Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
Here, you can comment on any post to participate in the discussion.
Move the Bucket
A worker was employed by the highway department to paint a center line in the middle of a road. The first day, he painted two miles. The boss was very pleased. The second day he painted one mile. The boss was curious, but still pleased. The third day the man…
I and Thou
Martin Buber (1878-1965) was one of the most read Jewish philosopher and theologians of the 20th century. He is famous for his “I-Thou” formulation of relationships and his forging of new modes of Jewish-Christian dialogue. At a recent three-day meeting in Rome (July 2015) organized by the International Council of…
Rejection
Rejected? Don’t get discouraged. Alfred Knopf turned down “The Diary of Anne Frank” on the grounds that it was “very dull.” This “reject” has sold more copies in the Western world than almost any other publication other than the Bible
The Sweet Fragrance of Brokenness
The Sweet Fragrance of Brokenness Story Lectionary 23 August 2015 Genesis: The Story of Noah and the Fragrance of His Faith, and God’s Promise to Restore the Earth (8) Exodus 30: Spices used in anointing oils and incense, God’s holy fragrance Leviticus 8: The anointing of Aaron by Moses The…
God’s Work
God will work in us. God will work with us. God will work through us. But God will not work for us.
The Dress Code of a Christian
The Dress Code of a Christian Lectionary 23 August 2015 13th Sunday After Pentecost 1 Kings 8: (1,6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43 Psalm 84 Ephesians 6:10-20 John 6:56-69 Text to Life There are two kinds of people —always. There are those that experience the world as a series of stories.…
Mission Impossible
“I was in my late twenties, so I had a business, but nobody knew who I was at the time. I was headed to the Virgin Islands and I had a very pretty girl waiting for me, so I was, umm, determined to get there on time. At the airport,…
Preach to the children too! 8/23/15
When you preach, preach to the WHOLE congregation, the children too! If you want your kids to be part of the Body of Christ, if you want them to feel they are a vital part of worship, then make sure when you preach that you include them too. If you…
The Boys in the Boat
The Boys in the Boat
Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
By Daniel James Brown
“Competitive rowing is an undertaking of incredible beauty preceded by brutal punishment.” George Yeoman Pocock – Master designer and builder of racing shells.
Beauty comes in many surprising forms. If you have ever seen a crew shell skim across a body of water with all rowers pulling in unison and the boat slicing through the water’s surface like the blade of a skate on ice, you know you have seen beauty, and strength, in motion. The book The Boys in the Boat is a story about various kinds of beauty and strength, and the challenges that are faced when trying to bring the two together in a crew boat. What sort of human alchemy can possibly fuse strength and beauty in the crucible of an nine-man rowing shell so that gold, Olympic gold, is the end result? Is it brute power? A coxswain’s strategy? Coaching finesse? No. Brown tells us that humility was the indispensable catalyzing agent that enabled the 1936 University of Washington rowing team to produce gold. read more…
Albert Schweitzer
Someone once asked missionary/physician/organist/biblical scholar Albert Schweitzer to name the greatest person alive in the world at that moment. The good doctor, whom some would have named as deserving the honor, replied quietly: “The greatest person alive in the world at this moment is some unknown individual in some obscure…