Sterling Griggs

The artist known as Prince just died. It's all over the news and his music is basically on every station. While not necessarily a fan of Prince - I have never owned nor downloaded any of his music - I do have a deep appreciation for the artist that he was. I'm not ashamed to admit that last night in the car is was jamming to "Little Red Corvette" and "Let's Go Crazy" when it came on the radio. When you hear brilliance, you must stop to appreciate it. Another no-as-famous person died yesterday as well. Chyna, of WWE fame, passed away, leaving behind a legacy for female wrestlers that she pretty much started on her own. Back in the day, I used to watch wrestling when it wasn't the trashy show that it is now. Chyna was just coming on the scene then and, while I didn't always buy the theatrics, I did appreciate the fact that a woman could body slam a man and make him look silly. When someone busts boundaries wide open, you have to stop and admire,...

Compassion. This is a word that is not foreign to any of us. We know what it means, or at least we think we know what it means. The word compassion comes from the Latin word compati which means "to suffer with." This means that if you have compassion on someone, then you are there suffering with them. Not from a distance or by throwing money at a cause, but right there with them. This makes compassion personal, real, difficult at times. As I write this my oldest daughter is in the hospital in Winston-Salem getting treatment for a pretty nasty flare up of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). As I've watched her struggle through pain this weekend, it's been necessary to muster all the compassion that I can for her. Not because I don't care, but rather because I personally don't have JRA and I often don't know how to suffer with her. Yes, I can show sympathy and tell her that I care, but compassion is more than that. It's intensely personal. Simply ...

Several years ago I became the new youth pastor at a church in Yadkinville, NC. In case you've never heard of Yadkinville or you have no idea how to pronounce it, the "d" is silent and the "i" is more like a hard "u", so it's pronounced "Ya-kun-vull" by those who really know who to speak Yadkin-ese, the local dialect there. Anyhow, the students there were all awesome and a little on the country side, which was cool because it challenged me to be a little less "city" and uptight about certain things. Early on in my time of service there, I realized that I had a group of guys that were gifted at talking junk. You know, the kind where you playfully goad other people verbally to engage in physical challenges, all the while strutting like a peacock and "bowing up" to them. If you don't understand, then you have to accept that it's a guy thing and it's just what we do at times. There was one kid in the group...

Political correctness. Just uttering those words can elicit a visceral response in so many people. Depending on what your personal worldview is will determine how you define that term. Basically, if what you say, do, or believe does not line up with "the other side's" point of view, then you are politically incorrect. By that definition, we are all guilty. Before you read any further, I need to let you know something: This is NOT a post about political correctness, politics, or anything that has happened in the news recently. I try really hard to limit my commentaries on those things because social media is a powder keg for so many issues. Plus, whenever you or I put our thoughts out there, there really are no buffers of protection or explanation to truly make it worthwhile. But this IS a post about people, people like you and me and how we've been made to believe that what we have either done in our past or the things we are currently involved in today are worthy of ...

Have you ever seen a big, strong weight lifter scream like a little girl when he sees a spider? Or how about a seasoned defense attorney freak out over a paper cut to her index finger? Maybe you haven't, but you can certainly picture the scenario in your head and have probably seen something similar. We live in a world where we all want to be seen as tough and fear is a taboo to be avoided. How many movies do you see where the coward is the hero? Yet in spite of our best efforts, if we were to sit in a support group circle together and allow our defenses to come down, we would all admit to being scared of plenty of things. The possibility of our health or the health of our children being compromised Losing a job and being unable to support our families What the future of our country will look like, which means we either have Trump-phobia, Hillary-phobia, Bernie-phobia, Republican-phobia, Democrat-phobia, etc. ad nauseum. Or maybe we are afraid of what we see as internationa...

He looked at me in all seriousness and said, "I honestly believe it was God's will for me to leave my wife and kids to be with her . She makes me happy, happier than I've ever been in my life. When I'm with her, I feel fulfilled, as if the missing pieces of my life have suddenly been put into place. God wants me to be happy, right?" Pretty cringe-worthy statements there, huh? Maybe you're thinking that there is no way in the world God's will is for someone to get a divorce because he's in love with another woman, and I am right there with you. But the problem we all face at some point is that we struggle to know what God's will is in the first place. Truth be told, the foundation of our desire to know God's will isn't too far off this guy's desire to "upgrade" his choice in wives - we want God's will to benefit us. In other words, we know what we want and we hope and pray that God will rubber stamp it for us, hence maki...

I am subbing at a local high school as I type these words. Don't worry, they are taking a test so I'm not shirking my responsibilities. When I walked in the door this morning at the school, I was asked to sub for a class that I wasn't originally assigned for, but only for first period. It was a math class and they had plenty of work left for them to keep them busy. For the most part they did really well, working to complete their assignments while keeping the noise to a minimum. I try to be a "cool" sub, the one who pushes them to do their assignments but doesn't crack the whip too hard. Plus, it's Friday, and everyone should catch a little bit of a break on Friday, right? All was going well when I noticed this one student who wasn't keeping up with the rest of the others. He wasn't disruptive or anything like that. In fact, he was entirely quiet. That's because he was sound asleep the entire time he was in my class. Not once did his pencil mov...