Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

It’s official.  We who live here in the Northeast (of the US) are in the middle of a heat wave! Last night at 9:00 pm, it was still in the low 90’s. By 7:00 this morning it was already 84 degrees. It’s been like this all week. And, it will be so for another day or two.  (No I’m not trying to play weatherman!) I’m not complaining since I don’t really have any great love for the winter. But, heat like this makes us all feel a bit drained—and, even a bit cranky.  Everyone is a little slower and a bit more on edge. I’ve noticed that even the traffic seems to slow down, probably due to more cars giving up as well as accidents caused by exhausted drivers.  After a few days of this kind of heat (and humidity), we are all craving a little bit of relief. So we find a spot sitting by the fan.  As quickly as possible we move from the out-of-doors back into our air-conditioned home or office (or even a mall).  And, we just naturally seek out ...

I didn’t quite know what to make of him when I first met him.  When Kim’s Aunt Carol married Uncle Gordon, he was already in his mid to late seventies.  At that point, into our family gatherings walked this old-time preacher whose larger than life personality was equaled only by his height as he towered over just about everyone around him; whose deep and powerful voice seemed to indicate that he had no real need for our modern day amplification systems; and whose laugh echoed through a room as if we were sitting in a canyon. It seemed like he had a never-ending list of stories of ministry events, people he had met, places he had been, and especially of his trips to Norway.  I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Uncle Gordon.  Over time, however, I began to develop a deep appreciation for who he was and the affect he had upon people.  Although the amount of times we were together was quite limited, I began to realize that when we were together, I ne...

My family and I spent last week at our regular vacation spot, Lake Pleasant in the Adirondack Mountains.  Normally we go a bit later in the summer at a time when the water levels of the lakes and the rivers have begun to drop. In fact, it is not uncommon for us to see rivers with the rocks of their riverbeds exposed or the channels between lakes become so narrow that it’s hard to get a canoe through them. This time, however, the water levels were exceptionally high. Not only was it earlier in the season for us, the Adirondacks, like many places along the East Coast, have received an incredibly high amount of rain.  The result for us at Lake Pleasant was a dock that was submerged under water, the loss of about 6 feet of beach, and grounds that were very, very soggy.  In fact, I don’t believe we have ever seen the water levels in the lake and the rivers as high as they were this past week.  Yet, just about every day or night we experienced anothe...