When my grandfather was growing up -- in the Depression Era -- his father (my great-grandfather, of course) had polio, which left him crippled. He was a farmer, so being crippled was obviously a great hardship. (Somewhere, years ago, I remember seeing an old, old video of my great-grandfather feeding the chickens on his hands and knees).

One of the consequences of my great-grandfather's polio was that my grandfather had to take on a great deal of the responsibility for making the farm run. A heavy responsibility, and a lot of hard work. I'm sure that his work ethic was...

In 5:20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.2 Corinthians 5:20 Paul writes, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us."

An ambassador is a representative of their homeland, king, or president. Christ was an ambassador of the Father, and he represented His Father both by speaking the words of the Father ("...the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me." 14:24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.John 14:24) and doing the works of the Father ("...the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me." 5:36But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.John 5:36).

In the same way we are ambassadors of Christ, and we must...

Last fall my friends Ben and Melissa added a baby to their family. I was excited for the news, and waited impatiently for the day they would invite me to come see the little girl. As we were sitting around chatting, and watching the baby doing baby-ish things (that is to say, not much of anything but make faces and noises). Ben said, "Do you want to hold her?"

I said, "Well, yeah!"

I have to admit, it had been a long time since I'd held a newborn in my arms; most of my friends have passed the age when...

I was recently reading John 13, and it occurred to me that maybe I've been taught this passage incorrectly all my life.

It seems as though I grew up with the notion that there was a servant who traditionally came and did the washing of the feet, and that for some reason or another, this servant never showed up.

It seems as though I grew up with the notion that the disciples sat looking at one another with expressions of disdain, wondering which of them would choose to take on the job of that servant, and that Jesus, seeing that...

Recently I saw something that reminded me of the importance of having roots that go down deep: a toppled tree with very shallow roots.

On top of North Sugarloaf Mountain in New Hampshire, the trees can't put down their roots very deep...presumably because the soil is so rocky. There's probably a granite slab a couple feet under the soil. The result is that instead of putting down deep roots, the tree's roots spread out just under the surface.

When the high winds come (and believe me, they get very high winds in the White Mountains!), even though the tree is...

If you've been following the content of this site for very long, you've probably noticed by now some of my hobbies, because I do write about them from time to time. I like to play the violin and the guitar. I like to climb mountains. And I like to to paint.

Interestingly, each one of these hobbies has, in some way, changed the way I view the world.

Because I like to play music, whenever I hear music, I don't just sing along with it, I notice how it is structured. I notice the timing, the bass line, the percussion,...

Recently I had a chance to visit with Nate, a young man who used to travel with me and run my sound system when I went out to preach, sing, and do ventriloquism. We were reminiscing about some of the things that used to happen when we were "on the road" together, and we recalled that it was not uncommon for people to say to Nate, "We sure do appreciate you and your dad coming today."

To which Nate would reply, "He's not my dad."

Frankly, I never saw much resemblance between us, and since I was only thirteen years...

Just for fun, let's begin today with a short test of your eye-brain coordination. Ready?

Take a look at the image shown here, which is just a tiny snippet of a photograph I took recently. What do you think it is?

Keep thinking (and no fair scrolling down too far while you think!)

Okay. Did you guess that this is a close-up of a bit of sky? Or maybe the ocean? If you guessed either of those things, you were wrong.

Actually, that is a close-up of a snowy field. Amazing, isn't it? Who knew that snow was so dark...

This morning I went out snowshoeing. Because we've had a mixture of snow, rain, and freezing rain recently, there were stretches of my trek where the rain had washed down the hill, forming a smooth sheet of ice on an uphill grade.

Now, if I hadn't been wearing my snowshoes, I would have found it just about impossible to make it up that slope without sliding backwards two feet for every foot I moved forward.

But my snowshoes have vicious-looking sawtooth crampons on the bottom, that do a great job of digging into the ice and giving me the traction...

Today as I was driving from South Paris, Maine to Gray, Maine, I was thinking about how much more enjoyable the drive is, now that all the road work has been completed. Back before all the road construction, if I needed to go from South Paris to Gray, it seemed as though the drive took forever. The road twisted and turned around every little hill and obstacle along the way. Now it's much different, and much nicer. 

Why do you suppose the road used to make all those twists and turns? A good guess might be that the original road...