I have been writing columns like this for more than 40 years and appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.
I reflect back on my first experience as a roving reporter for the New Albany Tribune of New Albany, Indiana. I was a kid, but I learned much about life and the “hard knocks.” I learned that I didn’t want to be a lawyer and that you can’t trust all that you hoped you could.
In college I became editor and sports editor of my college paper. I got to experience the behind-the-scenes of major Division I sports. There I learned about the real world of college sports.
After college I became a teacher and school administrator. Wow, did I learn about the politics in education, especially when your first few years of teaching was working under the old township trustee system. You could be fired by the trustee for not playing his son in an afternoon ballgame.
In university work, you could not acquire tenure unless you edited a book or buttered up the dean. After trying to survive in this world, I answered my call to ministry.
Again I continued to pursue my writing call. Oh, this will be different, I prayed. I did some column writing while serving as a pastor in Terre Haute, and I did my own radio program in Jeffersonville, “Reflections from the Pastor’s Pen.” It was fun but did not seem to be potent enough to reach those who do not know Jesus.
Now for the past 30-plus years, I have written columns that have appeared in newspapers in Jeffersonville, Scottsburg, Pekin, Salem, Corydon, Mitchell, Orleans and Greenfield, to name some of them.
The scripture makes it clear that the message of Jesus is for every person within earshot of the word of God. And if we are sincerely a seeker of God’s saving grace, then nothing — nothing — can separate us from the love of God.
A special “thank you” to my readers who keep me writing in my search that what I write will reach out and grab someone who is looking for the answer for their salvation, for saving them in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
The Rev. Robert Miller is a retired United Methodist pastor and director of Agape Family Ministries. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
