First of all, thank you for the feedback you gave on the last post.  I would ask that you do the same for this one.

At the beginning of September I’ll be planning all the sermons for our church for 2010.  What would you like to hear me preach about during 2010?  I prefer three to four sermon series on subjects that require Biblical truth to be helpful and pretty readily lean toward the how to (instead of merely an idea or a concept).  In other words, I like to try to answer the question:  How will this sermon help someone live life better?  You don’t have to sign your suggestion, but it is a huge help to me to be able to contact you, if need be, on stuff like this.  For me, conversation beats e-mail where I need to try to understand your idea more clearly.  So if you could give me the easiest phone number at which I can reach you, it might help me help the church.  Thanx.

It’s fun to change, and to change you usually need to find out that you need to (not as much fun).  The sermons I preach on Sunday morning are a big part of what I do, and a lot of people grant me a lot of ear time for which I am grateful, so – got any ideas on how I could do it better?  I know that you may be thinking, “he doesn’t really want my opinion.” Oh yes, I do!  Please take a minute and respond.

When you respond, please tell me which service you attend.  You don’t have to sign your suggestion.  Thanx.

Fly tying jumped on me from a Field and Stream article.  Before long I had learned to wrap fur, feathers, and other materials around a hook and could catch fish with the result.  My dad could work on a piece of furniture for months.  He loved the precision.  I preferred jobs I could finish in moments.  It’s been a personality trait of mine for life. I don’t know whether I can do anything about it or not. I don’t think it really matters whether I prefer five-minute or five-week projects.  Here’s a little thing I like to do when I come to church.  Sunday mornings I pull up to my office outside the door, drop Patty and our stuff off, then drive down to the back of the parking lot.  I want guests and seniors to be able to park closer to the building.  Brandon Petersen and I park at about the same spot and most Sundays walk in together.  Like I said, it’s a small thing but satisfying, and maybe it’s helpful to someone who needs a closer parking space.

I think of sudden changes in direction and preference as a conversion of sorts.  Fly fishing and fly tying were two that happened to me when I was about 16.  Fly fishing jumped on me when I was at Dog Island for spring break (by the way – American troops prepared for D-Day and the storming of the beaches of Normandy on the beaches of Dog Island. The Great General Omar Bradley was there for the training.)  I saw my friend casting a little popper to try to catch bream.  I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.  Determined to learn how, I did so by reading and studying The Practical Fly Fisherman by A. J. McLane until I had it.  It was a real conversion that is still with me today, and it made my life more fun.  But the one that happened seven years later changed my life now and forever.  Compelling hobbies, activities, and work are fun and meaningful, but Jesus Christ is Lord.  I can live without the hobbies but without Jesus…