Sterling Griggs

For the past couple of years I have had some form of hair on my face. Whether it's been a full beard, a goatee, or a soul strip, hair has pretty much been there. Last night, I shaved my beard completely off. My daughter Reynolds said, "Wow dad, your face feels just like mine." It does feel slightly odd having a smooth face. Why did I shave it? I could say that I did it to give the Wake Forest basketball team a little mojo after their first loss of the season. Or it could be that I wanted my daughter Emme to finally be able to give her daddy sugar on the face (she won't kiss the beard). There are lots of possible reasons but I'm not sure any of those can take credit for being the main one. Basically, I felt it was time to shave. But in a sense, it is kind of symbolic for me to do so. If the true test of a person is how they are when no one else is around (or when no on their own age is around), then I can honestly say that I haven't always passed that ...

I love those Jack Links Beef Jerky " Messin' With Sasquatch " commercials. My favorite one is with the two guys driving down a road in the middle of a forest when suddenly they see Sasquatch up ahead walking on the side of the road. They drive past him and then stop, offering him a ride. As Sasquatch catches up to the car to get in, the driver guns it a little bit and pulls away. Laughing, they stop the car again and invite Sasquatch one more time for a ride. Just like before they drive off before he can get in, thinking that they've played a cool prank on big foot. As they begin to drive away Sasquatch busts through the windshield and pulls the passenger out. You just don't mess with Sasquatch, especially when you realize what he can do to you. In the book of Isaiah God is pronouncing all sorts of predictions and judgments through the prophet Isaiah. One judgment in particular is against Assyria, a nation that God had once allowed to torment Israel for th...

As I was returning from dropping off my kids at school this morning, I heard a news report on the radio about the health of Steve Jobs , the founder and CEO of Apple. The other day he tried to assure reporters that his declining health was due to a hormone deficiency but now he's taking a leave of absence for several months because his health issues are "more complex than originally thought." Apple's COO, Tim Cook, will take on Jobs' responsibility while he is on medical leave. As a result of this news, stocks for Apple were down 7%. Really? Apple's product is not suddenly going to tank because of Jobs' temporary absence, yet the confidence of investors is so fragile that they panic like a group of scared Jr. High girls (no offense to Jr. High girls in the audience). It might be because I'm not the most savvy of investors, but I don't get this mass panic when issues like this happen. What if we panicked like this with God? How many people wou...

I'm not sure that I will ever be able to have a set schedule in my life. Kellie and I both try to set agendas for what we want to accomplish during the day, but by mid-morning much of it is usually shot. Let me give you an example. This morning at 4:15 a.m. our youngest daughter Emme decided to wake up. This wasn't your typical wake up, get a sip of juice, go back to sleep wake up. This was more like "I'm having a party in my crib and want you to join me" wake up. By 5:00 I could see that sleep was not going to happen so I got her up and took her to the grocery store with me. That was on our list to do today so at least we got that done. Kellie had a womens' Bible study that was starting this morning and they offer excellent childcare for our two youngest. That's good for me because I need to finish my Bible study for the students tonight since much of yesterday was spent at the oral surgeon's office with our oldest daughter Chandler (she's ...

This past summer of 2008, Kellie and I took all 4 kids with us to a church mission trip to Orting, WA, right below Seattle. The week was great but it was a challenge to manage (and corral) all of the kids on a regular basis. On the day we left we took our rented van to the rental place along with our good friends Mark and Alicia Senter, who had also brought their 3 year old daughter along. Needless to say, we have a mountain of luggage and as the rental company bus dropped us off at the airport, I was wondering how in the world we were going to get all of our stuff inside the terminal. My questions were answered as soon as the bus doors opened. There stood steward with an empty cart. He had just helped someone load up on another bus and was about to walk away, but he saw us and immediately asked if we needed help. After we piled his cart to a height taller than me, he led us through a short maze right up to our check-in counter. There is no way that we could have made it without ...

Here's a highlight of the best of what I experienced in 2008: I assisted in the delivery of our fourth child, Emmerson Caroline Griggs I baptized my oldest daughter Chandler after she gave her life to Christ Wake Forest made their third consecutive bowl game and I've been there for every one I read the Bible cover to cover I read more books cover to cover than any other year in recent memory 2 of my 4 kids are in school every day I have completed my 8th year of ministry at the church where I serve All six of us flew out to Seattle together and survived the round trip Five Sided Coffee came to a close (but I still roast a little here and there) In spite of all the financial mess, the Lord has blessed me and I can pay my bills My wife is still the greatest wife ever and my kids are still the greatest kids ever

Now that it's New Years Day, it's time to bust out the pork, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and corn bread. I haven't gotten around to that yet; in fact, that will probably have to wait until this weekend when I smoke a pork shoulder with my new smoker grill (FTW!). But I have drunk deep of my fill of college football and in terms of the magnitude of each game, I've only just begun. Of course no New Years would be complete without the standard New Year's resolutions. But for me, I'm not really into making resolutions at the beginning of a new year. It's not that I have nothing to change about myself (I'm sure there is plenty), it's just that I have always wanted to be an agent of change throughout the year, not at some static point in time where my chances of success are severely limited. But last night as I pondered what a new year would bring, a few things did come to my heart that I really hope I do a better job of this year than I did in 20...