Pastor's Devotions by Tim Harris

This past weekend, Kim and I were glad to have had our daughter Joanna and her husband Dan come visit. And along with them came their greyhound, Odin. As well, our son Nathaniel and his wife Sarah came for a few days, along with their dog (puppy), Pepper—and their rabbit, Lizzy! That meant, along with our dog Sadie, we had three dogs and a rabbit in our home! (Below is a pic of just two of them: Sadie & Pepper) I do find it quite interesting that we as people, for the most part, love to have pets. For most of us it’s either a dog or a cat. (Our son, Jonathan has cats—to which I’m quite allergic.) Some have birds (of which I am not that fond!). And a few have rabbits or Guinee pigs, etc. And, it makes me ask, with all the investment of time and money a pet requires, why do we love having pets? You may come up with some other answers, but I come up with two: (1) God has built into us a nurturing instinct. We love to have that which we must nurture and care for. That is one of the rea...

This coming Monday, we will celebrate Memorial Day. It is a day that we as a nation have set apart to remember and honor our fallen soldiers. Although we appreciate our current troops, love our veterans (whom we recognize on Veteran’s Day), and miss those veterans who are no longer with us (e.g., my father and uncles), this day has a very specific purpose to it: It is a day to remember and honor those who gave their lives while in service to our nation, often laying down their lives in the midst of heated battle.  Unfortunately, few people will stop and consider the price that has been paid for the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of this great nation. Instead, Memorial Day has become the unofficial start to summer. It is a weekend for BBQ’s, gatherings with friends and family, and maybe a trip to the beach. And, it’s a weekend that retailers use to boost their sales, seeking to draw us in with their sale signs, seeking to get us to buy everything from furniture to grills to cars. Few...

We all like to hear words of commendation. It’s nice to hear your boss say, “Good job on that project,” or the coach say, “You were a real asset to the team today,” or your spouse say, “You’re such a great husband/wife.”  Such is especially the case when it comes from a parent to a child—no matter how old that child is.  I’ll never forget the first time my father heard me preach. It was after I had been pastoring for about five years. I had been invited back to our home church to preach.  After the service, my dad came to me and simply said, “You’re a good preacher. You’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.” He didn’t know it at the time, but those words meant all the world to me. For sure others had commended me on my preaching, but coming my father they were quite significant. Those words having come from him, inspired me and gave me the confidence I needed at the time to keep on doing what I felt God had called me to do.  In Matthew’s gospel we read that, aft...

Today would have been my father’s 96th birthday. He was born on May 10, 1928 but passed away on May 7, 2014, just shy of his 86th birthday. (I can’t believe it’s been 10 years!) So, of course I’ve been thinking about him today. And as I was, I was reminded of a little story that took place a number of years ago—on one of the years when his birthday actually fell on Mother’s Day.  My mom, dad, & me in 1960 Every few years my father’s birthday would fall on Mother’s Day. Such was the case in 1981 during my senior year of college.  At that time, I was going to college and living in the Bronx. Before going home for the weekend, I went into a small bodega in our neighborhood to look for two cards: a Mother’s Day card for mom and a birthday card for dad. In my search, however, I came across one card that said, “Happy Mother’s Day, Mom & Happy Birthday, Dad!” There I had it, one card for both occasions! You might say, “I was able to kill two birds with one stone/card!”  ...

A couple of weeks ago, Kim and I were traveling north on Route 95, going through Baltimore, MD. As we looked to our right, we could see in the not too far distance the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. It was an amazing sight. After all, it’s not every day one sees a bridge with a huge gap in the middle and no way to get across.   As you may remember, on March 26 a huge cargo ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore causing the collapse of the bridge. Six workers who were fixing potholes on the bridge lost their lives. It was a terrible tragedy. And, it’s going to take quite some time and a lot of money to fix the bridge and reconnect the two sides of the channel that were once connected by the bridge. In the meantime, there is no way to get across.   Have you ever reached a point in your life where it just felt like that—i.e., as if there was no way to get across? You have a sense of where you need to get to, but it’s as if the bridge before you has c...