There is a shadow that follows many of us around. A shadow that lurks in the corners of our vision. This shadow makes us react in ways that we thought we never would. The anxiety attached to this shadow make us plan our lives along paths that are not of God. This shadow is the fear of failure. Many are crippled by it without ever understanding why. We can begin to understand the fear if we start by recognizing we are in a broken world. God never desired the world to be broken, when He created the world “it was very good” (Gen 1:31) However, through the failure of people the world and all people are broken. Since then, failure has been a daily part of life. Even though it has been around for

Marco and I just returned from a 2 week-visit with family in Italy, and it was wonderful as you may suspect. Both his daughters were with us, and we even had the occasion to visit with some cousins Marco hadn’t seen in over 20 years, Giovanna and Gianluigi. They are teachers in Milan, and they and their wonderful 6 – year old son, Francesco, met us for dinner in the Navigli district of Milan. Navigli is a historical neighborhood named for the system of interconnected canals that run through this section of Milan. Leonardo DaVinci arrived in Milan in 1482 to redesign these canals, and then just ‘happened’ to paint the Last Supper while he was there. This has nothing to do the point of m

This week I went for a hike. I joined two men who I have known for more than a dozen years to hike a short portion of the Appalachian Trail. They were both members of my congregation in Ohio and now are pastors of their own churches. We enjoyed experiencing the beauty of the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia. We enjoyed encountering wildlife - toads, snails and even a deer with allergies (or so her sneezes seemed to indicate). Most of all, we enjoyed being known. With our shared history and vocation, we were able to pick up conversations that had lain dormant for months or even years. We were able to play off of jokes that began years ago. We were able to ask questions of each other and liste

Often when we think about Christ’s disciples we picture the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. All the disciples in that painting are older and bearded. However, there is a theory that many of the disciples where young men, maybe in their teens. In those days boys as young as 15 could study under a Rabbi. The only disciples that seem to be older were Peter, who had a mother-in-law, and Matthew who was a tax collector. In Matthew 17:24-27 Jesus sends Peter to catch a fish and in its mouth was enough money to pay the tax for Himself and Peter. Most hold that men had to pay the tax if they were over 20. This seems to imply that only Jesus and Peter where over 20, the rest of the disciples may ha