Presby-Musings

The last few weeks have been pretty lousy.   The world around us seems to be going to hell in a hand basket.   My mom died.   A pipe broke under our house, which will cost a zillion dollars to fix.  Our car is in need of repair.   My oldest son's college tuition is due.   Our dog had a freak accident and dislocated his knee cap and needs surgery.   And on top of everything else that has been happening in my life--I caught a nasty cold.   I should not have been surprised at this considering the fact that my two youngest kids were deathly ill last week, but I thought I'd escaped unscathed.   Someone told me yesterday, "That sounds like a bad country song." I couldn't agree more.  Last week, during the class I am teaching on the book of Romans, I read out loud the following verse:   "...we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces persever...

When I was in middle school, my family attended a small independent, fundamentalist Baptist church in Colorado. I remember the pastor as a fairly likable guy. He was quick with a smile, always wore cowboy boots, and kind of looked like Elvis.  But when he got into the pulpit, it was like an evil spirit would come over him.  I have a memory of listening to a recording of one of his sermons once.  I can't recall the context, but I distinctly remember a portion of what he shouted at the top of his lungs.   "YOU'RE EVIL!  YOU'RE ROTTEN TO THE CORE!  YOUR MOUTH IS EVIL!  YOUR TEETH ARE EVIL!  YOUR TONGUE IS EVIL!"   Needless to say, we didn't stay at that church very long.  You can only take so much of that kind of stuff and it starts to wear on you.   My former pastor was convinced that the true nature of humanity was corrupt and terrible.  It informed every aspect of his life, and drove him to be an angry, judgmental, se...