Sterling Griggs

To the lady in the black Mazda SUV with the NC State sticker on the back window, thank you. Most mornings, no matter what time I leave my house, I find myself directly behind you on the way to work. You drive slower than I would prefer and you take that last turn so painfully deliberate that I am afraid you may ultimately stop in the middle of the intersection. But thank you nonetheless for giving me much needed perspective.  You may not know this, Mazda driver, but every time I see you pull out of that side street up ahead in the distance, I groan behind the wheel of my truck. And it's not because I am in some sort of a hurry – I always leave with plenty of time to spare and am never late for work. Rather, it's more because of the fact that I KNOW you are going to pull out in front of me and drive the way that you do. I don't honk or tailgate you, because I know that solves nothing. Instead, I seethe a little on the inside. Please know, there is really nothing wrong with y...

Do you remember what it was like? You know, when you were just a kid and Christmas seemed liked the most magical time of the year? I know, I know, Christmas is truly about Jesus and that is why we celebrate. Yet as a kid, you couldn't help but go beyond the manger scenes and Christmas Eve services to a world filled with toys and happiness that still sticks with you to this day. As I ponder what this year has been like for most of us, I realize that holiday gatherings are probably not going to look like they have in the past. Some of the Christmas traditions that have been sacred for your family for generations might be on pause this year, but that doesn't mean that this time for gathering and worshiping the birth of our Savior can't still be memorable. We all just have to flow a little bit differently right now, you know?  In honor of this most wonderful time of the year when gathering with friends and family has never seemed more precious, I thought it would be cool for so...

This morning as I was enjoying coffee on the screened in porch with my wife – which is what we do every morning (coffee, that is, and on the porch if the weather is nice) – I was scrolling through the YouVersion Bible app when I came across a devotional by Francis Chan. I will be the first to admit that I find many devotional plans that are posted online to be a little anemic if not cheesy, but Chan is my spirit animal so I clicked on the plan to see what it was all about. To my delight, I found that he was inviting me on a 12-day journey through the book of James and he had included video clips for each entry of him explaining the text. Right then and there I began the devotional, with day one being composed of James 1:1-12. " Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds ." Yep, this is pretty relevant. I'm not sure when Francis Chan wrote and recorded this devotional (which is actually more like a mini-sermon series), but I think it was bef...

I teach high school students for a living at a private, Christian school. You may have just read that and thought to yourself, "Oh, that's nice. Sterling teaches in a sanitized environment to a bunch of semi-rich kids who can afford tuition. That's not real life, but kudos to you." While it may be true that I am not employed in the arena of North Carolina public schools, what I have come to learn over my years of working with middle school and high school students is that while socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnic backgrounds may differ, not one teenager is immune to the struggles that are paramount to this current generation. Known as Gen Z or whatever it is that they are called, this current generation of middle school, high school, and college students have no idea what it's like to be raised in an environment free from the trappings of technology. They never had to endure the torture of walking across the room to manually turn the TV channel, dial-up modems...

I have a confession to make: I am terrible at waiting. If patience is a virtue, then well, I ain't got much virtue. Truth be told, this is nothing new. Patience and waiting on events and schedules to happen has always been a sore spot for me. Almost every Christmas Eve growing up, I was the kid perched at the top of the stairs starting at 3:00 a.m. anxiously counting the minutes until the sun would begin to poke its head on the horizon so that I could finally get a glimpse of the glorious presents that awaited me. I eat the cookie dough before it goes on the baking sheet. I'm sure you do too, but I eat A LOT of it before it can be baked. I was the senior in high school that got on the phone with Wake Forest University to find out if I had been accepted because I simply couldn't wait for that letter any longer. Thankfully, they said yes. So as I recover from my heart surgery at home, you can imagine this is not the easiest of scenarios for someone like me to play out. M...

Using social media to post every facet of your life is not always the wisest of choices, but sometimes it is the best way to disseminate important information. Since I have neglected my blog for way too long, I have decided to use this as the medium to give everyone a life update. I hope all of my 13 followers get this information. Right before Christmas of this past year, my family doctor advised that I get the pneumonia vaccine since I have a heart history. Back in 1996 I had double valve replacement surgery and have been kind of on cruise control over since, but there is nothing like being a little extra careful. About a day after receiving the shot I was blessed enough to be one of the 1 in 1 bajillion to have a reaction to it, which was akin to being thrown in a freezer and then in an oven over a period of several days. I did survive it, but I was one sick dude and decided that I would pass the next time it was offered to me. A few days after Christmas, I found that I was sho...

Here in the south, mosquitoes are a part of every day life, especially in the warmer months, which last about 11 1/2 months out of the year. Google tells me that there are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes, with about 175 of them found in the United States. That means that the southern states have approximately 183 species of mosquitoes because I am convinced that we have them all plus a few that have yet to be discovered. I live on the coast, which is a nice way of saying semi-swamp, and mosquitoes flock to this part of the state because, word is, that they can live a long and content life here. Fat and sassy, my grandmother would say. I can't prove this scientifically, but I've heard that 5 million mosquitoes can grow in a teaspoon-sized puddle of water. When the humidity is high like it is, I'm pretty sure we are cranking those suckers out by the truck load. When I was young, I can remember the mosquito truck that used to barrel through my neighborhood releasing...