John Wesley is considered by most to be one of the titans of the Christian faith in recent centuries. We see the evidence of his impact in communities all around the world. One Christian denomination bears his name, the Wesleyan Church. Another denomination is a product of his life’s work, the Methodist Church. The faith of countless millions has been and continues to be informed and strengthened...
Take a Nap; Eat a Snack; Carry On.
Many people, myself included, have taken to calling our shutdown in the spring “The Great Pause.” As we have moved through the summer, efforts have been made to reintroduce greater levels of activity into society at a variety of levels. There is no denying, however, that the world isn’t quite as busy as it was before the muddy mess of 2020. The constant state of wait-and-see has greatly limited...
Been There Done That: Lessons from the Influenza Epidemic of 1918
The First Baptist Church of Seymour, Indiana was established in 1839. We are just under two decades from celebrating 200 years as a church. During that time, we have gone through one name change (originally it was Liberty Baptist Church) and we have been housed in five different buildings at five different locations. We have a rich and robust history of community involvement and engagement...
I Don’t Know
My daughter learned a very important lesson when she was in first grade. She came home from school one day with a particularly challenging homework assignment. I can’t remember exactly what the assignment was, but I will never forget the interaction I had with my daughter while she worked through it with her mother. Mikayla very diligently focused on each portion of the activity. I could tell her...
ALONE: The Struggle in Social Distance
Survival shows are extremely popular in the Myers household. Of all of the shows available to us on the wonderful worlds of HULU and Amazon Prime, ALONE is without a doubt our favorite. The basic idea of the show is 10 people are taken out to some wilderness and dropped in a secluded location where they will have to survive all by their lonesome. The only contact they have with the outside world...
Cleaning the Mess
We are blessed to have a garage at our current residence. Said garage often devolves into a repository of stuff. I hesitate to use a more negative term such as junk, because some of it is actually useful, though it may be in the minority. Invariably, we will come to a point where we have had enough of looking at and stumbling around the mountains of mess and will engage in the unenviable task of...
Living the Dream: Finding Hope Through Difficult Days
Just before the apocalypse began and COVID-19 took over the world, I had an interesting interaction with one of my neighbors. We both pulled into our driveways and exited our vehicles at approximately the same time, so it only seemed polite to ask him how he was doing. I yelled the standard neighborly greeting; “Hey buddy, how’s life?” At the moment, his response was humorous, if not a tad cliché...
Evaluate, Adapt, and Overcome: Refusing to Settle in the Season of COVID.
The last several months have been a continuous exercise in adaptability for all of us. As we all now understand all too well, it is not an easy exercise. It continues to stretch and mold us in ways we can’t fully comprehend or appreciate in the now. Generally, change ebbs and flows like the tide, rising and falling with some level of predictability over time. Recently, it feels a lot more like a...
Don’t be the Villain
Movies tend to be somewhat therapeutic for me. They provide my overactive, hyper-analytical mind with something outside of my everyday, real-life struggles to focus my attention and energy on. I often find myself looking for myself in the movie. I try to figure out who best represents the point of view I would hold were I to find myself in the same situations, with the same options, and with the...
Take the Wave
My family recently spent a week and change in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Not to worry, though, we social distanced like champs and have returned home healthy and ready to roll. Our routine each day was extremely basic and bland. We roused the children at about 9AM and by 9:30AM we were usually covered in sunscreen and ready to head to the beach. Other than a short trip back to the room to eat...
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