Pastoral Ministry

The refrain of James Taylor’s first big hit song repeatedly declared, “I’ve Seen Fire, and I’ve Seen Rain.” So have I, but I’ve seldom seen as much rain as we had on Sunday morning. According to my gauge, we had 7.2 inches. On Friday night and Saturday, we had 2.04 inches to make a grand total of 9.24 inches for the weekend. I’d say that Sunday was the “rainy day” that we hear so much about.

A volcanic mountain in Iceland is named “Eyjafjallajokull.” Since I can’t pronounce the name, I decided to write about the mountain in this column instead of mentioning it in a sermon. The name means “island mountain glacier.” The mountain is one of 130 such mountains in Iceland, which is located on the fault line between the Eurasian and North American Plates.

Of the making of diets, there is no end. New diets are constantly appearing, and almost all of them create some ripple. They are guaranteed to give us victory in our perpetual battle of the bulge.

One of the new diets is the Garlic Diet. It doesn’t actually make you lose weight, but it makes people stand farther away from you so that you look smaller. Then, there is the Italian Pasta Diet. On this diet, you hafta walk pasta de pie, you hafta walk pasta de candy, pasta de ice cream, etc.

The Major League Baseball season is now underway, and with it the hopes and dreams of all of us fans whose teams have never won a pennant. My Texas Rangers have never won a World Series since they came into existence. In fact, they have never even won a playoff game.

Erik and Erin Dukes have four boys, all of whom are 7 years of age and younger. I suggested one time that if they had another boy then a few years from now they could all be playing high school basketball for the Booneville Blue Devils, and we could call them the “Duke Blue Devils.” Since Erik is a North Carolina fan, he was not inspired by the idea.

When you are around these four Dukes, if you are quiet enough you can actually hear them growing. They are not only growing in stature, but also in wisdom and in favor with God and man.

The coming of spring appeals to something deep and primal in all of us. The long, cold days have had their impact on us. They have resulted in severe attacks of seasonal affective disorder that have put large numbers of us on life support. Those not on life support are, at the very least, longing for warmth, sunshine, and deliverance.