Jesus and Me ... and the Cats

I Corinthians 13:4-8 Arthur Bressi looked through the wire fence of a World War II Japanese concentration camp fence into the dull blue eyes of his friend, Skinner.  He had heard through the prison grape vine that Skinner was in a hospital camp and was dying, and somehow managed to get permission for a five minute visit. Since high school, they had been inseparable friends, and Arthur's heart grieved for him.  Skinner, barely able to walk, was suffering from almost every tropical disease imaginable as well as scurvy.  He could no longer eat or drink.  He wasn't going to last long.  He was a lost cause. Arthur fingered the knotted handkerchief around his neck.  In it was his most precious possession -- his high school class ring.  Having smuggled it into the camp, he was holding onto it in case he himself ever needed to barter it for medicine or food.  With time running out, Arthur slipped the ring through the fence into Skinner's frail...

I Corinthians 13:4-8 If you've seen the movie, The Blind Side , you're familiar with this true story. When Stan and Leigh Ann Tuohy, a southern white couple, took Michael Oher into their home and made him part of their family, Michael came with baggage.  The large, gentle and polite black teenager was homeless.  He was raised in the projects by a drug addict mother until he suffered the trauma of being taken away from her at the age of seven and placed in the foster care system.  He had a history of running away and getting into trouble at school.  This uncommunicative, learning-disabled young man had built up emotional walls to protect himself. Michael was a package deal.  The Tuohy family accepted him for who he was and loved them like their own son.  They put up with the criticism of their rich, white friends, struggled through all the red tape necessary just so Michael could get his driver's license, and invested in Michael's future by ...

I Corinthians 13:4-5 Philippians 2:3-5 For many of us, the name Brain "Head" Welch, may not be familiar.  We wouldn't recognize his face, although our eyes might be drawn to a small tattoo of a cross and three tear drops just below the corner of his right eye.  "Head," as his fans knew him, is a former member of the successful heavy metal band, Korn. With fame came everything he could ever want -- the worship of adoring fans, money, cars and drug.  But no matter how much he had, it wasn't enough.  He wanted more and more to the detriment of his marriage, his daughter and even his own physical well-being. His life was the very definition of selfishness:  the preoccupation with self to the exclusion of others.  Selfishness is to people's lives and relationships and to our society what the BP oil rig disaster was to the Gulf Coast fishing industry. The Greek word that we translate as "selfish" shares a root form with the words strife and...

Matthew 5:14-16 I Corinthians 13:5 A while back, the story of a man who insults and cusses out any police officer he sees made the national news.  He isn't doing anything illegal -- it's his right to express his opinion of law enforcement however he chooses. There was also the case in Minnesota involving a man who let loose a torrent of obscenities when he flipped his canoe.  The river bank was lined with people, including families with small children.  Some of the parents sued the man.  His defense?  It was his right. In a culture that preaches a gospel of entitlement, many people feel they have the right to do or say whatever pleases or benefits them without considering how it affects others.  We have the right to gossip about our neighbors, to hold grudges, to take our bad day out on a store clerk and to hog conversations.  There are no laws against these things. In the kingdom of God, however, the questions is not whether it's our right t...

John 2:1-12 I Corinthians 13:4 Love is kind. In January of 2008, I found myself sitting in a sales barn in Denison, Iowa.  Towards the end of the morning, a pony was brought out.  People began leaning in and talking quietly to each other as they pointed to an older man with an eight or nine year old little girl at his side.  The little girl was his granddaughter, and he had brought her so she could buy a pony.  The auctioneer opened the bidding at $25.  The only person who bid on the pony was the grandfather.  Word had been passed around to those attending to not bid against him.  Because of their kindness, a happy and proud child went home with a pony she had bought with her own money. Kindness, as the people of Jesus' time understood it meant an act that was practical, specific to the recipient's needs and was done for the benefit of the other.  We see examples of such kindness in Jesus' earthly ministry, including the wedding feast...