In the 1980’s, Burger King had a promotion where a fellow named Herb would appear at random Burger King restaurants across the country.  The first patron to spot him would win a prize.  One of the goals of the promotion was to increase visits to Burger King restaurants.

When teaching Interior Architecture students how to draw architectural floor plans, I began by taking the class to an unoccupied house where they took all the interior and exterior measurements needed for the floor plan. I would ask two students to measure the width of a room, rounding their measurement to the nearest quarter inch, and then write the measurement on a slip of paper.

A few days ago, it was the start of a new year. And with that often comes a new resolution to start things off right. For us that usually comes in the form of healthier living, learning something to better ourselves, taking up a new hobby, reaffirm a commitment to philanthropy or religion, etc. All very good and noble pursuits.

Before I address the aspect of joy I find in some words, I'd like to reflect for a moment on joy in the Word, as in the Bible.  I note that the angels announced to the shepherds "tidings of great joy" as opposed to "tidings of great happiness." That prompted me to do a little research. I found that joy is listed 50 times in the New Testament; happiness not at all, although I did find six references to happy. This indicated to me that there is a subtle but important difference between joy versus happiness and that joy is the better choice to pursue than happiness. The Christian martyrs who suffered in Rome's Coliseum, as well as other scenarios, were certainly not happy about their circumstances but surely possessed sufficient joy from being a follower of Jesus that allowed them to endure persecution.

Think of a time when you were in such heavy darkness you could not even see your hand when you held it in front of your face. The darkness almost seemed to diffuse a visceral weight. That depth of darkness unsettles the mind and can easily trigger anxiety. You may even fidget in the place you read this just thinking about that consuming level of darkness.

On Sunday, our minister began his weekly sermon by welcoming everyone, launching into a gentle rendition of "It's a Beautiful Day," the theme song from “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Faithfully changing into a red cardigan and running shoes, he playfully tossed a shoe from one hand to another in homage to the ritual Fred Rogers performed for the camera 895 times.

In 1963, the US Naval Academy’s football team went to Notre Dame stadium, and behind Heisman trophy winning quarterback Roger Staubach, won the game 35-14.  The next year, Notre Dame played the US Naval Academy and won 40-0.  That victory kicked off a streak that stands as a record in college football.  Beginning that year, Navy and Notre Dame met in football over the next 43 years, and each year Notre Dame won.  Some of the games were close, but each time Notre Dame would pull out a win.

As far back as I can remember I always wanted to work with computers.  I’m not sure why that became my life’s ambition but when it came time to declare mine for my senior yearbook I said, “to go to college and become a computer technician.”  This was way back in the day before there were personal computers, smart phones and the Internet available to everyone.  When I went to college, they didn’t even have a computer degree so I settled on math and hoped I would be able to parlay that into a computer career.  My first experience with a computer was a remote connection through a phone line with the phone receiver resting in a modem cradle and my only means of communication a modified keyboard and a printer that allowed me to send and receive commands from the system at the other end.

God wants to listen to our prayers–he is deeply interested in our lives, and he seeks to hear us, understand us, and truly know us.

But we still ask questions. “Is God really listening, when I know he is so high and lofty? Could he really, truly care for little, old me?” Yes, he truly is and yes, he truly does. But a second question we might ask is this: “Is God really listening, when I don’t know what to say or how to say it?” On the one hand, we wonder if God is even listening given who God is (so high above us); but then in our deep insecurity, we wonder if God is even listening given who we are (bumbling and stumbling in our prayers).

You could see the smile on Sam’s (not his real name) face. The eyes were bright. His torso was tensed. Then it all exploded. Too late to stop, as other high school students were exiting the rehearsal hall toward the marching practice field, Sam began playing short cadence riffs on his marching snare drum. Ear-splitting fireballs of enthusiastic sound were shot out, meant to push the irritation button of all fellow students in the vicinity. His feeling of success was evident. Sam had potential musical ability; he could quickly learn and play parts others could not play. Sam had leadership potential; he was always surrounded by a following. Sam had intellect; he could think up more clever mischief than ten other students put together.

One of my favorite Bob Seger songs, in fact one of my favorite songs, is “Like a Rock.” Many of us see our lives in those words sung mournfully, even wistfully. Old men, like me, think back and with eyes born of memories, see and remember those days where we knew, didn’t we, we were going to live forever. We willingly tackled anything because there was nothing we couldn’t do, no task we couldn’t accomplish. We were like a rock.

When I was a teen, I played the game “mercy”. In this game you would hold hands with someone and try to bend each other’s wrists backwards until one of you couldn’t stand it anymore. It would end with the defeated person halting the game by yelling “Mercy”. Looking back, I realize it may not have been the best game to play but what more can I say, I was a teen. My point for bringing this up is that in real life extending mercy to someone who has hurt you can be even more painful. God did exactly that for each of us.

Have you ever gotten an idea or a thought or something in your head, that once it got in there, you had a hard time removing that thought?  If you tried to divert your attention elsewhere, this idea or thought would keep bubbling back up?  No matter how you tried to distract yourself or move on to something else, this thought would keep intruding and come to the forefront.  Sometimes a song or a tune can do that, but I’m not going to talk about that.  But hopefully this idea connects, and you know what I’m talking about.

Recently during a sermon, our pulpit minister asked a question whether any of us had ever depended on God literally for our daily bread.  My wife and I exchanged a knowing glance because we both remembered a time in our early marriage and parenthood when we learned the valuable lesson that we served a God whom Abraham called Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.

In John 18:37-38, during the trials of Jesus, He told Pilate, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

"What is truth?" Pilate asked.

It is a cliche that it is a small world, but sometimes it really does seem that way.  As I was leaving a basketball game twenty-four years ago, a lady stopped me and said, “I know where Letona is.”  Earlier, I had written of my father spending a part of his childhood in the tiny town north of Searcy, Arkansas.  She went on to say that she had read the article and asked me if I had ever heard of Skinny Aaron.  I told her I had not, but would see if my dad remembered him.

Keeping the Lord at the forefront of your life is difficult for every Christian in every walk of life, but being a Christian with ADHD can present a number of unique challenges. Our brains’ chemical imbalances manifest in a host of symptoms that often make the pillars of faith – prayer, meditation, scripture reading, worship services – difficult, and sometimes even onerous.

There are millions of people who give little thought to why they believe what they believe, or more importantly for doing what they do. For many, one’s “belief system” is merely the product of their actions.  For the Christian, one’s actions are, or should be, the product of their belief system. It is important to understand that there are only two explanations for the reality that we are, in fact, here and that this universe does, in fact, exist. But first I need to share the following with the reader.

A few days ago at the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans, Dan and I were reminded of a time in Germany when a distinctly bellicose nationalistic voice came to power, convincing frustrated citizens that they could regain lost glory by carefully reordering society, purging the weak links and the "other" through unanimity of will. Find people to blame for everything and dig in. Create a society of people Exactly Like Us. It did not go well for the world.

In the earlier days of my career as a teacher in small, rural Texas towns, it was often the case that faculty members became a positive part of the community by involvement in other non-job activities. In one community, a need arose for substitute ambulance drivers to supplement the emergency operations at our small one-doctor county hospital.