The Shining Sun

  In my book, For Pastors Only: Dealing with Rejection in Ministry, I wanted to explain, first to my daughters, why I was baffled by the tendency of others to blow out others’ candles so that the remaining light candles were perceived to be brighter. This is what I wrote in my introduction: “Baffled. In a word, “baffled” . That's the best way I can describe my frustration at what I've seen in the Church. Other words like “disappointment” , “disillusionment” and even at times “depression” have described my emotional state when I dared to look behind the curtains and discovered the inner workings of the life of a church. What truly plays out behind the scenes in the life of a church? I've seen it from the position of a janitor working at several churches; as a board member serving the church; a volunteer in many active ministries of a church; as the pastor of a church; as the spouse of a wife who pastored three churches; and as an adult missionary serving with our famil

      For years, I have lived with “personally minded” individuals in churches who genuinely believed that if they blew out my candle then their candles would burn brighter. My book, For Pastors Only: Dealing with Rejection in Ministry , is a memoir of my life centered around the theme of rejection. How to cope with it.  How to deal with it.  How to overcome it.  How to learn from it.  Even how to benefit from it to help others through negative life experiences. Two selections of George Bernard Shaw’s insights on life are combined into a literary piece called “A  Splendid Torch”. “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. And also the only real tragedy in life is the being used by personally

  I love candles.   I love making tea light candle holders and special lantern holders just to have a reason to light more candles in my home. My love for candles was created long before the exotic scented candles had become popular.   My earliest memories of smelling burning wax go back to those days when a storm knocked out our electrical power in our home.   Instant darkness. A quick scramble for the kitchen drawer that held the candlesticks and the matches. Seeing that candle flicker to light brought immediate relief. As more candles were lit more shadows were dissipated. So I have always been baffled by some people's tendency to blow out other people's candles so that their candles would burn so much brighter. A current internet meme is: “Blowing out someone else’s candle doesn’t make yours shine any brighter.” In a purely pragmatic sense, this statement is true.   The amplitude of the light of a single candle does not increase as other candles in a room are exti