New Year’s Day Reflections—or The Eighth Day of Christmas
January 1, 2016 By 2 Comments

New Year’s Day Reflections—or The Eighth Day of Christmas

I woke up today with an odd assortment of things running through my heart and mind. Thankfully, my vow to abstain from alcohol gives me a wondering spirit instead of a hangover on this New Year’s Day. But I must confess that the numbing effect of alcohol might be preferred to full consciousness when it comes to a fresh tragedy.

Yesterday, one of our Trevecca professors lost a grandson. Marvin’s daughter, son-in-law, and twin boys were sitting still at a stop sign on a city street when a vehicle driven by an 82-year-old woman plowed into them from behind going 90. One of the twin boys, age 6, was killed and the other is in serious condition. The surviving twin has autism.

Both parents are in the hospital with serious injuries. Marvin lost his wife to a long cancer battle a couple of years ago. Yesterday he lost a grandson. We talked about his journey through Advent and Christmas in the church parking lot a couple of weeks ago. He said the music was helping him this year. And now this. I know few finer men than Marvin. I ache in ways that can only pray in groans.

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The Big Idea I’ll Be Working On In 2015: Reduce College Student Debt
January 6, 2015 By 5 Comments

The Big Idea I’ll Be Working On In 2015: Reduce College Student Debt

I suppose universities can make New Year’s resolutions. So here’s mine for Trevecca Nazarene University in 2015.

I resolve to find a way to reduce the debt of graduating students at Trevecca while simultaneously reducing the growing cost of unfunded aid to students.

Our students graduate with an average debt of about $21,000. This means some have more, some have less, and some have none. I could write about how this $21,000 is similar to the cost of a good used car, which will decrease in value the minute they drive it off the lot—while their investment in a college degree will repay itself about 47.6 times across the next 40 years.  I’d invest in a proven return like this every day. But my resolve is to drive this average debt number into the teens and find a way to keep it there or lower.

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Growing Kids Who Embrace The Christian Faith
December 30, 2014 By Leave a Comment

Growing Kids Who Embrace The Christian Faith

As Advent goes, we get Jesus in a manger and Mary pondering these things in her heart. And the next thing we know, Christmas is put away for next year and Jesus is thirty years old being baptized in the Jordan. From baby to grown man in a week of biblical texts.

As you’re taking down the tree and lights and looking ahead to a new year, once again consider Jesus. Luke 2:21-52 invites us to slow down and look into the Jewish world of religious ceremony and observance of the law—practices that began to form the young boy Jesus. Luke writes about circumcision, purification, dedication, naming, consecration, and ceremonial festivals. All of these rituals are packed into one text. Jesus grew up in the context of religious practices.

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2014: God Is In Our Future
January 2, 2014 By Leave a Comment

2014: God Is In Our Future

Resolutions that make a difference in our life rise from resolve – that deep down determination not to throw the towel in the ring when it comes to tomorrow. When the past becomes the concrete that fixes our feet in yesterday’s decisions, we are done. We will live looking backward and not into God’s tomorrow.

But if God is located in our future, coming towards us from that future, and creating tomorrow, then the resolve to walk expectantly into that future is a very Christian thing to do. The problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that they most often depend totally on us: our wishes and wants, our desires and disciplines, our power and perseverance, which are not to be sneezed at. These can carry us quite a distance if they are superior to the other humans with which our efforts are compared.

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