Author: Palmer Trice

Something Has Changed

I started my Christmas reading this week.  I read through the relevant Gospel passages and through some of the Old Testament prophecies, hoping to find the Reason for the Season, to recapture the magic of the Christmas story.  I want to be captivated by the manger scene, wonder with the shepherds at that star of wonder, smell and hear the cattle, feel the cold, and see the glory.  We all want that, don’t we?  We want Christmas to be more than gifts, more than hopeful words without content, longer lasting… Continue reading Something Has Changed

Gratitude

Are we optimists or pessimists? I think we all lean one way or the other… Is the glass half full or half empty?  Are we more aware of what is right with the world or more aware of what is not? Which is the better way to be? Is it about having balance?  Or should I become an optimist, more hopeful?  What about being realistic?  Is that better?  Dealing with what is rather than what could be?  Can I be too optimistic? Too pessimistic?  What should I be?  What is… Continue reading Gratitude

Does My Story Really Matter

Does my story really matter?  Is it any better or more valuable than anyone else’s?  Could anyone see God’s living presence in it? Don’t we all have those questions?  We know our weaknesses and our mistakes.  We know our sin and our limitations.  We feel like our lives are pretty ordinary at best and way too messy at other times. I had a conversation recently with a friend, not a close one, who had gone through a really rough time in his marriage.  They had had a very hard time… Continue reading Does My Story Really Matter

A Wistful Reflection

  I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to manage time.  I was an early convert to Day-timers.  I drank from the Steven Covey fountain.  I wanted to be more efficient and more effective.  I knew that “each of us has all the time there is.”  And I wanted to use every minute as wisely as I could. In my early years, I thought there would be no limit to how much I could do, as long as I kept increasing my efficiency.  There was no limit… Continue reading A Wistful Reflection

Our Family Vacation

  Do you have a vision of the perfect family vacation?  I do, somewhere in there.  I think I will know it if I see it – but I haven’t yet. I know I have seen it on television somewhere or projected it onto someone else’s family that seemed to have some sort of perfect bliss/fun/camaraderie.  I have had moments like these, but they have never lasted as long as I would want. I just returned from a long weekend in the mountains with my parents (97 & 90), my… Continue reading Our Family Vacation

Marriage is a Mystery

Supposedly, the DNA differences between Lynne and me are minuscule.  We are far more alike than different.  And not just genetically; we are both Caucasian, college-educated, deeply committed to Jesus, relationally wired, driven by a desire to love well… We are so much alike, with so many similar interests – in people, in walking, in Starbucks, in our intellectual curiosity.  We tend to like the same people.  We often feel the same things when we enter a house or meet someone.  Now some of this has grown over 36 years… Continue reading Marriage is a Mystery

Confession

Confession isn’t very hard for me – with God, at least.  Conceptually and theologically I buy it – I am a sinner saved by grace.  Yet I routinely fail to trust my heavenly Father.  Sometimes, no actually often, I dismiss His directives for my life and seek to make my life work “my way.”  I understand that sin is not simply wrong actions but wrong motives of the heart. But I also believe in the Gospel.  As Paul said in one of his letters to Timothy, “Christ Jesus died to… Continue reading Confession

Aging Gracefully – Finishing Strong

  I’ve been thinking a lot about this.  I mean, we are all aging.  When I turned forty, I knew I was aging.  That seemed really old.  It was harder to play full court basketball.  I began to ache after I played.  My dad still hadn’t retired. So I wasn’t the last generation yet.  I was aging but… We are all trying to be graceful.  We want to “mature” – to grow into all that we can be.  We are still becoming. But there comes a point when you’ve “become.”… Continue reading Aging Gracefully – Finishing Strong

The Meaning of the Cross

What does the Cross mean to me?  That is a little bit of a moving target. I have an M.Div.  I am ordained.  I learned words like “atonement,” “reconciliation,” “redemption” and more that I don’t remember. The question “what is the meaning of the Cross to you?” seems to beg some kind of theological response.  What, besides the actual events of that Good Friday, occurred that explains the eternal consequences for me as relates to my Creator? For the last several years I would have pointed to the forgiveness of… Continue reading The Meaning of the Cross

Allowing Myself to Grieve

I don’t like loss and grief.  They are problems that can’t be solved, but must be endured somehow.  I’d rather solve problems.  Address the issue, pull it apart, consider options, and then take actions necessary for resolution. But loss doesn’t get resolved – at least not now.  Something is gone. Sometimes loss entails losing something good or someone special.  We lost our dachshund Wiggles a year and a half ago.  I find that I don’t want another dog… in part because there is no replacement for “little Wigs”.  I can… Continue reading Allowing Myself to Grieve