New Beginnings

     Last week a friend of mine transitioned to heaven.  Anyone who knew Florence Smith knew that she was a strong lady. She was a sweetheart as well, full of fight, and spunk. She lost the battle with cancer, but she was the ultimate winner, she is home with the Lord.      Florence was a member of the church I attend, I first met her in the adult Sunday School class. We would see each other coming and going with different things in the church. It wasn't until we started doing some health education in the church. We tried to do "First Place" a Christ centered weight loss program. This was during the time my mother was in the hospital and I needed to watch my diabetes. I was diagnosed as a "border line" diabetic.  We would meet and wiegh each week, we cancelled meetings and then the meeting dwindled down to three of us.  When my mom died she dropped off a fruit tray by the house.          In the...

     In a recent post I said that God had sent me a message saying "Did I want to settle for bronze or did I want to wait for the gold?"  I said I wanted to wait for the gold. I still want to wait for the gold. Waiting is hard work. Lately there is not a day that goes by where I don't run into someone who asks me if am I still in radio. Some of them think I retired, I had been at the job long enough to retire, but I wasn't old enough to retire.      You get questions like this "How is retirement?" or "I miss you on radio, why doesn't another station hire you" or they want to tell me all of what is going on where I used to work. It is like people have to just talk. I usually cut the conversation short by saying "That it was part of God's plan and I went back to school." Most people are shocked that I would even consider doing something else. I look at it like this, I am not going to stand at a door and beat my fists bloody until ...

     God's Word is awesome and He will give you a word when you most need it. I am soooooo thankful for that.  Some days I have a tendency to grow restless and feel sorry for myself. When a fellow former co-worker made the announcement that they had gotten a job, I got a little depressed. Not that I wish them any ill will, it's just that it didn't seem fair in the scheme of things. I am almost ashamed to admit this but anyway I spent a few days feeling sorry for myself.      Self Pity Land is a tough one to visit, because you come alone and you stay there alone and it grows deeper and takes over your life. You stop enjoying the things you used to enjoy, it smothers you and takes all of your energy. I couldn't stay there long because I had schoolwork to do. I even began to resent going back to school and working so hard. Thats what Self Pity Land does. It makes you think your accomplshments seem small or unimportant. Sometimes you have to sh...

     About 15 or 16 years ago Michael W. Smith had a song called "Place in this world". I'm looking hard to find my place in this world, were some of the lyrics to the song. First I can't beleive it has been that long since that song came out.. When the song came out, I really didn't pay that much attention to the lyrics, because I had my place in the scheme of things. I taught the seventh grade Sunday School class at Memorial Baptist, I was involved in the singles ministry there and worked with children's church. I also did the morning on WJLS -AM and did a little promoting concerts that came to Beckley. I had even did some traveling to some of the concerts and knew quite a few of the artist I played on the air.      Fast forward fifteen years later, I am now a minister still in the young stage of the ministry, where you watch and go with someone and learn how to do things. Even though I have been in church since the age of ten, being a ministe...