Joe Phelps's blog

“Like I wrote on the Sunday visitor card, I want to talk to you about being baptized again,” she said, as we pulled up two chairs amidst the Wednesday supper crowd.

Really what this visitor wanted to talk about was how her life had fallen apart and how far she’d wandered from God since she was baptized in 2001.

No, really what she wanted to talk about was the death of her young son a little over a year ago.

My trips to Dayton, Ohio will be different from now on.  My favorite marker, a 62-foot statue of Jesus made of wood, styrofoam and resin in front of Solid Rock Church on I-75, was struck by lightning and burned to the ground.

Apparently the statue’s real name was King of Kings, but we had several better titles: Loch Ness Jesus or Sinking Jesus (his torso emerged from a pond), Touchdown Jesus (arms thrust upward).  Or my favorite, Big Butter Jesus (for its golden color).

As often happens, a line from my morning prayer resource caught my attention. The line is from a prayer that says God will “direct our steps along peaceful ways.”

Part of my occupational hazard and blessing is that I think a lot about God-- who God is, what God does and doesn’t do, what effect it has to say one believes in God.