Live for the Truth

Terri Schiavo past away yesterday morning. I pray that she is in the presence of the Lord, looking down with forgiveness. Forgiveness toward her husband, if she hadn’t actually told him that she didn’t wish to be kept alive under those circumstances, and forgiveness toward this country for allowing her to slowly die for 13 days without food or water. I hope that those on the ‘other’ side of this issue don’t consider Terri’s death to be a victory. I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible for Terri’s death. I can’t explain how, I just feel that we have let her down. Much in the same way I feel responsible for Jesus’ death on the cross. It’s our fault that this country has gotten to where it is today. Don’t get me wrong; this is still the greatest country on Earth in which to live, but we are definitely headed in the wrong direction morally.

My pastor asked me if he could put my ‘Henry’ story on the church website, without identifying me as the author. Initially, I told him that I didn’t mind if he attached my name to the story. But having thought about it, I felt that some people in the church might want to ‘judge’ me because of my past. Should I feel this way? If a story like that can change the way one Christian looks at another, doesn’t that mean that one of them has some issues with their own Christianity?

We’ve all had to deal with it. We’ve all heard that ‘screaming kid’ during the service. Once, the preacher had to stop in the middle of the service and tell the congregation, “It’s just a crying baby. Surely you’ve all heard a baby cry before.” We have a relatively small congregation. We average about 60 people for the Sunday service. Of course, there were a lot more this past Easter Sunday. Some Sundays there are 7 to 10 kids in the nursery. Other Sundays there aren’t any. There are a few people who refuse to leave their kids, or grandkids, in the nursery at all, even if they should be. This past Sunday everyone had their kids all dressed up in their Easter attire. I guess, since the nursery was empty, that they wanted to ‘show off’ their cute children. While our pastor delivered one of his best services, there were kids screaming and hollering all through the service. I would think that I had them tuned out, when the elderly lady in front of me would break her neck to turn around and cast a dirty look in the direction of the unruly child. Which, in turn, would cause me to lose focus.
What is the proper way to address this issue? On one hand, if you say something to the parents about leaving their kids in the nursery, you’re liable to run them off. On the other hand, if you don’t say something, you’re liable to run someone off who is there to actually listen to the Word being preached.
I don’t recall my children every causing a disruption during the service. Is it wrong for me to expect other people to control their children, as to not interfere with my time of worship? But some of these people whose children are acting up appear to be the one’s who need to hear the Word more than I do. But can they actually get anything out of the service if they’re tending to their children the whole time?


The past two days I have managed to run – I use that term loosely – the seven-mile loop, along the back-roads near my home. I’m averaging a pace approximately 2.5 minutes PER MILE slower than I was just last November. It is at this point that I tell myself, “At least I’m able to run 7 miles.” But for some reason that doesn’t make me feel much better. I believe most people, with any reasonable amount of determination, are capable of running much farther than they think they can. Besides, I’ve seen 90+ year-old men run a full 26.2-mile marathon. I think my downfall late last year was mainly due to me setting much too lofty goals for myself. While I could find all the running calculators that told me I was ‘on schedule’, and people who would tell me what I wanted to hear, I think I was pushing myself, physically, way too hard. This time I think I’m going to take things a bit more slowly. I’m going to restrict my weekly mileage to approximately 35 miles per week, with one day of speed training and one day of rest. I plan on keeping this schedule throughout the spring and summer. Then, if things are going smoothly, I could possibly begin a 20-week training program for ‘The Rock’ in December. I’m going to take it one day at a time.