What Glenn Writes

In our ministry at the nursing home, we have an opportunity to talk with people at different stages in their lives. Because the facility also provides rehabilitative care, there are many younger generations sharing the building with the seniors. There have been several instances when I ministered to someone younger, caught up in some form of an injury, disability, or long lasting rehabilitative care.

I am most impacted by the long-term residents who are my age.

One of these ladies always seems to be at the end of her rope. She suffers from severe depression and rarely leaves her room. In the six years we have ministered there, she had one span of time when she was leaving her room regularly, which lasted about two months. Otherwise, she spends most of her time in bed, in her room.

To talk to her, you hear the voice of desperation in every word, where she has reached the end of her endurance. She is a beautiful, gentle woman with a family living somewhere beyond the sliding glass door of the sterilized building, yet she cannot leave due to her emotional state. She has love waiting for her, but she cannot receive it. › Continue reading

As I stepped out on our back porch yesterday, it occurred to me I was looking forward to my prayer time with the Lord. I mean, I was really, really looking forward to the time I was going to spend with God. Some of you are probably nodding your head, thinking, “Well, yeah… duh!”

Don’t “Well, yeah… duh!” me here. I’m talking about your true motivation in your time with God, not what churchy people tell us we are “suppose” to say, think, or do. You know there is a difference, right? Let’s take a look at what I’m really talking about here: › Continue reading

I sometimes feel like a man who wakes up one day after working all his life to provide for his family and suddenly realizes he doesn’t know them; he is living with strangers and sharing photographs on the mantle. If asked, he would tell you he cares for his family, he provides well for them, takes them on vacation once or twice a year, and tucks each one in bed at night with a kiss. Others would probably swap stories to share how this man is such a wonderful husband and father. By all appearances, he is living the dream… until that one day he wakes up and realizes reality is far different than the dream.

Somewhere along the trail of his life he stumbled, causing him to focus on the trail and forget the journey, the passing scenery, and the folks on the trial with him. In his pursuit to be the best husband possible, he forgot about being a friend and a lover; in his pursuit to be the best father possible, he forgot about being a Dad and a friend. He fulfilled a role, but only externally, the outer shell resembling his goal while the inner shell shriveled up and died from lack of use; his heart, DOA. › Continue reading

Whether the government taxpayers are paying for it or whether I use private insurance, I seriously doubt I will ever be able to list my disability on any insurance application or ever see benefits due to my handicap. I would not list my impairment as severe as physically restricting handicaps or injuries, yet recognizing I have this limitation has opened the possibilities of overcoming this disability (or at least dealing with it).

I do not mean to make light of more serious handicaps or disabilities. I know each impairment has challenges, whether the limitation is physical, mental, emotional, social, or another. I guess mine falls in between the emotional and social areas, as I am relationally challenged. › Continue reading

Did you ever watch Bob Ross paint?

He would have a mountain scene and I would think, “Wow! That is an amazing picture he painted in like, what… two minutes?” Then, thinking it was complete, I was amazed when Bob would brush over it in his “Bob Ross” way, and an Evergreen Tree would sprout up in the foreground of the painting.

At that point, I would think it was complete, but then Bob would say, “Oh, this little tree looks lonely and needs a friend… let’s give the tree a friend.” A few brush strokes later and there is a tree buddy in the foreground. › Continue reading

I spoke with a gentleman in our small group last night that understands Satan is out to get him at every chance possible. He is diligent in prayer and studying Scripture, and he even goes as far as to trick the enemy, designing a plan to throw the enemy off his tracks.

This struck me as unique; I never heard of someone deliberately planning a scheme to be covert with the devil.

This man claimed he just gets tired of fighting the enemy all the time.  When he knows he is going to be attacked if he plans to go to small group or to church, he pretends he is not going. He will say he is planning to do something else or thinking about staying at home, then at the last minute change everything around – the enemy doesn’t have time to attack him. › Continue reading

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday: Be careful what comparisons are used when trying to make a point.

I opened yesterday’s article with a few references to Pig’s Feet and Cow’s Tongue, not realizing this may be offensive to some people. I certainly did not intend to be offensive; perhaps I should have used a reference to crawdads instead.

Clearly not learning my lesson, here is a delicacy found on many deep south menus which just asks the question: How hungry did that first person have to be to pick up a bug and decide to eat it? What made you decide to rip the tail off that creature, gulp it down, and then looking at the rest of the body, decide it might be a good idea to suck the juice out of the head? Yeup, just slurp that right on down. › Continue reading

Pig’s feet. 

There is no way around the images these words conjure up when you hear them or read them.  Pig’s feet.  You either think of them attached to the entire pig, walking around a pen of some sort, you think of them neatly wrapped up in cellophane at the meat market or grocery store, or you think of them on your dinner table.

Now that is a hungry person.
 
Whenever I see them at the grocery store, I stop and wonder how hungry the first person was to figure out how to eat those things.  When I walk a little further down the aisle, I wonder the same thing about the cow’s tongue.
   
Now that’s real hunger.
› Continue reading

One of my greatest weaknesses in which God shines His greatest light is in my relationships. I know I am created in His image and in His likeness, yet in my fallen state and in the nature of the flesh, I find my tendencies and inclination is not so like Him when it comes to relationships.

I am weak. I am frail in exposing my emotions, so in an effort to cover them up and be a man, I put on the exterior suit of armor in the form of macho-ness. Sometimes the tarnished shine on this suit will look like a man cracking jokes or making fun of himself or others, sometimes there is anger, and still other times indifference. Like many other men, I will try to polish the shine on my suit of armor with alcohol or rubbing elbows with other men.

The strangest part for me to understand is I put on this suit of armor to protect my heart, when in reality the battle is within my heart. In trying to take the battle to the field, I have covered up the field and enclosed it, hiding the field and the battle, and this way perhaps preventing the exposure I so desperately dread. My weakness is covered and my battles are prevented, or at least under my control.

Amazingly, I have created this suit of armor as a protection and enclosed myself in a prison. › Continue reading

“Help!  I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” 

Remember the commercial for the emergency response system?  The technician sat at a console and actually looked like he knew what to do with an emergency call.  Good actor, huh?

“Where’s the beef?”  This phrase brings the image of elderly ladies with a definite hankering for a “real” hamburger. 

“Sorry, Charlie.”  Did you ever stop and wonder why Charlie wanted to be selected in the first place?  The fish never realized he would be eaten if picked.  › Continue reading