Sterling Griggs

I am such a homer for the "way things used to be." Yeah, I was the guy that rolled my eyes whenever my parents or those from their generation spoke of how things used to be so much simpler/easier/more meaningful/etc., back when they were younger. My response to all of that was, "Come on, get with it! Today is so much better - we have cassette tapes, 5 cable channels, and more than one phone mounted on the wall in the house. What more do you want?" My eyes saw things only through my self-imposed utopia. Fast forward a few decades and now I'm a dad with four kids who all look through tainted lenses of their own. Whenever we are in the car and I come across a song from my high school or college days that jams, I get "the look" from them that I gave to my parents. "How can you listen to that stuff?" is written all over their faces. And yes, I find myself rehashing the tired line, "You know, when I was your age..." Please, bring me my...

As I was perusing social media sites this morning, I came across a blog post that has been rapidly making the rounds on Facebook. Maybe you've read it or seen others share it on their Facebook wall. In a nutshell, this blog post was written by a mother of three boys and one girl who, along with her husband, regularly check the social media sites that her kids frequent to make sure that the content is acceptable. Bravo! My wife and I do the same with our middle school daughter and, like the author of the blog, we edit as we see fit and "unfollow" some of our daughter's "friends" who are posting pics and phrases that we don't want our children to see (or us to see for that matter). Many don't think it's right for parents to "creep" on their kids' social media pages. After all, they are kids and deserve a chance to express themselves. But what would I have become (or any of you for that matter) if I was allowed to operate without b...

Have you been reading the news lately? Not a whole lot of positives are being splashed on the headlines, but then that's no surprise. Syria has done some pretty awful things to their own people, but then no one is really sure who actually authorized what so the world is at sort of a standstill on how to respond. Some want to bomb them to send a message, but without all the facts what good will that do? Then there's Egypt, another big mess. There were a much bigger deal before someone in Syria began gassing fellow Syrians, but they still have many problems that no seems to know how to work out. Hundreds are dead and the government is no longer trusted, but whose to blame for all of the problems? Just where does the buck stop? I'm glad I'm not the one making national and global political decisions because there seems to be no cut-and-dry answers out there. Diplomacy is always a good first choice, but when no one is listening it's hard to sit back and just tell ot...

I realize that by giving a blog post this kind of a title, it makes me sound like an old man. And while I'm really not all that old by today's standards, I do realize just how far a couple of decades have removed me from the twenty-somethings of today. This generation faces most of the same issues, challenges, and problems as I did back in the 1990's, yet they operate under the magnifying glass of technology which serves to amplify even the most trivial of information. I often freak myself out when I make a comment or give direction to a younger person because I find that I sound more and more like a parent, which is really not a bad thing except for the fact that I realize I am becoming that person whom I often rolled my eyes at once he or she began to speak. Nevertheless, I'm gonna go there. There is a lot of advice floating around out there, found not just in the sphere of graduation speeches and the like but well beyond them. No one that I know wants this or an...

Unless you've been living in a remote cave somewhere in Patagonia, then you are aware that there's a whole lot of stuff going on in America. The economy is still shaky, health care remains in critical condition, the NSA is all up in our business, and no one seems to know who is actually telling the truth anymore (as if we ever really knew in the first place). Scale this down to a local level and the problems seem to be magnified. For instance, in my great state of North Carolina our state legislators' decisions to underfund an educational system that is already lagging behind have left people on both sides of the political aisle shaking their heads in astonishment. What is going on here? If you have internet access then you have been bombarded with countless opinions as to what is happening in America, both on a national and local level. Some insights are filled with facts and figures, yet most are knee jerk reactions to whatever sleight may be perceived. I, too, have be...

Not long ago I shared a conversation with a young man in high school who had lots of questions about God and faith. I mean some really, really good questions. He wanted to believe - he knew that there was more "out there" - but he wasn't buying into the picture that had been painted for him over the years. The whole " Everyone I know who claims to be a Christian is such a hypocrite " was in full display, and I was certainly sympathetic to his story. It's one we hear all too often and it makes it much more challenging to point others to the beauty and truth of Christ when all of His self-professed followers are acting like a bunch of boneheads. But what struck me the most in our conversation - what left me scratching my head - was the treatment this young man said that he received whenever he expressed his doubts from other Christians that he was close to. They got angry with him. They became hostile towards him because he didn't believe like they did ...

" How far is too far in a relationship ?" That is a question that has been asked countless times by students and young adults who want to pursue what is God's best for them in a premarital relationship but aren't sure exactly how to define those parameters physically. I've met people who have committed to share that first kiss only on their wedding day, a commendable act of self-control and diligence. Then there are others who found themselves involved in relationships that progressed way too fast, costing them their innocence along the way. Regardless of one's relational history or hopes for the future, we still want to know where to draw the line when it comes to purity in our relationships. Many pastors and church leaders have tried to define where God's line is drawn, with answers ranging from the puritanical to "follow your heart" type gibberish. Just the other day a young man sought my counsel regarding how he should handle the physica...