I Believe in Ghost Stories – I Was in One

A quick back story before I talk about what happened.

First, I’ve never, at any point in my life, had some kind of spooky event where I was convinced that I had encountered something from the netherworld; except for the time that I was napping on the couch in an old house that some friends and I were renting.

We called it “The Mansion,” 2 stories, 100 years old, 5 beds, 5 baths, and a creepy old attic. The place took up half a city block. And a guy was murdered there.

During my nap, on the couch in the library, I had a dream that I was harassing some sort of demonic thing. I woke up, gasping for breath, and felt like there was something standing next to me.

But who knows, that can easily be explained away. I didn’t see or hear anything. I told some friends about it, we laughed it off, and I never had an encounter like that again, until the one I’m getting ready to talk about.

Second, about 100 years ago, the city of Denver decided to move one of its cemeteries, and turn it into a park, now called Cheesman Park.

Families were given 90 days to dig up their loved ones and bury them somewhere else. Not many responded, and the city was left with 100’s of bodies to deal with.

A guy named E.P. Mcgovern was hired, and offered $1.90 for each body exhumed, given a fresh casket, and relocated to Denver’s Riverside cemetery. McGovern took the deal, and quickly figured out that he could make more money if he put each body in a child-sized coffin. Most of the bodies he relocated were hacked up and stuffed in the smaller caskets.

All of this was done in public – broad daylight. Continue reading I Believe in Ghost Stories – I Was in One

The Importance of Saying I’m Sorry

I recently watched a friend do something stupid to another friend, but friend #1, clearly in the wrong, won’t apologize.

I’ve been there. I’m married with kids, a former pastor and business owner, surrounded by opportunities to screw up, rarely feeling like I should apologize when I do. But I’ve never sat down and pondered on why apologizing is so hard – why us ‘Mericans do it so infrequently; why, so many times, we’ll let a relationship end before we’ll say our “sorrys.”

It’s not because we don’t know how to make an apology.

We hate apologizing because it hurts to feel “wrong.” We need to feel “right,” like we’re one of the few good people in the world. That’s why we’re living with so much political anger – it’s not about the issues, or the candidates, our anger is about us feeling like our side is right and the other side’s wrong.

If feels good, especially for people who typically feel bad about themselves. I”m in that boat. I’ve met few who aren’t.

I’d say that our need to feel right is so strong that it scares us to admit when we’re not. It’s frightening to be vulnerable, to let people see our weakness – our dark side(s).

We frequently say that pride gets in the way of a good apology, but I think fear is the culprit. We don’t apologize because we’re scared – we lack the courage to do the right thing Continue reading The Importance of Saying I’m Sorry

What Jesus Meant When He Said “Follow Me,” and How it Should Affect Our Political Anger

To Jesus’ followers back in the day, “Follow me” was a literal statement, something akin to, “hey, I’m heading to this particular geographic location, come with.” As a rabbi, it was also an invitation to accept His teachings, which for this army of ragtag volunteers meant certain physical danger.

For them, it was hard to screw up, misinterpret, or miss Jesus’ meaning altogether because He would immediately get in their face and make an attempt at setting them straight.

We don’t have that today. We’ve got our Bibles, and our interpretations of our Bibles, and our Christian culture, and from that we try to figure out the life that Jesus wants us to live. We don’t have Jesus in our faces every time we get something wrong.

For many of us, especially us Evangelicals, we’ve distilled His invitation to “follow” into three categories:

  • Think the right things about Jesus and God (theology)
  • Embrace a particular list of rules and try hard not to break them (morality)
  • Protect our world from moral decay (politics)

I’d add an unwritten rule to this list: no matter what the cost, be safe. Don’t get in trouble, don’t make anyone mad (unless they’re not Christian) and for God’s sake don’t get yourself killed.

As an Evangelical of 30 years I understand this list, and with the exception of being a dyed in the wool conservative, this is my list too – especially the safety part. I don’t like physical pain, or danger, or fear, and there are plenty of places I could go and get hurt telling people about Jesus. Continue reading What Jesus Meant When He Said “Follow Me,” and How it Should Affect Our Political Anger