Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

Yesterday, as I walked into a supermarket with its floral department near the front door, I encountered a fragrance that I immediately recognized.   It was the lilies—a.k.a. the “Easter lilies.”   With their strong and almost pungent odor, they are hard to miss.   To me, their fragrance is both pleasing and irritating at the same time.   As a pastor, I’ve preached Easter services for about 25 years with a platform filled with lilies.    Sometimes their fragrance is so strong that I have practically choked in the middle of a sermon. Before heading off for our Easter services, I now normally take some Claritin (or another anti-allergy medication) and make sure I have plenty of water on hand. By the end of the second service, I am more than happy to get away from the lilies.   On the other hand, I love their fragrance. After all, in my mind they are associated with the greatest holiday in the Christian calendar. They are a reminder of that which we celebrate this time of year: th

As some of you might imagine, much of my time has recently been spent preparing for the church’s Easter season services. As a pastor, my mind is on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and especially Resurrection Sunday for weeks on end.   After all, Easter is one of the biggest and most important Sundays of the year for the church. Thus again, much of my time for the last six to eight weeks has been spent preparing for Easter. For those who come from a liturgical church background, the whole season of Lent is meant to be a time of preparation; a time to help Christians prepare for the celebration of Easter.   Through personal sacrifice, times of reflection, prayer, and special services, Christians from variety of churches have been preparing themselves for Easter by trying to catch a better glimpse of the sufferings of Jesus, repenting of sin, and focusing more intently on their relationship with God.    Of course, our preparations include not only our religious activities but as well a

Throughout the years we’ve all heard the question asked just before the 10 o’clock news: “Do you know where your children are?”     Well, these days I usually answer the question with a resounding, yet somewhat saddened, “NO!”   I do not know where my children are!   That’s not because I’m a bad dad (at least I like to think not). But, it’s because my children are somewhat grown and carrying on their lives outside of my home.   Currently, Jonathan is married and has his own household, Nathaniel is away at college, and Joanna is studying in Vienna, Austria. The result is, most nights a 10 o’clock, I do not know where my children are!   Of course, this has taken some getting used to, both on my part as well as on Kim’s.   When the children were younger, we pretty much always knew where they were, especially 10 o’clock at night.   In fact, we prided ourselves on knowing where they were. However, as time has gone by and our children have become increasingly independent, the amount of