Catching Up

I haven’t written for almost a week. There are lots of reasons for that, but the most important are these: 1) I’ve been sick as a dog (a dog with bronchitis); 2) I’ve been distracted (it’s amazing how easily we (I) can be distracted from what's really important—how did Jesus keep things in perspective? Read this from Perry Noble -- I'm going to re-read it myelf); and 3) I’ve been busy (for the life of me I don’t know how some bloggers write every day, sometimes more than once a day, and still have time for anything else in their lives!).

It’s like the old “red dot” illustration. A person holds up a piece of paper that looks like this:

The subject is asked to describe what he/she sees. The answer is invariably something like, “A red dot,” or “I see a red dot.”

The truth is the red dot in this illustration is approximately (I never claimed to be a mathematician) 3/100 of 1 per cent of the total field area. Why is it all we see is the red dot, rather than the white field?

That’s the way my life is right now. I’m seeing the red dot (the bad) and missing the white field (the good). I’ll be sending out a letter to my congregation later this week that talks about the good things happening at Connellsville Church of God. Maybe I’ll include a copy of that letter here.

Let me catch you up on some good things that have been going on around here in just the last few days:

This weekend was our “Plan B Marriage Seminar.” We could have called it “The Marriage Seminar Formerly Called Marriage Retreat.” Many of our people did not want to travel to our church’s state camp ground at Emlenton, PA, so we moved the location from Whitehall to our church’s fellowship hall, and changed the name from a retreat to a seminar, hoping to add a few more couples, which we did.

The seminar was better than any of us could have imagined. Thanks to our conference leaders Elaine and Galen Swanigan for a wonderful weekend and a job well done. If anyone would like to invite the Swanigans to lead a conference at their church, contact me and I’ll put you in touch.

While the conferees were enjoying the marriage seminar in the fellowship hall, Travis and Judy Deans were leading the rest of our congregation in worship and the Word. Thank you to Travis and Judy for a job well done; I’ve heard lots of positive comments. Before too long we’ll be inviting Judy back for a concert.

Anyway, it was a great weekend. If it weren’t for the rainy days, we’d never appreciate the sunshine; if it weren’t for our troubles, we’d never appreciate our blessings; if it weren’t for (insert your own cliché here).

God is good, and I’m anticipating many good days ahead.