The Kingdom, The Kids, & The Cowboys

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Category: Grandchildren (Page 3 of 6)

No Gift to Bring

December 29, 2025 / / 0 Comments

What an indescribable joy to have all the girls, all the sons-in-law, and all the grandsons for five nights and parts of six days over Christmas. We ate our favorite foods, watched the right movie on the correct night, worshiped together at GCR, walked the lights at Centennial Park, gave and received generous and fun gifts, survived a broken garage door and a busted exterior water faucet, played ping-pong, fed the boys their first ever bites of Blue Bell Cookies n Cream, and gave ourselves headaches laughing so hard during five rounds of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza.

I thank God for our family and for the time he gives us to spend together. Blessings upon blessings of his grace. Thank you, Lord.

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The lyrics to The Little Drummer Boy are sparse. What words we have are so crowded out by all the “pa-rum-pum-pum-pums” that it’s hard to tell what’s really happening. But when the young boy peers into the manger, the newborn King he sees causes the drummer to say, “I am a poor boy, too; I have no gift to bring.”

We’ve all experienced that moment. We begin to seriously consider Jesus, maybe for the first time in a long time, maybe for the first time ever. We seriously seek Jesus. And something happens. We believe. Really. We understand. Truly. Something clicks. The dots are connected. The light bulb flashes on. And you realize your bankruptcy is totally exposed. You really see Jesus and you really comprehend his glory and you look at yourself and realize, “I am broken. I am empty and poor. I’ve got nothing to bring this King that even comes close to what is due him. All I have is this drum.”

Like the little boy in the Gospels who approaches Jesus and says, “All I have is my lunch, two loaves and five tiny fish.”

Like the widow and her two mites. Jesus says she gave more than all the others combined.

That’s us. We’re the ones who feel completely inadequate and, in some sense, we always will. When we see the King and we understand exactly who he is and his eternal significance, we can’t help but sense our own frailty. Our own poverty. All we have is this drum. What in the world could ever be enough for this King? I’ve just got this drum.

So you ask. “Do you want that? Do you want this stupid drum?”

And Jesus says, “Yes. Bring me your nothing. Play your drum.”

So you play it for him. You play your best for him–declaring that you are small, acknowledging that you are weak, knowing that he doesn’t need you or what you have or what you do. But with all that you are, with every ounce and speck of the nothing you have, you are giving it to him. Like Psalm 103, you are praising the Lord with all your inmost being! You are giving it to him!

“Then he smiled at me; me and my drum.”

The eternal King of Glory, the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth, comes here to us as a helpless flesh-and-blood human baby. He put aside his power and his status and his position to give to us. By his life of love, his sacrificial death, and his glorious resurrection. our King gives us forgiveness, he reconciles us to a righteous relationship with our God and with one another, he gives us his divine peace and joy and life. He gives us abundant life, life to the full.

“Apart from me you can do nothing… Remain in my love… I am telling you this so my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete… You are my friends… I have called you friends… You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last.” ~John 15:5-17

Without Jesus, you and I have nothing. We are nothing. But because of Jesus, because he came, because he was born in that stable in Bethlehem on that starry night, because of him, we are absolutely, completely, and wonderfully his. Me and my drum–all his!

Jesus is not nearly as interested in my presents for him as my presence with him. That’s all he wants. He wants me. He wants you. Give yourself to him. Give all of yourself to Jesus. And feel his smile.

May we all see the newborn King with fresh eyes and open hearts. And may we follow his lead. Let’s trade our cravings for power for a desire to sacrifice. Let’s be identified by our patience with others, by our service to the least of these, and by our unconditional love for our neighbors. And let’s adopt the humble attitude of the Little Drummer Boy and receive the gracious gift of Jesus.

Peace,
Allan

December Inevitabilities

December 15, 2025 / / 0 Comments


December means Christmas parties, trips to see Santa, and the Cowboys being eliminated from the postseason. Let’s take those annual winter inevitabilities in reverse order.

If your quarterback is struggling and your offense stinks, just play the Cowboys. Once again, the Dallas defense made a bad offense look good and a mediocre quarterback look like Joe Montana in last night’s embarrassing home loss to the Vikings. Minnesota rookie J.J. McCarthy, in just his eighth start, threw for the most yards in a game in his career, averaged 10.4 yards per attempt, threw for two TDs, and ran for another. After beating the Eagles and Chiefs in back-to-back games, Dallas has now given up 78 points in two straight losses to demolish whatever hope a few Cowboys fans might have had.

I feel sorry for Dak. I really do. Prescott now becomes only the third quarterback in NFL history to start for the same team for at least ten years and not win at least one divisional playoff game (the other two are Tony Romo and Archie Manning). Dak is finishing his tenth season as the Cowboys QB, his fifth missing the playoffs.

It’s not his fault.

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The grandsons saw Santa Claus over the weekend and, by all accounts, killed it. Not a problem. Elliott didn’t fully embrace the experience the way Samuel did. But he didn’t cry. He endured.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the boys do own several pairs of shoes.

I was relieved to see that Santa is aware of Oklahoma. I’ve never been sure about that.

But it doesn’t matter because the boys are coming to Midland one week from tomorrow for Christmas and Santa and all that entails. It’ll be their first-ever trip to Texas. They might bring their parents.

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Our dynamic GCR youth group finished their progressive Christmas dinner at Stanglin Manor last night. Somewhere between 40-45 teenagers and a few brave adults (that’s only about a third of the people in that picture) crammed into our living room for desserts, hot chocolate, and an awkward gift exchange. It was another inspirational demonstration of the intergenerational nature of our congregation.

If our teenagers at GCR know anything, it’s that the adults in our church love them and support them and want the best for them and enjoy spending time with them. We work really hard to ensure our young people know they are a vital part of our community of faith. And these same teenagers are pouring into our children’s ministry, too. One of the coolest things I’ve seen at GCR was at the kids’ Christmas pageant Wednesday evening when four rows of our youth group showed up to support and cheer on the children!

I thank God for what he’s doing in and through our youth group. These are all fabulous kids who really do love this church and each other. I’ll continue to say that if you want your kids to truly be more like Jesus, if you’re really serious about the spiritual formation of your teenager, you want him or her to spend as much time with Jadyn and J.E. as possible. And with this group.

Peace,
Allan

Despite the Ruins Around Us

December 8, 2025 / / 0 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our grandsons are five months old today. Elliott (left) has two bottom teeth now and weighs in at a whopping 16 pounds, while Samuel (right) is maintaining his one pound deficit at 15. Samuel’s hair, when the light hits it just right, looks like a Mohawk. Elliott is working hard on a way to shove his entire fist into his mouth. And they’re both laughing and giggling or making other happy noises almost all the time. What a delight! These boys continue to bring me so much joy!

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer sent a Christmas card to his parents from his cell at Tegel Prison in Berlin on November 28, 1943. The front of the card pictured this above nativity scene painted by Albrecht Altdorfer in 1513. In the card, Bonhoeffer says this is his favorite depiction of the nativity:

“One sees the holy family huddled around the manger amidst the rubble of a collapsed house. This is really contemporary.”

At the time, this painting was 430 years old. I’m sure it reminded Bonhoeffer of the destruction in his own country, the bombed out houses and buildings in his own hometown. This picture could have been painted almost anywhere in Europe in the middle of World War II. And what Bonhoeffer wrote about it during Advent 1943 could have been written today during Advent 2025:

“The celebration of Advent is only possible to those troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come. We can and should celebrate Christmas despite the ruins around us. In fact, we must do this even more intensely now.”

Lord, come quickly.
Allan

We Who Are Strong

November 20, 2025 / / 0 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

I told you I was behind on posting pictures of our new grandsons. This is the official four-month-old picture on top of the giraffe thing that was taken on the 8th, and another one of the boys propped up in the recliner before we went out to run some errands. It’s been almost two weeks since they hit four months. Elliott rolled over this week for the first time and is now doing it constantly. One morning soon, Valerie is going to walk in and they’re going to be standing up in their cribs, holding on to the top rails, and laughing.

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There’s a question that’s been burning in my bones the past few weeks, and I can’t shake it. As we approach this Sunday’s annual “4 Midland” pulpit swap and Thanksgiving Service, I’m deeply bothered by the twin realities in my own congregation.

We do not expect the Presbyterians to change their minds about predestination. We do not insist that the Baptists alter their views on the salvation efficacy of baptism. We don’t demand that the Methodists start sharing the communion meal every week. Yet we easily and joyfully set those doctrinal issues aside for the sake of our Christian unity, for the sake of worshiping and serving together, and the powerful Gospel witness it is to our city. At the same time, some of us are arguing and even dividing with our brothers and sisters within our own congregation over much lesser things.

Why would we ever expect everybody at GCR to agree on everything? If you don’t agree with everybody at GCR, do you leave? You decide you can’t worship and serve with people in your own church family because a few of them don’t see a couple of things the same way you do? Does Romans 14-15 have anything to say about this?

“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself.” ~Romans 15:1-3

As children of God and followers of Christ, we take our example from Jesus. The holy Son of God is the one who calls us and inspires us and empowers us to worship and serve and live together the way we do. We know that our Lord Jesus never did anything to please himself. Instead, he gave up everything, he sacrificed everything, to benefit and build up others. And by choosing to serve others instead of pleasing himself, Jesus sets the pattern that we have to make our own. Putting others first. Considering the needs of others more important than our own.

And the Bible puts this on the strong Christians. It’s up to the strong, not the weak, to make sure this happens. It’s up to the strong to make the sacrifices and concessions to our weaker brothers and sisters. That’s not easy. It’s much easier to be the weaker Christian, drawing the lines and insisting that other Christians cater to me.

Strong Christians–that should be Christians who’ve been following Jesus a long time; it’s not always, but it should be–with strong faith realize that the more you sacrifice and the more you give up for others, the more like Christ you are. The more you insist on your own way and the more you assert yourself for your own interests, the less like Christ you are.

So, if all of us decided today, to a person, that would put ourselves at the back of the line, that we would all bend over backwards to make everybody else happy and sacrifice our own feelings and opinions in order to build up others–if we all did that? Wow!

If we all accepted one another, just like Christ. If we all bore the failings of the weak, just like Christ. If we all pleased our neighbor for his good, just like Christ. It still won’t result in a perfect church. It won’t eliminate our differences of opinion. It won’t do away with the arguments and debates. But it would mean figuring out how to worship and serve and live together.

We know for sure that the Christ who unites us is greater by far than the differences that may divide us. And our grace-filled conversations and our mercy-full interactions with each other and our shared commitment to our Christian unity will reflect and bear witness to that conviction. It’ll prove it.

Peace,

Allan

Stop Saying “Salvation Issue”

November 19, 2025 / / 6 Comments

Watch this video. It’s our twin grandsons, Elliott and Samuel, two Thursdays ago, “meeting” each other for the very first time. I promise it will be the best 25-seconds of your day.

Twins Talking

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I love listening to Cowboys fans after Dallas beats a really bad team. All they need to do is go on a run. It’s finally coming together. This is the catalyst. The Cowboys got their fourth win the Monday before Thanksgiving week–seems kinda late. The four wins have come against the Raiders (2-8), the Jets (2-8), the Giants (2-9), and Washington (3-8). Monday was the only game all year Dallas held an opponent to under 20 points. Next up, Dallas plays the Eagles, Chiefs, Lions, Vikings, and Chargers. In that order. Yeah, they’re about to go on a run all right.

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Today’s post is a bit of an aside in our conversation this week about Christian unity and accepting our brothers and sisters in Christ and refusing to judge other Christians or churches according to beliefs or practices that may differ from mine or yours. This is a suggestion. I believe this is a good idea for all of us. It’s at least something to consider.

Stop saying “salvation issue.”

Most Christians I know agree that we should not divide over “disputable matters” or “matters of opinion.” The problem, as we discussed here yesterday, comes when people believe a disputable matter is actually a matter of doctrine or faith. Many Christians I know call it a “salvation issue.”

When we start talking about “salvation issues,” we rank things in order of importance to God and according to what’s going to save us and what’s going to condemn us. We talk about baptism and church and communion and worship. But we don’t talk about helping the poor or loving our enemies or forgiving others, which the Bible says are actually the more important matters. Jesus calls those things the weightier matters. So, at best, we have a misunderstanding of the things that are most important to God or, at worst, we’re really only concerned with what’s important to us.

If we insist on using the term, I would suggest that all things are “salvation issues.” Everything is a “salvation issue.” Whether a church has a kitchen or not is a “salvation issue,” not because the kitchen is right or wrong, but because of how you treat people who feel differently about it than you do.

Give me a break. You people who don’t have kitchens in your churches. Grow up. You’re so legalistic and patternistic. You’re like the Pharisees. You’re more worried about the things of man than the things of God. Big picture, man. When are y’all going to get serious about the Kingdom of God?

You people who have kitchens in your churches. I guess you’ll do anything. You see any church kitchens in the Bible? I guess the Bible doesn’t mean as much to you as it does to me. You let the culture dictate everything in your church? When are y’all going to get serious about the Scriptures?

See how kitchens is a “salvation issue?” Not the kitchen itself, but your heart. Your attitude.

We won’t fellowship a church because they sing different songs or pray different prayers than we do or we won’t accept a group of Christians because they understand baptism differently than we do, but we’re okay with lying to our customers or cheating on our spouse or ignoring the poor. We should stop saying “salvation issue” because we don’t do a good job with it. We use that term to categorize what issues are important or not important to us based on our own preferences and opinions. The “salvation issue” is your attitude when you and another Christian disagree on anything.

“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God.” ~Romans 14:17

Romans 14-15 is calling for unity in spirit, not unity in opinion, not unity in practice, not even unity in belief. Unity in spirit so that “with one heart and mouth” we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace,
Allan

Disputable Matters

November 18, 2025 / / 2 Comments

Before we get into part two of this week-long series on Christian unity from Romans 14-15, check out this picture of Sam and his granddad watching college football together two Saturdays ago. The little dude is locked in, huh? Two football zombies right there.

You already know I am a conscientious resistor when it comes to digital technology and smart phones. I never take my cell phone with me into a meeting or a restaurant or to any kind of social or business setting–my phone is always either on my desk or in my truck. Now, I’ve got another reason to make sure my phone is never on me: it keeps me from bugging every single person in my path with two dozen of the latest pictures and videos of my incredible grandchildren.

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Most Christians I know agree that we should never divide over matters of opinion, or what we might call “disputable matters.” That’s the problem the apostle Paul is addressing in Romans 14-15: the Christians in Rome are arguing and separating over what he calls “disputable matters.” When Paul calls on the disciples in Rome to accept one another and stop looking down on others and stop judging others, the context is in these disputable matters.

The problem, though, is that when we argue and divide, at least one of the parties believes the issue is one of doctrine.

In Churches of Christ, we’ve generally used this as a guiding principle:

“In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all things, love.” 

That’s a creed, by the way. And it’s fine. It’s good. But it doesn’t help much, because what some Christians consider a matter of opinion, others consider a matter of faith. We don’t agree on which is what. That’s where this gets touchy. Because if you and I are arguing about something and the argument and the feelings are such that it’s threatening to divide us, then at least one of us believes with all our hearts that it’s a matter of doctrine and faith.

But even then, the Bible says it’s okay. It’s not something that should divide us.

“One person considers one day more sacred than another, another person considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. The one who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who abstains, does so to the Lord, and gives thanks to God.” ~Romans 14:5-6

Each of us should be fully convinced that we’re doing is the right thing to do in the eyes of God, but do not bind that on another brother who doesn’t feel the same way. If he believes or practices something different, you assume he’s doing it to the Lord, before the Lord, and in the presence of the Lord with a clear conscience. We give all Christians the benefit of the doubt. We always assume the best. I assume that my sister in Christ who has a different belief or a different practice is not believing or practicing arbitrarily or haphazardly. She’s doing it with careful study and serious prayer and reflection. And she’s fully convinced that she’s doing the godly thing. So everything’s fine. Don’t judge her. Don’t divide from her. Accept her.

As Paul reminds in Romans 14:9-10, this is the whole reason Christ was crucified and resurrected, so he can be Lord over these things and not you. Why are you judging your own brother in Christ? Why are you looking down on other Christians?

Now, there are some things that are non-negotiable doctrinal matters in which Christians must be unified. There are issues of settled, historical, biblical, orthodox Christianity that cannot be argued. As to belief, all of those are in the Apostles’ Creed; as to practice, all of those are in the sacraments; as to ethics, all of that has long been settled by the clear teachings of holy Scripture.

As for everything else? Anything else? Accept. Do not judge.

“To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

Peace,

Allan

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