Over the past week, and really over the past year, as we have listened to the news and talked with people, one thing has become clear: emotion is driving much of our national conversation. Anger, fear, and outrage dominate what we hear. Reactions are immediate and intense. Feelings are loud. That leads to a basic… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Mikes Blog
No Chapter Is Wasted
Last night Carol and I went to see the movie Song Sung Blue. It was a good movie, but what stayed with me was not the music or the scenes. It was the quiet reminder that we often meet people without any real understanding of what they have lived through. We see who they are… Read more »
What Happened?
This last week I had a conversation with someone who grew up under my leadership and the leadership of others. That conversation stirred something deep in me and brought back a question that has followed me for years: what happened? Not what happened in the world or in the news, but what happened to people… Read more »
They Became Worthless
In 2 Kings 17, Scripture says something shocking: they became worthless. This does not mean God stopped loving His people. God’s love did not change. What changed was their usefulness to Him. Worthless here means no longer useful for the purpose God created them for. God chose Israel to reflect Him, obey Him, and show… Read more »
When Emotion Replaces Truth
This morning I was awakened with one thought. I do not know where these thoughts come from, and I wish they would arrive later in the morning instead of three o’clock, when the house is quiet and the mind has nowhere to hide. The thought was this: we are moving toward a world where everything… Read more »
Placed on the Altar
This morning, while reading Genesis 22, one sentence stayed with me: “Because you have obeyed Me and have not withheld even your son, your only son.” That verse leads me to a hard but honest question: What would I withhold from God? Would it be my health, my family, my security, my reputation, or the… Read more »
California at the Breaking Point
As California moves toward 2026, it feels less like a future we are choosing and more like one being forced upon us. The state that once stood for opportunity now feels weighed down by rules, costs, and decisions made far from the lives they affect. Under Governor Gavin Newsom, California has been governed by mandates… Read more »
Some Things I Have Learned in My Old Age
The older I get, the better I can see the past. Not because I remember more details, but because I understand them more clearly. Time has a way of stripping excuses from our choices and revealing patterns we were too busy or too proud to notice when we were younger. What once felt confusing now… Read more »
God Keeps What Is His
During my quiet time, I had worship music playing in the background. Without warning, the theme from Schindler’s List came on. It is a piece of music Carol and I both struggle to listen to. It carries too much weight, too much sorrow, too much history. Yet instead of turning it off, I let it… Read more »
Faith Beyond the Gavel
The church does have a responsibility to defend its rights. When religious liberty is narrowed, biblical conviction is pushed aside, and courts are asked to redefine truth, conscience, life, and morality, silence is not faithfulness. Laws matter. Rights matter. History makes it clear that freedoms are rarely lost overnight, but slowly—through rulings and compromises that… Read more »