If you’re as old as I am then you will know there was a television series called “Mission Impossible” before there were movies by that same name. If you’re old enough to know that, you’ll also remember the unforgettable beginning of each episode of “Mission Impossible.” The scene began with a picture of a burning fuse underscored by intense, driving music. The agent would place a small cassette tape in a player and the mission would be outlined. The agents would look through the mission information delivered in a manila envelope. Once the tape had been played, the tape would then self-destruct in a hissing puff of smoke. The agents would then have to decide to take the mission. They always did. The show would have been embarrassingly short if the agent had turned down the mission.

I grew up in Alabama during the sixties and seventies. During that time, there were several counties in our state that were “dry counties.” That is, alcohol couldn’t be sold in those counties. Every few years, the pulpits of our local churches would be lit up by pastors booming their condemnation of an upcoming “liquor vote” telling everyone in the church to vote against turning their dry county into a “wet county.” These sermons were kind of like eclipses of the sun. They happened every few years and didn’t last all that long.

Several years ago, a friend of mine was experiencing trouble in his marriage. From all the signs we could see, his marriage was headed for a divorce. In a last ditch effort to try to keep this from happening, I asked him if he would be willing to meet with me and a few other men. He agreed and I called together a few of the most mature and seasoned leaders of our church. We began by praying together and asking him about how he saw his marriage and what opportunities he saw for reconciliation.

Some things are only learned by doing. We can go to a workshop on changing a tire. We can watch a video on how to do it, but until we’ve heard that life draining “thump-thump” telling us we have a flat tire, we may never learn how to change a tire. The process of finding the tire tool, pulling the spare out of the trunk, loosening the lug nuts and switching the tires out is a life changing moment. We all know there are things about changing tires that can’t be known until we change a tire. If we’re going to learn how to change a tire we have to actually change a tire.

There is something almost mystical about unwrapping a new calendar for the coming year. All of those blank squares spread out across monthly page after monthly page make our hearts swell with dreams of all that could be possible in the coming year. Maybe this will be the year we’ll finally write our novel. Maybe this will be the year we finally get into great shape and run a marathon.

Poor Joseph. Could anyone have been more uncomfortable at the manger scene than him? First of all, his wife is giving birth to a child in a stable. Now, we can argue about whether or not it was a wooden barn or a cave, but does it make any difference for our discussion? Neither is a great place to give birth to a child, much less the Son of God. What’s more, the child being born isn’t his, but he’s still responsible. The child being born for all practical purposes is still his. The poor guy was caught between the proverbial rock and hard place.

These days, everyone has a bucket list – a list of things they want to have done or seen before they die. Ask your friends and you’ll find out everyone has some kind of bucket list. They may not have written it down, but everyone has given it some thought. Some people want to jump out of airplanes. Other people want to climb mountains and everyone it seems wants to write a novel. Some of the wishes are large - climb Mt Everest - and others are more intimate – get through these treatments and walk my daughter down the aisle at her wedding. Yet, as varied and interesting as these lists are, no one has come close to the bucket list of a man called Simeon in Luke’s gospel.

Rob is a long time friend of mine. He’s also in recovery. The wisdom he has gained from his own journey and from spending time with so many others in the recovery community means we always have a conversation that pays off for the time invested. The other day, Rob and I were talking and I commended him for being thirty-five plus years sober. He corrected me. “I’ve been sober for about thirty minutes,” he said, “and I’m grateful for our conversation that has allowed me to remain sober for these thirty minutes.”

My mother was a great caregiver. If you were going through a hard time, you wanted my mom around. She was strong, protective and compassionate. She could handle the nosy neighbor who wanted to know too much and then rock an upset child. She could be as strong as she needed to be and then as gentle as you needed her to be. She was something else. My mom taught me to bring paper plates and cups to a family going through a hard time. Everybody brings food, she said, no one brings anything to eat it on. In the church where I grew up, my Mom was the first call for most of the people in our church.

Everybody is in the attention game. Everybody is trying to grab a few minutes of attention on one of the screens that is always in front of our people. Getting people to pay attention to a sermon on any given Sunday morning has always been difficult. Now, it’s almost impossible.

Most church members wonder what the church staff— especially pastors — do all week. After all, all the preacher does is preach a couple of times on Sunday and visit the sick in the hospitals. How hard could that be?

A recent Wall Street Journal article, “The New Age of Entrepreneurship: 70-79,” points out that as more and more people are living longer, they are also working longer. More than that, more and more people in their 70s are starting businesses. Using their experience, training and education, they are beginning companies that solve problems and yes, make money. They have found traditional retirement to be boring and want to do something different. Only this time, they want to call the shots. They want to work with the people they want to work with and do the work they find meaningful. So, to be their own bosses, they start their own businesses.

When I was in high school, my math teachers made me show my work. When our class was given a test, we were given a sheet filled with problems and the best teachers would leave plenty of blank space on the test paper to work out the problems. Why? Because according to my teachers, knowing how to work the problem – knowing how to do the math – was as important as getting the right answer.

Most people are shocked when they realize God didn’t give Adam the whole world, he only gave Adam the garden. In fact, God never gave Adam ownership of the garden. Adam is placed in the garden to work the garden and tend to it. Humanity is introduced into God’s story as stewards, God never deeded the garden to Adam. The garden and everything in it always belonged to God. Adam was accountable to God for the health of the garden. Adam and Eve were never responsible for everything; they were to take care of the garden where God had placed them. Humanity was never responsible for the whole world.

In my revivalist tradition, we spent a lot of time talking about heaven. I can’t count the number of sermons I heard about the pearly gates and streets of gold. I heard about how it was going to be when we gathered with all of our loved ones who had gone on before us in the Lord. What was it going to be like to see your mother or father, your brother or sister, your husband or wife – or even your child (assuming they had all accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior) – and to never be separated from them again? Wasn’t heaven going to be something! All of our pain and suffering will be gone forever! No more injustice! No more heartache! Don’t you want to join us?

I’m a very blessed man. I have several friends who have become brothers over the years. Guys who have been there for me. I would take a bullet for these guys. They would take a bullet for me. I know that. They know that. These guys encourage me, hold me up and hold me accountable. I’ll go to the wall for any of these guys.

Barnabas wasn’t his given name, it’s just what everyone called him, his real name was Joseph. Somehow, in all of the dealings with the disciples and the early church, people found him to always be a source of encouragement and hope. We all know people like Barnabas, they always make us feel better about ourselves. These people are always upbeat, and always confident that we’re on the verge of something great.

When the Apostle Paul told the Philippians to imitate him as he himself imitated Christ, I was initially very uncomfortable with Paul's instructions to the young church. To me, the statement sounded a little conceited. Was Paul saying the only thing the young Christians in Philippi needed to do was to act more like Paul. I didn't understand how Paul could say such a thing.

Beginning is often the hardest part of doing anything. We all want to be in better shape, but we never seem to get to the gym. We want to write our novel but never write the first sentence. We want to engage our neighbors and friends with the good news of Jesus, but we can never find a good place to start the conversation. We want to preach the gospel to our lost communities, but how do we start? What’s our opening line?

Several years ago our church did a time audit. We looked at how many times a week and what times we asked our people to be at church. We were stunned by what we discovered. Our church, supposedly the most pro-family organization in town, was the most anti-family organization in the way we functioned.  We wanted everyone there on Sunday morning. We wanted children and students back on Wednesday nights and parents and Bible studies throughout the week. We cluttered Saturday mornings and Sunday nights with special events and filled the rest of the week with committee meetings.