Aaron (Page 4)

This past weekend my youngest niece, Quinn, turned one. My brother-in-law Jay and his wife Jamie had a small birthday party for a few friends and family. I noticed one of the decorations at the party included a picture of Quinn, one for every month from the time she was born until she turned one. One month old, two months old, three months old…so on and so forth. It takes time to bring a decoration like that together, twelve months…

When I was taking my oldest son Luke to school, we were talking about the chance of rain for today. We went back and forth over the hourly forecast vs. the forecast in general. His phone app said there was only a 45% chance at one moment while my app said there was a 90% chance of rain for the day. So which is it? 45% chance at one moment or 90% chance all day? The truth is neither one…

This morning, I drove through the bustling metropolis of downtown Boiling Springs and noticed something interesting. They placed a new power pole just behind the current pole on the CVS corner of the intersection. I remember sitting in many meetings in the Webb Conference room and hearing trucks scrap or hit that pole. The stoplight has been taken out a few times by a semi that did not swing quite wide enough to make the turn. In fairness to the…

Several years ago, I was sitting at a wedding with a good friend of mine. We began to jokingly bet on what the service would contain as there was not a program to follow. We guessed songs, scriptures, and what type of unity ceremony the couple might use. We had a good laugh every time one of us got something right and the other missed it. 1 Corinthians 13 is a well-known passage on love. It is often used at…

Since becoming the pastor here at PSBC, I’ve written a few articles on Sanctuary and the power of Sanctuary. I received an email this morning that led me back to “Sanctuary” in my thoughts for this article. The email was just a regular advertising email about a new clothing line with a particular athletic brand, featuring athlete Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. They called it a Sanctuary Collection, saying it was inspired by Johnson’s farm where he goes to “block out…

This morning I walked out of my house, and an overwhelming smell hit me. It was the glorious smell of chicken manure. For those of you who don’t live near pastures or haven’t had the pleasure of smelling that strong aroma, it is an unmistakable foul smell. As I got in my truck to drive to the church, the smell was thick and it reminded me of a story from my days at Caswell. My friend and coworker, Mike Adams,…

This past weekend, my friend Brian Earley was promoted to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 4 in the Army. Brian joined the military at 17 years old as a member of the Army Reserves. He was deployed twice and his work flying helicopters propelled (see what I did there…) him to a career as a pilot for JetBlue, a commercial airline. We use words like “serve” and “service” when speaking about the military because of the great sacrifice those men…

This weekend I watched the first round of the NFL playoffs, known as “Wild Card Weekend.” I realize that you may not be a sports fan, let alone a football fan, but stick with me. The Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins played the fourth-coldest game in NFL history on Saturday night. The temperature for the game was minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit with wind gusts up to 27 mph, making for a wind chill of minus-27 degrees. The freezing temperatures set…

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21 Every morning, I receive two emails with a “Verse of the Day.” I did this several years ago to provide me with scriptures to think about each morning. Just to be honest with you, some days I do a better job of reflecting on those emails than others. It is amazing how often the scriptures I receive are exactly what I need…

When I was a child, we had a wooden Nativity. It is the same nativity that you will still find in my parents’ home each December. It is similar to the one in the picture, but the stable was much larger. My sister and I used to argue (oh the irony) over the setup of the figures in the stable. There was of course baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, a handful of animals, and, though they arrived later in…