Category: Personal Projects

Personal projects I’m working on

  • Reflections on My Life and Military Service

    Open Bible 2 Chronicles 18I’ve been reading through the Bible this year using the “As It Happened” Bible Reading Plan in the YouVersion Bible app. Because I started it about a week after the start of the new year, I am a few days behind where I would be if I had started on New Year’s Day. Nevertheless, the reading for today (which happens to be July Fourth) is about the story of King Ahab and the prophet Micaiah, a variation on the name Michael, found in both 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18. I wrote the following note and have reposted it here.

    “There are two very important points for us to glean from these passages of Scripture. First, how remarkable it is that God would solicit input from His heavenly host and then permit a lying spirit from among them to deceive the already false prophets of Ahab. Second, how astounding it is that God used “a random” bowman to fulfill His Word that Ahab would die in battle.

    I used to teach a Bible study every Sunday morning for the young men in infantry training when I was at Ft. Benning, GA, and I used this story about Micaiah to illustrate the Army core value of “Integrity”. They always reacted with great interest and awe when we read this story. Of all the work I did as an Army Chaplain, teaching and preaching to these young men was the highlight of my career. I feel that this is where I had my greatest impact. Some of them went on to die in battle, but I pray they developed an eternal relationship with Jesus from attending the Bible studies and Chapel services I conducted there. One of the most rewarding experiences I had was at the end of their training when they would approach me as a group to express their gratitude for the spiritual support I had provided while they were in training. I get choked up every time I think of it.”

    That is as much space as the app would allow for me to post my thoughts, so I had to leave it there. However, I have just a little more I want to share about this here. I think it is very fitting for me to reflect upon my life’s work for the Lord up to this point in my life. I have served Him, sometimes more faithfully than others, throughout my life since I was a child. I turned 62 years old earlier this year and, like most people as they age, I’ve started thinking more about how far I’ve come and how much farther I have left to go. I’ve especially given thought to my personal and spiritual legacy.

    I walked the aisle to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior on a wood-shavings-covered floor underneath an open-air tabernacle constructed of solid wood and steel. It was sometime during the middle or end of July in 1973 at a camp meeting style revival for the Holmes County, Florida, Baptist Association. I received water baptism a few weeks later in the small-sized (less than 40) congregation of the Selma Friendship Baptist Church where I attended between the ages of six and eighteen. (It sold out to another denomination and ceased to exist many years ago.) The board of deacons for that little church voted to give me a license to preach, and the pastor presented it to me on Sunday, March 12, 1978. Inviting a “boy preacher” to preach to both youths and adults became somewhat of a curiosity over the next couple of years as I went wherever I could get an opportunity. I had also been the pianist at Selma Friendship, though I was never very accomplished at it, and I taught both children and youth Sunday School and R. A.s (Royal Ambassadors) classes whenever a substitute was needed. I even wrote and coordinated an original story Christmas play while there!

    I met my wife-to-be while we were attending junior college, and I decided to join the Army as a Chaplain Assistant in August 1981. We were married the Saturday after Thanksgiving that year. Since my wife was a Methodist and uninterested in becoming a Baptist, I decided to become a United Methodist pastor upon my discharge from the Army in 1984. I joined the Alabama Army National Guard and resumed my college education while serving as a student pastor. After finishing my undergraduate and seminary degrees, I chose to return to the Army as a Chaplain in 1996 and served until 2005, when I transitioned into the Army Reserve for six months and then ultimately returned to the Alabama Army National Guard, where I finally retired at the rank of Major with over 30 years of service. I also resumed pastoral service in 2006 and opted to retire early from the United Methodist Church in 2011. I then chose to withdraw from that denomination in 2013 and have been working in various positions since then, including as a hospice Chaplain and as a Chaplain in a homeless shelter for men. Just like that, I have summarized my entire life of ministry—about 50 years—in just a couple of paragraphs!

    Looking back over my life, I am reminded of the line that actor Anthony Hopkins delivered at his make-believe birthday party in the movie, “Meet Joe Black”, co-starring Brad Pitt as Joe Black. Joe Black was supposed to be a temporary incarnation of the Grim Reaper. Anthony’s character was reflecting on his life to that point, as I am doing now, knowing that he was about to walk over the hill and die at the behest of the Grim Reaper. As he mused about the short years of his life, he concluded by saying, “And don’t they go by in a blink?” While that is not a movie I can recommend to anyone, it nonetheless contains that one very poignant statement that is quite apropos to life. The Scriptures say it a bit differently: “. . . For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14 NKJV; compare also Psalm 39:4-5).

    I don’t know when my end is going to be in this world, but I am ready to begin the final leg of my journey toward Heaven. Depending upon whether Jesus continues to tarry another 50 years and if I live to be no older than a hundred, I have no more than 38 more years left to serve Christ faithfully. As the somewhat famous rhyme about Christian service states: “Only one life to live, ‘twill soon be passed. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” I intend to finish my race running harder than I began it. What about you?

  • My Return from Hiatus

    I can hardly believe it has been nearly five years since my last blog post, although I didn’t completely abandon my blog site during that time. In fact, I spent quite a bit of time setting up my blog store at the end of last year, only to have to redo everything–including my entire blog site–a few weeks ago when the latest upgrade for WordPress fouled up everything and forced me to start over. Although I had backed up everything, or so I thought, the backup did not save any of my themes or plugins, or my storefront and products, or any of the media I had accumulated. Furthermore, it failed to keep any of the media I had inserted into each of my blog posts, so if you find posts with missing images, now you will understand why. I will try to find them again and reinsert them, but it will take some time.

    I am amazed at how quickly time has passed. I did not intend to take such a lengthy hiatus from blogging, but life’s circumstances just dictated otherwise. I have contemplated numerous times about things I wanted to blog about, but making the time simply proved too challenging for me. All of my best thoughts came to me while driving to and from work everyday, and by the time I returned home, I had either forgotten the idea or had something seemingly more pressing to handle.

    My fulltime job as a call center agent taking nonstop calls Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. till lunchbreak, and then resuming after lunch until 5 p.m. just left me mentally numb. I barely had the time or energy in the evenings to eat my supper, clean out all the daily junk emails, reply to any pertinent emails I had gotten in the previous 24 hours, and watch some news and/or one or two TV shows before it was time for bed. Since I set my daily alarm for 4:45 a.m., I was usually in bed by 9 p.m., at the latest. Rising so early gave me time to do my daily Bible reading and personal hygiene before leaving at 6:20, so I could arrive at work around 7 o’clock and have some time to enjoy a cup of coffee while visiting with the other early arrivals. This also helped me to unwind from the morning traffic before I had to start taking calls at 8 o’clock.

    Saturdays were spent doing yard work during the milder months and watching college football and old westerns and other classics on TV during the colder months. Sundays were spent attending worship in the mornings and resting while watching Christian TV programming throughout the afternoons and more old westerns and classics in the evenings until bedtime. It doesn’t sound very time-consuming, but all those years certainly went somewhere, didn’t they?

    Anyway, I’ve found a much better job as a homeless center chaplain now that is more in line with my spiritual calling, and it is not nearly as mentally or physically tiring, so I’ve decided to resume my blogging activities. Although I may not write as often as a weekly or even a bi-weekly regimen, I will write as I have an inspirational idea or something I feel I need to respond to from the news, which means it may be two or three times in one week and then not again for a few weeks. You should subscribe to my notification list if you want to know whenever a new blog article is posted.

    You might also consider connecting with me on social media, where I try to maintain a regular presence and where I plan to share a link to my latest blog posts. I’m presently on LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, though I am contemplating dropping Instagram. I dropped Facebook years ago for a number of reasons, but their interference with their members’ free speech has effectively kept me from rejoining. Although Instagram is owned and managed by the same people as Facebook, they haven’t interfered with posters’ free speech rights on Instagram–yet. Twitter also has a bad reputation for interfering with free speech, but this seems to have lessened somewhat recently. If they ever ban me for expressing my free speech rights, I likely won’t reactivate my membership.

    Well, I guess this is enough of an update and reintroduction for now. I hope to be writing my next blog post very soon.

  • Be Your Own Publisher

    Are you tired of trying to get the attention of a publisher or literary agent? Have you ever wanted to be in control of both the writing and publishing processes? Well, in this wonderfully wild digital age, you can do just that! Want to know how? Well, let me tell you!

    I’m nearing completion of my latest writing project, and it’s a “how to” book about the ins and outs and the dos and don’ts of independent publishing in both print and eBook formats. I’m really excited at the possibilities of this project, and I’m strongly considering turning it into a full-length course for writers as well. What do you think of that idea? I welcome your comments. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks about this fantabulous plan! It’s gonna be grand!

     

  • New Book Release: Lifelines by Michael L. White

    Cover of Book Titled LifelinesTo all my loyal readers, family, and friends, I’ve just released my latest book, Lifelines (a collection of my poetry), which I announced some months ago would be forthcoming! You can order it from any number of retailers from my author’s Website at http://books.parsonplace.com/, although because it’s “hot off the press” at the time of this writing (23 February 2013), it is not yet in stock by most of them. If you don’t want to wait, however, you can definitely order it from the publisher’s Web store right away. As an added bonus, enter promo code “SH25” to save 25% on the cost of your shipping/handling for each order you place through the Parson Place Press Bookstore until 15 March 2013. So, what are you waitin’ for?

    In any case, please help me spread the word. I look forward to being in contact with you again soon!

     

  • My 2012 Year-End Update

    I managed to do a little better with blogging more frequently in 2012 than I did in 2011, but I still have plenty of room for improvement. I’ll keep working at it in 2013. My goal is to work my way up to weekly blog entries by the end of 2013. We’ll see this time next year, Lord willin’, if I have reached my goal by then.

    In retrospect, this year was filled with both the joy of writing and publishing and with the disappointment of not being able to make a go of the new independent ministry that I felt toward the end of 2011 that God was leading me to set up. Although I managed to set up the name, bank account, and other legal and organizational aspects for the ministry, when I finally began conducting worship services, things just didn’t progress as well as I’d hoped and envisioned, so I discontinued the services. Without going into all the details (which are just too personally discouraging for me to share), I feel that God was not ready for me to begin just yet. As discouraging and disappointing as that fact is now, I am determined henceforth to wait patiently for God to instruct me further before I act on this dream again. I intend to begin an extended fast soon after the beginning of 2013 strictly for the purpose of drawing nearer to God, whether He reveals anything spectacular to me or not. I intend to make this about Him rather than about me. I will let you know what I learn from this experience after it is completed.

    As for my writing and publishing endeavors, I was able to finish writing and publish my third book, entitled Seven Keys to Effective Prayer, in March of this year. What a thrill it was to finally finish and release it for the reading public! I’m currently planning to test it with a new print on demand printing service and a whole new distribution service. I’m very pleased with the POD service, and if the distribution service works out well, I will start using this service for all of my other published titles, too.

    I also managed to publish two other titles in 2012 (one fiction and one nonfiction) by two different authors who are new to Parson Place Press (my independent Christian publishing company). I am already working on my next book, which will deal with the subject of God’s Plan of Salvation for humanity, though I still have plenty of work to do on it before it is finished. Because I’ve agreed to publish at least five other books by other authors (four of which are also new authors to Parson Place Press), plus I want to publish a small collection of my own poetry this year, I will have lots of work to do, so I hope I can make the time to finish writing my book about God’s Plan of Salvation, not to mention that I hope I have enough financial resources to keep my promises, too. Please say a prayer for me to accomplish all that God has planned for me in 2013, and specifically ask Him to help me keep my word.

    I have plans for one other important project in 2013 — to create a course about how to be your own publisher, but I want to keep the details about that one under wraps for now until I’m ready to unveil it. I hope it will be a grand success. Be sure to follow me on this blog and on my author site for details as I make them public. Incidentally, I’ve just (in the last week) moved my blog from being hosted on WordPress’ site to being hosted on my own site. If you’re interested, you can also connect with me on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/parsonplacepress) or follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/@parsonp) or “friend” me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/parsonplace).

    Well, that’s all I have for my review of 2012 and my preview of 2013. So, until next time, I want to wish you a very blessed and prosperous New Year in 2013. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

     

  • Writing Projects

    I’m presently working on three separate writing projects which I hope to have completed soon and ready for publication sometime in 2013. They are as follows:

    1. I’ve just finished retyping a collection of my poetry which I’ve been wanting to compile and publish for years. I still have some manuscript formatting to do and I have to get my designer to create an attractive cover for me, but I expect to be able to publish it very soon. In fact, I’m even toying with the idea of rushing it to press in order to give it as gifts to my closest family and friends for Christmas 2012. However, I’m not quite sure I can pull that off at this point. You can check back here and at my personal Web site at http://books.parsonplace.com for current updates.
    2. I’m working on a crash course for authors who want to be their own publisher. It will contain information and instructions on everything an author will need to do in order to be his or her own publisher. I’m keeping the details under wraps for now, at least, until I’m ready to unveil and offer it to the public. Again, check back here and on my personal Web site for current updates.
    3. I’m approximately one-third finished with writing on my next book, which will address the topic of salvation, what it is, how to obtain it, and how to be certain you have truly obtained it. I’m really excited about this one, as I feel that God gave me the idea and the chapter topics for writing this book. I can’t say when I will finish this one, but I expect it to be sometime in 2013.

    If you’re interested in obtaining either one of these materials, be sure to check back for current updates. I welcome you to leave a comment below as well.

  • My 2011 Year-End Update

    A lot of things have happened to me in 2011. When I started this blog, I intended to write periodically throughout the year, but, as you can see, that didn’t quite work out as planned. Here I am at the end of the year now writing this update to explain that I got distracted with trying to keep up with all the other tasks I’d committed to, and I promptly forgot about blogging.

    Well, today — New Year’s Eve — is a great day to make a resolution for a fresh start in 2012. Since I’ve put in for retirement from the United Methodist Church, effective 31 December 2011 (that’s today!), and since I’ll be retiring from the Alabama Army National Guard at the end of February 2012, this leaves me with plenty of time to work on establishing a new pastoral ministry which I believe God has directed me to do, and maybe — just maybe — I’ll have a little more time and opportunity to blog a bit more often. We shall see.

    At any rate, I’m truly excited to embark on this new direction in my ministry, and I truly look forward to sharing all about it with you as I write here in my blog. Stay tuned for more to come! Until then, let me be among the first to wish you a most blessed and prosperous New Year in 2012.

  • Exciting News!

    Do you read the Christian Computing Magazine? If not, now is a great time to start! I have just become a new feature columnist for them, and my first article has been published in the May 2011 issue. The topic will be Digital Evangelism. It’s free to subscribe, and you can participate in a just-launched (May 26, 2011) online community. It’s simply fantabulous! Just point your browser to www.ccmag.com to sign up and learn more. Happy computing!