They say you find out who your friends really are when trouble comes into your life. Sometimes people you counted on are no help when you need them. Others you did not expect to help come to your aid. It’s one of the things that makes life interesting. It is true in the world and it is true in the Church. It is true at war and it is even true on the golf course.

I almost didn’t make it. I pushed all day to be ready to go at five. I would miss breaks and skip lunch and call in favors from others in the office. I had planned my route and I had timed it in my mind over and over again.

My Grandpa was a country parson. Dad is a village pastor too. So it is something I understand and love. It is a part of my earliest memories. When I was a little boy we lived in a wonderful farmhouse, near Wayland, Michigan, which was loaned to the church for a parsonage. It was a big bungalow-style house surrounded by barns, a chicken-house and other outbuildings, a working windmill, and a lane trailing back to a mysterious wood. A huge coal furnace in the basement warmed …

When we face a foe so formidable that our life is threatened it is appropriate to cry out in desperation to God. Psalm 50:15 says “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me.” When I cried out to God in June of 2000 God gave me a level of self-control I have never known. Within six months I had lost 105 pounds. I am still experiencing that self-control today. Before I cried out I had to understand …

It was a summer night, common on the surface of things. Fireflies hovered over the grass. Stars began to appear in the dark evening sky. The vespers service had ended and people stood around in groups outside the small frame building they called “The Tabernacle.” Others chatted, soft-drinks or coffee in hand, under the light by the small concession stand they called “The Canteen.”

People who battle with gluttony often write or tell me that they are tired of the struggle.

One of the truths that is setting me free from gluttony is seeing my gluttony as a form of idolatry. It helped me admit that if I had to eat to excess then I did not consider God to be enough for my soul. It was a breakthrough in my thinking to realize that I was looking to food for what only God could give. John Piper’s good book on fasting, “Hunger for God”, was a helpful resource on this.