Serve by Design

Last Sunday, I attended the Unity Church in Vandalia on the occasion of its 125th Anniversary. Unity came about when First Baptist and Temple Baptist Churches merged in 2015. It was a reuniting of two churches that had originally been the same congregation in 1894! Temple (previously, Edwards Street in 1940 and later Second Baptist) have once again become one... Unity Baptist! Their pastor, Robert Weaver, stated the obvious, "You don't hear too much about this kind of thing in Baptist life where there is a merger and it is successful!" This one seems to be working just fine! During the anniversary celebration, I was able to connect with several older adults who had been instrumental in nurturing my faith as an adolescent and young adult. I was able to write about this in the book of memories that was distributed at the event. In that piece I told how blessed I was to call First Baptist, Vandalia, my home church during those years between 1963 and 1977. I was baptized ...

September 13th was a Harvest Moon in the Northern Hemisphere. A Harvest Moon is the closest moon to the autumn equinox which "falls" (pun intended!) on Monday, September 23.  The next one falling on Friday the 13th will be in thirty years in August 2049. These calendar oddities are rare to see in one's lifetime! The last Friday the 13th Harvest Moon was on October 13, 2000. I tried for two nights to capture the unique beauty of this Harvest Moon without success. Actually, no picture does this justice. I think it is best to view this phenomenon with the naked eye! Monique and I were riding home last Friday evening from Lincoln and repeatedly looked left and right as we traveled south to Sherman. In the eastern sky, there was emerging an extra large Harvest Moon in all of its golden wonder. Then, looking to the horizon in the west at the same time, we enjoyed a beautiful and expansive dark orange light show in the pre-fall sunset. It was another convergence of God's h...

I think it is another sign of advancing age that we begin to reach beyond the"best by date" on a gallon of milk! I used to be horrified when my mother would drag out the breakfast milk and the date on it had expired the week before. I would say, "Mom! Do you realize that the date on this milk expired a week ago?" And without a direct answer she would state the obvious, "Your dad and I just don't drink milk like we used to!" I may have mumbled, "You think?!" Now that I am retired and on Medicare, I have picked up the same habit of trying to stretch beyond the "best by dates" as far as I reasonably can! I have read around this subject using my computer "search engine" over the years, especially when we take obligatory pantry or refrigerator inventory on occasions. I am more apt to use a canned good that has expired its "best by date" than I am a salad dressing that has been languishing in the fridge for so long...