Dear Column Boy ...

My Life Matters blog appears as a weekly column in a couple of local newspapers.  On Monday morning this week, as I was about to head out the door to work, I remembered that I had a column submission due in about an hour.  Oops!  It’s the most wonderful time of the year, which means there’s lots of stuff going on.  In the past 8 days, I have sung in two Christmas musical performances (see last week’s column/blog) and “entertained” at 3 Christmas banquets.  I wouldn’t change a thing, but it has been a little nutty.

That may explain why my addled brain not only forgot to remind me to write this week’s column, but also found me asking myself hypothetical questions that people out in newspaper/blog reading land might ask me if this were a “write-in” column/blog.

Here goes …

Dear Column Boy, why do you write so much about yourself?

Dear Reader, contrary to what some people may think, I do not have a Narcissus complex.  Journalists, the people who report the news and write articles, do research and have to know about things.  Columnists write opinions about what they know.  Some of them know a lot and have great opinions.  I don’t know much, but I can usually manage to remember what I had for lunch today and the names of both of my children, so I just stick with what I know.

Dear Column Boy, you often refer to your wife as Mrs. Sweetie.  Does that make you Mr. Sweetie?

Dear Reader, I prefer Dr. Sweetie.  I worked pretty hard to get that doctorate.  Dr. Sweetie may seem a little formal, but if people start calling me just “Sweetie” I might have some ‘splaining to do with the Mrs.

Dear Column Boy, do the members of your family ever get embarrassed that you include them in your stories so much?

Dear Reader, I have so many really embarrassing stories I could tell that they are most often relieved at what doesn’t appear in the newspaper/blog.  Besides that, my children know where I live and will one day likely be choosing a nursing home for me, so I’m not going to push the envelope too far.

Dear Column Boy, you say our lives matter to God.  How do you know?

Dear Reader, before John 3:16 was a sign waved at televised sporting events, it was spoken by God-in-the-flesh (John 1:14), whose birthday we are celebrating this holiday season.  He said, "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:16-17, NLT)

I hope you didn’t miss a really important word in that paragraph: “everyone”.  The translation I grew up with says, “whosoever”.  Our lives matter so much to God that He made it possible for everyone to know Him.  Our part is to trust Him, to cling to Him, to rely on Him.

Thanks for asking and thanks for reading.