One Epic Blog
Excited to bring you insight from the Word of God and my life experiences. I pray they will encourage and challenge you!
Swifties, The NFL, and Jesus
October 11, 2023
I don’t suppose I have written/posted anything of great substance on here for a while, but since it’s my birthday and these words just kind of poured into my note app this morning, I thought I’d put them out here. Oddly enough, I woke up on this my 54th birthday thinking about Swifties, the National Football League, and Jesus.
The phenomenon that is Taylor Swift has been thrust upon us quite a bit as of late. I realize many celebrities can inspire what I am about to describe and comment on, but she recently came to our neck of the woods here in Massachusetts for three sold-out shows at a large local venue, so she is fresh in my mind.
It Is Finished
April 14, 2023
During Holy Week I had the privilege to speak on a couple of occasions. The first was on Good Friday, where I shared meditations on two of the last words of Jesus spoken on the cross. I shared on the words: “Today you will be with me in paradise” and “It is finished.”
In this entry I will share the meditation on “It Is Finished.” I hope it helps you have a better understanding of the power of these three words.
Keeping Your Instrument In Tune
April 10, 2022
This blog is dedicated to the two people responsible for my love of music: my grandpop, and my father. I spent countless Sunday afternoons listening to them play gospel, bluegrass, and country music together when I was a young boy. Eventually, when I was old enough, I was able to join in playing the autoharp and later the guitar.
When my grandpop discovered that I wanted to learn to play the guitar, he took me aside and gave me a guitar. It was one of his, but it was not his Martin. It was an old Gibson with the highest action I had ever seen. He said, “If you can learn to play this instrument, you can one day have my Martin.” It took me several years, but eventually, he took me aside again and said that due to his arthritis, he could no longer play the guitar. That day, the Martin was passed on to me. I will treasure that amazing moment and that Martin forever.
My grandpop has passed away, but his music lives on. I am honored to play his 1951 Martin guitar to this day. I have had many opportunities to play it with my father as we ministered together at various nursing homes. Today my father is currently passing his love of music onto his granddaughters, and they love it as much as I did! I thank God for the legacy of music that I received from these two great men.
Instrument Of Peace
February 19, 2022
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
—St. Francis of Assisi
In May 2021, I found myself in a position I had never been in before in my life. I needed to get a second job (actually, a third job) to make ends meet.
I realize this is something people do every day. It just had not been something I ever needed to do. So, there I was looking around for a part-time job that would work around my full-time teaching schedule and allow me to continue my responsibilities at church.
Dickens' Revisited
December 28, 2021
A few years ago I had the opportunity to hear a very unique retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It was a performance done by one individual who recounted the story by memory while acting out all the parts by himself. Now I have seen many, many versions of this story over the years and even read the book itself a few Christmases ago. It was not until this retelling of the story that I became aware of a very important truth communicated by this great piece of literature.
As Marley’s ghost is explaining to Scrooge all that he has to look forward to from the coming Spirits of Christmas he has Scrooge look out his window into the night sky. Scrooge sees countless phantoms flying through the air looking down upon poor wretched souls who are still among the living, but whose lives are anything but livable. In the story it is the phantoms that are crying because they so desire to help those living in great need but are unable to do so. “They sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever.”
A Priest Without a Parish
December 17, 2020
On March 2, 2020, I received some horrible news. The church I had served at for over two and a half years no longer had the funding to keep me on staff. I was devastated for several reasons. I loved serving that parish - they had all become family to Jessie and me, and we so enjoyed ministering to and with them. I found great fulfillment in teaching their children to know about God, and it was a profound joy to train them to become acolytes (a person assisting the celebrant in a religious service or procession) and have them serve the parish in that way. One of my other responsibilities was to lead worship, which meant I was being paid to sing and play my guitar, which was something I loved to do anyway!
The reality was that this was not a job; it was a divine calling that God had given to me and the church's leadership. A calling to minister to our children, youth, and everyone in the parish and the community. What was I going to do? But, before I could even really wrap my mind around that decision, the COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head, and quarantine shut down our churches so that no one was meeting in person. Things drastically changed again.
Cancer, Unemployment, and COVID-19
