Mental Musings

I wrote this about eight years ago and it describes how I felt when we first learned that our son was autistic. It was going to be the beginning of a book about our journey with special needs children and the ministry, but I guess I forgot about it. I found it tonight while searching for another file so thought I would share it on my blog. I am suffocating. Trapped by circumstances, plunged beneath the swirling waves of life by burdens, desperately struggling for that life giving breath…but it will not come. My chest is weighted down by the crushing blows of reality. “This can’t be happening to me,” I try to say, but my mind is unable to will my mouth in motion. All that I can do is…exist. For just this moment in time I must exist. There is no thought of the next moment or the next. All that I had was gone; all that I had hoped for is now at the bottom of this great swirling tide of my circumstances and burdens. My body is numb. I am actually sitting, I think. I can feel…no, not feel…s...

It actually started yesterday as we were getting our boys ready for the annual Deacon/Minister fellowship. Zachary was taking a shower in our bathroom--since it is the only one that works without screeching like a screaming banshee the whole time you are running the water. We have a removable shower head and he was putting it back on the holder when the pipe broke off and everything fell down on him. So I knew I was going to be working on fixing our shower when I went to bed last night, but I still stayed up until 1:30 am so I could finish my book I had been reading for the last few days. The first thing I planned to attempt was to get the broken metal piece out of the metal elbow. About 1/2" of pipe was still threaded in solidly and would not budge. I admit that I thought about calling a plumber at that point, but we just do not have enough money to pay for one. So I consulted the internet and found many sites that suggested that you cut the broken pipe with a hacksaw being caref...

"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." (1 Timothy 4:8, NIV). Football season is upon us. That time of year when millions of armchair coaches sit back in their La-Z-Boys and scream at professional players telling them how they are doing everything wrong. The typical image that comes to mind is a middle aged man with an extended belly surrounded by a variety of chips, dips, hot wings, pizza rolls, and, of course, beer. The running joke is that the most exercise seen in football is when the fans run to the fridge for another beer or run to the restroom during commercial breaks. It is also the season for soccer. When thousands of children run back and forth on a field kicking and heading a black and white ball. The sport has become so popular in America during the last couple of decades that the term Soccer Mom was invented in politics to describe the women who were too busy...

Many in America would like for us to believe that all of our problems could be solved if the rich would just share their wealth with everyone else. The following article from the popular "Ask Marilyn" column in the Parade magazine shows why this will never work. Sunday's Column - August 23, 2009 If all the money in the world were redistributed so that everyone had the same amount, what would it be? —K. Bowman, Clarendon Hills, Ill. The global money supply is about $60 trillion. (Economists call this figure the M3 value; it includes much more than currency.) Say that we take it all—which means that you and Bill Gates would have nothing in the bank—and then distribute it equally among every individual in the world, about 6.8 billion people. Each man, woman, and child would receive about $9000. So, if your household now has less than $9000 per person, you would gain. If you have more, you would lose. "Ask Marilyn" August 23, 2009 | Parade.co...

We are furious with how much of our money you have been spending. You continue to claim that only the wealthy will pay for it with higher taxes. Just where do you think they will get their increased money for taxes? We will pay for it. Every billion you spend causes our expenses to increase whenever we pay our bills, buy our food, eat out, buy fuel or watch a movie. The wealthy will create less jobs and the jobs they do create will have lower salaries. We believe that you should cut your own salaries and benefits before you start cutting into ours. We do not want our children and future grandchildren to pay for the ridiculous spending that you have approved in the last nine months. We do not support the President's Health Care Reform. We cannot entrust the government which cannot even manage a simple $2 billion program to manage 1/6 of our economy. You cannot even financially support your own Cash For Clunkers program without asking your recently acquired auto companies to bail yo...

At the end of my senior in High School, my drama and debate teacher, Mrs. Donice Smith, asked to speak with me. She knew me not only from school, but also from church. She shared this: "Not all of your college professors are going to appreciate your honesty and independent thinking. They are there to teach you what they know and most will not want to be argued with when you discover that they are wrong." Mrs. Smith knew that I had strong opinions and often shared those with others around me. She also knew that I had a strong sense of right and wrong and felt it was my job to inform others when they were wrong. I am sure that she spoke with other teachers and knew that I had corrected my English teacher in middle school and my math teacher in high school. But they were wrong and somebody needed to tell them otherwise we would all be conjugating our verbs wrong or factoring for Y incorrectly. Mrs. Smith also knew that I had taken many strong stands for God over science. Af...

Since I personally dove head first into social networking (actually anything techie) I thought I would mention some positive aspects for pastors using social networking tools. I am going to use facebook as my example here. Not all social networking sites are the same and everyone needs to be cautious about protecting themselves from the filth that is sometimes associated with some sites. It helps you connect with those members who are Sunday morning only attenders It is an easy way for you to keep up with special events for church members (birthdays, anniversaries, new babies, etc.) It is one of the first places where you can learn about prayer requests from your members simply based on their status updates It gives you a way to communicate to your members how they can pray for you simply based on your status updates It helps preachers better understand what motivates or interests their members It will help pastors seem more "real" to their members as they share photos, video...

I am certain that every music pastor has experienced "constructive criticisms" from their senior pastor. You may have even received it from other pastors on staff. And I am positive that you have received it from church members. We tend to get a lot of this because music is a very subjective area. Everyone has their opinions about the music that they enjoy and would prefer to hear. I know that other ministry positions get just as much "constructive criticisms" from church members. I have heard everything from "you need to get somebody to clean that restroom" said to the Children's pastor to the typical "why do you preach so much about tithing" said to the senior pastor. That is all part of being in the ministry. I can handle the complaints, criticisms and even compliments because I know that I pray about what God wants and that is what we do. I do not try to please the senior pastor or the casual attender when planning worship. I usually do n...

This past week the boys and I went to Royal Ambassadors (RA) Camp. Ashton served as a Counselor in Training (CIT) for the first time. This was a big step for him (and us). For those who do not know, both of our boys have Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism) and ADHD. The RA director for our church spoke with me prior to the camp and made arrangements to have him stay in the cabin with me even though the CITs usually sleep in a separate cabin from the rest of the campers. My main concern, since Ashton cannot take his meds on his own, was that he would have to wait until breakfast to get his meds several hours after he was supposed to be up doing his work. We actually ended up with three CITs from our church who slept in the regular cabins in order to help the counselors as needed. Ashton's main job was to help with archery. He helped set-up the targets, brought out the bows and arrows, handed out arrows to archers, gave instructions (bows up, fire at will, bows down, retr...

Twitter’s down, what can I do I cannot share updates with you I hope it is a simple glitch And it returns without a hitch With Twitter down, facebook lags but they don’t use cool #hashtags Guess my thoughts will stay my own No, wait, I still have my cell phone.

We have all heard this saying at least once in our life. We may have used it ourselves at some point in desperation. But does it ever work? Of course not. Telling your child not to drink alcohol while you are sipping on a Margaretta is ridiculous. Even young children are able to see the hypocrisy involved in such a statement. Now understand that the Bible only tells us that drunkenness, not drinking, is a sin, but the issue here is what we are teaching our children. Children learn from an early age that there are different rules for adults and children. Most children understand that they are not allowed to cross the road without permission, or that they cannot have coffee, or that they must go to bed earlier than we do. They often look forward to the day when they will be old enough to stray further from home, drink coffee and stay up all night if they want. But think of the other things you do that may be influencing them as well. Statistically children who smoke or drink underage had...

Posted for Fred McKinnon's Sunday Set List I really enjoyed our worship time today. It was a more intimate worship time. We had only about half of our band present (drums, piano, bass and acoustic) present. We normally have some woodwinds, keyboard and lead guitar as well. We also had only 3 singers, normally we use 5. Not sure that all of the songs went with the sermon on faith (our senior pastor was out this week), but "Jesus Messiah" was mentioned during the sermon as the pastor shared the main theme of his study in Romans: "Jesus is Best." Beautiful One in C Everlasting God in B flat Lord, I Lift Your Name on High in G major (fast version) Jesus Messiah in B (our first time to sing this one) Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) in E flat (quite a difference in keys, but I separated by a short prayer before we started) Shout to the Lord we do this about 6-7 times a year and I cannot remember what key we used--it does change keys near end. Children’s Sermo...