My advice to you when looking for a pet is to go to an animal shelter instead of a breeder. While I do applaud breeders for what they do, there are also many many animals at shelters who need your love just as much, some of whom are at risk of being euthanized if someone doesn’t take a chance on them.

I speak from experience. I was rescued at an animal shelter by a tiny little tortie who literally reached out her paw through the cage bars and picked me to be her human only days after my previous cat had passed away.

You will never know a more loyal, more affectionate, more loving pet than a rescue pet. Sometimes it may take time and patience with the ones that were previously mistreated and abused, but even they come around with enough compassionate love. I’ve seen that first hand as well.

Don’t just go for the kittens and puppies. You may find an older animal, even a senior dog or cat, who still has love to give to the right person. You will not regret

“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray” (Samuel Chadwick).

Lately, I’m starting to realize that praying without ceasing doesn’t always look like me on my knees in prayer for 3-4 hours straight. There’s no way I could keep my mind from wandering off in a thousand different directions in that span of time.

For me, praying without ceasing means that I’m offering up a quick prayer every time I feel an anxious thought or remember a friend in need or hear about a tragedy– or sometimes when an overwhelming sense of gratitude hits me.

I’ve been reading through The Valley of Vision, and those Puritan prayers could very well be my own most of the time. Sometimes, I will use the words of others for my prayers when I can’t find words of my own. Sometimes, I pray Scripture as it comes to mind.

If you wait until you can pray well to pray, you will never pray at all. Or only very little. Besides, God knows the need before you ask and hears you when all you have are groans and sighs too deep for words.

So pray, knowing that it is God’s delight to hear from His children, no matter how eloquent or wordless their prayers are.

I read something recently that really stuck with me. Basically, it said that unforgiveness is like holding onto red hot coals with the intention of throwing them at someone who hurt you– you end up being the only one who gets burned.

I also like the analogy that bitterness is drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Someone reading this needs to forgive someone. Not because the other person has shown signs of being sorry or even because they deserve it. Forgiveness releases the other person from the expectation that they can fix what they did wrong to hurt you, as one pastor put it. It also releases you from carrying a burden of bitterness.

Above all, we’re called to forgive because we’ve been forgiven of so much more. Jesus tells the parable of the servant who has just seen a million dollar debt cancelled and then immediately proceeds to harass another servant over who owes him $100.

The point is that anything anyone has ever done to us pales by far in comparison to what we’ve done to God, how we’ve spurned Him, and how we’ve continually rebelled against Him.

One of the key points of the Lord’s prayer is that we pray to God to forgive us our transgressions JUST AS we’ve forgiven those who’ve transgressed against us. If we refuse to forgive others, we can’t expect God to forgive us.

Only as we learn to receive God’s forgiveness and to forgive ourselves can we really and truly forgive others. It’s a supernatural power that can only come from above into a heart transformed by the love of Jesus.

God, give us forgiving hearts and help us to remember that you have forgiven us of so much. May we learn to that forgiveness is the true way to freedom not just for others but for ourselves.

I read these words recently and they resonated with me. People who say they don’t go to church because of hypocrites are themselves hypocrites. No one is perfect and does or says everything they intend or mean.

That doesn’t excuse the Christian for acting like the ones around him or her. Blending in and accommodating is not the gospel; showing a better way is.

One of my favorite artists, Rich Mullins, had some good insight into why he went to church:

“I remember, you know, you go to these parties on Saturday night and people would say, about 8:00 on Sunday morning ‘Whoa, I have to go – I gotta get to church!’

People would say, ‘Why do you want to go to church, all those hypocrites?’

And I say, ‘Look, why do I want to stay here with all you hypocrites?’

I never knew why going to church made you a hypocrite. They’d say because you go to church and you’re all ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ for two or three hours, and then you go home and sin. I’d say ‘exactly!’ For two or three hours you’re doing pretty good!

Maybe the problem isn’t that you go to church, maybe the problem is that you go home!

I never understood why going to church made you a hypocrite either, because nobody goes to church because they’re perfect. If you’ve got it all together, you don’t need to go. You can go jogging with all the other perfect people on Sunday morning

Every time you go to church, you’re confessing again to yourself, to your family, to the people you pass on the way there, to the people who will greet you there, that you don’t have it all together. And that you need their support. You need their direction. You need some accountability, you need some help.”

It’s that weird day that only comes once every four years. Happy February 29th, a. k. a. Leap Day!

It’s a reminder for me that I was very nearly a Leap Day baby way back in 1972. Had I been born 11 hours later, I’d be turning 12 instead of 48.

I guess that people with February 29 birthdays can either celebrate on February 28 or March 1 (or both), but it must be awkward not being able to celebrate on your actual birthday more than once every four years.

Then again, maybe most people don’t overthink things like this the way I probably would.

For me, it was day 2 of the birthday weekend. As always, I’m thankful for another year of life. I don’t take it for granted that I’ve made it this far when more and more people I know won’t get to celebrate old age (or in many cases, year 48).

Every year and every day I get is a gift. I’m thankful to God for every single one of them so far.

As for the birthday, it was so much fun that I should probably go ahead and have another around this time next year. Just not on February 29.

Today for my birthday, I was granted early parole from work. I hit up a couple of thrift stores and one of my favorite record shops and still managed to get home a bit earlier than usual.

I ended up stopping a couple of times in my subdivision while the school bus let out a group of students who were probably more than willing to escape the confines of the crowded vinyl seats.

I let my imagination wander for a bit and for a moment I could vaguely recall the freedom that came at the end of the school day. It was a world full of almost endless possibilities. Usually my afternoons involved Who’s the Boss and Growing Pains back to back, then homework.

But some days I’d give anything to go back to being a kid for a day. Sometimes I’m convinced that being grown-up is highly overrated and that adulthood is mostly wondering why you’re sore all over and wondering where the remote control went.

Still, I hope those kids today will have the same memories to look back on that I have. I hope they won’t be so eager to rush through childhood to get to being grown up or that they won’t spend their whole lives being in a hurry to get to the next activity or event or program or stage in life. I hope they have times where they get bored and are forced to learn how to cultivate their imaginations.

Above all, I hope they don’t wait to appreciate the fine art of taking a good nap.

I like to think that I have plenty of willpower. That is until I go to a Mexican restaurant and get anywhere near chips and salsa.

That’s when my willpower automatically goes from 88 miles per hour to zero in about five second flat. And flat is not what my belly looks like after all those salsa-drenched chips.

What other simple pleasure is there that never gets old quite like the standard chips and salsa? Especially since each place is a little different than all the rest. Some are more spicy. Some are more tomato-y. Some are sweeter and some are saltier.

I could probably go for days without so much as a thought of these chips and salsa, but put them in front of me and I’m done for. I’ve been known to ruin my appetite for the actual meal I ordered due to said chips and salsa. I need help.

But at least I’m not on drugs.

Today marks Ash Wednesday, the official start to the Lent season leading up to Easter Sunday.

For me, it’s the start of my yearly fast from social media.

I found this prayer by Henri Nouwen that echos the desire of my heart for 2020. May this Lent season not just be about giving up something for the sake of sacrifice, but making room in your heart, mind, and life to hear from God more clearly.

“The Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you, Lord, in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death.

I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.

I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are not times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.

Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life that you have prepared for me. 
Amen” (Henri Nouwen).

I’m still ruminating on what I heard this past Tuesday at Kairos. John Thomas, pastor of King of Kings Baptist Church and head of Living Hope in South Africa, spoke on healing.

He said that people will tell you that if you don’t receive the healing you prayed for, it’s because you don’t have enough faith or you have sin in your life. He called that idea rubbish, and I agree.

Healing in the Bible is always based not on the person’s faith but in God. God is always the author of healing. I’d say it’s not great faith in God that results in healing but faith in a great God. Besides, if the qualification for healing were sinlessness, we’d all be sunk.

I had one minor disagreement with John (and it was really a matter of semantics). He said that God doesn’t always heal. I say that God does– just not always in this lifetime.

The Apostle Paul speaks of a “thorn in the flesh” that he prayed for God to remove. It might have been a physical ailment or semi-blindness. The point is that God didn’t grant his request for healing. God responded that His power was perfected in Paul’s weakness.

Even if you do receive healing on this side of heaven, it’s incomplete. You still deal with the daily ailments and infirmities of growing old. Unless Jesus comes back soon, we will all eventually die. Even Lazarus got old, grew sick, and passed away again.

But God may choose to heal in heaven where the healing is complete and perfect. There is never again any sickness or pain or grief. There will never again be the disastrous effects of the broken and fallen world we live in.

I still pray for healing for those I love. I still believe that God can absolutely heal– whether instantly or over time or through medical science. Above all, I trust God’s ultimate plan as the best, no matter the outcome.

I know that illness will not have the last word. Pain won’t have the final say. Death is not the end for those whose hope is in Jesus.

I made it to Peter Davison’s turn as the Doctor. That makes the 5th doctor, which means that I am closer to the end of the classic series than the beginning.

I remember him from childhood as Tristan from the classic series All Creatures Great and Small. Back then, I had not even an inkling of what Doctor Who was.

Still, I love the concept that the Doctor can regenerated into an entirely new form and personality. That allows the show to continue when one actor decides to move on.

I also love how the companions come and go through out each Doctor’s tenure and tend to compliment him (and sometimes challenge him). Maybe I’m not picky enough, but I like ’em all.

The special effects are still nowhere near state of the art. Some of the acting (particularly from the villains) is way over the top. But there’s still something magical about it all.

Let the fun continue.