Project 320 is not only about calling a pastor and looking at the possibility of a school but also working towards a greater involvement of volunteers and participants in the ministries that we offer.

I have a problem with golf shirts. As in I have too many. As in I have more golf shirts than, well, not than wheat fields in Kansas, but you know where I’m going. It all started when I began volunteering as a gallery marshal for the Fedex-St. Jude Classic in Memphis, TN.

Sin is a big deal. Not because our actions are wrong but because our actions do God wrong. It is personal. It is offensive to the one who loves us and has given us everything from life, redemption, mercy and ongoing kindness every day.

Who around you needs encouraging? Who’s facing a challenge they’ve never encountered before?  Could use a crazy knee-highed sock fan shouting their name? Cheering doesn’t cost anything. Simple heartfelt words desiring the best for someone. Seeing the best in them.

There in the corner where the top of pillar meets the roof supports is an exposed ledge. A bird was trying to build its nest there. I don’t want a bird’s nest where people enter the house.

What about the prayers that go differently than requested? What about the times in our lives that the good things that we have prayed for don’t happen and in fact the exact opposite has happened?

Bind weed is a vine that wraps around everything it grows near. I think it got its name from binding up thrashers and combines during harvest or just because it binds itself to other plants and structures.

Last week a word from 1 Thessalonians 3 caught my attention. You may remember it –the word “rapidly.” At this writing it’s a word from 1 Thessalonians 4. It is on the other end of the spectrum – quiet.

It’s easy to forget that Jesus grew up in family and they had their own ideas about Jesus just like we have our opinions about our own siblings. Jesus was the eldest in the family and while we do not have any recorded family conversations you can tell from two recorded encounters that it must have been difficult for Jesus. He obviously loved his family and took good care of his mother even as he was dying on the cross, but families are a different dynamic than friends, students and the general public.

In a culture where time and change move at warp speed we treasure slow times with family and nature. We sense that slowing is healthy. It brings clarity and direction.