My dog Koda and I walked around the corner along a row of trees and bushes on the edge of our property. As we made the turn, we were surprised to see a man with a step ladder helping himself to the black berries on one of our bushes. My first reaction was visceral. “Who does this guy think he IS?” I thought, “How DARE he steal my berries?” I was ready to blast him and call 911! Then, God’s Spirit kicked-in. You see, I never pick and eat those berries. I know I should. It’s ju

My dog Koda is 95 pounds of furry love. He's great with kids, other animals, and of course yours' truly. I've taken him along on many chaplain visits to nursing homes and he's a real hit. In fact, now when I go without him they complain--"Where's your dog." I think I could open the front door, send him in with my name tag on, go get a cup of coffee and they'd be thrilled. So, we've dubbed him, "Chaplain Koda (CK)." And, since chaplains give advice and spiritual encouragement,

There comes a time in every man’s life when he realizes he “just doesn’t have it anymore.” By “it,” I mean that drive, effectiveness, zip, passion, sharpness, or ability he used to have. It may manifest in different ways, but the common ground is the realization that no matter what he does, he just won’t be able to reproduce the same results he used to produce. Athletes go through this first since the physical capabilities are often the first to go. I remember cheering wildly

A friend of mine use to love to repeat this somewhat less-than-impressive statement: “Encouragement…must be encourage-ing…to the one needing to be…encouraged.” As much as he annoyed me, I had to admit that after thinking about it, this statement WAS, in fact, profound! I mean, how often do we hear someone trying to encourage us when all it does is drag us further down. Recently, someone read part of a blog of mine and wrote me a diatribe of encouragement. The problem was that