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Pioneers and Pirates
When the girls were young, the three of us took road trips over the Father’s Day week-end. We never made plans. We just headed out in a direction they chose and stopped when we got somewhere interesting. One year, we wound up in Natchez, Mississippi. Forgetting how much I love the history of a place they ended up with me on a double decker bus tour seeing all the grand homes, getting a feel for the history of Natchez and how it developed from a small huddle of tents on a riverbank in the 1700’s to become by 1850 the home of fully half the millionaires in the United States. …
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Jeremiah 2-6
This morning we are going to look at three basic things. In these chapters Jeremiah addresses three conditions of the people. The first is God says you are worthless. In the second you are faithless. In the third you are shameless. What does it mean to be worthless from God’s perspective? It is a tragic indictment of people who began with such promise. The word is repeated many times in Scripture to describe what happens when people follow after worthless things. They become worthless themselves. All the weight, the substance and the value has gone away and the people have become hollow. You know what cavitation is? It is part…
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Feed The Beast
If you read “Cyrano de Bergerac” in school you may remember the pact between the misshapen poet Cyrano and the dashing young military man, Christian, who were both in love with the same woman, Roxanne. The handsome soldier was incapable of speaking his love as he was tongue-tied and clumsy with words while the ugly poet, Cyrano, was gifted with romantic language. By Christian using the words composed by his comrade standing in the shadows, together they would win the heart of the young maiden. But the result is deceit, confusion and eventual tragedy. There are good reasons greeting cards are a $19 billion industry assisting those of us who…
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Duet
Almost ten years ago, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga released “Cheek to Cheek,” their album of jazz duets. Bennett’s controlled, classy (always a coat and tie) appearance matched with Lady Gaga’s ever-changing and audacious persona would seem to be a formula for failure but it worked beautifully. Bennett later remarked that the key to a good duet is contrast along with quality material and voices that complement each other. As well, they had developed a friendship two years before that led them to want to work together on the project. It was a stretch, but two soloists found complementary partners to create a best-selling album. For some reason, listening to…
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Farewell
Several of my friends are beginning to say “farewell” to careers. It’s hard to believe. I know for many retirement is not an issue and they will be finding something productive and challenging for the next several years. Nonetheless, for everyone it is a change and a transition. Not only are they saying farewell to work but to friends, clients, customers, donors, and people that have helped define them for so many years. The entire rhythm of life is interrupted. For some, it comes as a shock and they are unprepared. Unfortunately, many of these experience failing health, personal disintegration, and even death shortly afterwards. In losing the why to live…
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Korah’s Rebellion
Two weeks ago we looked at Numbers 11 and the uprising of the rabble against Moses to complain about the lack of variety in the food. Between then and now there have been two more rebellions – first from Miriam, his sister, and Aaron, his brother the high priest. As well, ten of the twelve men who explore Canaan come back with reports of giants in the land and the impossibility of their taking it. In Chapter 14 the people rebel and want to choose a leader who will take them back to Egypt. They wanted to choose a leader who could take them backwards. In response, God declares that…
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Christian Philanthropy Futures
In 2015, I wrote a blog titled, “This Is War” and the position I wanted to refute was Christian advisors, community foundations and organizations promoting the perspective that leaving wealth to children was not in the best interests of the parents or the children. This was a common quote: “Leaving children with wealth is like leaving them a case of psychological cancer.” You could not trust your children or you loved them too much to make them wealthy so it would be better to leave the money to an organization that could be trusted or establish a firm sunset for the foundation. Anyone but your children. No one ever…
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Numbers 11: The Rabble
At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle a long time, the Israelites obeyed the LORD’s order and did not set out. Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days; at the LORD’s command they would encamp, and then at his command they would set out. Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they set out. Whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud lifted, they set out. Whether the cloud…
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Jumpin’ Til The Break Of Dawn
The song is so old that you cannot find the lyrics online, but in 1965 “Spider John” Koerner wrote and recorded Rent Party Rag on his first solo album. The gist of it was a story about what to do when you don’t have enough money to pay the rent. You get a barrel of beer, lots of food and some music. You tell the musicians, “I’m gonna feed you and let you drink for nothin’ and then you are “jumpin’ til the break of dawn.” You charge everyone a little to come and you have enough left over to pay your rent for the month. So simple! I’ve been…
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Like Hair in a Biscuit
The Kentucky River winds past Port Royal in Henry County and Wendell’s farm before it empties into the Ohio River below Cincinnati where I grew up. It was downstream in my life when I was first introduced to Wendell’s work and without our ever meeting in person his work has been a part of my life and work ever since. All of us have origins or we can call them headwaters. We come from someplace. We have a place of beginning. It may be a spot on a map or something that from the start has defined the way we look at life. I think Wendell’s headwater is love. Not…
