Whenever we go through difficulties and times of crisis, the mental task we must face is to make some kind of sense of what is happening to us. The human brain struggles with things that we cannot comprehend. I often refer to this mental phenomenon as “trying to make sense out of something that does not make sense.” We eagerly and often desperately seek out information from multiple people and sources. We seek out people to talk to. We read everything we can find on the subject. We turn to multiple media sources. We look to the “experts.” We look for something familiar that we have experienced or someone we know who has gone through something similar. We might even look up Bible verses. We look for a hero in all the ...

You’ve heard it said on television news or on one of the online news feeds, the “new normal.” What is meant by new normal is that because of the COVID19 pandemic, the way life is now is the way it will be in the future and there is no going back to the way things were. What’s wrong with that thinking? A lot. For one, no one but God knows the future. We don’t know if this is the new normal. We can speculate but we just don’t know and it’s premature and irresponsible to broadcast such prognostication. So, we need to admit we don’t know the future but we do know the past. We can learn valuable lessons if we will study the past.

Studying the past led me to research the “Spanish Flu” ...

In last month's newsletter (June 2020), Elsie's article (below) was inadvertently left out of the first edition. For those of you who missed this excellent article, here it is in its entirety.

We have all seen examples of good leaders and bad leaders. We can typically determine quickly with which kind we are dealing. People who are in leadership positions may or may not be qualified for their position of power and influence. In fact, for some, they are mostly motivated by power and position rather than a sincere desire to serve the people under their leadership. Leadership is about serving others as opposed to being served. Though God instructs us to honor and respect our duly elected or appointment leaders, righteous ...