A few weeks ago, there was a group of us that were standing around near the front of our auditorium and talking after our Sunday morning worship at West Side. Within that group was one of our young families with two small children, the younger of whom was wandering around but thinking very intently about something. He disappeared for a few minutes and then, very suddenly, appeared with a booklet in his hand in the middle of our group. With a semi-stern look on his face, he waited for a minute, tugged on my friend KT’s shirt sleeve, and asked politely but very pointedly: “Ya want a sticker?” KT laughed…

I’m not sure that I can think of a sport (at least one that I follow) that has exactly the same rules in place that were in place when I was growing up. Before some smart aleck suggests that the only sports that existed when I was growing up were the original Olympic Games, I can assure that this is not the case! There are a variety of reasons for changes in the rules for certain sports. Sometimes, those reasons involve concern for the safety and protection of the participants. Maybe there is an effort to speed up the game, to make the event more exciting, to include more participants,…

The word “tolerance” has certainly come into wide use in recent years. We are told that we have to be tolerant of any number of things. Even if you do not agree with something, you just have to tolerate it. After all, to do any less just is not a Christian attitude. We can set that aside very quickly by pointing out that Jesus did not tolerate anything and everything. He clearly condemned religious bigotry. He told people that they had sinned. He even taught in such a way–via parables–that some would understand and some would not. But I want to go down a different road. Maybe by now I…