Tag: susan beckett

There was once a church pastor who used to give an impassioned, exciting altar call which would end with this ear-catching line — “Come to Jesus and let Him wreck your life.” Gets your attention, doesn’t it?! I actually pondered that simple line for quite sometime before it really sunk in. He was right - Jesus really does wreck your life when you come to Him. He wrecks your old life and sets you on a fresh path with new purposes, passions, and principles. All good! I like how C.S. Lewis puts it, “If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions…then I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely imaginary.” True - and this journey is a process!

It’s hard if not impossible these days to find anyone who hasn’t heard the term “fake news.” But as I was mulling over this fairly new tag, I thought that, in fact, fake stuff has been around for quite a long time. Think about it - we have fake jewelry, fake meat, fake grass, fake Christmas trees, and even fake “people” riding in the passenger seats of cars driving in carpool lanes. Strange sight, I’m sure!

Every so often I read of excuses people make for all sorts of things; everything from lost homework, to why they can’t exercise, or why their crazy kids are crazy! My very favorite excuses are work related. So much funny stuff out there. Here are just a few of my all time favorites. “My heat was shut off so I had to stay home to keep my snake warm.” “My left turn signal was out so I had to make all right turns to get to work.” And the one I would personally use: “I walked into a spider web on the way out the door and couldn’t find the spider, so I had to go inside and shower again!” I know - that one’s pretty sad!

Back in the day when Bob and I still had young children at home, I baked a lot more often. Poor Bob - these days it’s Stater Bros Inc for all his baking needs! But we had pumpkin and zucchini breads, cinnamon rolls, and other yummy delights on a regular basis. One afternoon, while in the kitchen making rolls, our young daughter Sharon happened to walk in. She stood for a bit, just watching, before finally blurting out, “Is that the roll that’s called up yonder?” She caught me so off-guard I just had to laugh. Apparently she loved that song - “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder I’ll Be There,” but was pretty clueless as to its true meaning. Too funny - guess we never know for sure what kids are thinking — adults too, for that matter!

I love reading through the Chronicle each week, but this week, reading the editorial by Bob Franken just had me bristling! According to Franken, the Republican Party is “a party that is now home to almost all bigots.”