Thursday Thought

I do not like what COVID has done to eating out. Apart from some upscale restaurants serving thirty-dollar steaks with baked potatoes for an additional ten bucks, almost nobody wants you in their space these days. Fast food restaurants no longer wish to be restaurants. They've become food factories: Get in line, pay in line, leave the line. Here’s what I’ve experienced in restaurants after COVID—and maybe you can relate. They don’t want your face. Sure, their doors are open, but their hearts aren't. Fast food places act like you've shoved a tire iron in the spokes of their wheel merely…

As I write this, snow is falling—enough white stuff to make me fire up the snowblower snoozing in my garage. Now, you might be a warm weather worshipper, but to me, a walk in the snow is one of God’s great gifts. Still, as I walk, I'm constantly amazed at how quickly the pure white blanket is stained. Scarcely has the snow landed when a car spews black exhaust on it or a muddy boot stomps its dirt. To say nothing of dogs who pause long enough to…well, you get the idea. Where are we going with this? As followers…

When asked if Jesus “will return to Earth someday," a Pew Research poll finds: 55% of all U.S. adults say this will happen. 86% of historically Black church traditions agree. 92% of evangelicals believe in Jesus' Second coming. The same Pew research poll shows: 25% of Americans do not believe Jesus will return to Earth. 16% say they do not believe in Jesus. I have news for you. Whether or not ANYONE believes it—Jesus is coming back to Earth! David Jeremiah points out that scholars have identified 1,845 unique biblical references to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Old…

Until you have messed up and fully understood the mess you've made, you can't appreciate the wonder of mercy. Last Sunday, our church orchestra accompanied the congregation, singing In the First Light. While the lyrics and melody are powerful, the arrangement—created by our minister of music, Dennis Criser—is profound. Our rehearsal went well, and afterward, I put my French Horn down and jaunted over to Dennis to let him know how much I appreciated the creativity that went into his work. Then came the actual Sunday morning performance. Dennis wrote the French Horn part in an easy key—just one flat….

While babysitting Ava and Emma recently, Emma trotted into the living room bearing two dolls—and an announcement: “This is Anna and Elsa—but they lost their legs.” It was hard not to giggle at how this four-year-old crammed facts and fate into one tragic sentence. However, upon further examination, Emma's assessment proved reliable. The lead characters of Disney's Frozen franchise were decked out in their movie finest—but lacked legs. All of them. The sight of the dolls’ (plastic) smiles, despite their mangled condition, felt odd. At my wife Diana’s encouragement, the girls dug through their dolly collection and found some of…

  At the age of 99, Chuck Christensen is one of the best listeners you could ever meet. After every sentence you utter, he offers an affirming response. When you talk, he makes unfailing eye contact. He nods in empathy, asks clarifying questions, and leans forward—as if to support you. He's the only human being I've ever met whose "Hmm…" feels like a comforting hand on your sagging shoulders. Were your conversation recorded, stop-watched, and displayed as a pie chart, your half of that talk would invariably be larger than his. Always. Like me, you’re probably guilty of “listening” while…

“How did your church’s outreach event go?” I asked my friend Jack. “Went well—once it got started. The guy who rented us the equipment showed up 30 minutes late and took another 20 minutes to set up. So we had fifty people roaming the halls at church waiting for an event that started almost an hour late.” “Not cool.” “Not at all. I felt sick—like instead of hosting our guests, we’d given them a black eye.” “Isn’t that a little harsh, Jack?” “Maybe. But inside, I was seething—and I was blunt with the installation guy. Not over the top, but…

The lights are on, but nobody’s home. Okay, it’s not exactly a house—it’s a restaurant. Or at least it was. A while back, a team with a dream took a long look at a cavernous bar with a concrete floor. In its place, they envisioned a killer French restaurant. It would be the crown jewel of eateries in Chicago’s River North community. But the dream would take a significant investment. For about a year, I watched truckloads of contractors pouring in and out of the old bar. They cored through the cement, reworked the electricity, curved the drywall, hung new…

If you are a little child visiting our home, you can expect a warm welcome and a horsey ride. We will gladly sit down and play your favorite game or laugh at your favorite joke. Truthfully, you can probably even expect a yes to your snack request. As I often explain to friends, it's not that we never say no, it's just that we work real hard to say yes! But there are a few things we will not tolerate: children who refuse to say please and thank you. We demand it. Insist on it. In our experience, unless you…

On November 21, 1948, a tall preacher with a North Carolina drawl stood in the pulpit at the Van Orin Gospel church. It’s a small chapel in a small town surrounded by other small Illinois towns like Green Oak, Kasbeer, and Zearing. The preacher could never have known that just one year later, he would speak to 350,000 people in his Los Angeles crusade. If you visit the Van Orin Gospel church, as we did this week, you’ll see the plaque and pulpit that recall Billy Graham’s appearance. But they bring a question to mind. Before Billy Graham was Billy…