December 26 is known as boxing day. For most of my life (until yesterday, actually), I believed this was a holiday created by all of the Scrooges, Grinches, and Cheer-Misers of the world to apply pressure to abruptly and immediately end the Christmas celebration the day after the holiday proper. It made perfect sense in my head. What could a day called Boxing Day be about, but dragging out all of...
Throughout the Christmas season, countless pastors will refer to Jesus’s journey from the cradle to the cross. I love it, myself. It has a great cadence, is easy to remember, and is alliterated (which is a pastoral win!). But, what I really love is that it makes the essential connection between the wonder of Christ’s birth and the somber purpose for which He was born. The baby in the manger, the...
My family and I are making our yearly trek through the plethora of classic Christmas movies. It would be an exceedingly difficult task for me to choose a single movie as my “favorite.” Each of them plays a part in helping me remember an important aspect or idea of the Christmas season and challenges or encourages me. One such movie is Disney’s animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas...
In 1984, Mark Lowry wrote the lyrics for the song “Mary Did You Know?” The music was composed by Buddy Greene in 1991. There is no way Mark could have known how popular and powerful that song would become. Almost forty years later, that song has been recorded by numerous artists of all styles and genres and will be played a countless number of times throughout the Christmas season. The song is a...
There’s something about the holiday season that makes us extra nostalgic. To clarify, when I say the holiday season, I am referring to the period of time beginning with Thanksgiving and ending with Christmas. There are many factors which I believe play a role in our propensity to look back at days gone by. Over the next several weeks we will be consistently reminded of precious moments from our...
Welcome to the proverbial calm before the storm! Or, perhaps it would be better said the squall before the tsunami… There are a great many amazing things about the holiday season. But there is also, without question, a great deal of stress and baggage it brings along with it. It occurred to me that Thanksgiving serves as a sort of “Last Supper” before the full flood of seasonal insanity ensues...
The Myers family is fond of venison. Unfortunately, the local grocery stores don’t tend to keep deer meat in stock. Therefore, if we are going to eat it, someone in the Myers family will be required to venture out into the great outdoors to harvest an animal. There was a period of my life, be it ever so brief, when I went hunting with a reasonable amount of regularity during hunting season. You...
Brother Lawrence was a Carmelite monk at a monastery in Paris in the late 1600’s. Most of what we know about him comes through a small, if not timeless, book entitled The Practice of the Presence of God. As I have noted before, this small book had a profound impact on my life several years back, and continues to influence me to this day. The overarching principle of the book, the principle that...
Our son, JJ, just recently turned 15 years old. Like many young people of his age, his mind is consumed with the very quickly approaching, and seemingly unavoidable, eventuality of operating a motor vehicle. Unlike many of his peers, however, JJ is not all that interested in the latest and greatest shiny new cars that are rolling onto local car lots. As a matter of fact, JJ is rather unconcerned...
Have you ever had an experience where you found yourself asking, “How in the world did I get here? Why me?” I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to assume that most of us, in one way or another, have had such experiences. I find such experiences are a common fixture when in the proverbial valleys as well as on the mountaintops. Failure and success have a way of stirring a sense of awareness...
Jeremy Myers is the Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church of Seymour, Indiana, where he has served since 2017. He has over 25 years of experience in local church ministry and not-for-profit leadership. He has a passion for helping emerging and existing generations learn to make space for each other and caring for the under-served and marginalized. In 2016, he earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from Palmer Theological Seminary, with his thesis focusing on developing connections between senior adults and youth in the church. He is a passionate and gifted communicator and is regularly invited to speak at retreats, camps, conferences, and other events. He lives in Seymour, Indiana with his wife Robyn, their two children, Mikayla and JJ, and their Golden Doodle, Evie.
Recent Comments