beers and ferget it!” Bobby said. “But be ready for a $500 fine coming your way. Or you can do what I do. I write ‘em a check for $10,000 and tell ‘em to let me know when I’m getting low and need to make another deposit!”

Umpires are so important! 

They’re the ones who tell you if a pitch is a ball or a strike…

if a hit is fair or foul…

and if a player is safe or out. 

There a place in the letter Paul wrote to the Colossians where he says that peace is like an umpire!

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart!” (Colossians 3:16)

Back in those days, when they talked about “peace” they really meant more than we do. 

If someone wished you “peace”…or “shalom!”…they hoped for you “well-being, wholeness…even joy”!

The Greek word “rule” is really the word “umpire”!

“Let the peace of Christ be the umpire in your heart!”

That opinion you’ve been sharing…

That attitude you have…

That stuff you watch…

That thing you’ve been doing…

Is it good or bad? 

Fair or foul?

Safe or out?

Ball or strike?

Let peace make the call!

Are you more full of peace, light-heartedness, even joy after?

Or are you angry, unsettled, upset, huffy-n-puffy?

Like a few weeks ago, I remember encouraging folks to take a seven-week break from watching cable news.

“I promise that if you’re a daily cable news watcher, either the left ones or the right ones, if you take a seven-week total break from watching it, you’ll feel better, think better, and your relationships will be better!”

“You’ll have more peace! More joy! I promise!!”

And let that peace make the call!

Psalm 1 tells us that the blessed and happy person is the one who “delights in the Law of the Lord and in His law meditates day and night”

One scholar says that when Paul speaks of the “Law of Christ” he intends us to think of the words of Jesus this way! 

Loving His words and thinking about them day and night!

If someone were to ask me, “I want to be a better student (that’s what “disciple” means) of Jesus. I want to know His words and His wishes and His ways from the Gospels so well that they fill my heart and live there! What do you think I should do?”

If I had the opportunity to answer this for anyone, the first thing I would say…even before I told them to start memorizing His words and ways in the Gospels…would be, “If you watch cable news all the time, pleeeeeeease stop!”

The reason I would say this is that cable news isn’t news; it’s a “narrative”. It’s an over-all comprehensive explanation of all things. 

“The real problems in America are this, this, and this. And the answer is this, this and this…”

The other side says, “No! The real problem is this, this, and this and the answer is this, this, and this!!”

And like most narratives, it divides the world into the good people and the bad people, the ones who are right (“us”) and the ones who are wrong (“them”).

But the narrative of Jesus is a COMPLETELY different narrative! 

It divides the world into the bad people (all of us) and the Savior, Who loved us so much He gave His very life for us!

And His narrative isn’t an over-all comprehensive explanation of all things. Sometimes things happen to me that if Jesus is the Lord of all and if He did love me so much, it doesn’t seem like that thing would have happened! It just doesn’t make sense! That’s why I have to believe His narrative and hold on to it by my faith in spite of how things look!

For me, HIS is the only narrative I want in my heart and mind! 

I have to tune out all other voices if I truly want to hear the Voice that says…

“Take heart! Your sins are forgiven!”…

“My peace I give you!”…

“My sheep hear My voice”…

“I tell you this so My joy might be in you!”

“Judge not, lest you be judged”…

“It’s not the healthy who need the doctor but the sick”…

“Everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they’ve said”…

“I desire mercy, not sacrifice”…

“When you care for the poor, the prisoner, the immigrant, you care for Me”…

I need to shut out other voices that are harsh and hurtful, that say “We’re always right!” so I can strain to hear the voice of the One Who is “meek and lowly of heart” and the narrative of a cross that tells me that on my own, I’m almost always wrong.

This is why I never watch cable news!!

Along with posts on social, it seems like cable news has done its part to help fill our country with super animated animosity…

with folks judging each other and smudging each other… 

talking at each other...

talking about each other...

and talking past each other! 

All you have to do is mention, for example, “CRT” and it’s like setting off conversational TNT!

I know people really love their “side” depending on which 24-hour news they watch, but James says that lots of times, there’s a “wisdom” that seems like it is but really isn’t! (James 3:13-14)

James said that whenever “wisdom” is expressed in ways that are harsh and hurtful, with a “We’re-always-right!-They’re-always-wrong!” attitude, that doesn’t come from Heaven! In fact, that “wisdom” comes from…well, check out. It ain’t good. (James 3:13-14)

James tells us that the kind of “wisdom” and opinion-sharing God approves…

the“wisdom from Heaven” is…

pure of heart…

kind and sweet…

peace-loving and peace-making, not peace-breaking…

It listens to others and learns from them...

without judging them…

and is “full of mercy and good fruit…

Peacemakers who sow in peace…”

(James 3:17-18)

This is how our Savior wants His kids to be, to think, to talk!

You may be able to find something like this “wisdom from above” on the cable channel but unfortunately, Mr Rogers died in 2003.

If I could persuade anyone who loves Jesus and who might be willing to listen to me, to make one change in their life, I would beg them to stop watching cable news. 

Or at least take the seven-week challenge!

“Stop watching cable news completely for seven weeks and instead spend 40 minutes a day reading and meditating on the Gospels and the words, ways and wishes of Jesus you find in them.’

After this time, you’ll think better, feel better, your relationships will be better and the peace and joy of Jesus, umpiring in your heart will assure you that you’re…

“safe at home!”

Triple C News - July 3, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Well, it’s gonna be a big holiday weekend!

This Sunday!

We’re ready!

Our 46th anniversary!!

That’s right! 

It was 1975…

Two kids in love. 

Add 46 years…

and lots of adventures and mishaps…

sadnesses and joys…

plus the beautiful, unpredictable, ever-unfolding plan of God…

and what do you get?

Two old people in love!

We got married on July 4 because I was a garbageman in Palo Alto, California that summer and they gave us Saturday the 4th and also Monday off! 

We always get fireworks for our Day! (Thanks, everyone!)

I meet Jesus in October, 1974 in California. I meet Tina about a week later. We got married in eight months(!) and I really didn’t know either one of them very well!

I was 20 and she was 19 when we got hitched. I truly believe that God just took over and said, “Honey, you’re not smart enough to know what you need and I’m just gonna make this decision for you. She’s the one.”

As always, He was right!

God gave me the perfect soul-mate, heart-mate, best-mate! 

When ! was “up and down”, she never was! 

Always steady, trusting and calm! 

While I easily struggled, she almost never did! 

We’ve moved 31 times!

But whether it was in a trailer park in seminary in Upper Indiana with one…now two…then three little kids and 120 inches of snow in the winter and a husband who was either in class, at Owen’s Market bagging groceries, or studying Greek till 12:30…

Or in hot, exciting, and a little scary Florence Italy, “barcollando” down crowded streets as she made her way to our Italian language school…

with new sounds, new smells, and 7-months pregnant with the new one on the way…

Or in a high-rise apartment, in a city as many miles wide as Oak Ridge with 2.5 million residents, with new converts crowded around our table waiting for “la pasta di Cristina” (that’s what everyone called her there) and from time to time a few even moving in with us…

she never ever complained about anything! 

She was a “mamma” to so many, an unquestioning servant of Jesus no matter what He called us to do, and a constant, unfailing “best bud” to a guy who has always really needed one more than most people probably do!

The first time we met, I was wearing my “Big Bird” bright yellow sweater (it disappeared at some point…hmmm…) and my overalls and I showed off how I played the banjo. I always thought that’s what sealed the deal for her. She assured me later that it had decidedly NOT been those components that won her heart!

(Hey! Why DID she fall for me?? What if she hadn’t?? Where would I be?? Yikes!! It gives me chills to think about!!)

The only thing she ever wanted and hoped for was one day to have a little place out in the country somewhere.

One time, we bought a little life insurance policy from a friend. 

“So, if I kick it, what would you do with this?” I wondered.

“Well, I’d pay for whatever the kids’ college would be and then maybe look for a little farm house out in the country where I could have a sheep or two or a few goats, a couple of big dogs, some chickens and a big garden.”

“Ah! That’d be awesome! After all our moving around the world, we’d love having a place like that!”

“Um, I hate to tell you but I bought it with life insurance! You’d have to be dead, right?”

It’s been 20 years since we got our little place down in Oliver Springs. We’ve had sheep and now we have goats. We’ve had lots of chickens and plenty of big dogs. We have lots of peace and loads of fun! 

I remember the day we looked at each other and realized…

“Hey! We got it! Your dream!!”

“And I’m not even dead!” I added!

For endless reasons, God is SOOOOOOO good!!!

Happy 4th, everyone!

(Happy 46th, babe!)

Triple C News - June 12, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome praise-filled day! It’s gonna be absolutely beautiful!!

(I don’t think that I can take it…)

I think the temp is supposed to be like 84 at Lindsay Nelson Stadium for the UT baseball game this evening!

(…’cause it took so long to bake it…)

It’s already been an amazing week for tons of reasons!

(…and I’ll never have that recipe again! Oh, noooooo!)

Wait a sec…

I’m sorry, everyone. I’ve got an ear-worm. 

An ear-worm is that song you can’t get out of your head no matter how hard you try. Psychologists tell us that 90% of Americans get one at least once a week!

Do you remember that song?

“MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark

All the sweet, green icing flowing down

Someone left the cake out in the rain…”

Whoa. That is awful! 

In fact, it’s on a recent list of the “worst songs of all time, destined to become an ear-worm”. 

Just after “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney and “It’s a Small World After All” 

(“THE ear-worm of all ear worms!” experts say)

“So, what do you do if you get one?”

Well…

Seems that the best cure for an ear-worm is to sing a different song! 

A substitute song! 

Slow ones are best. 

Some say the British national anthem is perfect! 

“God save our gracious Queen!

Long live our noble Queen!

God save the Queen!”

(Is it gone?)

Y’know, I really like that idea of substituting one song for another! 

I use that very principle to help me with worse worms! 

Like a complaining-worm! 

Ever just feel like complaining about something that’s REALLY bugging you?

Or, worse…

Ever feel like complaining about…everything? 

Even tho’ the Apostle tells us to “do all things without complaining”, you just can’t get it out of your mind!

What to do?

Substitute!

Thank, instead! 

Think of about seven reasons you have for being thankful and thank God for them! 

Complaining? 

Gone!

Ever had one of those days where you just feel super “judge-y”? 

You just feel like noticing what’s wrong with everybody!

And if you can’t see somethin’ to judge, you just judge their motives, or their heart, or something sneaky like that!

The dreaded judge-worm!

What to do?

Substitute!

What if I just started confessing instead? 

Confessing to the Lord things that haven’t been so great about me lately? 

Starting with my judging! 

Everyone starts to look just a little better!

Judging? Gone! Poof!!

What about that nagging, looping anxiety? 

Ya just can’t stop worrying about that worrisome worry that is worrying you to distraction! 

The kids…

”Oh, no! My boss is calling!”…

Your up-coming surgery…

”Is that a kidney stone?”…

What’s that weird-looking spot on your ear…

How do I stop?

Do somethin’ else instead! 

Pray about it! 

Just turn that anxiety into a prayer! 

Give it to God and leave it with Him!

So, here’s what you do:

Substitute…

Praying for worrying…

Confessing for judging…

Thanking for complaining.

You might want to write that down.

You may never get that recipe again.

Oh, noooooooo!

Triple C News - June 4, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, praise-filled, joy-filled, thankfulness-filled (isthatevenaword?) day! 

And if thou art not…

maybe I’ve found just the Scripture for thee!

It’s a verse I discovered this week tuuuuucked away in an obscure corner of the Book of Nehemiah…

In an Old Testament chapter…

Nehemiah and the eleventh chapter, to be exact…

filled with folks with names like…

Mahalalel…

Sallu…

Kol-Hozeh…

Joiarib…

Haggedolim…

Bakbukiah…

And suddenly, there was…

Uzzi!

My hero!

Uzzi had the delightful job…

work…

duty…

responsibility…

profession…

of choir and orchestra director!

"...leading orchestras and choirs in the sacred temple of the true God in Jerusalem to make sure those rooms, chambers, and halls echoed with praise!"

Uzzi, doing his joy job!

Doing his worship work!

Doing his devotional duty!

Doing his rejoicing responsibilities!

Doing his praise profession!

What a cool job! 

I looooove how Psalm 134 tells us about those whose job was to praise the Lord “on the night shift”…

“lifting up hands”…all through the night in the house of the Lord.”

Sometimes I like to think of a child with his or her family on yearly Passover pilgrimages...

maybe in the days when our Lord was a child Himself...

camped out with his or her family, on the hill near Gethsemane’s grove, waking in the night and listening to the distant peaceful praise offered in the temple far below…

soft, sweet sounds that nestled into his or her heart as a memory that would glow one dark future day, just when it was needed most…

And Uzzi would praise and sing whether he felt like it or not…

if he was worried or not…

if he was upset or not…

if he was frustrated or not…

or if he was flustered or not.

Because it was his job!

And I bet (In fact, I’m sure), that he went home feeling more peaceful…

more confident…

less anxious…

less frustrated…

and more de-flustered than he did at the beginning of his shift! 

A Scripture in the New Testament guarantees that to be “filled with the Spirit”, all you have to do is…sing! (Ephesians 5.18-19)

You just take some “Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”…

add in some “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord!”

and voila! 

Everything looks a little lighter ’n brighter!

But Uzzi did it like his job! 

In fact, it was!

And…Hey! There are openings for this position! 

I mean, the temple is no more and the cool outfit he wore disappeared centuries ago…

but daily praisers and praise singers are always needed!

For all shifts! 

Here’s my verse I found…

Speaking of “Uzzi, one of Asaph’s descendants, who were the musicians responsible for the service of the house of God”…

it says this amazing thing…

“The musicians were under the king’s orders, which regulated their daily activity…” (Nehemiah 11.23)

Wow! 

What if…

“my daily activity” was “regulated”…

because I have a king and…

I am “under the king’s orders”?

Well, it is!

Because we do!

And we are!

Praise! 

It’s the King’s orders!

Which makes singing and praise…

your joy job! 

your worship work!

your devotional duty!

your rejoicing responsibilities!

your praise profession!

You’ll be happier, lighter and brighter for doing it…

Praise singers, thanks-givers, melody-makers.

Now hiring for all positions!

Apply within…

your heart.

Triple C News - May 29, 2021

Hey, everyone! 

Well, before we go any further…

here’s your weekend weather forecast…

“Sunday will be MOSTLY SUNNY WITH HIGHS IN THE MID 70S!!!!”

(emphasis added)

Isn’t that AWESOME!?!? 

Our last Sunday in the park before we return to our home base at 100 Ogden will be beautiful!!!

We only have…

“One day more!

Another day, another destiny!

This never-ending road to immunity…

The first shot didn’t cost a dime

It’ll surely come a second time…

One day more!…

Tomorrow we'll discover

What our God in Heaven has in store!

One more dawn!

One more day!

One daaayyy moooooooore!!!!”

(Sorry, Les Mis!)

Y’know, as we joyously come out of the months of hunkering down, masking up and spreading out, it might take a little minute to get used to “the way we were.”

Some are still struggling to recover their sense of smell that they lost when they got the coronavirus. For reasons not fully understood, “anosmia” (not being able to smell) occurred in 80%! For most it came back fully but about 5% still can’t quite smell well! 

Researchers are using a technique of strong essential oils of various scents and pictures associated with each particular smell to rebuilt neurological brain pathways to the memory!

Because smells are the quickest and strongest ways to return to the days of your past. 

You know the feeling of smelling something you didn’t expect to and immediately you’re transported to some moment of years gone by, with the accompanying emotional flood??

It’s actually because in your brain… 

“...the olfactory bulb has intimate access to the amygdala, which processes emotion, and the hippocampus, which is responsible for associative learning…” 

(I didn’t know I had a hippocampus in my brain! Sounds like something smart and heavy!) 

One day a while back, I rode a smell to a “long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”.  

I was jogging down the country road in front of my house. 

It was still dark. You couldn’t see much but you knew the cows and skunks were out there! 

The smells were totally Oliver Spring-y! 

Suddenly… 

I was in a slummy, broken down old dormitory on a foggy night in the outskirts of Milan, Italy. 

I was in a room with a bunch of Arabic guys from Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, watching them grow in their new faith in Jesus. 

One of the most sincere and humble people I’ve ever known was there. 

Antoine Stefan grew in war-torn Lebanon and had come to Milan to study. 

He accepted Jesus, eventually finished his masters in engineering, and together we started an Arabic language church in the city. 

He went from being a learner and beginner with a lot of problems to one of my dearest and closest friends and brothers.  

In the beginning, my colleagues and I just kinda felt sorry for those lonely guys. We wanted to help them because they had so little and were so far from home. They became kind of a “mission of mercy” for us. 

Once (before cell phones), we gave Antoine a coffee can full of change for his birthday so he could call home to Beriut on the pay phone. 

You NEVER give money to someone from Lebanon as a gift in front of his friends! 

It’s totally socially unacceptable! 

But, hey! we didn’t know!

And we felt so sorry for him!  

But in a couple of years, Antoine was truly a precious, faithful brother and friend. 

Besides Tina, he was about my best friend over there. 

He lives outside of Milan with his wife and three kids and after a life-threatening illness doing this difficult year, praise God, today he's recovering well. 

And I had a moment early on an Oliver Springs morning, when I really missed him.  

Then I thought of an amazing verse I had read that morning. 

In the Gospel of John 15:9, Jesus said something astounding. 

“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you…”  

Jesus loves me like the Father loves Him! 

I am daily deeeeeeply thankful that Jesus has pity on me! 

He loves me with an infinite mercy for a helpless weakling! 

Of His compassion, pity, mercy, I sing, ”I Need These Ev’ry Hour!”  

But He has more!  

The Father loves the Son just because He is Who He is! 

We would never associate pity or mercy with the love the Father had for Jesus. 

He just loved Jesus! 

For being Jesus!  

And Jesus loves me like that! 

With pity? Yes! 

With mercy for the weak and helpless? Hallelujah! 

But also…

He just loves me! 

Because… 

I’m me! 

At first, I cared about Antoine with a kind of sympathy. 

(Or somethin’ like it.)

But after a while... 

After a while, I just had a huge place in my heart for Antoine Stefan, because he was… 

Antoine! 

The Father loves the Son because…

He’s Jesus! 

And Jesus loves me because…

among other things…

I’m me! 

You’re you! 

Yea!! 

“Wow!! Where did all that come from on a country road in pre-dawn Oliver Springs?”, I wondered. 

Then I knew. 

An Oliver Springs school bus had just passed me…

I’m smelling diesel fumes… 

Smelling diesel in my hippocampus…

all the hippos are smelling it…

In an instant…

in my memories…

I’m on the bus…

a diesel bus……

in Milano…

talkin’ and laughin’ with my homeboy, Antoine! 

John 15.9…”Come il Padre ha amato me, cosí io ho amato voi…” 

I love that diesel smell!

Triple C News - April 23, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Hope you're having an awesome day! I hope you're finding that God is meeting all your needs and that you know in your heart that He watches you…that He thinks about you…that He knows when you need stuff…

just like I know that the Carolina chickadees and the tufted titmouses...

and the white-breasted nuthatches, and the northern cardinals...

and the white-throated swallows and the house sparrows... 

and the red-bellied and downy woodpeckers... 

and the yellow-bellied sapsuckers…

…that eat the bird seed I put in these two bird feeders in the dogwood outside our window, need stuff. 

I can't help thinking about them. 

It's kinda weird.

I'm not really sure how it happened or how I started caring about these little feathery guys. 

Somehow, one day, for some reason, I bought this little square green cage and hung it in this dogwood. Then you buy these squares of stuff. Suet. It comes in different flavors. Hot pepper. Berry. Peanut Butter. The squares fit perfectly in the green thing. I didn't know this but suet is basically cow fat. It's actually grosser than it looks when you buy it. 

But…

…when it's cold in winter and there aren't bugs or worms to be had "fer love nor money", birds go kooky for it! 

Sparrows and most other wild birds have to eat loads of calories! They eat their weight in food everyday! People eat about three pounds worth daily. If you were a bird, you'd have to eat whatever you weigh in food! If you're 178 lbs, then that's your number! Try to eat 178 lbs of food! Then try to fly after that! Try to walk! Or sleep! It's amazing birds get anything done!

“Upon further review”…

For the sake of the li’l guys’ heart health (should we be worried about this, scientists?) we’ve switched to lower fat seed mix!

 Our birds love it! 

And they love me, I believe! 

We’ve gone thru at least 180 lbs of the stuff over the last five months!

I'm learning more than I've ever known about birds. 

The white-throated sparrow flies south from the Yukon or Newfoundland and stays in Rocky Top from October to mid-May. They don't even weigh an ounce and their call sounds like somebody with a real chirpy voice saying "Oh Sweet Canada Canada Canada" or maybe "Old Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody". At least that's what the books say. (I can't quite make out those words myself. But I've tried)

I love birds now! 

I am kinda confessing to y'all that I never was especially crazy about them before. I mean, I liked them or whatever, but it wasn't like this. It wasn't like now. 

Maybe it's because I started caring for them. 

Before ya know it, I was not only caring FOR them but caring ABOUT them! 

Maybe that's how it works.

I don't think I HAVE to feed all those birds 40 pound bag-fulls of “Royal Wing Backyard Blend”. 

God has promised that HE would feed them! 

Jesus said, " Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them..." (Matthew 6) 

He cares for them! 

Because He cares ABOUT them! 

But maybe…

Maybe I feed them…

(and when those little feeders are almost empty, I can't NOT think about it!)

maybe I care for them…

because He does! 

Maybe that's how He feeds them! 

Maybe He's using me! 

He promised to feed them so He put it in my heart to do it!

Maybe a Scripture is being fulfilled in my yard! 

Maybe this is a bigger deal than I think! 

Maybe…

Maybe when you care for birds…

or kids…

or people who are lonely…

or sick people…

or old people…

or someone in trouble…

God is caring for them thru you! 

And maybe when, while caring FOR them, you start to care ABOUT them,  it's because God is caring about them too! He's caring about them thru you! 

Maybe it's HIS care, concern, love that YOU feel! 

And God's very promises from the Scripture come true…by using you!

Maybe that's how this works.

Cool!

Triple C News - April 16, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Well, it’s Friday!

Time for my regular Friday…

I’m not really sure what you call this.

I guess it’s my Friday “devotional thought”…?

Except it often includes the weather…

‘Sunday: Partly cloudy. Highs in the lower to middle 60s with a few spotty showers possible but not until late…”

Sounds like it’ll be perfect for church!

Or a joke, at times…

“I used to have a phobia of speed bumps but I’m slowly getting over it.”

Switzerland’s kind of dull but their flag’s a big plus!”

Did you hear about the M&M who went to school everyday? He wanted to be a Smartie!”

(I’m literally here every week.)

But I really do try to share a few thoughts of spiritual encouragement.

I’ve always loved devotional writings, when someone who loves Him shares in a few sentences a thought about Jesus that could transform a day that someone is living…or mis-living.

Could I share with you some devotional thoughts from some of the best?

Charles Spurgeon was the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London from 1854 to 1891. In his devotional book, “Morning and Evening” he wrote…

“Wherever Jesus may lead us, He goes before us. If we don’t know where we are going, we know with whom we go.”

(I know a country song that says that!)

Oswald Chambers was a mIssionary with the YMCA to British soldiers in Egypt during WWI, where he died of appendicitis…

He wrote this in the most popular devotional book of all time, “My Utmost For His Highest”…

(Actually, his wife Biddie copied down all of his talks by short-hand while he gave them to the troops and wrote all his book herself after he was in Heaven!)

“The people who influence us most are not those who buttonhole us and talk to us, but those who live their lives like the stars in heaven and the lilies in the field, perfectly simply and unaffectedly…”

Mmmmm….That’s good!

My fav, John Newton, pastor of the parish church of Olney, England, author of “Amazing Grace” and 347 other hymns while pastor there during the 1700’s, wrote letters to folks that are the best devotional thoughts ever! 

Check this…

“If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule earth’s grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot…for the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God’s will…

Wow. 

And St Augustine wrote this in his amazing “Confessions”, around 400 ad…

“Magnus es, domine, et laudabilis valde: magna virtus tua, et sapientiae tuae non est numerus. et laudare te vult homo, aliqua portio creaturae tuae, et homo circumferens mortalitem suam, circumferens testimonium peccati sui et testimonium, quia superbis resistis…”

How ‘bout THAT for classic devotional thinking?

Could I share with you some of my favorite devotional thoughts I’ve read recently?

Meditate a moment on this…

“He is the air that we breathe. 

He is the food we eat. 

He is the water we drink. 

He is the VERY essence of our souls. 

(Amen)

Whatever we need (not want) He will give to us. 

For example…

If fallen in life, in our faith, or spirit, He is able to reach down, pick us up and stand us up. 

If we are stressed, troubled and going though a crisis in our life, He can calm us and give us the peace we need to get past it. 

If we are sad and unhappy, He can give us the joy that we need in our hearts and minds. …

If we need love, He can give us a heavenly, holy love that is Godly and pure that will last forever. 

If you feel you are all alone and no one cares, call on Him for He cares. 

With Him you will never walk alone again. 

If you wish to enter into Heaven, only He can walk you through those Heavenly gates. 

(Amen)

Simply put: “Jesus is the WAY to what you truly need.

                   “Jesus is the TRUTH of what you surely need.

                   “Jesus is the LIFE of everything you will ever need (Amen)”

Wow! Who wrote that? 

D L Moody? 

St Augustine? 

Mother Teresea?

Nope. 

That came from the heart of my friend and brother in Christ, Marvin.

Marvin went to prison in 1973 for armed robbery when he was 25 years old, and after 45 years in there, was released two years ago to live with his sweet brother in Knoxville. During his time of incarceration, he came to know Jesus. And he came to love and follow Him. What an encouragement he has been for me! His prayers have helped to keep me going! The notes and cards he wrote me when I was going thru tough days, I’ll treasure forever! 

And I like his devotional writing!

Hope you did, too!

Triple C News - April 1, 2021

Hey, everyone!

I saw ‘em!

You've seen ‘em!

DOGWOOD BUDS!!!!!

It's happening, everybody!!

So quietly…so slowly…and suddenly…

IT'S DOGWOOD TIME IN TENNESSEE!!

Just in time for a beautiful Easter morning in beautiful Elm Grove Park with a beautiful Easter forecast!!

It’s gonna be a beautiful Easter, everyone!!!

We thought that we would do our Good Friday service up here at Triple C in the front parking lot in the same style as Sunday mornings at Elm Grove (bring your own lawn chair and masks and all) because Good Friday is just a little more reflective and “collected”. 

But Sunday morning, we’ll be out in the park, praising our Risen Lord for the facts that He is Risen! And Lord! 

Y’know, since everyone 16 and up is eligible for the vaccine starting Monday and if everyone who’s eligible can find it (and if everyone who can find it will get it!) we may only have a month-plus-a-little till our outdoor worship is just a beautiful memory…

So, let’s make it an Easter of praise to remember!!

Speaking of holidays…

At Christmas, you put lights and stuff all over your house and yard to make it Christmasy. 

But in the spring you just sit back and…ahhh! 

AWESOME! 

And SPRINGY! 

Sometimes people shine lights and tie plastic Easter eggs on their dogwoods. 

But aren’t they beautiful…

aren’t they the best… 

just the way God made them? 

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the legend of the dogwood…

The story is that once dogwoods were thick and tall, like oaks.  The story says that the cross that they made Jesus carry through the streets of Jerusalem was made of this tree…

”When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew

To a towering size with a lovely hue.

Its branches were strong and interwoven,

And for Christ's cross its timbers were chosen…”

So, God decided that since the dogwood was used for the cross of our Lord, it would never be large and stately again, but gnarly and twisted…

“'The petals shall have bloodstains marked brown,

And in the blossom's center a thorny crown.

All who see it will think of me,

Nailed to a cross from a dogwood tree.’”

Only thing is…that legend isn’t true. 

The truth is that God made them short and gnarly and decidedly unstately. 

And as the sun shines longer in the day and the days are warmer than winter days have been, and spring wakes them and sap rises in them, they have a beauty that makes my heart want to sing…

And really, there was no need to make up stuff about the dogwood to make them any more graceful and lovely than they are already. 

Aren’t they beautiful…

aren’t they the best…

just the way God made them?

And the story of our Lord Jesus…

Creator of heaven and earth…

of rain and sunshine…

of tulips, daffodils, redbuds, grass and dogwoods…

born into a poor, poor family…

growing to be, as the Gospel of Luke tells us…

“the favorite of God and men”…

dying for love of those who despised Him…

rising to win their hearts and wills…

living to help us walk through this world and to one day bring us home…

There’s really no need to invent or add legends to this…

to this life...

this love...

 this walk...

this gift of blood...

and this heart for us. 

The story of Jesus…

isn’t it beautiful…

isn’t it best…

just the way God told it?

Triple C News - March 27, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, praise-filled day and a heart-full of hope because…it’s almost Palm Sunday! It’s almost Easter Sunday! It’s the season of hope! Even with the world-wide global pandemic with all the hopelessness of it all..

It’s hope season!

Speaking of hope…

I heard a leading…and very medically conservative…epidemiologist, Dr Ashish Jha, dean at Brown University School of Public Health, say on the Today Show this week that we need to not “spike the ball on the five yard line” when we’re almost in the end-zone, coronavirusly speaking. We need to keep “masking up, backing up, washing up”. 

“How long till we’re in the end-zone?” Savannah asked.

“I believe when everyone who is vulnerable health-wise is vaccinated, that’s the end-zone to me.” Dr Jha replied.

“When will that be?”

“I think in about four weeks.”

This was Monday!!

This means it may not be long before we’re back up the hill at 100 Ogden on Sundays!!

Get the shot as soon as you can, folks!! Maybe we’ll meet at the park in April and then...in May…or mid-May…who knows??

(And for those who’ve asked, sure we can meet down at the park sometimes when this is all over, just to remember the fun we had!)

I love Palm Sunday! Just the thought of soooo many people yelling!…praising!...”hosanna-ing”! All because they wanted Jesus to be their King! And they wanted Him to rule over them! I wonder what it must have been like on that day!

It didn’t last very long, though.

By the end of the week, so many of them…so many of the same ones…were yelling, “We don’t want Him any more! No! We don’t want You any more!”

One of the gladdest days in the history of the world and the saddest day of all time only had five days between them.

 Y’know, I think that’s why being patient and content is so vital all the time, and especially now! Being discontent and impatient with how it is instead of having that peace, patience and contentment the Book talks about so much, can quickly turn from impatience with things to impatience with Him! 

Didn’t take long for them to switch from saying, “Yay!” to saying, “Boo!!”

That’s why my hero on Palm Sunday week was… 

the donkey!  

Remember him?

“They went and found a donkey colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway…they untied it… When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!” (Mark 11)

Poor li’l dude! Tied up…stuck…roped to a door! 

Until Jesus wanted him! 

They untied him! 

He was free! 

Even with Jesus sitting on him! 

Being sat on had never happened to him before and usually they’re not too happy about it! But he didn’t care! It was because of Jesus that he was untied and free! 

“He can ride on me anywhere! I’ll carry Him all day!”

In Job, God said, "Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied his ropes? I gave him the wasteland as his home, the salt flats as his habitat. He laughs at the commotion in the town…” (39.5-7)

That donkey doesn’t care where he lives! Even if home’s in the salt flats! He’s content no matter what! He laughs all day! Even if everyone else is running around stressed out in the town, he’s just happy! 

He’s just happy God let him be free!

Because of the King, you’re free! 

You’re not tied up or tied down, no matter where He has you! 

Even if you feel “sat on”! 

Kick up your heels! 

Or your hooves!

Make that donkey your hero! 

Try to be like a donkey today!  

It’s harder than you think!

Triple C News - March 13, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, joy-filled day! And I’ve got some good news!

it’s “Spring Forward Sunday”! 

The bad news is that you have to move your clock forward ONE HOUR at 2:00 am Sunday morning! 

But here’s a little “hack” to give yourself just a little more sleep…

Why not move your clocks forward one hour just as you’re going to bed so you don’t have to wake up at like 1:55 am? 

How ‘bout that for a tip? 

Ever thought of that?! 

Now that time change isn’t gonna be as tough on your system as it’s always been!!

And since it’s “Daylight savings time” and we’re talking about saving some time for the more daylight we’ll enjoy…

I’ve got some other time-saving “hacks” to save you hours in the kitchen! 

A “hack” is an amazingly clever time-saving and/or aggravation-saving solution to common chores.

Check out these kitchen hacks!

Want a new, fun way to fry some eggs? (What?! You don’t? Well, read this anyway! it’s neat…) Crack your eggs into a Christmas cookie cutter in the frying pan! 

Bam! 

I’m dreamin’ of an egg-white Christmas!

(Only use the metal kind. Plastic cookie cutters and hot frying pans don’t get along.)

How ‘bout this one? Use unscented dental floss to cut cheese or birthday cake! 

(Oh…also make sure it’s unused!)

Ever thought of this? You can use your cheese grater to grate nutmeg! So easy and time-saving! And it’ll give your next grilled cheese sandwich just a faint whiff of the holidays!

This is amazing! To cook bacon in your hotel room, simply wrap it in foil and use the iron in the closet to IRON it! Isn’t that cool? 

(OR…Simply go down to the lobby. They usually have some by the cereal dispenser thingy.)

If you can’t get tiny bits of egg shells out of the egg you just cracked, lick your fingers ’til they’re wet and pick it out! It work like a miracle! (And we won’t tell your friends that you put spit in their food.)

Speaking of saving time…

Sometimes when I have nagging doubts about whether or not God really loves me, I find this costs me time. I move a little slower and I’m less decisive…which is a time-waster.

I was reading an amazing, old book by a British pastor from “days of yore” who offered several suggestions (“hacks”, if you will) for how you could feel the love of God more consistently during the day, every day…

“Never leave your room in the morning without a distinct apprehension of the fact that “the Father Himself loveth you.” (John 16: 27)…” 

Wow! So simple! Yet, when I forget that, how “unsimple” it all gets!

2) “Ask the Holy Spirit--who sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and who brings all things to our remembrance--that you may hear the whispers of His still small voice, perpetually reminding you that God loves you…” 

This is a great one! The Apostle Paul always prayed that the Holy Spirit would help folks feel things! (Romans 15:13, for instance…)

3) “Accept all lovely things--gentle words; kindly acts; gleams of sunlight; the songs of birds and the scent of flowers--as being the token of His love; and look up with a smile to Him, as you say, “I thank Thee…” 

Daffodils, for example! The dogwoods and tulips are on the way! 

When they bloom, sniff and say, “I thank Thee!”

4) “Avoid all things that are inconsistent with the fact of your being God’s beloved child; all irritableness and fretfulness; all petulance and anger; all ill-speaking and uncharitableness…”

I put horror movies and all cable news in this category…If you want to feel God’s love, best to avoid these.

5) “Do the meanest and most trivial things for the love of God, as one constrained by that love not to live to self, but to Him; and let your one aim be to do all things as one whom God loves…”

This was the secret of Brother Lawrence, the French friar of the 1600’s. 

He was always so joyful and explained that he just did every chore…

saying prayers…

doing the dishes…

weeding the garden…

or “picking up a piece of straw”(!)…

in a way that pleased God! 

Just an attitude that says, “Whatever I think, say, or do, I wanna just please You!”

That should save you tons of time!

Oh! Did you know that if you poke a hole in each end of a hard-boiled egg and blow, it will literal jump out of the shell?

I better stop. 

Triple C News - February 26, 2021

Hey, everyone!

Well, it looks like we’re getting rained out for this Sunday down at the park…

But if we have to miss “Praise in the Park” for rain, it’s just for this Sunday!

We’re not giving it up for Lent or anything! 

Folks DO give up stuff for Lent tho’! (Have you?)

A while ago, someone took a Twitter survey of 300,000 tweets that were tweeted (or is it “that were twit”?) asking everyone out there in Twitterville what they were planning to give up for Lent. 

Many of the choices were pretty traditional…

meat (in 10th place)…

chocolate (number 3)…

sex (8th out of the top 100)…

ice cream (33rd)…

But also…

breathing (#40)…(how’s that possible??)

pasto (#81)…(and how’s THAT possible??)

“my virginity” (#52)…

“him!” (#189)…

“eating live mice” (#292)…

swearing" (#5)…(That’s gonna be pretty dang tough!)

But I wonder…

Haven’t we all given up enough stuff this past year for twenty Lents?

Someone could make it easy on themselves and give up…

“Hugging strangers or those outside my bubble”…

“Indoor bars, indoor sporting events, and indoor church…”

or, “Showing my nose and chin and everything in between in public”

I love Lent! 

Especially being quiet and refocusing myself in my faith and my walk with Him…

and spending unhurried time reflecting deeply on my Savior’s willingness to buy me at prices that go beyond all I could ever understand let alone endure because He wanted me and wanted to win me and woe me and make me His own.

But there is one path of Lent that I’ve always avoided walking down.

I’ve never liked the thought that you’re preparing your heart for Easter by trying to relive the days and weeks before our Lord’s death for us, with all the sadness and heaviness of heart that accompanied those who lived those days. Churches and crosses within and without are draped in black. Almost as if nature itself is mourning Him. 

As one article put it “Christians have ritually reenacted for millennia in the observance of Lent and, especially, of Holy Week. The fasting of Lent makes space for the feasting of Easter; wallowing in the horror of death makes space for glorying in the hope of the Resurrection.”

Then, when it’s finally Easter morning, we are filled with joy with the renewed realization that He is alive!! 

Only thing is…

I know this is so meaningful to so many and I don’t mean to disparage holy practices that are precious and helpful to my brothers and sisters…

and I’m only speaking for myself…

but for me, it almost makes me feels like more than reflecting, I’m trying to pretend. 

Like “Let’s Pretend” when we were kids. 

It feels to me sometimes that at Lent more than reflecting, I’m trying to pretend that my Lord is about to die. I’m trying to pretend that we are in the days leading to His death. 

Then, we’ll celebrate that He’s risen and alive on Easter Sunday. 

But for now, during Lent I’m pretending He isn’t risen yet.

It’s just that that’s a game of “Let’s pretend” I already play too much.

Sometimes I forget to remember that my Savior is alive! 

And of all my moments, those are always my worst

If I could only remember all the time that He is Risen!

Lord of all, and King of kings! 

And He rules over everything that happens! 

Because Jesus rose from the tomb and reigns on His throne…

because “the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome (Revelation 5.5)…

and because from His throne, “He works all things after the counsel of His own will” 

(Eph 1.11)…

and because from there, my Risen Lord is “working all things together for good for us” (Romans 8.28)…

and because He lives for us, “alive from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13.20)…

because of these things…

I never have to worry about anything again! 

Because He lives!! 

And reigns!!

I need to NEVER forget that again!

In fact, just this coming week I bet…

I’m going to need to talk to Him…risen and with me…about disappointments I’ll meet…

I’ll need to ask His advice about conversations that become complicated and delicate…

I’ll need to lean on Him for Someone Who believes in me, when I feel like I’m falling on my face day after day!

And I’m gonna need His help to help me when I wanna do that thing…

be anxious about that thing…

say that thing…

that I know good ’n well I shouldn’t!

In fact, I need my Savior, alive and with me, to live Lent 2021 well!

Because our Lord Jesus is alive and risen for us, and because He lives inside of all of us who love and trust Him, giving us power to be different than we’ve ever been, there are lots of things I’ll be given up for Lent! 

Things like…

“negativity” (# 96)…

“complaining” (in 85th place)…

and “being mean” (coming in at 93)…

There are plenty of things I should give up for Lent! 

Not because Jesus hasn’t yet risen from the dead.

But because He has!

Triple C News - January 8, 2021

Hey, everyone,

The other day my iphone told me “you have a memory”. 

It was reminding me through a picture Tina and I took while on a trip with Mary, Ben and the kids to Washington DC in March 2017. 

We drove into the city after dark so we threw our stuff in the hotel and walked out onto the National Mall for a breath-taking evening stroll. We went all the way to the Lincoln Memorial and walked up the stairs and turned around for the unforgettable sight of the Washington Monument and the illuminated Capitol beyond. We turned back and looked up into the intense face of our 16th President and I glanced to my right to see on the north wall the engraving of his 2nd inaugural address, his best and maybe the greatest speech ever given in our history.

The war was almost at the end and the President was sharing his deeply personal reflections on the mysterious ways of God in permitting the unanticipated ferocity of the previous four years of conflict. 

The conclusion that had settled into his heart was that it was very possible that the Civil War was the judgment of God on our nation for the horrors of slavery and racism.

“…the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil”…

Race-based slavery ended in America in 1865. 

Racism didn’t.

A couple of days later, Tina and I were walking around the other end of the Mall on a blustery, drizzly afternoon. We wandered past the bronze memorial to U. S. Grant and stood amazed in front of the majestic Capitol building. There was a worker on scaffolding out front.

“Is this where the Presidents stand when they give their inaugural addresses?”

“Sure is!”

I thought of the 6’ 4” 16th President, worn and old-too-soon from four weary years, standing in that spot as the sun broke through the clouds, they say, as with his clear high voice he began to read…

“Fellow countrymen: at this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office…”

My eyes were filled with tears and my heart raced as I looked at that spot and thought of that moment.

They were filled with tears and my heart broke Wednesday as I looked at that same spot in front of the Capitol. 

As I first watched the images on the news, trying to understand what was happening, I thought, "How could it be that those people are tramping and trampling so disrespectfully on the very place where Lincoln stood to bring healing? How could it be that they are swarming like that all over that precious marble?"

And then it got worse.

How could it be that it has come to this?

Besides the obvious: unrepentant hearts, unrestrained tongues and tweets, unrebuked racism and racial hate…

often I’ve wondered in recent years…

“How could it be that people now talk to and about each other the way they do?”

The antagonism…the enmity…the distain.

And how could it be that those who say they are followers of the Prince of Peace…

Who proclaimed blessed the peace-makers…

are right in the middle of all of it, “letting it fly” in their words and tweets with the best of them?

Or better, ”with the worst of them”.

Tons of people have been sharing their opinions about how our society has descended to these hateful lows but I decided to ask an expert. 

One of the most authoritative voices on the conflict we are seeing in our time was at one time an enemy of the ways of Jesus. He had been for many years. 

Until he encountered the Risen Jesus himself.

James was Jesus’ half-brother. 

In his letter, James would say that the problem is with the wisdom of our leaders and the millions who follow them. 

Not the lack of wisdom but the wrong kind of it.

James says (James 3:13-18) there are two kinds of wisdom, “wisdom from above” and another kind.

There is a “wisdom” that has “bitter zeal and self-ambition” (James 3:14)

The Greek word for “zeal” is “fervency, passion”

The Greek word for “bitter” means “bitter, acrid, cutting, piercing, hurtful”

The word for “self-ambition” means “a spirit of rivalry, partisanship, factious, a party-spirit”

So, when there is a way of thinking, communicating and interacting that is passionately mean, bitter, slanderous, hurtful, hateful…

and when between the leaders among us who disagree there is the constant sentiment,

“WE are right and THEY are wrong, evil, stupid, and our enemies…”

that “wisdom”…

the kind that has been so evident these recent years…

is not from above.

In fact, James says (3:15)  that way of thinking, being and talking…

that kind of wisdom…

is “earthly”…

and “fleshly”…

and…

“demonic”

“What did you call it??”

I didn’t. James did.

And it is.

But James proclaims the hope and possibility of another wisdom

The wisdom from above…

the wisdom of God…

the wisdom our nation needs…

in leadership…

and in homes…

and in churches…

is …

“first of all…

pure”…(clean and holy)

and...

“peacable”…(peace-loving, peace-making, peace-promoting)

“gentle”…(kind, meek, humble)

“submissive”…(”easily persuadable”, willing to listen to the other guy)

“full of mercy”

“the fruit of righteousness sown in peace by makers of peace” (3:17-18)

What if the past four years among our leaders and among ourselves had been a season of…

peace-making…

kindness…

humility…

listening…

mercy…

purity…

love…

wisdom?

What if more of those who say they believe in Jesus cherished and showed and devoted themselves to…

peace-making…

kindness…

humility…

listening…

mercy…

purity…

love…

wisdom?

(Sigh)

At the bottom of the northern wall of the Lincoln Memorial we read his closing words…

“With malice toward none, with charity (love) for all…let us strive on to…bind up the nation's wounds…to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

There’s no room left but it would have been nice if there were enough space to chisel in…

“Amen”

Triple C News - December 26, 2020

Hey, everyone!

Happy Boxing Day! 

December 26…”The Feast of St Stephen”! 

You know the one you’ve heard about every year at Christmas time…

“Good King Wenceslas looked out

On the Feast of Stephen

When the snow lay round about 

Deep and crisp and even…”

Remember that one?

So…

Around the year 970-something AD, Wenceslas, the son of Vratislaus the First, Duke of Bohemia, was born. After loads of plots and palace intrigue and murders and poisonings and other awful things, he eventually became the King of Bohemia. 

(I’ve never seen “Game of Thrones” but I get the impression it was stuff like that.)

Anyhoo…

He grew up to be a kind and good king…for a change.

And once on the Feast of St Stephen (aka the Day after Christmas, Dec 26) he was with Otto, his servant/page in the woods. It was super snow-stormy and the good king saw thru the swirling flakes, 

a poor peasant, gathering whatever wood he could unbury from the drifts for his cottage fireplace. 

The King’s kind heart went out to this poor guy struggling to warm his shivering family and he decided to take some good groceries to help them. 

He and his servant Otto tramped their way thru the deepening snow towards the humble home.

Then Otto stopped.

“I’m done! ! My feet are froooooze!! Snow’s too deep! Can we just go back?”

According to the legend, Wenceslas the King answered…

“Was not His journey from Heaven a wearier and a colder way than this?’”

Otto answered not.

“Follow me on still,” said S. Wenceslaus. “Only tread in my footsteps…”

And the warmth of the King’s heart radiated down to his feet and melted where he stepped! 

So his servant just had to walk in the royal melted footprints and he made his way easily to their destination of charity and love!

“In his masters step he trod

Where the snow lay dinted

Heat was in the very sod

Which the Saint had printed

Therefore, Christian men, be sure

Wealth or rank possessing

Ye, who now will bless the poor

Shall yourselves find blessing!”

Nice!

So “Boxing Day” is the day after Christmas when boxes went up in England show you could give and show love for other people on the Feast of St Stephen in honor of the Good-hearted King of Bohemia!

Today’s weather on this Boxing Day is sunny and highs in the upper 30’s.

Tomorrow’s gonna be sunny with highs in the mid 50’s!

That should be a beautiful day for worshipping our Savior out in the park!

(If you really bundle up and sit in the sunshine, even better!)

I counted and we only have ten Sundays until March!

If we continue to try to worship and praise as a church family through these weeks of winter…

we’ll probably have a Sunday or two that’ll be just too cold…

Or a Sunday or two of rain or snow…

But the average high at 11:00 am in Oak Ridge is 49/50 through January…

and February is warmer than that!

If we keep our worship time to an “expedited” 40 minutes (we’ve had one that was 30!)…

And if we really bundle up…

(And we’ll always have our “online” service available if it works better for you!)…

And as the vaccine becomes more and more available…

with His help and His hand on us…

we’re gonna make it thru this!!

Our Governor has asked us to not meet in indoor places with more than ten people. 

Altho’ I know he gives churches the right to worship indoors with more than that.

And rights ARE precious!

But giving UP our rights to show love and concern of our own community and friends in a global pandemic is…holy!

Giving up personal rights is what our Lord came to earth to do.

And since the Knoxville area presently has, for the second week, 

the highest infection caseload in the country…

even tho’ it might be more of a sacrifice to sing to and praise Him outdoors rather than in…

and even tho’ it might be chilly sometimes…

giving up our rights for love of those in our town for His sake…

is…

well…

cool!

And maybe even…holy!

Thanks for your heart!! 

Thanks for persevering!

Thanks for who you are!!

Triple C News - December 4, 2020

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having a deck-the-hally, jingle-belly, let-it-snowy, pa-rum-pa-pum-pummy, bright and merry, holly jolly week!

I really DO hope that!

But it’s just not gonna be the same this year. 

No Christmas choir practice this Christmas season.

Not supposed to sing inside because singing sprays the Coronavirus.

I do have some choir news tho!

We WILL be able to have our Easter choir in 2021!! 

I bet so many will be vaccinated by then, that “Rolling Thunder” will be back in the bass section…“BRiiiiiiiNGiN’ iT”!!! *

*(This is if we celebrate Easter in mid-May instead of April 4,2021 as scheduled.)

Another important announcement…

This coming Sunday (day after tomorrow) we ARE moving our worship time in the park to 11:00am!

Yes, starting this Sunday, we’re going to be getting together to worship and praise in the “open air” at 11:00 am (instead of 9:30 am) 

This is to get us a little closer to that average high of 48/50 F in Dec/Jan for the Ridge! 

(It should be sunny and upper 40’s by 11:00 am this Sunday!)

 And we’re thinking about having our Christmas Eve service outside as well! 

We’re calling it “An Elm Grove Christmas”! 

Or “Hark! In the Park!” 

I don’t think Christmas Eve this year will be like anything we’re used to.

It’ll be…

outside…

in the field…

in the chilliness…

with the sound of dogs barking in the background (have you heard them lately?)…

And we’ll all be making sure we don’t step in anything yucky in the grass…

WAIT!!

This is gonna be AWESOME!!

Maybe it won’t be like other Christmases, but it will be most like the first one!

Remember what the carols say??

“While shepherds watched their flocks by nightA

ll seated on the ground…”

We’ll be in the field just like they were! Seated on our camp chairs on the ground!

And they were probably making sure they didn’t step in anything yucky, listening to their sheepdogs bark…just like us!

Or how ‘bout…

“In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty winds made moan

Earth as hard as iron

Water like a stone…”

And it’ll be chilly for us as well!!

Hopefully even with frosty winds, just like the song!

Or…“Hark! The herald angels sing…”

They must have been shocked to see the angels that night!

And we would be too!

But they’re always around us!

And they will be around and above us at our Elm Grove Christmas Eve!

As always!

This will be the “Most-Like-the-First-Christmas” Christmas Eve ever!

Trying to “feel” what the first Christmas was like, is where those manger scenes come from.

On Christmas, in the year 1223, a lion-hearted Italian friar named Francis of Assisi, 

built a rustic manger, and put it into a “grotto” (cave) in the village of Grecio…

He next led an “ox and ass” into it and tied them up. 

After a while, it was…

stinky…

poop-y…

nasty…

and buggy. 

Then he invited the citizens to enter…

and watch…

and sniff…

and reflect.

And into a world like this…

a world of darkness…

and yucky-ness…

and heart-break…

and sickness...

and sorrow...

our Savior came. 

Alone and afraid, a couple of very poor kids held a quivering Infant King in a barn or stall or cave and no one knew or cared except a few peasant shepherds.

And hope was born!

For many, Christmas 2020 won’t be an easy Christmas.  

But we do know this…

His Coming was told to those in a dark, chilly field…

And because of global sickness, we’ll meet in a field like theirs to remember.

But one day soon He will come to take us to Home! 

What a Christmas that will be!!

No masks!

Face to face!

No social distancing!

“He will gather His lambs in His arms and carry us close to His heart!” (Isaiah 40:11)

No fear of singing! 

In fact, we’ll say…

Let Heaven and Nature sing!

Let Heaven and Nature sing! 

Let Heaven…

let Heaven…

and Nature sing!

Triple C News - November 27, 2020

Hey, everyone!

What an awesomeThanksgiving Day!! 

Even if it’s the “Year of the Coronavirus”! 

Just like the Grinch discovered, it didn’t stop Thanksgiving from coming!

What IS it about that day that is so awesomely beautiful?

Is it the smells that take you back to memories that are sweeter than pecan pie?

(If our kids come to our house the Bennett Rd way, for the grandkids in back. it's literally  "over the river…or creek, really…and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go!")

Is it the sentimental feeling inside that feels warmer than the bird in the oven?

Is it the thoughts of the "Thanksgivings of days-gone-by" that swell your heart like a helium balloon drifting down Fifth Ave in front of Macy's?

I don't think so, really.

I think the thing inside my heart that I love on Thanksgiving…

this weird year and every year…

is that it gives you a whiff of the feeling that should fill every room in your heart every day of the year! 

To deliberately, intentionally, thoughtfully, purposefully, methodically, introspectfully and retrospectfully…

slooooooow dooooooown

long enough to thank God for…

all we have…

all He is…

all He gives…

THAT'S what feels so awesome and "Thanksgiving-y" about Thanksgiving Day!

It's not from remembering what "the Day" used to feel like 

(and maybe doesn’t as much this year)

as much as from remembering that this is the way every day should feel!

To be filled with thanks is as beautifully satisfying and satisfyingly filling as two or three plate-loads of turkey and stuffing!

I remember one guy writing that he was having a tough time. His marriage had fallen apart and he was in "just making it" mode. 

He slipped into a diner one Saturday. 

Folks sitting…eating…reading…sipping coffee. 

Minding each their own business. 

A young mom and little daughter sat in a booth and the little girl watched as food was delivered and immediately consumed. 

"Mom, don't people thank the Lord here?" she said.

The waitress stopped. 

"Sure, honey! We thank the Lord here! 

Would you like to lead us?"

"Ok", she answered.

Then the waitress added, "HEY! EVERYBODY SHUT UP AND BOW YOUR HEADS! WE'RE THANKING THE LORD TODAY!"

Everyone froze. 

Then you could hear a sweet voice say…

"God is great.

God is good.

Now we thank Thee for our food.

By Thy hand we are fed.

Thank You, Lord for daily bread.

Amen."

And everyone looked up. 

And smiled! 

And a couple clapped! 

And there rose in the air a feeling of cheer. 

In an instant, everything had changed about the place! 

I remember that fellow who told of the moment wrote something like, "And I felt a change in my heart. I knew I had been going through a tough time, for sure. But I had my Lord! He had forgiven me and made me His own! And at least HE would never leave me! And I knew I was going to walk into the future with Him! How many things I had to be (but had forgotten to be) thankful for! Thanks changes everything!

"Now ain't that better?" said the waitress. "I think from now on, we'll start everyday that a way!"

So, it's good (tho' a little crazy that we even need it!) to have someone tell us, "Remember to thank God! For everything!"

Today

on this day after “the Day”

we thank God for all His goodness!

For all His promises! 

For loving each of us so wonderfully!

For washing us clean and making us His!

For giving us delicious food and a beautiful place to live!

For filling our hearts with joy!

For giving us the faith to trust Him through one of the toughest years we’ve all ever had!

For a life full of a growing family and loving friends!

For something good and sweet to do for Him!

For our awesome Triple C family! 

And at the Job house, we thank God for you!!

We love you all and hope…

since everyday should be Thanksgiving Day…

that this “Day-After-Thanksgiving-Day” is “blessed-est”Thanksgiving Day ever!!

Triple C News - November 20, 2020

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, “extraordinarily hopeful” day!

“Extraordinarily hopeful??”

Yes! We DO have reasons to be “extraordinarily hopeful”!!

A scientist said it!

He said on the radio the other day that we should be “extraordinarily hopeful” right now!

Wow! It’s probably been a while since you heard those two words in the same sentence!

The reason?

A vaccine that is 95% effective is almost here! 

In fact, there will be more than one!

Dr Fauci said it should be available to all Americans by April!!

They’re even saying that the most vulnerable and older folks may be getting it next month!!

Do I see the finish-line out there in the distance?

BTW… when it’s ready, I’m getting it.

Some say they won’t, but I will!

In fact, I volunteered for the Pfizer trials ‘cause they were looking for folks to try it out on and I was ready to do anything to get this over with!

So I’ve already had two shots of something! Either the vaccine or a saltwater placebo. I have to fill out a medical check-in list every Thursday on an app that asks if I have any negative side-effects.. 

I haven’t had any at all!

But when they ask if I have any muscle achiness, I don’t count that! 

I’ve had that for years! Especially after I mow!

Ever since I turned 63, that’s been the “new normal”! 

I think they’ll tell us soon which we got! 

BTW, it hurts a little so, when you get it so be ready!

I think getting the vaccine is an act of love! You’re helping to protect everyone!

And nothing matters more than love!

That’s why for now, we’re meeting outside at Elm Grove Park at 9:30…and it has been sooo fun! 

I LOVE it!

Y’know, on Sundays, when we meet in the park, you have a wonderful opportunity to do two very important things at once!

First,  you can praise Jesus! 

Jesus wants this gift more than anything! 

Peter says Jesus choose us specifically for this! “…In order that we might declare the praises of Him Who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light!” (1 Peter 2.9)

In a world gripped by fear, sadness, anger, hurt and hate, when there are faithful lovers of Jesus praising and singing to Him, lifting up not only their voices but also their hearts to Him, angels watch and wonder! 

He died and rose again to win your heart, awaken your love, and hear the sound of your praise!!

It’ll be nice weather-wise this Sunday, but it may get chilly or even cold soon!

That’s when your praise is turbo-charged! When it’s cold, it’ll be a sacrifice to praise Him! 

In the Letter To the Hebrews, written for those who were risking jobs, friends, and their lives to praise Jesus, it says, “…let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise!” (13.9)

To give Him a warm heart and “see-your-breath” praise when your feet are cold somehow just means more!

David said, “I won’t give Him a sacrifice that costs me nothing!” (1 Chronicles 21.24)

On a normal New Years Eve, folks fill Times Square starting in the early morning hours to have a place “saved” at midnight! 

On Inauguration Day, thousands fill the National Mall at dawn in mid-January!

And think about a mid-winter’s Green Bay Packers game!

The average temp in the later morning in Oak Ridge in December and January is in the mid 40’s.

We’re keeping our worship time to about 40 minutes.

Instead of “Praise In the Park”, we could call our worship time “40 in the 40’s!”

Praising with God’s people…nothing in your life matters more!

And secondly,  the reason we are still meeting outside is that we are trying to do all we can to 

praise safely without contributing to the spread of the Coronavirus in our community. 

This virus is traveling faster than ever. 

It is all over Oak Ridge right now. 

You and I might feel safe but what if we were to catch it and pass it to someone who couldn’t resist it? 

With these numbers climbing so much, it seems like at least for the near future, we need to keep steady on the path we’re on…

But that’s why praising in the park…

worshipping outside…

accomplishes two important things at once. 

We praise our Savior AND love and care for…our town! 

And NOTHING matters more than love!