One of the themes I have seen a lot being promoted in the mental health community in the last 5 years, and rightly so, is the theme of self-care. Taking time and caring for ourselves is important for our mental health. Unfortunately, we often wait until it is too late to practice self-care. This is what happened to me about a year and a half ago. However, self-care is not a new idea. It is an ancient idea prescribed by God himself to his people more than 3000 years ago. A couple of years ago, I had an invitation from my wife. This invitation was not for a date, but to start a new practice toge ..read more

I don’t think my final blog will be anything revolutionary; I think it’s probably something that’s been said many times before. I find it difficult to come up with something meaningful on the spot, however when I’m relaxed and at peace maybe that’s when God gives us some of the most interesting and challenging conversations. I think about the past four years here at SVBC, and I will look back fondly on the memories, the laughter, the conversations with coffee, prayers, even the meetings here. I will miss many aspects of our time together. However, I know that God is still here serving SVBC as ..read more

One great challenge in life today is to find truth.  We live in an era that some call “post-truth.”  Others talk about “my truth” and “your truth.”  It seems we have taken the concept of truth and attempted to reform it according to our own understanding and preferences.    Perhaps we can find our way if we look at the definition of truth.  One says, “Conformity to knowledge, fact or logic.”  Another defines truth as “Reality.”  Yet even these definitions might not help today.  We no longer agree on many facts.  We violate the rules of logic to ..read more

There are differing seasons in our lives. These seasons don’t have a determined length, unlike nature’s seasons. We don’t like that. Instead, we like knowing how long we will have to deal with the weather we encounter. We like that we know the snow of winter will eventually give way to spring, and spring will eventually give way to the heat of summer. Just when we are getting tired of the heat, we lose it to the beauty of fall and finally winter once again. There is great comfort in knowing what is to come; we can prepare ourselves. We bring out different clothing to suit each day, we change t ..read more

"Loneliness can damage health -but there's an incredibly easy fix."  I read this in an article on Harvard's website. The article talks about a ground-breaking study done on loneliness. Their study revealed that there are very harmful effects of loneliness, both physical and mental. The Harvard article also talked about their conclusion for treatment: Talking to people. It sounds funny out of context, however loneliness is quite serious. Our current culture doesn't lend much help either. We can guess all the changing cultural aspects that contribute to this. Of course the past two years di ..read more

Recently, I have been wrestling with my position in life. I’m sure you have felt the same at one point in time or another. You are happy with where you are, but not entirely. You feel like there is something more for you, that perhaps even God is speaking to you in some way, and letting you know that He has something more for you. Maybe you have direction on it, maybe you don’t. Yet in your heart, you feel apprehension.  Your first reaction is to recoil at the thought of big change. More schooling, new career, moving away, serving in a ministry; these are all examples of big life changes ..read more

Is Joy possible in any circumstance? It depends on what we mean by joy. To think more about this, consider Philippians 4:4–13. Paul was in prison when he wrote this. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, wha ..read more

SVBC Vision Story  In Fall 2021 the SVBC Leadership began to ask questions about our church.  Where are we at as a church?  Who is still with us?  Who has left us?  Who has joined us? Part of this reflection included reflection on a new vision.  After several months struggling with this the Lord gave us Habakkuk 2:3: “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end – it will not lie.  If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”   We believe it came to us this past May 2022.  When presented, all leade ..read more

I don’t know about you, but lately I feel like my computer is running slowly. It used to take 2 seconds to bring up the internet, and now seems to take 20 seconds. Then other programs that normally take 20 seconds are taking 2 minutes. Downloads process at a grinding pace and trying to do any complicated things requires real tranquility and prayer not to snap! Altogether, the more and more this happens, the less and less time I enjoy spending on my computer. In fact, I’m now often finding myself using my work computer, or my wife’s computer for doing simple things. My computer has become bothe ..read more

I don’t know about you, but lately I feel like my computer is running slowly. It used to take 2 seconds to bring up the internet, and now seems to take 20 seconds. Then other programs that normally take 20 seconds are taking 2 minutes. Downloads process at a grinding pace and trying to do any complicated things requires real tranquility and prayer not to snap! Altogether, the more and more this happens, the less and less time I enjoy spending on my computer. In fact, I’m now often finding myself using my work computer, or my wife’s computer for doing simple things. My computer has become bothe ..read more