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One of the highlights of my marriage to Amanda over the years has been our walks. We’ve walked through rain, snow, and sand. We’ve walked in the morning, the heat of the day, and at pitch dark. We’ve walked when we’ve been sad, glad, and mad! Walks have been good for us these nearly 3 decades.

I just wrote about this a few weeks ago. Then we were “snowed out” and other things were scheduled, so this week we’re back to the subject of suffering—again. Suffering is even more universal than Coca-Cola or Microsoft. There is not a place on this planet that is exempt from suffering. It comes in different forms, different intensities and has varying durations but everybody gets in on the action.

We have a guest speaker this weekend. Let me explain. Calvary Baptist Church has been a part of a fellowship of churches since 1954. There are over 150 Baptist churches in the state that are part of the Michigan Association of Regular Baptist Churches. This group is now known as The Bridge Fellowship and Doug Crawford is the Executive Director.

This Sunday is “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.” Because we are pro-life, many people assume that means we hate people that are pro-choice. In a conversation with one of our college students recently I was reminded of this tension. He told me that when he tells people that he is a Christian, he has to start by saying, “and I don’t hate you.” It’s sad to me that we are living in a day that a follower of Christ has to start a conversation with those words.

In theology, Eschatology is the study of “end times.” There has been interest in the “end” since the Ascension of Christ. As the disciples stood, looking up into the Heavens, an angel said, “Why do you stand here gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus…will come in like manner as you saw Him go.” Since that day, people have been looking for the clues, twisting verses, naming dates and claiming they know things that nobody else knows about the return of Jesus.