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Golf is an interesting game. It is a game of yards, and a game of inches. It is a game of power, and a game of finesse. It is a game of ability, and a game of imagination. However, it is also a game of cliches. No, you're not seeing things. You read that right. Cliches. You know, bumper sticker stuff. The quick phrase that summarizes thousands of years of information. Cliches. If you neither play nor watch the game on TV then you may not know this. Allow me to enlighten you as to the ones that mean the most to we golfers.

Cliches are, in a way, an explanation for not…  ( Click for more )

Surviving cancer is one of those things you enjoy being around to talk about. However, it's not without its frustrations. During the months of chemo, radiation and the inability to swallow well and then the surgery and twelve days in the hospital, I lost eighty pounds. Due to the type of surgery I had, it is not likely that I will add much more than another ten to fifteen pounds. That means that the size 50L suits I wore in December of 2006, and even the size 46L suits I wore this past summer, are all too big.

I returned to the pulpit this past Sunday and bought a new suit…  ( Click for more )

Scott McCarron is an accomplished professional golfer who competes on the PGA Tour. He has had a measure of success on the Tour and, as such, is reasonably recognizable at most Tour venues. That means that when he pulls up to the gate he usually gets in without much hassle. in 2002, when the U. S. Open was played at Bethpage Black, McCarron had a small problem. That morning he had allowed his wife to use the courtesy SUV that the USGA had provided for his use. He drove the family sedan to the course. That's where it got interesting.

As he pulled up to the gate he realized…  ( Click for more )

Coincidence. That wonderful rare turn of events that both surprises and startles us. You've been caught up in them before. Events that happen in just the right way or circumstances that align too perfectly. You know; coincidence. Friday, February 15, I got to experience one of those incredible coincidences. It happened at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky and it involved one of the young couples in our congregation at Minorsville. And it's a neat one.

Gina and Craig Hastings have a little girl named Ellie Morgan who was born on my wife's birthday, February…  ( Click for more )

Just recently I fought a bought with esophageal cancer. The ordeal started December of 2006 with some swallowing problems. I was diagnosed July 31 and went through radiation and chemotherapy for five weeks in late August and through September. During my treatments I was in Stamping Ground, KY, the town near our church, when a woman from a neighboring congregation approached me to ask me how I was doing. A comment that she made toward the end of our conversation caught me dead in the heart. The comment? She said, "Now you know the cross the Lord wants you to bear." …  ( Click for more )

My parents are buried in a cemetary some three hours from my current home. My wife and I try to make it to their gravesite at least twice a year to make sure that there are flowers on the stones. Every time we go I look long and hard at their tombstone. It reads, "William Nelson Kelley; February 17,1921 - March 25,1998; Dorothea Margaret Kelley; January 6,1923 - December 14,2002." I lived with my parents for the first twenty-one years of my life. I remember all the things that we did during that time period as well as all the things we did after that time period. It's…  ( Click for more )

One day, while in WalMart, I watched as a little boy not more than four accidently knocked a box of Pop Tarts from an aisle display. Before I could even wonder what would happen, the little fellow stooped over, grabbed the box of Pop Tarts and replaced it in the display being careful to make sure that it was sitting just right. I was amazed.

I have seen similar scenes in stores before. They always seem to play out the same way. The child knocks something over, the parent says for them to pick it up and the child doesn't while the parent just walks away. Later, the parent knocks…  ( Click for more )

Owning a new home is both a blessing and a cursing. The blessing is that you own it. The cursing is that you own it. No, you're not seeing things. Owning a new home is such a blessing in that you know it is yours and you can do with what you wish. However, anything that happens to it is also yours; every failed appliance, every threadbare carpet, every squeaky step, every cracked wall.

Right now the walls are what are starting to get to me. There is nothing on them. We are still trying to let them "speak" to us. That's what we were told concerning walls. Walls will tell…  ( Click for more )

James Garner, as Bret Maverick on the long running TV western, used to make the comment, "My old pappy used to say..." Evidently his old pappy was full of pithy sayings and folksy wisdom that stuck with his son as he went through life. Well, I was blessed with a very wise old pappy of my own, and a lot of what he said has stuck with me over the years.

One of the things he told me has been a constant thought with me since my days as a teenager. "Whatever you do, if it's worth doing, do it the best you can." Every song I sing, every person I visit, every relationship I enter…  ( Click for more )

There are risk takers and there are risk takers. Yesterday I met a risk taker. Or, I should say, I came close to meeting a risk taker. She was driving a black pickup truck. She thought she could pass safely with a blind hill ahead. She was right. She could pass safely, but only because I stood on my brakes when I came over the blind hill right at her. Her risk was not just hers but mine as well. Such risk takers are the ones we might deem undesirable.

I met another risk taker last week. She was "shopping" at WalMart. She removed some items from the shelf in one section,…  ( Click for more )

While we were working in Upstate New York with Empire State Evangelizing Association we had the opportunity to develop friendships with people in churches all up and down the Eastern Seaboard states. This included Pennsylvania. One couple, who ministered in a small community in Western Pennsylvania, had us come and speak to their congregation about our work in New York.

While with them, we got to know their young son. Our friends were unable to have children of their own through birth so they had adopted a beautiful little boy and were raising him in the Lord. The little fella…  ( Click for more )

Fishermen and golfers in churches have been arguing for some time concerning which group Jesus would hang out with were He here today. The biggest argument that fishermen give is that Jesus hung out with fishermen before so, it stands to reason, He would do so again today. There is a small problem with that concept of the argument.

The vast majority of fishermen today are hobbyists or sportsmen. They have a day job which pays the bills and fishing is what occupies their free time. While they are passionate about their sport, it is, nonetheless, just a sport for them. Involved…  ( Click for more )

I love little children. My wife says its because we're on the same mental level. I remind her that it's not nice to insult little children that way. Little children can ask the most womderful questions and do so with an honesty and curiosity that is refreshing. Plus, they can keep you on your toes. Take the instance of little Peyton this past Sunday morning.

When Peyton and his family came in and sat down I went back to greet them. After all the greetings were out of the way Peyton looked up at me and asked, "Why did you drown that little boy?" His mother and father were…  ( Click for more )

One of the rules of golf that is often overlooked is the rule of the club limit. Each golfer is allowed to carry as many as fourteen clubs in his/her bag. This limit allows for some interesting combinations of clubs for many golfers. Most "sets of clubs" are comprised of three woods, eight irons and a putter. Today's standard is for the three woods to be a driver accompanied by a three wood and a five wood. The irons are usually the three through nine irons along with a pitching wedge. And, of course, a putter.

If you've done the math, that's twelve clubs. That means two…  ( Click for more )

As a youth, and on into my young adult years, I played a number of different sports which required that I run and run fast. At various times during my sports ventures I was actually timed for my speed. I was not the fastest person on the team when such times were taken. In truth, I was generally somewhere in the middle of the pack as having "normal" speed.

But I never worried about it. I was able to get to that deep fly ball to center field. I could get behind the defensive back and catch the pass and then outrun the defender to the endzone for the touchdown. I could run…  ( Click for more )

This age thing is annoying. They say (whoever they are) you forget what you've just said and repeat yourself quite frequently. This age thing is annoying. They say (whoever they are) you forget what you've just said and repeat yourself quite frequently. That being said (twice even) growing old is not all that it's cracked up to be.

I pray that I can grow old gracefully. I pray that I do not become some curmudgeon whose outlook on life is self-centered. I have the privilege of being around some of the finest people anyone could wish to meet. The senior saints of the Minorsville…  ( Click for more )

Way back when, when life was a lot simpler and my kids were still kids, I used to sell shoes. No, truthfully, I subscribed to one of those mail order shoe houses that gave you discounts on quality footwear if you sold so much to other people. I was able to move a pair or two but found out that selling your friends something that you wanted them to buy for your personal benefit could strain the relationship.

That aside, I learned some things about shoes and clothing in general. The label that you see in the shoe is not necessarily the name of the shoe factory from which it came.…  ( Click for more )

Aging is a subtle demon. It sneaks up on you when you least expect it. As a youth I can remember days at play where I ran all day on a football field. In my late teen years I was playing a lot of basketball; first as a freshman in college for the Johnson Bible College junior varsity basketball team, then in intramurals at both JBC and Kentucky Christian.

It was at JBC that I had the most fun in intramurals. My legs were still reasonably fresh and my knees had not yet started to deteriorate. In one game I was called for three goal tendings. In another, one kid on the sideline…  ( Click for more )

Just two days to go. Just two days before "IT" has to be in the mail. Just two days until the package that evryone dreads sending must be postmarked. Just two days until many must part with their hard earned cash to satisfy the demands of their government. Just two days left before the Internal Revenue Service of the United States Government must be given the taxes that are due for the year 2003.

Ever listen to the disdain with which most people talk about the I. R. S.? Ever hear someone actually talking to an I. R. S. agent? It can be rather frightening. Usually mild mannered…  ( Click for more )

He started the day at seven under par and tied for the lead at the Masters with Chris DeMarco. By the sixth hole he was was four under and out of the lead with South African Ernie Els on top of the leader board. He rallied on the back nine and played falwlessly through one of the most difficult stretches of golf holes in the world capping it with a birdie on sixteen to tie Els for the lead. On eighteen he had eighteen feet of nasty Augusta National green to traverse for a birdie and the victory. The ball dropped in the cup as the crowd around the eigtheenth green exploded in cheers.…  ( Click for more )

In a few hours (it is 5:00 DST here in Georgetown) several ministers from the Stamping Ground, Kentucky area will be walking from the Christian Church in Stamping Ground to the Baptist Church in Stamping Ground. So what, right? Well, it is a big so what. Each of us will be taking a turn carrying a cross. I got to heft the cross yesterday in the workshop of one of our elders at Minorsville and it is heavy. T. Wright makes a cross to last and makes it solid.

The distance we will be carrying the cross is roughly an eighth of a mile. Nowhere close to the distance that Jesus had…  ( Click for more )

The ministry is not a profession. It is not a job. It is not a business. The ministry is either who a person is or it is nothing at all. The functions of ministry, the needs of ministry, the demands of ministry; all combine to say live the life or don't live the life. There is a choice.

Every now and then something happens that makes this all come to light. There may be an elderly lady in a nursing home. The minister asks someone to go with him to visit the lady. The response? "Well, Preacher, I don't really enjoy going to nursing homes." Guess what? It's not on the…  ( Click for more )

If you have ever watched Saturday morning cartoons I am sure that somewhere along the way you have seen the Road Runner. He was one of my favorites when I used to watch them years ago. Then I introduced my children to the Road Runner and they watched him also until such things as Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles and He-Man came along.

The crazy thing is, just about every Road Runner cartoon was the same. His nemesis was a persistent and creative critter named Wile E. Coyote. It seems that his plight in life, his sole object for living, is to catch the Road Runner. Usually the…  ( Click for more )

Holy Week. The week beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter. A time of triumph and victory. A time of reflection and reconsideration. A time of challenge. A time of awe. Eight days which rocked our world as none had ever before or have ever since. Holy Week. A time of shame?

Having been in the ministry for some thirty-four plus years now I have marvelled at the human intellect and its disfunctional nature at this time of the year. Only perhaps at Christmas will the human intellect operate at a level comparable to that of this week. For somewhere deep inside…  ( Click for more )