Sterling Griggs

Watching kids play games together can be pretty comical. Somebody always has to be "in charge" and that means that he pretty much makes up the rules as he goes. Many of the domestic disturbances that I am called in to officiate between my own children can be traced back to a flexible rules system that is always slanted to the advantage of the one in charge of score keeping. Extra swings of the bat, "short cuts" while playing Chutes-and-Ladders, establishing "base" at the nearest tree before someone tags you out - whatever it takes to make sure that things go your way. This is nothing new. In fact, man has been trying to bend the rules in his favor for centuries. It's not that we are necessarily Lance Armstrong level cheaters; we just don't like to lose. So we tweak a word here, change a sentence there, until the narrative matches more clearly with the story in our heads. There's nothing wrong with that, is there? What if I told you that if...

Although I love to write and record my thoughts and observations, I'm not exactly the reading enthusiast that I want to be. Picking up a book is thrilling at first, but unless it just wows me beyond measure I often struggle to trudge through to the end. I've never been diagnosed with ADD or anything like that, but I do believe that my attention span is severely hampered by my overactive brain and imagination. I know some guys who spend what seems like hours each day reading blogs. Theological blogs, political blogs, social-commentary blogs, whatever they can get their hands on. As a blog writer myself, one would think that I would take great pleasure in perusing the blog landscape that is so vast and dynamic. But I don't. I rarely read blog posts. Yet everyone once in awhile when a controversy arises and I see all of the related blog entries linked on social media sites, I will take a detour to enlighten myself with the opinions of man. It seems to me that the more con...

I'm a people watcher. When I observe the actions of others and hear their words, I try to discern their true intent, if that's possible. My wife has what is known as a "woman's intuition" but, as a man, I wasn't exactly blessed with that gift. So I observe and take mental notes. Now before you accuse me of being some creepy guy that stalks people at the local mall, let me explain. When I say that I observe others, I do what most of you do as well. As I live my daily life I encounter people who do and say all sorts of things, sometimes to me but usually directed at others. And it is to these things that I pay attention. As a father of four kids, I am around kids a lot. I go to the schools in an effort to stay engaged in their educational life and I am around their friends when they are at my home. As a pastor, each week I interact with hundreds of people who cover the spectrum of emotional and mental stability. When I grocery shop, there is a whole other l...

Like many of you, I have a love/hate relationship with social media. On the love side, I think it's great catching up with old friends and seeing pictures of their beautiful families and cool family vacations. On the flip side, I will roll my eyes like a middle school girl at every single rant I am forced to endure about politics, mean people in your life, or how unfair Facebook is being with your privacy, even though you are choosing to use Facebook publicly and of your own free will. #Icansmelltheironyamileaway Within the Christian culture, social media has become a platform that has been used extensively to express and abuse one's spiritual perspective. I, for one, truly enjoy posting Bible verses that have moved my soul, believing that sharing them is but one way for the truth of God to be proclaimed. Yet I have also been guilty in the past of using the internet to pick a fight with those who do not share my same faith-based perspective. Nothing like a good ol' onlin...

Yesterday I had the privilege of  spending some quality time with a good friend and brother in ministry over good coffee and great conversation. As we normally do when we are together we pontificated until we are almost convinced that we had solved the world's problems. Actually, we shared ministry stories with each other, holding each other accountable for the charge that God has given to us and also grieving and rejoicing beside each other over the highs and lows of ministry. During our conversation, my friend was seeking to make a point when he asked me this question: "If you knew of a man who had been married to his wife for 25 years and had never cheated on her, what word would you use to describe him?" Instantly the word "faithful" came to my mind and that's how I responded. Not denying the truth in my answer, my friend brought up a powerful point to me regarding the example he had just shared - if God ordained marriage to be between one man and one...

One of the joys of being involved in student ministry has been the opportunity to engage the parents of my students in regular conversations. Once a month as the students meet in their small groups I gather the parents together for our own small group of sorts. We have spent portions of that time covering the same discipleship material that their students are discussing, but my primary goal is to use this as an opportunity to minister to these parents so that they in turn can minister more effectively to their own children. The other night the topic for our student discussion was "Identity" and how our identities are established by God (Psalm 139) and rooted in Christ. We too often try to mask our identities with other things - relationships, popularity, athletic or academic achievements, humor, etc. - which in turn communicates to God that we are not satisfied with who He has created us to be. As the students broke up into their small groups to discuss the masks that th...