A while back I learned an acronym about something that we should do regularly, “STOP”. The elements of the STOP acronym are to sit, think, organize, and plan. The author who was talking about this acronym said that much of what goes wrong in our live could possibly be traced to not “STOPping” or rushing…

When I was on my vicarage (internship) at First Lutheran in Gainesville, FL, I noticed something that had been produced by my predecessor, Vicar Matt. Matt made a magnet with the University of Florida football schedule on it, which he then used to hand out at tabling events. Now, some 15 years later, I just…

Recently, my 6 year old has taken to showing off her reading skills by reading road signs as we traverse from place to place on a road trip. I ask her to look out for certain signs to be helpful and to read certain signs when they come up. As she does, she inevitably misses…

The Fourth of July is coming up this coming Sunday. We have recently started calling this holiday simply “The 4th of July” but it’s proper name is “Independence Day” as we celebrate our independence of our country from Britain on this day. As a nation, we wrote this thing called the “Declaration of Independence” which…

This past Monday was the first day of summer. June 21, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, is also the first day of summer. (I know this because Professor Fuelberg told me so during Bible study this past Sunday.) From here on out, the days will get shorter as we approach the…

It happens every time we plan on leaving for some kind of vacation — the increasing of the already hurried pace of trying to get things done, make sure details are cleared, and communications made. And every time there is a moment, sometimes a short one and sometimes a long one, where I think to…

Last week one of our students, Kristin, reached out to me and said, “Hey, I’m leading a Bible study at my church over the summer and they would like to talk about purgatory, do you have any good resources?” I looked, but I didn’t find anything that I liked at first (of course, after looking…

In 1951, a book by an unknown writer hit the shelves of bookstores throughout the United States. That book started off with the line, “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my…

If you stop for just a moment and close your eyes, you might find yourself hearing things that you didn’t initially realize were there. Maybe it’s a song bird in the background. Maybe it’s how loud that bass line sounds when you listen to it on those speakers or head phones. Maybe it’s being able…