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!
Liberation
VIEW VIDEO A few years ago, Joan got mad at The Indianapolis Star and cancelled our subscription. I’ve never known Joan to be mad at a person, but if you’re a corporation, you’d better not cross her. So now we subscribe to The New York Times, and I’ve downloaded the...
This Too Shall Pass
VIEW VIDEO Every Sunday, on our way home from meeting, I ask Joan if she liked my sermon, and every Sunday she squeezes my hand and says it was wonderful. We’ve been doing that now for 37 years and it’s been a wonderful arrangement. Except last Sunday, when I asked...
Resilience
VIEW VIDEO It’s been wonderful being on vacation. Our son Sam and his wife Kelsea came down from Fairbanks, Alaska, with their dog Maggie, who met another dog during their visit and went into heat, which added an interesting dimension to our time together. It’s a...
Our Family Reunion
VIEW VIDEO My family on my Dad’s side were coal miners from southern Illinois, to the chagrin of my paternal grandmother who wanted everyone to think she was from England and personal friends with the Queen. She and my grandfather had lived in London for about ten...
Habits of Wholeness (8)
VIEW VIDEO Several years ago, Chris and Anne Gautier were at the farmhouse with Joan and me. It was in the summertime and we were sitting outside watching the birds, which were just thick down there. As we were watching, an iridescent blue bird landed on a feeder and...
Habits of Wholeness (7)
VIEW VIDEO I came across a video clip of our granddaughter Madeline this week, taken when she was first learning to talk and had a functioning vocabulary of a dozen or so words—mommy, daddy, Hank (their dog), Nanna, Poppa, kitty, puppy, play. Simple, basic words that...
Habits of Wholeness (6)
VIEW VIDEO I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot lately, five years past her death. After she passed, my thoughts were weighed with grief, but after five years the grief has been replaced with gratitude for the gifts she gave our family, among them a sense of humor,...
Habits of Wholeness (5)
VIEW VIDEO When I applied for seminary, I had to undergo psychological testing to discern my mental fitness for ministry. This was in 1988, when Chris Gautier’s grandmother, Dr. Sue Cardwell, did the psychological evaluations for Christian Theological Seminary. She is...
Habits of Wholeness (4)
VIEW VIDEO I drove down to our farmhouse this past Tuesday to mow, a trip now reminiscent of the Shackleton Antarctic expedition, except I wasn’t trapped by the ice a hundred miles short of the South Pole, but was stuck in Martinsville in the I-69 detour without food...
Habits of Wholeness (3)
VIEW VIDEO Our granddaughter Madeline was visiting us this past week. I was up in my office working, and she was downstairs with Joan making brownies. They were discussing various topics, then I hear Madeline say, “I’m going to go upstairs and ask Papa to play Barbies...