RickPage

The Giver Our first Christmas party this season is this Saturday night.   There is a white elephant gift exchange that night, and my wife, ever the faithful shopper has already purchased our gifts.   That seems incongruous, I know, as white elephant gifts by their very definition are supposed to be stuff one is more than willing to be rid of.   So, my wife bought more stuff to give away.   Actually, our gifts came from the church garage sale, proceeds benefitting the construction of a new foyer for the church.   So, we took our old stuff, transported it to the church, sold our old stuff, and a ton of other folk’s stuff to benefit the congregation.   That not being enough, we bought some other folk’s stuff, proceeds benefitting the church, to give away at a Christmas party, so that someone else might have the joy of getting rid of that very same stuff at some future point.   I’m not sure, but I believe there was some sort of altruistic logic in all of that.   However, it does ma

Running on Empty We made a trip to Billings yesterday to buy supplies for Thanksgiving and Christmas – particularly to buy a pre-lit tree for Christmas.   We had exhausted all possibilities in Lewistown, which is not hard to do.   We actually found what we wanted at one store, but the last tree was purchased just 20 seconds before we tried to buy it.   The weather was good, most of the snow and ice had melted off the roads and my schedule was suddenly free.   The latter doesn’t happen often, so we decided to make the two hour drive to more shopping choices. The drives to other cities are a good opportunity to pray and reflect on life and ministry.   The distances between cities and towns are quite large – a two hour drive is considered short around these parts.   We measure distances not in miles, but in hours driven.   Suzanne often reads, so I get a chance to just think on things.   This trip was no different.   These mental and spiritual wanderings often lead to sermon p

The Vote I am quite happy at this moment.   The vote is taking place as I write this.   It is nearly seven on the east coast and the first polls will shut down.   The talking heads on TV will begin to dissect every exit poll, try to discern every strategy, analyze whether there will be a shift of power and predict what all of the data might just possibly mean.   None of this is what makes me happy.   I am happy for a lot of reasons, but the reason related to the vote is that soon it will all be over and we will have a modicum of peace and quiet.   The political signs will soon begin to vanish from yards and roadways.   The pollsters will stop calling.   The armful of daily political ads will vanish from our mailboxes.   The vitriolic television ads skewing the truth about how bad the opposing candidate is will soon be replaced by news reports of the winners skewing the truth about the greatness of their impact on society.   It’s amazing, and it is the epitome of what makes this