Years ago, I was displaying a friend’s rare Bible collection at a pastor’s conference. He put me up in a nice hotel. The next morning upon exiting my room, I walked to the bank of elevators and pushed the down button. The doors opened, I stepped inside, pushed the “L” button, then stood facing the doors, staring ahead as the elevator made its descent. The elevator slowed, stopped, a chime sounded, but the doors did not open. I had the sense that I was being watched. Turning around, I discovered it was the rear doors that had opened, and other guests, smirks on their faces, were waiting for me to exit.
As far as I could tell, everyone had good time at the Centennial Ball Saturday. I want to give a shoutout to some people that made the event happen. I was just one person on the committee, and I started going to committee meetings regularly just a few months ago. The Centennial Ball was made possible by Frankie and Barbara Gibbs, Mike and Nancy Sandler, Andy Epstein and Craig Born. Also, shoutout to the volunteers from Risen Savior Lutheran Church that helped clean up after the event, and to St. Michael’s for making a commemorative beer named “1925” for this special year in Navarre.
We were privileged to contribute to the Navarre Centennial celebration Saturday night. Our very own Jonathan Crider, Ph.D., served as guest speaker and offered a wonderful perspective on the past century of the place we proudly call home. Jon knows this history better than anyone on our team, having researched and written the historical stories for Navarre Press years ago, back when he was part of our staff. We used to tease him that writing for the paper was his first glimpse into life as Sandi Kemp’s future son-in-law. He passed every test with flying colors and was warmly welcomed into both our family and the Kemp family.
We have had some beautiful sunsets of late on the Florida panhandle courtesy of drifting smoke from some Canadian wildfires. On behalf of my fellow Canadians, “You are welcome!”
I have been going through old issues of newspapers this past week and I wish I had more time. I should go through a volume of old newspapers a week, and I also should clean my house for one hour a week, but I don’t do either. What do I find the time to do? A lot! I have a huge number of priorities and interests. Someone told me this week they were worried about me and wondered how I find time to do everything.
That’s the question I’ve had to ask myself. My answer is a resounding “no,” but ultimately, what matters most is how others perceive me. If the general perception is that I sometimes come across that way, then I must acknowledge that. Public perception carries weight, more than I’d like to admit, even to myself.
I see a lot of excitement from coaches and fans in Florida in the wake of Georgia changing the rules for transferring at the high school level.
The state athletic association there is inserting a bylaw stating any athlete who transfers multiple times within the state after his or her ninth grade year is ineligible to compete for one year.
The wider culture has designated this Sunday “Father’s Day,” but if you attend the worship service at COMPASS Church, you will hear me refer to it only as the Lord’s Day, just as I do on the Sunday designated “Mother’s Day.” Our culture is eagerly jettisoning any reference to God, so I have taken this small stand to preserve Sundays as the Lord’s Day, at least among believers. Nonetheless, we do honor our fathers and mothers on those Lord’s Days because it is biblical to do so, not just one day a year, but every day.
You may have read the following before or in the paper, but it needs to be repeated because there are still tickets available to the party of the century, the Navarre Centennial Ball. If you miss it, there won’t be another one for one hundred years. The Centennial Committee is selling the tickets on the sales platform, Eventbrite, and Eventbrite let us know this morning that 61% of ticket sales are usually done in the last two weeks before an event. That might work for a fishing rodeo, but not an event with a plated dinner. We have about 56 tickets left to sell, but truth be told, we could add a few more if needed. I’ve heard from a few people that they don’t want to dress up. I didn’t pick the dress code, but there are people that like to dress up and there are those that do not. Feel free to wear whatever you would feel comfortable in going to a wedding or church. You don’t have to own a ballgown, but if you want to wear a tux or ballgown, you will not be in the minority. I do know a few men who have told me they are going to wear a tux with flip flops.
