Thoughts from Lynchburg

I had to make the trek fifty-five minutes north today to the Lifeway Store in Lynchburg to pick up Bibles for our graduates. I have never been impressed with the Lifeway Store, but they do provide a meager amount of service for the average pastor and Bible imprinting was particularly high on my list this week.

The store has never had a good selection of books; they always tend to be shallow (Lucado anyone?) and froofy (technical term), though not always. As I perused the "Pastoral Helps" section (I didn't buy anything), on the top shelf were "top picks." Interestingly, here are the titles: Future Church, Simple Church, Breakout Churches, The Emotionally Healthy Church, The Purpose Driven Church, and The Monday Morning Church.

There is a spiritual/ecclesiological lesson in there somewhere.

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A brief note on parents and children: Eating at Chick-fil-A, a family was sitting opposite me with two small boys. One boy was proper, eating his lunch, causing no trouble. The other boy, a little older, wasn't a bad boy, just a little active. I heard the words, "Stop it son," too many times. A packet of ketchup or spilled drink should never be more important than your child. The parents were constantly wagging fingers and wagging heads, their expressions and audible sighs communicating to the boy their constant disdain for him. I was greatly saddened. Body language communicates so much.

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And this isn't a lousy church sign, but a lousy birthday card. My mom's birthday is this month (the 21st, to be precise) so I thought I would go ahead and get her card to put back; try to be more of a Boy Scout than the consummate procrastinator. Is it just me or are the "religious" cards just lame and/or stupid? I picked one up and on the front it said, "Since God couldn't be everywhere at once, He invented mothers."

Don't sacrifice correct for cute . Sigh.

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Plus, Lynchburg is still reeling from the death of Jerry Falwell. I counted five marquees wishing the family well. May God bless the Falwell family.