Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and all through the house, not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse…actually it is kind of quiet here at our home, at least for the moment. Kim is at work for the first half of the day. The two college students who’ve come home for the weekend, are still in bed, maybe just beginning to wake up. I’ve been at my computer studying and preparing for the weekend. And, it’s pretty grey and rainy outside. Oh, the dog has been sleeping all morning, as well (but she usually does!).   It’s the day before Thanksgiving! That means the roads will be filled with cars trying to get to their next destination and the airports will be filled with passengers waiting to board their planes. The supermarkets are full of Turkeys and stuffing and cranberry sauce—all of it quickly flying off the shelves—and, filled with people pushing their carts, getting all their last minute items, and standing on long lines.   It’s the day before Thanksgiving so, people...

As I was on the elliptical machine at the gym the other day, I looked around me and saw all these people moving like crazy on treadmills, stationary bikes, Stairmasters, and the other elliptical machines.   As I watched them for a moment, it struck me that for all of our movement and burning of calories we were all going nowhere fast—some very, very fast!    I know that the point of these machines is not getting to a particular destination, yet we all know that, normally the goal of movement is to get a person to a particular geographic location.   In this case, however, it is simply about the movement (for the sake of the burning of calories and strengthening of muscles). So everyone moves very fast and hard and actually gets nowhere—at least in terms of location.   I think we all go through times in our lives when we feel as if we are working hard and moving fast, but coming up with little to show for all of our effort.    There are times when w...

Not too long ago I wrote about New Jersey’s post-Sandy campaign slogan, “Stronger Than the Storm.”   Well recently, New York State came out with its own post-Sandy slogan, “Better Than Before.”   (I can’t help but notice that both make use of alliteration to make the words memorable!)   New York’s slogan is meant to encourage and entice tourists and businesses to come back to New York by saying that what is being built during the current post-Sandy rebuilding process is going to be stronger and better, more durable as well as more enjoyable, than what was destroyed by the hurricane. In the end, New York will be better off in spite of and even because of hurricane Sandy.   Although none of us likes to go through the “hurricanes” of life, it is true that many times, after having gone through them, we come out “better than before.”   The storms of life have a way of helping us get rid of those things within us that ought not be there and make room for that whi...

As many of you know, Kim and I have become, at least temporarily, “empty-nesters.”   But this past week, we finally had all three of our children at the kitchen table once again...well, sort of.   Here’s the way it really was:   Nathaniel was home for a couple of days from college, so he was home with us in person.   As we were preparing dinner, Jonathan called in on Skype from Nicaragua. I set up the computer on the kitchen table so that Kim, Nathaniel, and I could talk with him. Soon afterwards, Joanna called in on Google plus.   I answered her on my iPad and set up the iPad on the table as well, placing it in such a way so that Nathaniel, Joanna, and Jonathan could all see each other. It was quite the amusing scene.   Of course, it wasn’t the same as everyone being there live, but I have to say it was the next best thing.   Except for some Internet connection slowdowns, it was pretty cool having all three of them together in our kitchen like th...