Rambling Pastor

  I Came Into This Room for Something Ramblings of a Small Church Pastor   I walked into the kitchen the other day with purpose. There was a mission, there was a plan, and there may have even been a slight sense of urgency. Then I got there and there was nothing. I stood in the middle of the kitchen like a man waiting for instructions from headquarters. Was I getting a drink or was I looking for my phone or maybe I was checking on dinner? So, naturally, I opened the refrigerator, because apparently, I believed whatever I have forgotten might be sitting behind the gallon of milk, but it wasn’t. But since I was already there, I felt obligated to investigate the leftovers.   Here is what bothers me: I cannot remember why I walked into the kitchen, but I can remember something somebody said on my favorite TV show in 1998. The exact words. Their tone of voice. Where they were standing. But ask me where I put my truck keys, and we need a search party. Ask me who h...

  My Phone Knows My Screen Time. Does God Know My Prayer Time?   My phone has developed a spiritual gift I did not ask it to have. Accountability. Every week, it sends me a screen time report. No encouragement. No explanation. Just cold, hard numbers describing how much of my life I spent staring at a glowing rectangle. It announced that my screen time was up 18 percent this week. Well, thank you, pocket-sized prophet. I was having a perfectly good day before you showed up.   Naturally, I start defending myself. Well, well, some of that was ministry, and some was answering messages, and some was checking the weather, because here in the U.P., you need to know which season to dress for between breakfast and lunch.   But some of it? I watched a man pressure-wash a driveway I will never visit. Apparently, I had to know how it turned out. And then a question interrupted my excuses: What if I received a weekly prayer time report? Would I be as surpri...

  My Spiritual Gift Might Be Overthinking   I've taken spiritual gift assessments before. You know the ones. They ask 1,000 questions to determine whether your gift is teaching, leadership, mercy, giving, administration, encouragement, or something else. But I think they forgot one. Overthinking.   If overthinking is a spiritual gift, I may be operating at an apostolic level. I can take a perfectly normal situation and, within fifteen minutes, develop seventeen possible outcomes, four backup plans, two emergency exit strategies, and one completely ridiculous scenario involving circumstances that have approximately a 0.0003% chance of actually happening.   Then I'll pray: “Lord, I'm giving this completely to You.” Amen. Very spiritual.   Then approximately seven minutes later: “Okay, Lord, I know I gave this to You, but I've been thinking…”   Apparently, I don't give God my problems. I loan them to Him. I hand them over with the under...

  Fearless It’s that time of year again.   The leaves change colors, pumpkin spice takes over the food supply, and somebody down the street puts a twelve-foot skeleton in their front yard.   I have questions about that skeleton. Mostly, where do you store him in January? Does he get his own bedroom? Do you buckle him into the passenger seat when you move?   Then Halloween arrives, and Christians begin our annual discussion about candy, costumes, and whether buying a bag of miniature Snickers requires a theological statement.   Some families participate. Some don’t. Some attend church events. Some turn off the porch light and spend the evening protecting the dog from the doorbell.   Faithful Christians make different decisions about the day. But whatever we decide about October 31, there is something we need to consider:   Are we letting fear shape the way we live?   In 2 Timothy 1:7, Paul reminds Timothy that God has ...