Investment Advice

There are many things I could point to with a profound sense of gratitude. But right now I’m thankful for memories. As Dan Quayle famously and clumsily said, “It’s a terrible thing to lose one’s mind.” Yes, it is. And the worst thing about it would be to lose the capacity to recall.

When I was growing up, the day after Thanksgiving wasn’t much of a shopping day. It was a fishing day. My dad, my older brother, and I would go fishing in the saltwater marshes of south Louisiana, in the heart of Plaquemines Parish, the Parish that was so devastated by hurricane Katrina. It was an all-day affair. We’d leave before light and get home after dark. And we were good, too. The fish celebrated our departure! Those are some of the best memories I have from my childhood.

Since I’m a preacher I feel I can relay a preacherly word. If you want to really be rich, invest in memories, not things. As the years go by, the value of things decreases, but the value of memories increases. In this uncertain and unstable economic world, you can’t claim that about very many investments.

For Sweet Music

This post is copied from my column in the Nov/ Dec issue of The Message.

When Dale and I have dinner together we always have candles and music. The candles are still very, very old school. A candle is a candle. But the delivery of music has changed a lot. We use to do the music the old fashioned way. We played the radio. And you take what you get—including the commercials. Then we upgraded; we got a CD player. We get the music, minus the commercials, but we’re limited to what we have on hand.

We’ve upgraded again. To something called Pandora. This is internet radio. It’s a step up even from satellite radio. It has no commercials, and, it’s free. And the sound quality is flawless. It works like this. You pick an artist, a style of music, or even just one song, and Pandora uses an algorithm to parse the music you’ve selected into something called a “Station,” and it will then go and find more music for you that is like it. I can enter, “Macy Gray,” or “Bach,” or “Chris Tomlin,” and Pandora will play their music, plus others who are like them. Each song that is played comes with a little “thumbs-up,” or “thumbs down,” for you to click. In this way, you can further and further refine your new Station.

I realize the analogy can’t be pressed very hard, but there is something of sanctification going on here. You sign up for a Station. This is the principle you agree with. It is, if you will, the Truth. When you finally humble yourself and submit to the truth, you find God bringing it to you from many different places. You will find the truth in Scripture, in worship, in music. You’ll find it in the countless ways and places you have to make decisions through the course of a week. And each time you respond to God’s truth with obedience it’s like you click “thumbs up.” Each little act of obedience causes God’s truth in you to become a little more refined, a little more focused. It’s like God has a great algorithm working in your life, slowly, day by day, making you a little more like Jesus. Jesus said, “Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth” (John 17:17, Amp.).

The more you respond in obedience to God, the sweeter the music of your life will sound.

Land of the Rising Sun





I’m glad to be home! Six of us spent ten days in Japan (seven days serving). The flight over was direct—14 ½ hours and 13 time zones. But I got much of that time back when I came home. I arrived in Atlanta 35 minutes before I left Japan. Think about that.

Though Japan is the 3^rd largest economy in the world it is very small in terms of land mass. Japan is slightly smaller than the state of California. The people are small of stature. Their cars are small. Their roads are small. Their houses are small. The doors in their houses are small. I nearly suffered a concussion from banging my head on doorways. Their hotels are small. The last 3 nights we were there I stayed in a single room in a hotel in downtown Tokyo. I could stand in the middle of the room and touch both walls. And my arms are not that long.

While there is a lot about Japan that is small, I can say from firsthand experience, their faith and their hearts are not. It’s not easy being a Christ follower in Japan. And it’s not easy to reach Japanese people with the gospel. Fewer than 1% of the people are Christian. Those believers we met are passionately dedicated to Christ and his church. You would love them immediately.

Thank you for your many prayers for our team. Our team was comprised of Keith and Anna Miller (team leaders), Fred and Sara Creighton, Bob McDuff (my roomie!), and me. We shared one small, three-bedroom apartment and one bathroom. We have become very close friends. Please continue to pray for open hearts among the Japanese people and encouragement for the believers there, as well as for the encouragement of our missionaries. Many thanks go out to Pastor Yoshio and the Shinkoiwa Baptist Church. I preached to this great congregation on October 30 (with Pastor Yoshio's smooth translation). Other team members shared their personal testimonies plus we led in Sunday morning Sunday School classes. In addition to this, during the week our team met with several small groups in members' homes in order to share our testimonies and ask and answer a wide variety of questions. We also did some prayer walking and passing out Japanese language tracts. Our team is planning a time soon to report on our trip and the wonderful ways we saw God at work.