Health Reflections Part 1

I don't know quite how many posts I'll put in the health series. I know I have some thoughts and don't want to put them all at once. I should note that if anything in what I say sounds like medical advice, you should talk to your own physician. I'm a history doctor. I can advise you on what happens, typically, in plagues and pandemics and wars and droughts. I am not qualified to tell you what medicine you need now.

(I can most assuredly tell you how wrong things can get without medicines like vaccines that we take for granted now, but ultimately, you should talk to a real medical professional about such things for right now. If you wonder about someone's qualifications for that role, ask them basic questions about human anatomy, what disease-causing organisms look like, and what disease vectors are. If they need a quick YouTube video to answer, go find someone who went to medical school. And get your MMR.)

Back in March of 2026, I went to the doctor for the first time in several years. This was the included "Annual Wellness Exam" that individual insurance plans are required by law to cover 100%. We haven't done it, because our previous insurance company had a very limited network and then also expected you to front costs and then wait for reimbursement. Trust me, if the insurance company has all the money, it's not coming to you very quickly.

However, we changed insurers this year. Another time I'll run down what a blessing that was starting in January with our son's collapsed lung, but that opened up the possibility to get a basic checkup without worrying about having to front all the money and hope for some back later. 

Ann and I went in, and my blood pressure was a "little high." Well, honestly, it was 180/140. That's not a little high. It's a lot high. Doctor told me to start keeping a journal on that and come back to see if we need to try some medication to get it down while I do the work of losing weight. Blood pressure is like any other hydraulic pressure: if you are over the specifications of the hoses, you can do damage with pressure even if it doesn't blowout and leak. If your BP is high, you need to get it down while you make the lifestyle changes to keep it down.

So, that was the plan. Then a few weeks later, I was not feeling right. I went back to the doctor. Nursing student took my blood pressure. Left the room, got a nurse, who took my blood pressure. Who left the room and got another nurse. Apparently, the numbers they were getting were just a bit outside the range of experience. After a brief incident where I threw up while walking out to the truck, I was sent to the emergency department at the hospital next door.

Where my blood pressure was taken and was 232/115. Folks, you should not have blood pressure like that. It's bad. The emergency doctor shot me full of stuff to bring the BP down. They took CT scans of my head and chest, looking for blockages, aortic dissection, and more. They found nothing.

I came very close to not leaving the hospital. Then, my BP came down just enough they let me come home. I'm still on meds, trying to be diligent to lose weight, etc., but a few quick notes:

In this same time span, I've had 4 friends in ministry die from health complications. One more died by suicide related to stress in the ministry. None of them were "old." Not to take away from beloved older folks, but generally one is not surprised when 80-90 year-olds die from heart attacks and strokes. When it hits people from 40-60, something has really gone wrong.

I'll make my first health reflection here: get to the doctor and address your health. Find out the basics, and make it happen. If you are serving a church, pastors, and they begrudge you taking time to visit the doctor, get someone you can trust to help you have a confrontation with the obstacles. Same with a church that will not let you take time away for rest and recovery. They are actively working against you living.

Don't let them.

Now, the next installment, we'll talk about our own responsibility for our health.

Sermon Recap for August 2 2026

Good Morning!

We're still in Hebrews, although we're about to run out of it. After that, we'll be in Psalm Pseptember then I'm probably starting Romans.

Sunday nights and Wednesdays are still running chronologically through the Bible. We're at the Flood and will likely be out of the boat Wednesday night.

Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is https://www.audible.com/podcast/Doug-Hibbard-Sermons-and-Thoughts/B08JJND2RP  https://bit.ly/3WnLNR2

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Book: Human Raised

Human Raised

Nurturing Connection, Curiosity & Lifelong Learning in the Age of AI

Dana Suskind, MD

310 pp., hardcover

Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House Publishing

When I was a child, when President Reagan was calling on Mr. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” and you had four options for broadcast television (and a converter box if you wanted to be entertained by 4 or 8 bits of processing power!), my parents would not buy me the cool toy the kid down the street had. It was a nifty little Texas Instruments device called a “Speak & Spell,” and they were concerned that my sister and I would end up trying to talk like the digitized voice rather than speaking like a person.

I just wanted something to use for communicating with aliens if they crashed on our street. After all, I had seen E.T. In truth, I had a habit of mimicking movies far more than what noises I could get out of educational toys. Still, this part of my childhood echoes to the present moment because we’re still challenged about how much to expose children to screen times, digitally-processed responses, and non-human learning aids.

While I have not gone back and read the parenting advice from the disco-era that guided my upbringing, my wife and I did consult other turn-of-the-millennium books as our kids were born. Now, we’re looking at parenting tips for friends and future grandchildren in the new era, where Generative Artificial Intelligence is part of the fibers of life, along with algorithms that guide our shopping and the ads we see when we stream programs over dozens of platform options.

Into this milieu comes Human Raised, by Dana Suskind, MD. Dr. Suskind writes here to set forth some templates about how to keep your parenting (especially) guided toward making human connections, so that your children end up more human-focused than digitally guided people as adults. After all, the goal is not “good kids,” but adults capable of thriving in the world around them. “Good kids” are a stage in that development process, but then again, “challenging kids” are also a stage. 

Some folks will likely fault Dr. Suskind’s work because she does not come out flatly against using AI-tools in parenting, including exposing children to the products of AI. While there are valid ethical critiques of many AI-systems, from their flamboyant thefts of intellectual property to their excessive destruction of environmental systems, she approaches the situation with the realism that says: “There will be AI, so how do we deal with it?” If you’re looking for a debate about AI overall, this is not it. She does not deny the need for that debate, but is not hosting it here.

Instead, you have basic guidance on researching AI and what you should and should not use it for. There are several chapters first establishing the very real need for parents and caregivers to be human-first in their interactions with children. Suskind makes plain that imperfect human interaction far supersedes algorithmic perfection. (She also acknowledges that most algorithms aren’t going to hit perfection anyway!) Her medical specialty in pediatrics and otolaryngology (I was a frequent ENT patient as a kid, lots of ear infections!) exposes her to many children’s diverse development challenges and provides good illustration of the real-world principles she writes about. 

I found her acknowledgement that family resources, such as financial wealth, access to medical care, and extended support groups of people, will affect whether you can use AI to strengthen your parenting, help you survive challenges, or not even be able to use it a valuable note. Too often, guidance on technology assumes equal access. Again, life in pediatrics has made clear that not everyone can do everything. (If you’d like to see authors who don’t note these inequalities, check out most nutrition writers. The assumption is massive that anyone can afford, in time, energy, and access, to eat perfectly all the time.)

Each chapter in this book ends with a helpful TL;DR section, giving you, the reader, the main takeaways from each chapter. One should still read the chapters! However, life gets busy. You will see the value of each chapter as you check these chapters out. If you see this book on a bookstore shelf and want to know if it’s worthwhile, take a peak at any of those chapter endings.

Finally, almost worth the price of purchase itself, she walks the reader through an investigative framework using DETECT as an acronym. This shows up in the body of the text starting in chapter 8, but then is helpfully pulled-out into an appendix for easy reference. This framework guides the reader in evaluating AI and other technology implementations. I expect to see this material to show up in parenting seminars soon.

All-in-all, Dr. Suskind has produced a well-constructed argument for rational use of AI and other technology tools to allow parents more space to build human connections with their children. She provides good cautions about not letting the technology overrun human imperfection, and the gives a good framework for investigating any technology or activity you involve your children with.

Weather Delays Part 2

 A couple of days ago, I used this space to share about our daughter's minor travails in getting back from New York City. She happily reported that no one offered her picante sauce while there, but then again, that's more of a GenX joke that you might not get.

Still, we left her unresolved, waiting for an answer to her weather delayed flight. It was a good time to reflect on being powerless and the reality that our lives are often filled with powerless moments and it's more about how well we navigate them than eliminating them. After all, if you are always "in control" then you are rarely out of your normal space. (That's not to minimize that you often do have at least the "control" of backing out of a situation. That's not exactly "in control" because you can't change anything from it.)

Now, first, let's resolve the real-life situation: after a 3-hour delay in NYC, her flight arrived in Atlanta just as her flight from Atlanta to Little Rock took off. As in, one plane descending, one plane rotating off the tarmac on a different runway. Which led to spending the night in the Atlanta airport, flying back to Little Rock first thing the *next* morning, where we picked her up from the airport and took her home so she could sleep.

There are perhaps life lessons here about things God protected her from that she'll never know about, but I think there's also a valuable lesson here that sometimes, life just goes wrong. 

And that's it. There's no lesson. There was no "oh, if you had made your first flight, this horrible thing would have happened." (Although that is, at times, true.)

Life just is not always easy. And frustration comes from it. But you're well-served if you learn to only let the real frustrations bug you: sleeping in an airport chair is definitely frustrating! Don't add the frustration and emotional wreckage of being mad that it wasn't easy.

Some basic tips for this:

1. Be ready for things to go haywire at various times. It's going to happen eventually, anyway.

2. Be aware of the people that will help you as life takes weird turns. In this specific case, our daughter realized she needed help with sorting out getting home from the airport, since she was not coming when her roommate could pick her up. Oh, and then realized it needed to be someone with a key to her apartment, since it wasn't her roommate coming to pick her up!

3. Be calm when needed. Sometimes, you have to focus. Have some calm ready.

4. Be emotional when necessary. She called at 1 AM with tears. That's fine. I've melted down in airport in a chaos moment before, too...

5. Be available to others in their chaos. Without snark. Without criticism. Just be willing to help.

Ministry Chronicles: Sending Church Step 2: Initial Questions

In the initial installment of this series, I ran down how we at Mt. Olive Baptist Church started our involvement with church planting through Send Network: Arkansas. Look at the "sendingchurch" label for that one and for any future installments.

One thing that needs to be said here: when you are introducing something new to a church family, especially a traditional church that has never done it before, there will be questions. Some of those questions will appear silly, nonsensical, or obvious to those who have been down that road before. That does not mean these are bad questions. It just indicates that there are larger gaps in understanding between many church folks and the people who are in one niche of Baptist life.

(By contrast, I have a feeling there are normal parts of being a traditional church pastor that some church planting folks would have an understanding gap about...)

None of these questions are shared with an intention of shaming the askers. Each one of these came from someone who had the best interest of Mt. Olive Baptist at heart. They were trying to understand and make sure we do what we are supposed to do in following Jesus.

(Also quick note: I did not write these down word-for-word, so in the tradition of Herodotus, I shall give the sense of the question as best I know.)

First question: "Why do they want us to be their "Sending Church"?" It's one thing when your church is sending out members to start something that the church is aware of; it's another matter when it's strangers that only the pastor has met. It's a good question.

Second question: "Why does El Dorado need another church?" It had close kin in the question "Why not just try harder with Southside El Dorado?" These are good questions. There are some long debates about whether or not it's necessary to start new churches especially in towns with lots of churches. I'll shortcut the debate and simply say that there are people who are going unreached by the churches we've got, then we may need more churches. As to shutting down the old one and starting a new one: sometimes, the organizational baggage is just heavy enough that the best thing to do is close the old shop and start a new one.

Those questions are better answered by asking this question: Do we trust the people we are working with to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit? That's a critical part of this situation. If you are partnered with a church planting team that you do not trust to be praying and following Jesus, then you need to back up and start with some prayers and reconsideration.

Third question: "Why are they asking us instead of a church in El Dorado?" First part is that you need to trust the team. The second thing we should consider is that sometimes churches aren't particularly as willing to help out locally. It's harder to suggest that we support a church down the street from us that might nab people that our church could reach. Unfortunately, we tend to judge churches and pastors on items that only show on spreadsheets and it can be hard to get past that.

Fourth question: "How much money will this cost us?" Whether or not your church has a lot of money, you will face this question. The truth is, you have options. You can contribute as much as possible, but you can also just be part of stewarding resources coming in from other sources. This is probably where our church is going to start out: Send Network money will come in, we'll forward it onward. We'll provide administrative help as part of our overall normal spending for such things.

Fifth question: "What happens if they need a pastor in a few years? Will you leave and go pastor that church?" Part of the underlying question here is even broader: "What will you do when they need something and we need the same thing? How do we make that work?" 

Sixth question: "How long are we doing this?" Ties in somewhat to the previous question: will this distract us from our work?

Seventh question: "What are we going to need to do as part of this?" Partly driven by folks who do not want to make just a verbal commitment and not really doing anything else. They want to know that there is meaningful involvement in the decision.

Eighth question: "Are we going to need to send people to be part of the new church?" Our church helped start a church more than 4 decades ago in the model of the time: preaching point, mission church, all frequently started out of realizing that "lots of people are driving a long way to our church and they all come from this area." 

Ninth question: "Will this take up too much of the pastor's time?" alongside "Pastor, you just recently nearly died because your blood pressure went nuts, can you handle adding stress/work to your plate?" There are certain parts of this partnership that, especially until someone else in the church is ready to step up into a leading role in it, will fall to the pastor. Be ready to address this. Especially if there are things that need doing at church that you haven't been able to keep up with.

Tenth question (and last one for now): "What does our church gain from doing this?" Answer that as best you can.

Weather Delays

So yesterday (Tuesday), our daughter was trying to get back from a vacation in New York City and found herself stuck in an aircraft waiting to get out of LaGuardia Airport.

It's frustrating. Frustrating for her, stuck in a plane. Frustrating for her roommate who is supposed to pick her up at the Little Rock Airport later tonight. Frustrating for her parents who want her home where she will, allegedly, be safer and sounder.

As I write, she's here.

And the thing is, we have more information about such things now than we have had for years before. I can pull up a picture of where the plane is waiting, I can find weather radar information, I can even access history of how quick the flight usually takes. (Note: it's usually quicker than the allotted time, by at least half-an-hour!)

Anticipated routing.

You know what I cannot do?

Change the weather. Or adjust the basic reality of life that taking off in an Airbus 321 in the middle of a thunderstorm line is just a bad idea.

We like to say that knowledge is power, but ultimately, no matter how knowledgeable we are, we remain powerless in the face of many things. 

Now, eventually, all such things can be considered "first world problems" and we should just get over them. I would suggest that, instead, we should see these as the same basic human problems as ever:

No matter how much we know, we have limits. Limits that we cannot exceed or change.

The real challenge is living within them and giving others space to live inside theirs. That takes grace. We need to have enough for us, which God gives, so that we have plenty to pass on to others until they know God's grace fully.

Ministry Chronicles: Sending Church Step 1

Here at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Ashley County, Arkansas, we just took the step of voting to work together with SEND Network: Arkansas and a group in El Dorado, Arkansas. We're going to be the "sending church" for this group as they build on the ministry of Southside Baptist, El Dorado, and launch a new church from that now-closed church.

One part of what I want to do is chronicle here this process and what we do. Here, let's hit the basics:

First, Mt. Olive is not a large church. We have a large building, but we are a very typical Southern Baptist traditional church: mostly we're adults over 50, with a small number of people that fit in the "young adult" category. We're struggling to connect with youth and children going back to a church split back in the COVID-era. Our budget isn't wide open with lots of space; we've had to trim positions and activities pretty seriously in the last decade.

I'll also say something here that isn't meant to be negative self-talk, just honesty: our pastor (me) isn't one of those "amazing" pastors who can triple a church with his energy and charisma. He's not a great "people person" but more of a teacher and equipper-type. He's not well-connected with all the great and amazing cool preachers and groups in Baptist life, either. 

Now, first question: How did we get involved in this?

I went to an event called "Sending Lab" from Send Network: Arkansas (which is the church-planting collaboration between Arkansas Baptists and the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board). The main reason I went was to find some ideas that might possibly help us get our church moving in the right direction.

A couple of weeks later, one of the ABSC guys reached out to me and asked if our church would consider being the official "sending church" for a group that was at Sending Lab. They were working on finding ideas and setting up their new church to include sending out missionaries to start churches from the very beginning.

I'm always willing to ask a question. I may get shot down. But it's worth asking.

Here's the important part of step 1 in this process:

Prayer. A lot of prayer. First, by myself and my wife as we prayed about how to introduce the idea to our church.

After all, it's helpful to remember that if your church has never done something before, they will not understand what is being asked of them. And uncertainty is the foe of commitment. (I know there are some "experts" who will say that I should be so effective as a leader that folks will follow without certainty, simply trusting my judgment. See above.)

After Ann and I prayed about this, I brought it first to our deacons. Our church still runs a fairly traditional organizational model: if the deacons aren't for it, it's not happening. I shared the information with them, encouraged them to pray, and asked them for their questions.

Then, we shared the information with the church and gave them time to pray and set a designated point to ask questions about the process. 

Finally, after several weeks of working through that as the process, we actually voted in a normal business meeting that we would make this commitment.

This may seem like it was longer than it should have been, but the church is supposed to work together in serving the Lord Jesus Christ. If you cannot take the time to pray through and find a basic floor of unity in the church, you may just be doing it wrong.

That's the summary of how we are moving from "not involved in church planting" to "starting to be involved directly in church planting."

Next up, I'll walk through some of the questions that were brought up here about our involvement.

Sermon Recap for July 26 2026

 Good morning! 2 weeks in a row. Remember, progress in small steps is still progress.

Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is https://www.audible.com/podcast/Doug-Hibbard-Sermons-and-Thoughts/B08JJND2RP  https://bit.ly/3WnLNR2

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Sermon Recap July 19 2026

Well, I took a break. Various things happened, I was still preaching, but my cardiac health decided to go nuts this spring. That after our son's lung decided to go flat and require surgery this winter. Seems fair to say that a long-neglected blog was...allowed to continue its neglected status. However, as long as the bits will travel through the tubes, I will occasionally try again with the blog. This is what you get when the same guy that does the sermons also has to do the social media.

Keep in mind that this audio player will let you subscribe to the audio through a classic podcast feed or you can search "Doug Hibbard: Sermons and Thoughts" on Audible, Apple, and Amazon Music to subscribe. You can also just click back through here. Which is handy, if you want the whole sermon series.

Meanwhile, there's always YouTube. If you want to see me flub the word "Commendation" and sub in "Condemnation," an oops that totally changes the sentence, that's here:

That will also take you to the channel that has the video backlist.

Thanks for reading! My goal is to be back before 6 months next time.

Sermon Recaps since October 19

 Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is https://www.audible.com/podcast/Doug-Hibbard-Sermons-and-Thoughts/B08JJND2RP  https://bit.ly/3WnLNR2

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Sermon Recap for October 12 2025

I'm still trying to think through a way to video Sunday nights and Wednesday nights, but sometimes those are just discussions and answering questions, and putting a video camera in the room can be a damper on the situation. So, for now, we're still just doing Sunday morning sermons.

Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is https://www.audible.com/podcast/Doug-Hibbard-Sermons-and-Thoughts/B08JJND2RP  https://bit.ly/3WnLNR2

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

Sermon Recap for October 5 2025

Here is the sermon from yesterday, October 5, 2025:

Sermon Recap for September 28 2025

And with this sermon, Psalm Pseptember 2025 comes to a close. I enjoy having this as kind of a "reset" point on the preaching calendar. It keeps me from getting too lost and buried into a longer series and it stops me from skipping the Old Testament. There's just no good way to preach on a "Psalm of David" without making sure folks are at least slightly aware of who this David fellow was. 

Now, this last one was Psalm 70. That means next year we'll probably cross the halfway-point, because I'm not doing every Psalm. I also do not plan that far out, so I have not thought beyond "Yes, Psalm Pseptember 2026 will be a thing."

Book: The Darkwater Saga

Several years ago, I reviewed a few books by Patrick W. Carr called The Darkwater Saga. At the time, there were three books in the series that I have in paperback (and on Kindle) and an e-book exclusive prequel novella. I enjoyed the series. The plots were intricate, the characters (with a few "Red Shirt" exceptions) were developed well, and it had a good resolution. 

(What's a "Red Shirt" character? Stealing from the classic Star Trek imagery of the disposable guys who beam down to the planet and get eaten, mind probed, zapped, whatever just to prove it's a serious situation.)

After finishing those, Carr published one more novel and then vanished from the writing scene for a time. Which was a bummer, because I liked his fiction and, while he did include some serious themes and moments that are not for kids, he did drop in unnecessary profanity or explicit sexual material. Unfortunately, too many publishers seem to think that adult readers won't know characters had sex unless the author writes up a four-page description of the moment. I kind of want to say: I'm an adult, I know what's happening here, let's move on. I end up avoiding the authors whose works are consistently punctuated with that or the profanity bug. I know you talk like that at work, I just don't need to read it.

Carr's works were good and challenging and I had hoped for many more. But he, as mentioned, disappeared for a while. Reasonable, when you consider he was not making a full-time living writing but continued as a high school math teacher. 

However, he's back. One of the reasons he states on his website for taking a break is that hitting the publication deadlines had required him to release some of the Darkwater books before he thought they were ready. He's starting by re-releasing those books with some additions, referring to the new releases as the "Director's Cut."

The first process was to elongate the prequel novella, By Divine Right, into a full-length book. The following three books in the series were then renumbered to make for sane numbering: 1-4 for the current works.

These are available on Kindle here. The writing is just as good as before, there are a few more plot explanations than the originals, but it still packs the same punch. There might be a few places that editing missed the update (one character's name was changed but that change got missed in one place), however you can easily tell what is meant. Those are no problem.

I know some folks will lament not being able to grab these in paperback, and I get that. But you need an e-ink Kindle anyway :) so grab one and load these books on them.

Sermon Recap for September 21 2025

 

Here's the next sermon!

Sermon Recap for September 14 2025

 Psalm 63 Sermon

Sermon Recap

Just like Monday rolled around again today, Sunday rolled through yesterday like the University of South Florida moving through Gainesville. Here in Crossett, it was time for another sermon. We'll leave the Gators to weep softly on their own...

Stranded!

Doug Hibbard

Psalm 61

 

The Setting

Psalm 61 NET 2nd ed.

For the music director, to be played on a stringed instrument; written by David. 

O God, hear my cry for help. Pay attention to my prayer. 

From the remotest place on earth I call out to you in my despair. Lead me up to a rocky summit where I can be safe. 

Indeed, you are my shelter, a strong tower that protects me from the enemy. 

I will be a permanent guest in your home; I will find shelter in the protection of your wings. (Selah) 

For you, O God, hear my vows; you grant me the reward that belongs to your loyal followers. 

Give the king long life. Make his lifetime span several generations. 

May he reign forever before God. Decree that your loyal love and faithfulness should protect him. 

Then I will sing praises to your name continually, as I fulfill my vows day after day.

The Psalmist

David. And even if it’s not, it’s someone in trouble. Someone who feels distant. Who feels that God has left them alone. They feel lost at the ends of the earth. In fact, this Psalm is where the phrase “The Ends of the Earth” entered English usage—starting with Wycliffe in the Middle Ages. Envision someone feeling that they are so far that they’ll never be found, never even be blundered across.

The Struggle

Psalm 61:1–2 CSB

God, hear my cry; pay attention to my prayer. 

I call to you from the ends of the earth when my heart is without strength. Lead me to a rock that is high above me,

Ever been where you think your prayers aren’t being heard or listened to? Where you are in despair? Be honest, because lying to God doesn’t work and lying to yourself...well, it just makes it worse. No one is strong all the time. If you knew someone that never struggled, then they hid it from you. 

Realize, too, that the solution is to follow the Lord upward, to the rock that He provides. Which is still going to require you climb, but you do not have to find your own way.

The Point

Psalm 61:3–4 CSB

for you have been a refuge for me, a strong tower in the face of the enemy. 

I will dwell in your tent forever and take refuge under the shelter of your wings. Selah

In all those issues, the strong refuge is the Lord. The presence of the Lord. Note the Tabernacle

The Praise

Psalm 61:5–7 CSB

God, you have heard my vows; you have given a heritage to those who fear your name. 

Add days to the king’s life; may his years span many generations. 

May he sit enthroned before God forever. Appoint faithful love and truth to guard him.

The Practice

Psalm 61:8 CSB

Then I will continually sing of your name, fulfilling my vows day by day.

Fulfill

Your

Vow.

What was your vow?

Jesus is Lord  (Romans 10:9–13 “because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” )

Exported from Logos Bible Study, 3:27 PM September 8, 2025.

Historical Thinking: The Long Arc of History

Today marks the anniversary of the Little Rock Nine, those original Black students who attempted to access their rights to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. One could make many observations about the situation itself, from trying to justify the unmitigated hatred that was heaped on teenagers who were attempting to do what the law required (go to school) where the law specified (their assigned high school) the way the law allowed (see Brown v. Board and other rulings).

Crazy that teenagers trying to obey the law drew hatred from adults, adults in government, and trickled-down hatred from their peers. Because, honestly, would those teens shown as mobbing and shouting at these students have known to be angry if their parents hadn't taught them? Or their pastors? Kids choose hatred to please the people they love--kids tend to copy their parents. Eventually, maturity drives us all to reconsider who and what we hate. That is, if we are confronted with alternative viewpoints.

The challenge here is that we do not naturally encounter those alternative viewpoints. Generally speaking, we believe what our parents believed, who believe mostly what their parents believed, and so forth.These beliefs become the filter through which we see evidence in the world. Stats from social scientists like Ryan Burge demonstrate that folks deviate from the general religion of their birth in the United States by less than 2%. Admittedly, he does not account for Baptist Type 2 changing to Baptist Type 9, but he is looking at professing "Christianity" vs. other religions, including atheism. Some people do change, but often we notice them because they are outliers, not a massive movement.

That change is usually spurred by education, whether formal or informal. Informal can be something as basic as picking up a book at the library because the cover draws your attention. Formal is the planned schooling you are supposed to have. Museums tend to hit the mix of formal, because of planning, and informal, because you might just be visiting for the fun of it.

Either way, one thing we all need is that exposure. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed the view that the "arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice," an idea drawn from abolitionist ministers in the 19th century, but it is important to remember that he brought this up to urge people to act to bend that arc. He would agree with the idea that "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good to do nothing," usually attributed to Edmund Burke but not in his writings at all. The arc of the universe only bends if we bend it. If we act.

And those actions start with seeing the troubling images of who we once were as people. We have to be confronted to change our thinking, from being locked into a past that was not what we want our future to be and into being what God has called us to make in this world.

The "Long Arc of the Moral Universe" changes with the actions of people. And those actions start with minds listening. Minds growing and changing.

Ultimately, we have to be exposed to differing viewpoints. There is no value in teaching that simply echoes what you already think. Facts and their interpretation should be on display, and we should learn the critical thinking skills to separate the two. (A basic example? It is a fact that the Confederate Army lost the Battle of Gettysburg. It is an interpretation that the fault lies with Jeb Stuart for not being closer to the Army of Northern Virginia.)

To come to the point:

1. You should be paying attention to history, including looking at and being aware of things that make you uncomfortable. I look at Central in 1957 and have to ask myself: where would I have been? As a student? As a parent? I need to think about how I would have handled myself. And I need to think honestly, because we do have a tendency to make ourselves the hero. It's worth remembering that many of the crowd involved in shameful moments in history were just normal people, doing what they were taught was normal. But you need to be aware of what it was.

2. You should be considering right and wrong. Especially if you are a Christian, you should be taking the Biblical standard and looking back at history. Certainly people were behaving as they were taught, and there is forgiveness, but you can and should still look back and say "this was wrong." It was wrong that parents met to pray at Central High that the Black students would go away. Plain and simple. It was wrong that their pastors encouraged it. It was wrong then, and it would be wrong to repeat similar actions now. We are supposed to grow forward.

3. You should be looking now for the good that must be done to bend that arc of history. It's not about being "on the right side of history." That's nonsense. History is not your judge: God is. Do that which is right, and make sure history comes to the right side.

Sermon Addendum Sept 3 2025

So the point of the "Sermon Addendum" posts is to pick up things that may have been interesting to me in preparing the sermon but it fell to the need to edit. After all, the preacher cannot put everything in the sermon any more than the listener can listen to that whole sermon!

This past Sunday, we celebrated the Lord's Supper as a church. In the Baptist tradition, we generally hold to what's known as the "Memorial View" of the Lord's Supper, indicating our understanding that the elements of the Supper are intended to remind us of Jesus' sacrifice, His death, burial, and resurrection. The elements do not become something else, but they remind us. 

Other traditions hold other views. Some view the elements as being transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ; others that the elements themselves are not changed but that Christ is present in them in a way He is not in the rest of life.

There are several good books (and a few bad ones) that dig into this, I won't try to sort it out here. Take a look at Understanding Four Views of the Lord's Supper in the Counterpoints series for a good introduction. The bibliography will open up deeper reading.  I think there is something more than mere snacking happening, but I think the power of God's presence is mediated through the Spirit and the presence of one another more than anything else.

That greater debate is one thing that was left out of the sermon. After all, there's only a few hundred years of debate involved. It is a good example of how your introduction to a subject tends to hold on through the years. Likewise, we have divergent traditions of how often we do the Lord's Supper. Somewhere between every time the church gathers to only every so often. Southern Baptists tend to fall into the every so often tradition.

We also did not spend much time this time around about deep reflection before partaking. Many times we do spend effort there, based on 1 Corinthians' charge that we not take the Supper in an unworthy manner lest judgment fall. And that's a good warning.

But we should also remember that we are celebrating the Grace of God. So that was more of my emphasis this time around. It's worth remembering that we are now forgiven. That we are now part of the family.

While we should never take for granted what it cost to put us in the family, we should live like we are in the family. Grateful, not arrogant, but not afraid of our place in the family being taken away.

Book Thoughts: Time to Stretch

So I don't have a book to highlight today, partly because my brain is task-switching back and forth between too many things right now. It's taken about an hour to produce this sentence. Now, is this because my brain has a weird concoction of Autism Spectrum Disorder issues and ADHD issues? That may be part of it--at least 2 mental health professionals would support that idea, so I won't argue too much against it.

But I will also say this: it's also partly from letting my brain go slack for the last 4 months. About mid-April of this year, I defended my dissertation and officially could add "Ph.D." at the end of my name. Which I do in cases where adding that is useful, but I'm not roaming around calling myself "Doctor" very much. I'm afraid I'll get wrapped up in a malpractice suit.

After finishing the doctoral work, I dropped reading serious books. Which was necessary for a little while to let the brain relax. I reread a couple of longer novels, but honestly I could half-read them because I remembered most of what was there. Okay, honestly, even with the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo I already had it down pat from the first time I read it. The result of this was that I let my brain go into a standby mode that I now have to get it out of.

The neurodivergence issues (remember that first paragraph from 2 hours ago about ASD and ADHD?) are ones I have long dealt with--you don't go to bed one night and wake up with these the next morning--so I have learned methods to cope. I learned how to power through large assignments. I have read and retained excessively long books.

But it's a learned skill, it's like building muscle. In truth, it's a lot like building muscle if you add to the idea that muscles only work in certain directions: you can't just build a massive quadricep that goes any direction. There are limitations on the direction of movement. Training a brain is like training muscles amid the joints they connect to, and neuro issues are like having sketchy tendons or missing cartlidge: the muscle is powerful but you can blow out with other problems.

My muscle, and its accompanying connective tissue, was allowed to slide past recovery and into a vegetative state. "Was allowed" here is me using lanaguage the way politicians or CEOs use "mistakes were made." I allowed it. I did it. So, now, I have to push a little harder to get it back in shape. The last time I was mentally slack like this, I forced myself into a doctoral program to shape up. That's a bit like deciding to train for an Ironman Triathlon because you're overweight. It's great if it works...

I don't think I'm going full-bore into another doctoral program. Instead, I will work on my own diet and exercise, adding some heavier lifting into the reading. I mean, Word Nerds Unite! by Webb Garrison is turning out quite fun, but it's not really challenging me very much. 

In truth, we all need to challenge ourselves. Grab some heavier reading alongside your fun reading. Push yourself. Bit-by-bit. Hopefully in this space I'll get some other encouraging thoughts as well as some book recommendations posted.

But in the meanwhile: I'm going to get back to reading like I want to learn something. I already know I don't know enough, I need to treat that problem like it can addressed.