I’m writing this at 37,000’ on my way to Pittsburgh with Claudia and a couple of dear friends, Dan and Marlys. We are off on a five day biking adventure on the Great Allegheny Passage. Dan and Marlys are easy to travel with and we count them as true friends.

I came across a new book this week that I’ll order in due time. It’s by Kevin DeYoung and the title is worth the price of admission. Impossible Christianity: Why following Jesus does not mean you have to change the world, be an expert in everything, accept spiritual failure, and feel miserable pretty much all the time. That’s a mouthful and quite a promise.

Look around at the various squeeze points on your thinking and living. Our challenge is to stay current with the world in which we live, at the same time hold fast to the truths that transcend trends.

A book Claudia picked up on Kindle a while ago has elbowed its way into my morning reading times. Titled, A Year of Living Prayerfully: How a Curious Traveler Met the Pope, Walked on Coals, Danced with Rabbis, and Revived His Prayer Life, by Jared Brock. Written in a semi-comedic way, this Canadian and his wife spent a year meeting with a very, very wide variety of folks, listening and asking questions about prayer in their experience.

Every church has its lane. And each one thinks they are right, and to some degree we all get stuff wrong. Think about different kinds of churches...

• From high church with their smells and bells

• To the sawdust trails of revivalists

• Liturgical churches following a calendar or free ones ignoring them

• Some so very conservative they squeak, all the way to plenty liberal enough to ooze

• and like Baskin-Robbins, so many many more flavors

This summer, some close friends welcomed around 50 folks to their home on the river for a night of laughs and good talk and a fine meal of some of the best brisket I've ever eaten. Our host, Don, shared the story below. I'm not sure where he got it and maybe you have read it before, but it is worth a repeat.

Pedestals are for statues, not people.

Once we elevate a person to an admired status, we can inadvertently rob them of the rough edges that make up the human experience.

This summer will remain in my mind’s memory file as a trying one.

• I watched a friend’s family continue to spin out of control, and the husband feeling powerless to change its trajectory.

• I stood in grief with many others saying goodbye, for now, to a remarkable young man.

• Entropy proves itself again true as my body slowly slows from a lively sprint to more of a wobbly jog.

• The growing polarization in our nation and community looks more and more like flashing warning lights of an oncoming calamity.

Every one of us has, is, or will face stressful times that tempt us to call a time-out...or the paramedics. If I asked you to name the stressors in your life, most can reel off a parade of people and situations that cause you heartburn.

Our church family lost a young man last week, and it has deeply saddened our congregation. Joel was the oldest son of a fine family of eight. He was 21 and ready to graduate this winter from OSU and had a wonderful future ahead of him. Tragically, he fell while climbing North Sister with his girlfriend and he perished.