bierkergaard

Philippians 4:5 Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. I did a little investigation of the Greek word used here by Paul for moderation. I discovered an interesting fact. The same word is used by James and Peter in their respective Epistles. Paul, Peter, and James, the Pillars of the Early Church. I think we can conclude that moderation, being gentle, and patience, is pretty high on the list of Christ virtues and is in fact a component of love. Impatience is often an outworking of pride, believing that we are first in all things. Jostle to the front of the line. Me first. Don't you know who I am? On Sunday, I met a buddy for beers at The Fridge , a Lancaster City establishment, that looks like a garage for beer and pizza, with a certain Craft chic. As we sat in comfy chairs around the big potty belly stove, made way back in the day in Columbia, Pa., we shot the breeze for a few hours. We sipped our beers. I selected as one of my two beers for the da...

Few things are as dangerous as a young man driving a car. Perhaps only more dangerous is a young man with a gun. Reckless. Kind of like a young woman with a credit card. Car-nage. Teenage testosterone combined with a lack of foresight and experience. The recent snows, one  storm after another like popcorn popping incessantly from the sky (where is the plug for that odious snow machine?) provided ample opportunity to help out my neighbors with shoveling their snow. I know how Sisyphus felt...endless shovel fulls like rolling a snowball up a hill until it got so big, it runs you over on the way down. Just to melt. All fury, signifying nothing. A frozen tautology of existential angst. "I shovel therefore I am." I took the sweat equity approach. If they were putting in an effort, I came alongside and helped them out. If they didn't do what they could do, the snow sat unruffled. Too often our charity just hardens indolence in people. Unless they pick up a shovel, I am ...