Uphill idealist

Luke 7:1-10 Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Servant "After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, ‘He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.’ And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, ‘Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, “Go”, and he goes, and to another, “Come”, and he comes, and to my slave, “Do this”, and the slave ...

As I was sitting in a restaurant flipping through a copy of a book I'm rereading for a book group; my friend leaned over and said... "Hey, who's Suzi and why do you have her book?". I stared at the inscription by the author for a moment, totally perplexed as to why I was hold my friend Suzi's copy of the book in my hands. Then, the AHA moment came. A year and a half ago, (yes that long), I'd picked up a copy of " A Million Miles" by Donald Miller when he was on his book tour when it stop over at my church for a book salon. Susan Issacs was also on the tour with her book, "Angry Conversations with God." Thankfully, I did not forget to forward signed copies of her book - one oversight like this is plenty! ( Donald Miller and Susan Issacs were so kind to agree to taking a photo with me after their book readings.) One of the main ideas discussed in Don's book is working through the action and intent in how one builds their "lif...

You may be familiar with organizations like Big Brothers or Big Sisters , Compeer and even locally, Striders makes an effort to pair students with caring adults to help support and build up the lives of students who may be missing out on caring adult relationships. Mentoring Spotlight - Ben and Dennis from The Mentoring Project on Vimeo . This month, my church ( First Lutheran of Jamestown, NY ) will be learning about a new program called, The Mentoring Project , when Don Miller stops in Jamestown on his Million Miles tour with Susan Isaacs , to let us in on the details of his program geared for boys growing up without the regular involvement of a father. My new friend Larry, from Grace Church in Erie, PA is on the board of the Mentoring Project and will be coming to help share more details about the program on October 24th, in addition to Don's presentation. Larry tells more about this opportunity, here at his church's blog. Are you interested in mentoring a child miss...

Photo found at Christine P. Newma n. On the return to school in the fall, teachers will often ask students to write an essay on "What I did this summer." Students will have stories from vacations, summer camp, concert festivals and maybe a trip to Grandmas house. Even when I was in school, I used to look forward to this chance to tell my teacher and peers what I'd been up to over the summer. Taking a moment to look what we've been doing can help to indicate where we are headed in the future. This last weekend, I took some time to read Donald Miller's newest book, " A Million Miles in a Thousand Years." In this book, "Miller chronicles a rare opportunity to edit his life into a great story, to reinvent himself so nobody shrugs their shoulders when the credits roll."(Back dust cover,Million Miles by Donald Miller) While reading Donald's book filled with his own adventures of life editing, I began to ask myself this question, "If I were ...