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Mid-Week Missive |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:52 AM |  | | What is happening at BCC? |
| Keeping the Celebration | |
| By Brad Miller on11/19/2008 11:02 AM | |
| Greetings on this crisp, clear day!
Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is a week from tomorrow. Advent begins in about 10 days. And we all know what that means: that Christmas is not far away, either. Sometimes, it seems to me that things come so fast that I don’t have the time to truly celebrate and observe the holidays. The distractions of all the activities, while good and fun, can sometimes pull us away from the spiritual disciplines that the different holidays cry out for. And when we don’t take the time to stop, think, pray and celebrate, we will indeed miss something.
My advice? Plan to take some time every day to be with God, alone, in prayer and conversation. Take a few minutes to read the Bible, to read the Advent books that the Elders have provided for us. Take some time to give thanks, to recommit to following the teachings of Jesus even more closely in the days ahead, to celebrate that God is with us in the person of the baby born in a stable in Be ... |  | |
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| | Veteran's Day | |
| By Brad Miller on11/12/2008 3:52 PM | |
| Greetings on this grey day,
As we close in on one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving, many of us paused yesterday to give thanks for those who have served this country in war, in peace, in times of great uncertainty, in times of great calm. I am of course talking about the Veterans of our various military branches. And truth be told, we ought to stop far more than once a year to say “thank you” to these dedicated men and women. In this day and time, it is too easy to put aside what they have done for us, and what they continue to do for us, because we don’t see it, up close and persona. Whether they are actively engaged in protecting us, or actively involved in hostilities, they stand ready to do so at a moment’s notice. With our “smart” weapons and long range missiles, it is easy to think that our military folks can somehow keep “distant” from harm’s way. But of course, that is absurd. When wars are carried out, military personnel are in harms way, always. If you know a vete ... | | |
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| | Election Day | |
| By Brad Miller on11/5/2008 9:01 AM | |
| Greetings on this wonderful day,
This morning I went by the dry cleaners before I headed to the church. I passed two different polling places on the way, and what I saw was pretty incredible. It was about 7:15 in the morning and the scene was exactly the same at both places…cars jamming the parking lot, cars lined up down side streets, a huge crowd of people in a thick line snaking around the parking lot and down the sidewalk! I am told that here at BCC, the line snaked from the back fellowship hall doors around the church into the front parking lot, some 200 people long. I’ve seen lines to vote before, but for lots of reasons, this sight was especially moving to me.
First, in my former life as a political appointee and then a professor of Political Science, political participation was a sermon that I preached over and over and over again. The more we participate, the more the government and the policies of that government will reflect our will. If we sit ... | | |
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| | Slow Dance | |
| By Brad Miller on10/29/2008 1:28 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful fall day,
When I was a kid, I remember my mother saying, “the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get”. It seemed kind of silly to me, but, now I definitely know what she meant. We live in a world where everything is now, now, now, more, more, more…yet the more we work, the harder we try, we do not find peace, just frayed nerves and less time with our families and friends. And when we find ourselves caught in that trap of immersing ourselves more and more in work and acquisition, we too often find ourselves losing the foundation that sustains us: our faith, our families. We can get so distracted that we forget about what is really important. I’ve done it, and I bet you have, too.
This week, Chuck Daunch forwarded me an e-mail from a friend of his who is battling cancer, yet seeking ways to honor God through his struggle by sharing the light of hope that his relationship with God offers h ... | | |
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| | Downtime | |
| By Brad Miller on10/22/2008 11:25 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful fall day,
If you are like me, you need to get away. Oh, I’m not talking about leaving town, or finding some deserted island beach, although, that does sound nice. No, I’m talking about getting away from all the noise of the news…the election, the economy, the endless drumbeat of somber pronouncements concerning so many things: health, crime, natural disasters. And while I truly believe that the news media in this country do us a great service in helping to keep us informed, there are times when I just need to get away from it all. And so, this week, I have tried to do just that. As a wise friend counseled, “Just turn it off, man!”
When I am alone in the car, I usually have the radio on. I try to find music and no talking, but that is almost impossible. So, this week, no radio, no i-pod plugged into my car stereo, no nuthin’. And you know what, it seems to work. I read the newspaper in the morning, but try to put aside the edit ... | | |
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| | Hope | |
| By Brad Miller on10/16/2008 8:28 AM | |
| Greetings on the GORGEOUS day!
It is weeks like this past week that really bring some things into focus for me. It helps me to keep the important things in perspective. It helps me to remember what is truly most important. And it helps me to realize just how important this thing we call church really is.
I don’t need to tell you what a roller coaster the last week has been. When the Dow Jones Industrials closed in such low territory last Friday, the fear was palpable. It wasn’t helped by the fact that every newscast, news update and talk show over the weekend told us what bad shape our retirement funds were in! I even heard one of the announcers on the baseball game on Sunday night talk about it. C’mon, ya knuckleheads, I watching this to escape from the real world! There was very little evidence of a precious commodity that we all were craving: hope. When I realized that Monday was a federal holiday I thought, “Well, at least the stock market will be clo ... | | |
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| | Staying the Course | |
| By Brad Miller on10/9/2008 9:20 AM | |
| Greetings on this gloomy fall morning,
It is easy to feel as gloomy as the skies these days…if we let ourselves. It is easy to let fear and worry overtake our lives…if we give in to it. But that is not who we are: we are the church, and we face things with the hopeful promise of brighter days. Now, this does not mean we can act foolishly or extravagantly in our personal lives, or as the church, especially when it comes to our finances. We must be realistic about who we are, and what God has put in front of us to accomplish. We discern that through prayer and discussion, looking at where we have been, assessing where we are, planning for where we want to go. We do it with our feet firmly on the ground, and our eyes on what God has called us to be. Not always an easy combination, but something that is very important, nonetheless.
All this is important as we sit around our kitchen tables and look at our home finances, and it is important as we sit around our ... | | |
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| | Hope | |
| By Brad Miller on9/24/2008 4:36 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful fall day!
Several of you have asked me when I was going to write about baseball again. Well, maybe not several of you. And maybe it wasn’t, “When are you going to write about baseball again?” But just a few people interested in how the Detroit Tigers are doing.
Okay, okay, I confess: it wasn’t several, and it wasn’t even “a few”. one person made a comment about how much they admired my loyalty to such a disappointing team. Or something like that. I know there was something in there about the Tigers being horrible. And me being disappointed.
Well, I am disappointed. And I’m sick of it.
I’m tired of getting my hopes up so high because Sports Illustrated and the Sporting News and ESPN and every clown with a teleprompter in front of them picked the Tigers to win the World Series this year. But where are they now? Are they fighting for a championship? Are they resting up, getting r ... | | |
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| | Do Not Fear | |
| By Brad Miller on9/17/2008 1:19 PM | |
| Greetings on this dreary morning,
As I look out my window at the grey, overcast sky, it strikes me that this morning’s weather is a good reflection of the somber mood that many people find themselves in this week. It has been an unprecedented week of financial upheaval in the United States, with major financial institutions declaring bankruptcies, offering themselves for sale at bargain basement prices, and seeking government help to weather the crisis. Economists hold their breath over the potential worldwide impact of such moves, and the government seeks to act in the best interest of the American economy as well as the world economy. A word that I have heard a lot in the last few days is “fear.”
It’s been used in many contexts: fear of the individual share holder of the effected companies; fear of loss of jobs by the employees of those companies; fear of the economists that we may be on the brink of the dreaded “r” word – recession – or worse; fear of the “p ... | | |
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| | Remembering | |
| By Brad Miller on9/15/2008 9:06 AM | |
| Greetings!
So, yesterday wasn’t such a great day…so what? Things didn’t go as I planned…big deal! The air conditioner quit working in the office…it’ll get fixed! Besides, as Scarlett O’Hara reminded us… “tomorrow is another day!” As trite as that line sounds these days, she was right. It is now tomorrow, and while I had planned on writing about my bad day and finding a life lesson in there somewhere…why bother? It’s over, today the sun is shining, the air conditioning man is at work on the problem and life is good. As God promises, new beginnings abound, and every day is a new beginning.
I have been thinking about a day 7 years ago that seemed like it would never end. A day that seemed like the sky had fallen in on. A day that felt like the earth had stopped turning. A day that I was sure would not get better. But, once again, I was wrong.
The day did end. The sky did not fall. The earth did not stop turning. And things did get ... | | |
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