Sterling Griggs

The world we live in is a broken place. This shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you who see what's going on around you. The media will have you believe that oftentimes things are worse than they really are while others are convinced that our problems are made up and fueled by paranoia and laziness. But make no mistake about it, we have problems. Here in America, technology has allowed each and every voice to be heard for better or for worse. And when people are angry or feel disenfranchised or simply want to cause a stir, then it's hard to ignore their digital voices.  There are those who are oppressed and are victims. It's more than just a shame that the color of your skin will cause a whole segment of society to cast judgment upon you. Whites judge blacks, blacks judge whites, and every color of the rainbow in between either has an opinion or is subject to one. No one is innocent of these things. Make no mistake, sin is the biggest problem that we have in our worl...

Sarcasm and cynicism is something I come by honest. Perhaps it's because I'm the youngest of three boys, all separated by a mere two and half years, and my place on the food chain was well established from day one. Or maybe it was all the comments that me and my brothers got when mom dressed us up all alike and people would stare for a second and then exclaim, " Oh my! Are they triplets? " It was at this point that I usually got into trouble. Before my mom could explain our ages, I would step up, hands on my hips, and ask, " Do we look like triplets? " I mean, come on! We were stair stepped in height and, other than a crop of blonde hair on top of our heads, we really didn't look all that much alike. Those early lessons that I learned after the fact about manners should have stuck with me longer than they did. Growing up in a house full of boys wasn't always easy, but it most certainly was fun. From the beginning the outdoors was our playground...

What is going on with all this retro stuff that America is going crazy with? Everywhere you look, someone is trying to kick it old school and go back in time. There is the 1980's-ET-sythesizer-inspired Stranger Things show on Netflix (which is awesome, by the way) that pretty much everyone I know who graduated high school in the 1980's is gaga about. The newer Progressive insurance commercials are all now filmed as retro 1970's spots. Then there are movies - how many remakes of older movies are we gonna see? Hello Ghostbusters and Poltergeist , not to mention War Games , Commando , and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids which are just a few that are in the process of being remade. And oh my word, there are the clothing and music styles. The 1980's absolutely haunt me at times, not because it was such a bad decade but because my style was so pitiful. I had hair then, amazing blonde hair with a natural wave to it. But I parted that hair down the middle and heavily hair spray...

Fridays are the best days of the week. Period. Need proof? How about these sweet lyrics from George Jones: It's finally Friday I'm free again I got my motor running for a wild weekend It's finally Friday I'm outa' control Forget the workin' blues And let the good times roll. Sorry that you now have that song stuck in your head. And yeah, maybe that song isn't so awesome after all, but Friday IS all that and a bag of chips. Here are some reasons why: Friday night high school football games in the fall The one night of the week you can stay up really late because you can always sleep in on Saturday In our western culture, Friday marks the finish line to a grueling week of work and school Square fish sandwiches in schools on Friday (do they still do that?) Anyway, Fridays are simply awesome. I always loved Friday because it was the one day of the week growing up that I was convinced I could make it through because I knew what waited for me o...

My wife and I were sitting on the porch the other day sipping coffee together and reminiscing about how easy life was when we were little kids. We tend to do that from time to time when our schedules get out of whack and it feels as if the calendar is our nemesis rather than sheets of paper held by magnets to our refrigerator. Memories have the ability to allow you to escape like that. On this particular morning we were talking about our grandparents on our mothers' sides, all of whom have already passed on from this world. I brought up the old show Hee Haw  that I watched on so many Saturday evenings in my grandparents living room when my wife lit up and told me about the many times that she too had lounged in her pajamas in her grandmother's living room in Topeka, KS, and watched Roy Clark and Buck Owens lead a cheesy cast of comedic characters across the old tube television set with the wood grained sides.  My wife never had the pleasure of knowing her grandfather as a chil...

I took my middle and high school students to camp this past week and we had a great time with all the stuff camp brings - lack of sleep, filthy living conditions, every middle schooler wanting to challenge my manhood, stuff like that. But it was so good to have our students together for a week away from most distractions (we let them have their phones one hour every night, the rest of the time they are in the "Box of Woe") and to focus them more on Jesus and what He wants for their lives. Now when you gather over 1,000 students in one place from churches all over the map, you know you are going to get a mixed bag of personalities and backgrounds in that place. Where I live, church is usually an afterthought, so many of my students don't have a church background and really don't understand church culture, which is perfectly fine with me. It's refreshing to have a clean slate with so many of them when it comes to questions of faith and how to live it out. I don'...

I didn't sleep in much during the summers when I was a kid, not when there was so much to do each day. From the moment I finished my bowl of Froot Loops in the morning until the sun went down and I knew to come home when I heard my mom hollering for me, summers were made for playing outside. My neighborhood was filled with other kids close to my age, so there was never a shortage on things to do and places to explore. But without a doubt my fondest summer memories involved the Sandihill Swimming Pool that we joined when I was in kindergarten. Sandihill was unlike any other swimming pool on the planet. It wasn't Olympic size or some luxurious, gated private club. Instead, it was a pool tucked away in a neighborhood next to ours that felt like the best kept secret. What made that pool so special was the people and the memories that were made there. It was there that I learned to swim, not because I took lessons but rather because I jumped into the shallow end one day and figured ...