It was a time of high anxiety, uncertainty, persecution, and turmoil. That was what life was like when people and Jesus climbed these steps to the Temple Mount. I learned, when I went to Israel, and took this picture, the custom was to recite from Psalms the “songs of Ascents.” You can find these in …
Tag: Joy
What Could It Be?
A gift comes with many questions. “What is it?” “Is it something I want?” “Did I give the person a gift of equal or greater value?", “What if I don’t want the gift?” and on and on. But gifts, those special gifts that touch your heart…the gift that will last a lifetime are directly connected …
Stuck!
This is a familiar situation on a rice farm at harvest. The field is soft from standing in water most of the summer. Many fields have soft spots. As a young lad growing up on my dad’s rice farm, I stuck a few tractors. But never like this. Never! Dad didn’t find anything funny about …
“Joy”
It won’t be long before we will be singing this well-known Christmas carol,” Joy To The World” I found this to be interesting on Google. “The popular carol "Joy to the World" was written by Isaac Watts, who penned the lyrics in 1719 as a poetic paraphrase of Psalm 98…and was originally written to celebrate …
“Question Bearing On Need”
This is one of the fundamental Principles taught in the Dale Carnegie Sales Course. It’s the question that gives the conversation focus. It’s the question that must be satisfied. What kind of questions are you chasing an answer for? I remember the lonely nights in college (1965-68), driving gravel roads thinking and talking to myself. …
“Look It Up.”
As with any young lad, I had questions. But the response I really didn’t like was, “Go look it up.” First, I found libraries too warm and stuffy. They put me to sleep. Second, the Dewey Decimal System was too much like a jigsaw puzzle, I just wanted an answer with the least amount of …
Happy?
Being happy is much like the helium gas that once inflated this “Happy” balloon. We fill our life-balloon with, “if only.” “If only… (I get this job, new car, get invited, pass this exam, meet this person, take this trip, win this game, get this award and on & on). The interesting thing about the …
“Where Are The Pickles?”
Do you see the pickles? If you are a married man, this is a default question that seems to just roll out of our mouths. As soon as the words leave my lips, my wife of 50 awesome years, will walk over… and like a surgeon snatch the pickles right from where I was looking. …
Where Are You Going?
One of the greatest life differences I recognize since I have retired is…I see things I never noticed before. When I worked, I worked. I woke up working and went to sleep working. I was addicted to multiple tasks, “get ’er done,” BUSY! For years I wore “Busy” as a badge of honor & prestige. …
“What Are You Fishing With?”
I’m not the best fisherman. In fact, I have several fishing stories about not catching fish while being with guys, and grandchildren, who do. One time a friend, after catching a bunch of slab crappie said, “let’s trade rigs,” you guessed it, he caught fish on my rig and his rig went silent, I like …