Sterling Griggs

I was hesitant at first to write this blog post. A big reason for that is because so many people have experienced a lot of life-altering events and I don't want to appear as if I am trying to play the comparison game with mine. But, at the same time, when life throws you a series of curve balls, it is often therapeutic to chronicle the twists and the turns that it brings. This is my attempt to do just that. In January of this year I finally got around to making an appointment with my cardiologist over some concerns I was having about my heart health. I say "finally" because I had been experiencing some less than normal cardiac symptoms for almost a year, primarily a sensation that made it feel as if my heart was going to burst out of my chest with every heartbeat. Something inside of me told me that this wasn't normal, but since I had experienced a major open heart surgery in January of 2020, I wrongly assumed that what I was experiencing could be my new normal. A vis...

Free time. Anybody know what that is anymore? I know I am not alone in wishing I had more time each day to “get things done” and enjoy more down time for myself. Remember when you were a kid and complained to your folks about being bored all the time? Don’t you crave a little more boredom in your life right now? Someone once said that you don’t make time to do the things you want to do, rather you gotta make the best use of the time that you’ve been given. Good advice, if you have the time to take it. But all of us at some point will find ourselves with extra time on our hands that we have the privilege to fill with, well, whatever we want. It might be while you are on vacation or the kids are away at camp or you are recovering from a medical procedure at home. Whatever the circumstance, this gift of extra free time comes with challenges of its own, namely, “What in the world are you gonna do with yourself?” The challenge the I have with this kind of time is that I want it to be meanin...

To the lady in the black Mazda SUV with the NC State sticker on the back window, thank you. Most mornings, no matter what time I leave my house, I find myself directly behind you on the way to work. You drive slower than I would prefer and you take that last turn so painfully deliberate that I am afraid you may ultimately stop in the middle of the intersection. But thank you nonetheless for giving me much needed perspective.  You may not know this, Mazda driver, but every time I see you pull out of that side street up ahead in the distance, I groan behind the wheel of my truck. And it's not because I am in some sort of a hurry – I always leave with plenty of time to spare and am never late for work. Rather, it's more because of the fact that I KNOW you are going to pull out in front of me and drive the way that you do. I don't honk or tailgate you, because I know that solves nothing. Instead, I seethe a little on the inside. Please know, there is really nothing wrong with y...

Do you remember what it was like? You know, when you were just a kid and Christmas seemed liked the most magical time of the year? I know, I know, Christmas is truly about Jesus and that is why we celebrate. Yet as a kid, you couldn't help but go beyond the manger scenes and Christmas Eve services to a world filled with toys and happiness that still sticks with you to this day. As I ponder what this year has been like for most of us, I realize that holiday gatherings are probably not going to look like they have in the past. Some of the Christmas traditions that have been sacred for your family for generations might be on pause this year, but that doesn't mean that this time for gathering and worshiping the birth of our Savior can't still be memorable. We all just have to flow a little bit differently right now, you know?  In honor of this most wonderful time of the year when gathering with friends and family has never seemed more precious, I thought it would be cool for so...

This morning as I was enjoying coffee on the screened in porch with my wife – which is what we do every morning (coffee, that is, and on the porch if the weather is nice) – I was scrolling through the YouVersion Bible app when I came across a devotional by Francis Chan. I will be the first to admit that I find many devotional plans that are posted online to be a little anemic if not cheesy, but Chan is my spirit animal so I clicked on the plan to see what it was all about. To my delight, I found that he was inviting me on a 12-day journey through the book of James and he had included video clips for each entry of him explaining the text. Right then and there I began the devotional, with day one being composed of James 1:1-12. " Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds ." Yep, this is pretty relevant. I'm not sure when Francis Chan wrote and recorded this devotional (which is actually more like a mini-sermon series), but I think it was bef...

I teach high school students for a living at a private, Christian school. You may have just read that and thought to yourself, "Oh, that's nice. Sterling teaches in a sanitized environment to a bunch of semi-rich kids who can afford tuition. That's not real life, but kudos to you." While it may be true that I am not employed in the arena of North Carolina public schools, what I have come to learn over my years of working with middle school and high school students is that while socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds may differ, not one teenager is immune to the struggles that are paramount to this current generation. Known as Gen Z or whatever it is that they are called, this current generation of middle school, high school, and college students have no idea what it's like to be raised in an environment free from the trappings of technology. They never had to endure the torture of walking across the room to manually turn the TV channel, dial-up modems...