Written by the Story

Dear Good Shepherd and friends, In a previous life, my wife and I watched a movie called Memento (2000). Here's the storyline: the movie is about the life of this individual named Leonard who suffers from an acute form of amnesia where his brain cannot store short-term memories. Throughout the movie, Leonard has to create ways to constantly remind himself of what he is doing, and who people around him are. Every moment is like a new "present" moment, because Leonard can't recall what just happened. Even though he knows his own name, and for the most part remembers his identity, he is always in a state of forgetting what's going on around him. Because he can't recall the past, he struggles to move forward.  So to get on in life, Leonard would take polaroid pictures of nearly everything important to remember what he is doing, where he is going. As he would return home or to his car, the pictures served as a reminder of people in his life, of what he's suppos...

Dear Good Shepherd and friends, So, I've been having knee problems lately. It's been troubling enough that I've begun to see a physical therapist.  The knee problem is the result of several things. I had knee surgery nearly 25 years ago as a sophomore in college. I still continue to run regularly, and have for quite a while. Most recently, I've been crawling around on my knees doing some work in our attic.  The knee problem isn't new. It has to do with things I've done or am doing, just as a matter of course in life, and the trauma of the knee surgery. One does not have knee surgery (or surgery of any sort) and expect that there will never again be issues. The knee is forever in a weakened state. The PT prescribed for me a list of exercises: stability squats, bridges, this "clamshell" exercise I have to do with an exercise band, straight-leg lifts while lying on my back on the floor. None of these are particularly impressive exercises. They take time e...

Dear Good Shepherd and friends, What comes to your mind when you think of God? Go ahead, ponder it for a second. I'll wait... Ok. Since we can't really talk, I'll guess at what might have come into some of your minds. Maybe some of you might have initially thought, "Hmmm. I don't really think about God much. I have no idea what I think."  Maybe some of you didn't think about God first, but you thought about your church experience. You might have thought of Sunday school images of an old white man, not really grandfather-like, but more like some version of a strong, powerful-looking man in about his 60s with whiteish hair and a long flowing beard.  Or maybe you thought of church but did not have a physical picture that came to mind, but rather ideas. Maybe your church experience put in your minds ideas of a loving God. Or maybe your church experience talked about a loving God, but in reality made God seem like some strict rule-keeping parent who won't j...

  Dear Good Shepherd and friends, Do you sometimes feel like you are just going about your day and your life, but you're not really paying attention to what's around you? Maybe it's you, or maybe it's someone you know, but the overall attitude is pretty predictable: when asked "H ow's your day been? " the response is a glance to the left or right, maybe a look down, and a statement like: " Busy ." Or maybe, " It's goin' ." Usually there's a sigh or sometimes a tone in the voice that sounds like the person asked is trying to prove something with their response.  So many times we live as if we're trying hard to prove something to someone. I see it all the time, in others and in myself. For the life of me, I can't figure out who we're trying to prove something to. Maybe it's baggage from our parents or home life growing up. Maybe it's our own sense of inadequacy. Maybe it's the world around us that makes...

  Dear Good Shepherd and friends, Have you ever heard the phrase, "You brought this upon yourself"? Maybe you've heard it spoken to you, or to someone else, or maybe you said this to someone. It's a common response, at least in our culture, to poor decisions that have bad outcomes. Somehow we are indoctrinated in our culture to make sure that people who make bad choices feel and know the effects of their choices, and we want them to face the consequences. We want people to know what they did.  We are a culture of retribution.  Yeah, well, the phrase, "You brought this upon yourself," said Jesus.... never . Jesus seems to be operating on a completely different wavelength than we are. Time and time again, the gospels show Jesus running into people who were seen by others as ones who made poor choices, usually from the standpoint of what the people thought were God's expectations: the woman caught in adultery in John 8 ; Zacchaeus in Luke 19 ; Matthew the t...