Ken Pierpont's Blog, page 112

A Unique Way to Impress Beautiful Women

A classic re-post from 2004

I noticed one day… I suppose my children pointed it out to me a special quality that gummy bears have. If you lick them and throw them they will stick to almost anything. If you lick them and throw them you can stick them to the ceiling. You can throw them at a car and they will stick to the car. We discovered this one day out in traffic. I was sitting at the traffic light and I noticed an attractive woman pulled up behind me. I had a little difficulty keeping from noticing her. She was very attractive and I had the distinct feeling that she noticed me. In fact I’m sure she was looking steadily at me.

Immediately a thought came to my mind. I thought, “It would sure me fun to jump out of the car and do something memorable.” That is when I remembered the special qualities of a gummy bear. I just happened to have a generous supply of them. I grabbed a handful of gummy bears and jumped out of the car. I ran back to the car behind me and quickly fired four or five gummies into her windshield. To my shock I saw something in my peripheral vision. My sons had also jumped from the care armed with their own gummies and they fired away at the pretty woman’s car too.

We jumped back into the car and sped away leaving the pretty woman stunned and motionless behind the wheel. The boys thought it was great fun but later at home when I ran into their mother she let me know immediately that she was not amused. She said most of all when we all jumped out of the car and threw gummy bears at her car she was just embarrassed for us.

It’s not as easy as it used to be to impress a beautiful woman and gain her admiration. When you try sometimes they are just amused and not impressed. Sometimes they are filled with pity not the respect you hoped to gain. Sometimes instead of admiration they’re just embarrassed for you.

I was speaking recently at a home school conference. I told the gummy bear story and I got a big laugh from all the people. After my talk I forgot all about it. But my audience remembered. Three of the young people in particular. They happened to know where I live and where I keep my car. This became very obvious the next day. My cell phone rang. It was my son, Chuck.

“Dad, have you seen your Volvo today?”

“No, what’s wrong.”

“You have to come and see it yourself. Someone has plastered it with at least 300 gummy bears.”

I laughed and mourned my foolishness. It was as if I gave a group of pyromaniacs instructions about how to make bombs. It reminded me of the rouges in Australia who strapped a stick of dynamite to a kangaroo just to see what would happen. They lit the fuse and stood back in a special depth of ignorance induced by drunkenness to enjoy the show. The funny part is they ended up having to walk all the way back to town because the frightened animal sought refuge under their truck.

I was reminded again that I have to be careful about what I say because words have a way of coming back to trouble me. The Bible says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they that love it shall eat thereof.” Sometimes my words are life-giving but it is possible for them to get me into a real mess. A real mess.

Ken Pierpont

Riverfront Character Inn

Flint, Michigan

October 25, 2004

What Do You Love?

Drinking some stout, flavorful full-kick pour-over to jump start some writing this afternoon. I surfed over to Kyle’s site to read a post he had written about coffee. I noticed this on our first-born son Kyle’s bio…. thought it made heart-warming reading… It’s a growing list of things he loves:

Jesus, coffee, my wife, my three sons K2, Ollie and Leland, photography, backpacking, canoeing, fixed-gear bikes, fly-fishing, snowboarding, body surfing, skim-boarding, beach-combing, cliff-jumping, reading, assurance of salvation, push ups, crunches, trail running, wrestling with my sons, hibernation days with my family, kayak surfing in the Atlantic, my Creator, cuddling on the couch with my wife, ohio state football, graph paper, the gospel, micro uni-ball pens, sunday night football, my macbook, playing my Parkwood guitar, Jesus’ stories, ping-pong, tennis with my wife, driving through the night, storytelling, days off, catching pan-fish with my sons off the dock of my in-laws cottage in northern Michigan, the corner store, coffee via the pour-over method, american pickers, roasting coffee, a sweatshirt on a cool autumn day, an occasional herbal tea, Lake Michigan, just a little sun burn, campfires, listening to my sons laugh, dates with my girlfriend, roller-coasters, northwest Michigan, flannel shirts, autumn, the feeling of a fish on, the common loon, eagles, trails in the woods, fruit and vegetable juice, a fresh jonathan apple from the tree, Christmas music on the day after Thanksgiving, the speckled back of a trout, the call of a wild turkey, rainy days, saturday mornings, hunting for the perfect Christmas tree, occasional big breakfasts, autumn… (and the list continues to grow)

Trapped

A classic re-post from 2008

This morning we were driving through Toledo during the morning rush hour. Suddenly the traffic on the interstate came to a complete stop. We expected construction or an accident but the problem was that somehow a dog had wandered across five lanes of traffic and a busy merging lane. He was trapped against a dividing wall and unable to cross back. He shifted his weight from foot to foot afraid of the traffic. Some drivers would try to let him cross, but others merging from another highway would not see him in time to stop and he couldn’t get across. There was nothing we could do for him without risking our own lives so we had to go on. He was trapped. I could not imagine a way for the poor dog to get to safety.

I often think about my parish – our family mission field – the Downriver Communities where we live. We have devoted our lives to proclaiming Christ to the people who live there. There are thousands and thousands of families that live and work within driving distance of our church. Most of them are spiritually trapped and they don’t have a chance to make it to safety without a miracle. Our church and our ministry are attempts to help them across the busy freeway to safety and life.

You can’t always tell people’s spiritual needs by looking at them. But there are times when you can see the desperation in their faces. They are trying to live and laugh and love, but it is a daily struggle. They will never make it to spiritual safety unless Jesus guides them there.

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

Ken Pierpont

On vacation in Campton, Kentucky

July 1, 2008

A Word for the Wounded (Psalm 129)

Series: The Pilgrim Psalms

Title: A Word for the Wounded

Text: Psalm 129

Date: 06-17-2015 7:00 PM

Place: Evangel Baptist Church-Taylor, Michigan

Speaker: Pastor Ken Pierpont

Stonebridge Newsletter-Farewell Edition

Stonebridge Newsletter-Final Edition

(Number 600)

Kenneth L. Pierpont

——————————-

Hello Stonebridge Faithful;

I have written my way to a significant milestone today. This is Stonebridge Newsletter Number 600.

When I exercise I walk. I wish I had discovered the virtues of a good walk years ago. I used to run. Just a few years ago I thought of running a marathon. I followed a marathon training program. I had some running paraphilia and dozens of books about distance running. A marathon training program always involves a long Saturday run. Every other week the long training run gets longer. It one point a few years ago I was up to 20 miles on my long run. At that point I could have finished a marathon if I had signed up for one, but I didn’t. My training program sputtered and died. I tried a few more times after moving here to the Downriver. I was running my long run out in the Lower Huron Metro Park one day. I think it may have been an eleven-mile run. It wasn’t going well. There was no joy in it. It was just a grinding drudgery.

Distance running is a solitary thing. You have a lot of time with your thoughts. That day out along the Lower Huron I just got tired of running. I stopped and walked back to the car. I took of my running shoes and never participate in distance running again. I have no intention of ever doing it again. I just tired of it. I packed up all my running books and gave them to a friend. I retired my Garmin. I pushed my running shoes to the back of the basement closet.

Since then I have changed gears and I have discovered the virtues of walking. Not power-walking, not fitness-walking, just human walking. Walking and thinking. Walking the smelling. Walking and listening. Walking with others some. Occasional walking meetings. Often walking with Hazard the Wonder-Yorkie. I try hard not to measure the distance or pay too much attention to the time. I spent too many years measuring every step when I ran. Sometimes when I walk, I stop and sit on a bench or talk with someone. It’s not a fitness regimen, it is a human act.

There just comes a time to stop something. I have reached that time with the Stonebridge Newsletter. Stonebridge Newsletter Number 600 is my final Stonebridge Newsletter. I’ve enjoyed it. It has been an important part of my life. It has been my way of keeping steady with the writing. I need to do something fresh. I will continue writing and post at least once a week on kenpierpont.com. I will continue the Ken Pierpont Storytelling Podcast. I have a few other ideas. One the sight I will post writings, audio, and occasional video. I will stay in touch and I hope you will keep in touch, too. I would love to know about as many of you as I can.

I’m working now on a book called The Village Parson. I hope to have it ready this year. If you haven’t read them you should grab Sunset on Summer, For a Few Days, and Sacred Stories and Strong Families. All the Stonebridge Stories dating back to the year 2000 are archived free at kenpierpont.com.

You can “friend” me on Facebook.You can follow me on Instagram. You can subscribe to my “Tweets.” You can track Lois at loispierpont.com and follow the kids on their Facebook pages. We are not going away.

If you visit kenpierpont.com you will still have the opting of subscribing to my posts. Whenever I post it will send you an email with the post or with a link to the post.

Thank you for fifteen years of Monday mornings. Thanks for letting me be a part of your morning coffee and your family circle. Thank you for reading about the family and about our ministry. Thank you for taking an interest in my stories and in our lives.

Until we meet again I will be out there with my ear to the ground listening and watching my world and the people in it for stories that move the heart and nudge people Godward. That’s what it was all about.

Ken Pierpont

Granville Cottage

Riverview, Michigan

June 22, 2015

Dangerous Worship Music; Story Podcast #27

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Summer 2015 Reading List

It is my ambition to read these books this summer. I am also working hard on writing a book this summer, pastoring the church, and speaking at Camp Barakel, Lincoln Lake, The Springs, and Spring Hill camps and a couple other places. We will see how far my ambition can carry me in the next three months. If you purchase any of these books by following the link I should get a wee bit of book money through the Amazon Associates program. (I don’t promise not to read other books, but I’m going public with my ambition to read these to counter the temptation to binge-watch T.V. shows on Netflix).

I will probably read all but the Keller book on preaching and The Confessions in hard-copies. I have Keller for Kindle and The Confessions, but my compelling copy of The Confessions is the Philip Burton translation. It is a beautifully-bound and type-set book-the Everyman’s Library Edition so it’s tempting to read it, but I trust Piper’s recommendation.

Preaching-Tim Keller

A Light in the Window-Jan Karon

I’m re-reading the whole series start to finish in anticipation of reading Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good for the first time. I should finish in time to read Come Rain or Come Shine when it comes out in late September.

Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good-Jan Karon

Come Rain or Come Shine-Jan Karon

Letters from Larksong-David Kline

Surprised by Joy-C.S. Lewis

Finally Alive-John Piper

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The Confessions-Augustine

(Pine-Coffin Translation-Recommended by John Piper. Listen to his biographical message on Augustine here.

Flowing Streams-Stuart Briscoe

Sacred Repetition; Fly-Fishing on the Muskegon

About eighteen winters ago our first-born son began to read about trout fishing with flies. After a winter of reading and fly-tying and investigation and investment in the vestments of fly-fishing, and after listing to the lore of fishermen, the day finally came when he waded into the stream near where we lived. We lived in Fremont, Michigan. He first fished the Muskegon River. He caught a fingerling trout that night. I was there to see it.

Last night he took his first-born to the same place in the river. To be where trout live with someone you love, quiet on a summer evening save the burble of the stream and the whisper of the wind in the leaves of the trees lining the banks of the river is a rare and wonderful memory, likely to be cherished more and more with the passing of the years.

It pleases me to see with the passing of the years that my son loved the things we did together so much he wants to repeat them with our grandson.

Coram Deo-Living in the Presence of God (Sermon)

Series: Knowing God by Heart

Title: Coram Deo – Living in the Presence of God

Date: 06/14/2015 11:00 AM

Speaker: Ken Pierpont

Text: Psalm 139:7-10

Place: Evangel Baptist Church-Taylor, Michigan

Holly Tells a Story; Story Podcast #26

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