One remarkable element of the Christmas story is the appearance of thousands of angels to shepherds on the night of Jesus' birth. Luke 2:13-14 tells us that they sang, "Glory to God isn the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men (NKJV)." While preparing a Christmas Eve message, it occurred to me that praise almost ALWAYS precedes peace in the Bible. And, when God gives peace without or before praise, it's often incomplete or substandard compared to what comes AFTER man chooses to give Him glory. It made me think of a typical Sunday AM worship service. People often file-in 20-30 minutes late, during or even after the worship music is over. It's as if we're saying, "I want the real

I dressed-up as Santa and entertained residents, staff, and guests at a healthcare facility recently. It was a blast. The children who came were precious. One little girl gave me a note with her requests. The best part was telling corny Christmas jokes as Santa Claus. “Then Rudolf said, you sleigh me Santa…ho-ho-HO!!” The bad part was that I began to lose my voice after a couple of hours. That laugh wears out the vocal chords….LOL At another event, I wore a Chewbacca costume in July. Wearing fur in 95 degree temperatures is a tough gig. I probably lost 20 pounds just through sweating. It was a lot of fun though. I was the center of a lot of photos and some real joy from adults and children a

I wrote a song of prayer my senior year of high school. It was called, “Dear God.” I played it on the piano and recorded a rough version of it to share with family and friends. Eventually, I decided to sing it in a youth talent contest hosted by our church. A friend of mine was a brilliant pianist and a music major at the University of Buffalo. I gave him the cassette to listen to with the hopes that he could arrange it and then accompany me as I sang it. I’ll never forget the night I went to meet him at the UB practice studios. As I walked down the hall toward the room where we’d agreed to meet, I heard this beautiful piano piece. It was haunting, powerful, and intricate. I stopped and soak

I went to visit a friend’s family in Namibia after a tragic death. The home was basically a cinder block building with a tin roof. There was sparse to no furniture and a dirt floor, no running water, and an outhouse in lieu of a toilet. I remember thinking that I had no idea what hardship was...but did my friend? Of course, to a person living in what I call the "tin hut city" just outside Windhoek, my friend's family lived in a castle. The tin huts are hotter, more flimsy, and the overall environment is much more dirty and often, dangerous. Perhaps THEY know what hardship is... Next, we could turn to homeless people in Haiti--some of whom are dying of AIDS or a similar illness. Brutal hardsh