Category: The Pastor’s Piece

I have never understood why women love cats. Cats are independent, they don’t listen, they don’t come in when you call, they like to stay out all night, and when they’re home they like to be left alone and sleep. In other words, every quality that women hate in a man, they love in a cat.

When my boss asked me who is the dumb one, me or him? I told him everyone knows he doesn’t hire dumb people.

My first paying job other than working on my parent’s farm was working on our neighbors’ farm. I was just a little guy, only about 10 or 11 years old at the time.  My brothers and I got the job of picking up rocks in the neighbor’s field for 50 cents an hour. That was real pay that we were real happy with. One of us would drive the tractor pulling the wagon between the young corn rows while the other two of us walked on either side of the wagon picking up stones within about a 20 foot swath.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. There are several reasons, but one of the main ones is that growing up on the farm, Thanksgiving always was a celebration of the end of the work year. All those long days and nights in the field working, all the effort spent worrying about the weather and the crops and walking the fields. All the work it took to gather in the harvest – it was always a celebration when we got done.

Being in the profession that I am in, when meeting strangers, their reaction to me can be all over the board. My profession can either be a conversation starter or a conversation killer. When hearing that I am a pastor some people clam up and hardly say a word. One time a young couple showed up at our front door on a blistering winter night after having car trouble. I offered them a ride to their destination where they could get the necessary help they needed. It was about a 40 minute drive.

“Signs, signs, everywhere are signs, talking about the signs and they’re breaking my mind. Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?” So say the vocals to the song “Signs.” According to YouTube, “Signs”, by Canadian rock group The Five Man Electrical Band (formerly The Staccatos), was written by lead vocalist Les Emmerson. It was released as a B-side single in 1970 from their “Good-byes and Butterflies” album and then re-released as an A-side single in 1971 where it reached #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart who ranked it as the No. 24 song for that year.

A few months ago, somebody sent me an anonymous package in the mail postmarked from Tinley Park, Illinois. I was most curious about this package, because I don’t know anybody from Tinley Park, Illinois. When I opened it, I found a 4” x 12” wooden plaque with the emboldened words on it in all caps: WORK HARD STAY HUMBLE.

On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Southwest Florida as a category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 150 mph, causing a massive storm surge, inundating the coastal areas near Fort Meyers, Cape Coral, all the way up to Sarasota and beyond.

Not long ago I had a meeting in our church parking lot with the editor of this newspaper, Dan Stevens.