The Pastor's Perspective

    Back in the early 1930's there was a sheep rancher in the remote mountains of Idaho who loved to play his violin and listen to the radio. He loved to listen to one of the only stations that would come through clearly, which was located in California. He would try to play some of those songs on the radio, and sometimes try to accompany them from time to time. It was a source of great joy for the rancher.      As the rancher played his violin, the violin started to become out of tune and no longer sounded the way it should. He tried to fix it time and time again but it was always either a little to sharp or a little to flat. He had no way of getting his violin in tune because he did not have a tuning fork with that correct pitch.      As the rancher thought about his dilemma a thought occurred to him. Perhaps this radio station in California might be able to help him out. So he sat down and wrote a letter to the radio station, informing them of ...

    I believe that many of us love to be in control. No I don't mean to be a boss or own a company per say. What I mean is simply this, all of us want to feel like we have a say in what happens with our lives. We want to manage our own life and think that we can make our own decisions. We don't like it when we are told what to do, or even worse we are told what we have to do. However, if are made to feel like it is our idea, not only will we do it, but we will do it putting all of our energy to it. Why? because we like to feel like it was our idea, our decision. We want to be in control.      Nothing has taught this better than my experiences with teaching my two daughters how to drive a car. To be forced to sit in that passenger seat with no breaks, no steering wheel has stretched both my faith, and challenged my patience. There has been many times as my daughters have started to learn to drive that I have pumped the imaginary breaks on my side of the car....

     Some years ago there was a counselor on the first night of church camp who was about to shut off the lights to the boy's cabin. However as the camp counselor went to shut off the light one of boy's screamed out "NO, DON'T TURN OFF THE LIGHT!!"      The counselor was startled and asked the boy if he was scared of the dark. The young camper said, "No." "Well why don't you want the lights turned off them" the counselor asked. The boy replied "I don't want to the killer rabbits to kill me" When the boy said that there were several boys in the cabin that started snickering, because it turned out that the other boys had tried to scare this boy and told him that at night there are killer bunny's that come into the cabin when the lights are turned off.      That boy was scared, but being fearful is not just for children. There are a lot of people today that live in fear. There are moments in our lives when we can become worri...

    A couple of years back I had done something I have never done in my life. I replaced a thermostat at the church.     Now I had installed other things in the past, things like a new light fixture, or setting up a new TV. If those past experiences taught me anything, it taught me that the first thing I need to do is grab the instructions. Yes it has taken me nearly 40 years of my life to learn that lesson, but I have finally learned that it is better to read the instructions instead of trying to figure things out my self.      So that is what I did before I tried to figure out by trail and error how to put the thermostats in. I took a little time to read the instructions.      Now everything went fairly smoothly as I recall that is until I came to a problem. There was one thermostat that was giving me some problems. I had wired it just like the others and I had checked and rechecked what I had done with the instructions I was given. Ho...

     Someone once asked an elderly Christian woman what her favorite scripture was.  Without hesitation the elderly woman said "It came to pass". The person responded 'Out of all the passages of scripture why that one?"  She smiled and said "Because it does not say it came to stay"      There are some days so wonderful and so joyful that you wish time would stand still just a little longer. There are moments in life you wish you could return to, or repeat because they were wonderful experience's in you life.      A few Sunday's ago me and my wife went out and ate at Cracker barrel and beside us was a family with a small child. The mother laid out a place mat for the child and put a bib around his neck. The mother gave the boy some mashed potatoes and a hand full of cheerios.     Both me and my wife were reminded of when our children were that age. We remember with fondness of how cute our kids were when they were that litt...