Hope Lights the Way

03/12/2026

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12/04/2023

Facebook friends, I need a very simplistic piano book that teaches playing the melody with the right hand and cords with the left. It cannot be an online course. It is for Lexi and she is not allowed access to the internet.

08/31/2021

I was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s approximately 10 years ago. I had my DBS turned on five years ago. On this video you will see me with and without the dbs. The results are astonishing.

03/14/2020

I am not convinced we are not overreacting to the COVID-19. The fact is I do not know. There are those much smarter than me making those decisions. All I can do is trust them. As long as they will allow, I will continue to live my life as normal as I can. I will go to church. I will shop. I will go to the gym. But, I will respect those in authority and trust them with my well-being and the well being of others. When we undermine those in authority, we undermine the will of God. Unless their decisions or directions are in direct contrast to the word of God, we are to honor their wisdom and direction.

Romans 13:1
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

02/16/2020

Life’s Journey

A journey through life we all do take, on a mission, a change we hope to make.

It begins in the cradle and Mom's caring arms, but out of the crib faces alone life's threat of harm.

Sometimes through valleys of pain, yet other times over mountains of gain;

The road taken is uniquely selected, twists and turns like none other erected.

For some it is mostly joy and success, for others it is sorrow and distress.

There is a choice for which trail we travel, but no predictor whether our path is rough or level.

We best journey according to God's plan, for no matter whether rough or level He is in command:

Regardless the sorrow, Regardless the pain, life lived for God and others is not in vain.

We weather the storms and move on further, We find comfort in knowing we have helped another.

Until we reach our peak we progress fairly well; As we move forward a change we can tell.

Our movement through time seems to slow, as time itself does faster flow.

Those who have accompanied us slowly disappear, over the horizon our own end does appear.

Life's matters we continue to attend; we struggle on until we reach life's end.

The details of our journey's end we may not see; yet we know that if we lived right we find peace in eternity.

We may have lived a life of sorrow and pain; Yet if we lived for God and others our life was not in vain.

01/13/2020

My greatest heroes of the faith have not necessarily been those who have escaped sickness and pain, but instead those who have endured it without losing hope.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

09/15/2019

When we begin life’s journey, we are allowed two checked bags and a carry-on to store our emotions. In the beginning this seems like plenty of room. We throw all of our negative emotions in a our bags. Someone yells at as, we pack away our anger. We are bullied, we store our humiliation. We are abandoned, we pack away our loneliness. We lose someone, we stuff our grief into a bag. Etc. This works for a while. We go though much of our life not dealing with our emotions, packing them away to deal with later. Then suddenly, our bags are full and we have no more room. Our luggage is busting open at the seems. We keep trying to stuff new emotions in though. As we do, we encounter emotions from our past. Old emotions spill out of our luggage and we discover them to be out of control. We suddenly find ourselves overreacting to seemingly minor infractions. We yell at the waitress who gets our order wrong. We flip the guy of who cuts in front of us at the drive-through. We have reached a point we need to clean out our baggage. We do this by going through our baggage one item at a time and dealing with our past emotions. We begin by taking inventory of what we have packed away, prioritizing our negative emotions from bad to worse, finally addressing them one trauma at a time. Before we know it our luggage is virtually cleaned out. We can began our journey all over again, with a fresh set of luggage, empty and ready to handle more emotions. This time though, we don’t even utilize the checked baggage. We take a carry on and deal with each emotion as it occurs.

09/10/2019

“Why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people?”

The truth is nobody really knows the answer to this question. I am going to speculate a bit, but only God truly knows. He created, controls, and knows all things. That doesn’t mean He causes all things to happen though. Actually, I am pretty sure most of history is determined by coincidence per se. Fate is no respecter of persons. The scriptures address this. It says in Matthew 5:45 “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Most of what happens to us is simply determined by where we are and when we happen to be there. The righteous family is struck by a tornado because they happen to be home eating when the tornado strikes their house. Their seemingly less righteous neighbors are spared because they are not home when the tornado strikes. There are factors that influence the good and bad in our lives. One influence is our choices. If we make bad choices, we are liable to reap bad results. If we make good choices, we are liable to reap blessings. For example, If we drink and drive, we might experience an accident. If we choose not to drink and drive, we are liable to not have an accident. Prayer makes a difference as well. We cannot tell God what to do, but we can influence him with our prayers. In the end, He chooses whether He will intervene or not. I have definitely witnessed the impact of my prayers. I have seen the sick healed and have experienced healing myself. I guess my greatest times of faith have been when my prayers have not resulted in the outcome I had hoped for. I have found my peace in this dichotomy knowing those three things about God I mentioned earlier plus one other concept. God created, controls, and knows all things. We must in the end trust God’s wisdom. Oh yeah, there is this one other thing that ties it all together. It says in 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care on Him, for He cares for you.” You see, we can speculate all we want as to why bad things happen to good people and such, but in the end we must simply trust the wisdom of an al knowing, all powerful God. More than anything, we must trust, “He cares for you”...

07/07/2019

Please help us send Hannah to the Jr Nationals, a sporting event for amputees and other physically challenged athletes held in Eden Prairie, MN. She qualified for this event by earning gold medals in the 100, 200, and 400 meter running events at the Endeavor Games in Edmond, OK this past May. Han...

05/22/2019

Is love at first sight possible?

When I met Kim 32 years ago in that dormitory parking lot, the fire was definitely ignited. We had chemistry and I knew immediately I would like to hold her hand, embrace her, and kiss her.

I didn't know that we had so much in common though. I didn't know she was Free Will Baptist like me and our families were similar and we were both interested in ministry. I simply knew she made my toes tingle and I enjoyed being with her. Was that love?

What about when we became engaged 2 months later, then married 6 months after that? Was that love?

If that was love then, what is this now, when she voluntarily helps me dress in the morning and constantly watches over me lest I lose my balance? What about the times when she has stayed up with me all night long, reassuring me as I have struggled with anxiety?

Isn't what we have now different from what we had then? Did we really experience love in the parking lot when the sparks began to fly? What about when I got on my knee and asked her to marry me? Was it really love when we exchanged our vows?

I believe love is a process that begins with a spark that grows into an all consuming flame that consumes our entire being and every action. Love is a commitment to put each other's needs before our own, but that commitment only begins when the spark is ignited. It is not fully realized until you have been through the storm together and yet the flame not only remains strong but has grown stronger.

So how long was it before we were in love? Hard to say isn't it? I concede the process began in that parking lot with a spark, but it has grown today to a flame. Love can begin at first sight, but can only be fully realized through the passing of time, the weathering of storms, and a lifetime of experience.