Portals. Preachers sometimes talk about portals during the Easter season, as Jesus' passing through the grave causes us to ponder the threshold between life and death and life again. Other portals grab the popular imagination: Dr. Who's time-traveling blue box called the Tardis, or the Hogwarts Express which departs from Platform 9 ¾. Each generation claims its own portals, so beware ending your explorations with the Starship Enterprise, which is the equivalent of telling WWII stories in today's pulpits.

One of the hardest things to do is watch our children fail. We want our kids to succeed, to do well in all that life offers. And that is why it is so hard when our children do not do well. The reasons that kids don't do well are as numerous as the stars are in the sky but how do we, as parents, respond? Do we not let them fail? Do we pick them up and tell them that everything is going to be o.k.? Do we let them take responsibility and face the consequences? That is what we struggle with as we parent two teenagers.

What if we stopped collecting the PW Birthday Offering? (Yes, those are fighting words for our congregations with active and vibrant Presbyterian Women organizations.) Some of us have a special place in our hearts for the Christmas Joy Gift. And others, who have, say, visited the hospital we support in Haiti on a mission trip, prefer to send money there. But what if we stopped collecting $500 here and $200 there for small offerings that have their particular followers and fans but not the full buy-in of the congregation?

When I realized that God was calling me into ministry, I knew that I was not fit and was not ready.
Jonah knew God's voice, understand his call, and he boarded a ship to run in the opposite direction (Jonah 1:1-3). Paul, upon learning the truth of the risen Christ, retreated for three years into Arabia (Galatians 1:15-18) before returning to take up ministry as an apostle.