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Ramblings from Retirement – Reconnect! By Lee Hemen, Retired Pastor March 18, 2021 There was a popular folk song out when I was in High School by Joni Mitchell called The Big Yellow Taxi. It was supposed to be a statement concerning how the world was paving over everything and destroying it with insecticides. It was kind of a silly song but one line states “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” This is true whether it concerns green spaces or relationships but it can be true of things we begin to depend on in life without ever thinking about them. Here’s something for you to try for a week: Go without your Wi-Fi or cell phone. Few could make it a day let alone a week, but what if these things were taken away from you for good? What would you do and how would you cope? We lost our Wi-Fi for about 20 hours the other day and I realized just how much we as a family had come to rely on something we often took for granted. We can do the same thing in...

Are We Deaf and Dumb? - Mark 7:31-37 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 11, 2010 AM When I was younger, I used to think that my folks suffered from a kind of a parental tone-deafness that all adults suffer from when they have children. Not only did they not hear me but also they did not understand me. Many of Christians tacitly believe this about God as well, that he does not hear or understand. In fact, we think it is so true that it has become ingrained in our spiritual psych and in how we relate to the gospel. Let me explain: The Israelites suffered from this malady during Isaiah’s time. They felt God was not listening to their constant cries and did not understand their particular predicament. Isaiah would remind them, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” (Isaiah 40:28) God was not the one who was deaf and dumb, they were! Deafness an...