10/22/2025
You Might Be Thinking It’s All About You If…
In working on Sunday’s sermon I asked my computer’s AI if she/he could come up with a few suggestions in answer to the above: You Might be thinking it’s all about you, if…. Some of them are funny, some of them are insightful, and a few of them might make you flinch with a trace of conviction. Here are the best of the bunch. Enjoy!
- You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if your favorite hymn is “How Great I Am.” - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you bow your head to pray and begin with, “Dear Me…” - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you think the sermon was written
specifically to make you uncomfortable. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you measure the success of Sunday worship by
whether you liked the music. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if your prayers sound more like a grocery list than a conversation. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if “Thy kingdom come” quietly translates in your mind
as “My plans succeed.” - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you think God’s will is just a slightly improved version of your will. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you think humility is a spiritual gift you’ve already mastered. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you treat the church like a restaurant and the pastor like the waiter. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you can quote your favorite influencer/political pundit
more easily than Jesus. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you say, “God is good,” mostly when things are going your way. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you’ve never thanked God for something
that didn’t benefit you directly. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you want a Savior but not a Lord. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you like the idea of grace—as long as other
people don’t get too much of it. - You might be thinking it’s all about you...
if you believe Jesus came to make you comfortable,
not to make you new.
Archived Posts
Not If, But When, the Crisis Comes
One of the best Bible commentators alive today is N.T. Wright or Tom Wright. When reflecting on the parable of the wise and foolish maidens, he wrote this:...
What I wanted to say
but ran out of time this Sunday
Here is the benediction I was going to use before discovering the excellent MLK Jr. video.
The Storm that Comes To Us as Helplessness
I want to share with you a small portion of my conversation with Artificial Intelligence online. Some of you know, I use Chat-GPT as a thoughtful sounding board for the questions and insights I’m working with on whatever scriptures I’m studying each week. What follows is an example of those discussions...
One Final Scene About Scrooge
There was one more scene in Dickens’s novel that reveals something of what has happened to Scrooge over the years. I did not have time to share it on Sunday, but I believe it reveals a great deal about the regrets in Scrooge’s life....
What Jacob Marley Would Do,
If He Could Do It…
I thought about using the following for a benediction—since Jacob Marley was warning Scrooge about the danger of loving money and what it could buy. Ends up with the Cantata and everything else going on, I didn’t have the time. So here is what you might have heard if the sermon itself was 5 minutes shorter!
A Confirming Word on Old King Herod
I just want to echo what Rick said in his fine sermon yesterday (Nov. 23). Herod was a ruthless tyrant and skilled politician. When the Magi don’t report back to him, he decides to kill all the male children of Bethlehem under the age of 2. That’s one paranoid dude.
Power Without Conscience?
I ran out of room for this vignette in Sunday’s sermon. Remember the quote that could be the headline for Ahab and Naboth: “All that’s needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” The following reinforces that truth.