PlainSpeech Messages | Find YOUR way to GRACE.
I recently read a message I’d given in 1984 and felt a mixture of embarrassment and surprise. Embarrassed because it seems inadequate now, and surprised by how much my worldview has changed. Twenty-five years from now, I might read these messages and have a similar reaction. I offer no guarantee that my work or words will endure the eroding effects of time. I can only assure you these thoughts have been helpful to me, and perhaps a few others, today. With that qualification, I offer them to you.
~ Philip
NEW!
Growing Up (8)
Several years ago, I was in Virginia speaking at a Baptist Church. I’m always surprised whenever Baptists invite me to speak at their church, though I invariably enjoy myself. I gave my first sermon in a Baptist church in Vincennes, Indiana. I was 21 years old, their...
Growing Up (7) Self-Differentiation
A friend of mine posted a picture of a snake on a tree. The caption read, “Find the snake.” I looked and looked, but never could find it, because the snake was so well camouflaged I couldn’t see where the tree ended and the snake began. It was probably just as well...
Growing Up (6)
We’ve been babysitting our granddaughter Madeline this summer, while her mother and father work. Her other grandparents attend a conservative Baptist church and have made some effort to bring Madeline around to their way of thinking, so I’ve taught Madeline to say,...
Growing Up (5)
It rained this past Tuesday and the kids next door played games on their front porch. It reminded me of when I was a kid, how on rainy days we’d gather on our front porch and play this game we called Imagine. “Imagine,” we would say, “you were the President of the...
Growing Up (4)
Have you ever noticed how some things we give little thought to shape our lives so dramatically? For instance, the concept of time. Scientists believe the moon was used to calculate time as early as the Paleolithic Era, perhaps 30,000 years ago. We know the Sumerians,...
Growing Up (3)
The past two Saturdays, I’ve thrown caution to the wind and ridden motorcycles down to the Hilltop Restaurant with Mike Goss to have fried chicken. We go in late afternoon to avoid the crowds and eat outside on the patio. I order fried chicken, which has been...
Growing Up (2)
I have a buddy who lives in Florida, who posts pictures of the beach in February, when all his friends up north are miserable with gloom and cold. He’s a retired minister and I know I should be happy he’s enjoying his senior years, but from December to March every...
Growing Up (1)
This past Monday, I was in a bad mood, out of sorts, and Joan was getting exasperated with me. We ordinarily get along very well, but I discerned from her plain Quaker speech that she was exasperated with me. “What’s wrong with you today?” she asked. I didn’t want to...
When Virtues Collide
Several weeks ago, the storm that knocked down buildings on Mooresville’s Main Street, toppled a tree in our yard, causing it to fall on, and demolish, our neighbor’s split rail fence. You’ll be shocked to learn the damage wasn’t covered by my homeowner’s insurance....
What COVID-19 Has Taught Me
This is the first pandemic for most of us, having not been alive when the Spanish flu struck in 1918. We’ve had our share of epidemics since then─diphtheria, measles, polio, and AIDS, but nothing on the scale of COVID-19. FYI, epidemics strike specific regions or...