I was doing a funeral for an Army Veteran with full military honors. As you may know, this includes a flag draped over the coffin which is folded and given to the surviving spouse or daughter. In 30 years of ministry, I’ve done several of these, but this was the first and only time I’ve seen two soldiers mess it up. As one was holding the end of the flag and the other was creating the triangular fold starting from the opposite end, it became apparent that they didn’t have enough cloth left over to tuck the end into the folds and thus hold the triangle in place. The two solders were facing one another almost nose-to-nose and there was no way to finish. The lead officer sort-of pointed with hi

I was visiting with a very sweet 95 year old lady who had recently been admitted as a hospice patient. She was mentally sharp, but failing physically with COPD and other ailments. At one point in the visit, she looked me in the eye and said, “Chaplain, I haven’t told anyone this and I feel guilty for asking, but isn’t turning 95 a ‘big deal?” “Why yes it it,” I exclaimed! "Why do you ask?" She continued on, explaining to me that on her recent birthday, most of her family and friends had not called or visited her. She said she would have even appreciated a cupcake with a candle in it or something. But nobody seemed to care. With a lump in my throat, I took her thin little hands in mine and sa

I knew I had made the right decision regarding having Pastor Steve Cianci take the lead at our newly created church. This was once again confirmed in my mind when he gave a tithing and sacrificial giving sermon that was the best I’d ever heard. Still, when I met a new, first-time-visiting family after church, I started to apologize for them hearing a tithing sermon on their first visit. “NO!” they assured me, “That was inspiring! We can’t wait to come back!!” A sermon on giving inspiring? That was amazing! I shouldn't have doubted. Still, my past experience had been quite different.... Sometimes, we assume that the same message or another conversation with someone regarding a difficult subje