Durocher's Blog

The great offense " Billy, do you know it's better to leave the ends of the brisket on when you BBQ them? You are wasting the best parts ". " My daddy did it that way and so will I "! " But there is a better way to do it ". " I don't care about how you do it, you don't know my family ". " Why are you getting so offended? No, I don't know your family. But why don't you ask them why they do it the way they do "? Billy asks Daddy " Daddy, why do you cut the ends off the brisket before you put it on the BBQ "? " Because, son, that's the way my father used to do it and his briskets were the best ". " Grandpa, why do you cut the ends off the brisket before you put it on the BBQ "? " Because, grandson, that's the way my father used to do it and his briskets were the best ". " Great Grandpa, why do you cut the ends off the brisket before you put i...

Upon arriving in Alabama I was told that everyone would ask me which team I chose and they would then invite me to their church. " Which team "? " What are my options "? I asked. Being the good Yankee that I am, I still have not chosen a team after eight years of residency in good old Alabama. As a matter of fact, I haven't even watched a football game. The invite "If you haven't found a church home, I'd like to invite you to ours" " Hmm, that's funny, you haven't even asked me if I am a believer" ? "Why would I want to come to your church" ? I got invited to dozens of churches the first year I was here. After the pleasant, " You ain't from around here ", I always received the gracious invite. Strangely, I rarely ever get asked where I am from anymore, and I never get invited to church. I'm not sure why I don't get asked where I'm from anymore, but while I was writing this bl...

" You've only been a christian for such a short time, how can you know so much "? I was asked this question by a young girl many many eons ago. As she spoke the words I welled up with pride("Knowledge puffs up"?). I immediately repented and prayed to God, " Oh Lord, please help me to not be prideful. I only have what you have given me. Help me to share that knowledge ". Could it be possible that we live in a culture that worships both knowledge and ignorance at the same time? Could it be possible that this problem has infiltrated the 'church'? I don't mean that we worship both simultaneously, but that different major groups within our churches worship one or the other. I don't think it is only possible, but it is a fact. I have experienced it, read about it and done it myself. On the one side we have ignorance. What do they say? " I don't know all that theology stuff, I just love Jesus ". It's easy to sp...

If you were ever to find yourself in the valley of the shadow of death, you might fear that you would have an encounter with an R.O.U.S. What is an R.O.U.S. you ask? An R.O.U.S. is a r odent o f u nusual s ize. They will kill you. If you have no idea what I am talking about then just think of a wolf. A wolf is not an R.O.U.S., but since you are so culturally out of touch with Princess Bride-isms, a wolf will have to do. Think of you being a sheep and an R.O.U.S. being a wolf--you'd be scared. You'd be lunch! In the well known psalm it says: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,  I will fear no evil,  for you are with me ;" Today my family and I attended a funeral, and of course, they quoted psalm 23. As I sat and listened to the discussion at the funeral I had an overwhelming feeling of how awesome christian funerals are. I don't mean "christian" funerals. I mean a funeral for someone who is without a shadow of a doub...

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing , give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Pray without ceasing What does it mean to pray without ceasing? Seriously? Do we just go on and on talking endlessly to God for the rest of our lives? What is prayer anyway? The simplest definition of prayer is, "talking with God". Sounds simple enough, so it seems pretty easy to understand what " pray without ceasing " means. We are to be talking with God all the time. Keep in mind though, when you are talking with someone you should be listening at least half of that time. Unless you are talking with a woman, in that case you might be listening ninety percent of the time! Oh my, that is such a sexist joke--shame on me! Women can do anything men can do! Only better! Right ladies? :) Any monkey can do that Last week I was graciously reminded by God what it means to be in constant communion with Him. I was in t...

"You'll never change. You're just like your parents and they are just like their parents. You are all total failures". " Why can't you be like your sister? She's doing something with her life. You're just a failure" . "Why do you even bother to try? You'll just fail. You're a failure" . We live in a culture of self-esteem building. Kids are inundated with praise and pump ups so they won't have low self esteem. Does it work? Is everyone glad they got a trophy just for showing up--late? Is it possible that when you fail to tell people they have failed that they risk growing up without the ability to know what real failure is? Do you actually destroy their self esteem? I think so. What is failure? Failure has two facets. One has instant results and is the lack of achieving a desired outcome. You take a test and don't achieve the score--you fail. You try to be nice to someone and instead you are a jerk--yo...

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" Jesus My journey (warning: much Christianese language will be used) I didn't grow up in the church. As a matter of fact, I grew up so far from the church that the church was about as foreign to me as Hinduism. I didn't even know enough about the church to call them a bunch of hypocrites. The thought of christians never entered my mind. I knew some Catholics, but I didn't really think of them as christians. I didn't really think much about christianity at all. Then things changed. Jesus came calling and I was 'born again' just before my 30th birthday. It was August 2000. I will never forget that time as a new believer. When I received the Holy Spirit--I was undeniably changed. I was a walking love machine--full of emotion. I suddenly loved everything and everybody. It was radical, as they say. But here's the catch--sh...

"Why don't we go to the elders and have them anoint me with oil and pray over me", asked Maggie when she was sick and near death. "Why don't we"? "Why don't we"? I asked myself. "Why"? "I don't know. I suppose we could". "Well, it says in the bible to go to the elders if you are sick", Maggie said. "I know". After some time, maybe six months? I don't know, but after waaaaay too much time, I finally agreed to go to the elders and have them anoint Maggie with oil and pray for her. Why so long? One reason--unbelief. Which of course, is rooted in pride. I am a Mr. Fix it, so I felt like we could handle it without 'bothering' any one else. Wrong. Also, I had an unbelieving attitude that thought if God chose not to heal Maggie then we'd be embarrassed. That sounds so odd and stupid even to say it in a sentence. Have I not even read the bible? God chooses to heal some and not oth...

Bum dads One of the most natural instincts of a father is to protect and train his children. Would any of us deny this? Yet we find ourselves in a situation in our country where there is an overwhelming abundance of bum dads and inadequate dads. What has happened? How did we get here? Am I a bum dad? Even for us who try to do right, we know we are so ill-trained and inadequate. Is there hope? Yes! We can turn this trend around one family at a time--beginning with you. Will it be easy? No. Will it be worth it? Absolutely! Destined for destruction You probably could not find someone who, at twenty years old, would be more likely to be voted as "future bum dad" than me. I'm not afraid to say it. Divorce sucks--and its consequences are even worse. Divorce happens, but we take the cards we are dealt and move forward. But how? How does a young man find the ability, wisdom and knowledge how to be a good dad? It starts with our Father in heaven who c...

If you've ever "loved and lost", you know what a broken heart feels like. We have no idea what a broken heart is, but we sure know what it feels like. Try explaining a broken heart to a robot. Any robot except Johnny Five, that is! Short Circuit is a great movie that demonstrates how difficult it is to translate heart issues into concrete ideas. Heart issues are uniquely human. You might say they are what make us human. Sometimes we try to impose our heart issues onto beloved pets, but in the end, they still eat crap. Animals are instinctual not emotional thinking creatures. God refers to our heart in many ways in the bible. As a matter of fact, 'mind' and 'heart' are often translated from the same word and are determined by the context and are quite interchangeable. God leaves us with the impression that our heart is our emotional center and our center of desires. In a way, our heart represents who we are. When someone sins against y...

In Luke 10:2 we read this: “ The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest". What do you think of when you read this? Who are the laborers? Do you think Jesus wanted us to get giant combine harvesters and get them to do all the work for us? Do you think of your pastors as the combine harvesters? Do you think Jesus was thinking of mass production? Now I know probably none of you thinks this is the correct interpretation. But. How many of us treat our pastors like they are combine harvesters? "The pastors are suppose to do all the work. That's their job". Are they? Did Jesus do all the work? Or, as the context of this passage(Luke 10) shows, did he send out his disciples to do the work? Laboring sheep? As I discussed elsewhere ( Sheepdog blog ), Jesus used sheep to illustrate our relationship with Him, but when it comes to this illustration, where a...