When you walk through a storm, it is encouraging to know that you are not by yourself. Others are with you, by your side, ready to accompany you on the journey for as long as it takes. We all need help sometimes, and it is during the darkest of these moments that we come to understand that total self-reliance is just a myth.I love the account of Moses standing atop a hill, watching his people figh...  Read More

That's the title of a famous 1864 painting by Edwin Landseer. It depicts an ill-fated exploration of the Northwest Passage, led by Sir John Franklin in the 1850s.The actual expression has roots in pre-Christian mythology, though, and may be linked to a verse in the Old Testament:"Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.” -- Proverbs 19:21The meaning is ob...  Read More

Sunday's are the strangest for me now. It has always been the first day and the central day of my week, certainly these last 47 years that I have been pastoring. Patterns, rhythms and rituals followed without much variation. Studying and preparing the message all week--then the climax emotionally as I have stood to deliver it on the LORD's Day. But since we now record the sermon at my house on Wed...  Read More

We are living in a virtual world these days. I spend a part of every week in Zoom committee and staff meetings, and catching up on FaceTime with friends in New York and Europe, and family in Texas. On Saturday I attended a Men's Breakfast online. On Sundays, Audrey and I go to Bible Fellowship together (something we never get to do!). Our teacher is in Arizona and class members are scattered from ...  Read More

Even though life for most of us is resembling the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, this Covid-19 pandemic is still teaching me some important lessons. Here are some of the things I'm learning, in no particular order--1. A shared crisis can bring out the worst in people (like price gouging, large parties and public worship services in defiance of government mandates) -- but also the very best, too....  Read More

On a night in the spring of 1971, soul-singer Bill Withers was in a music studio, recording a new song, Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CICIOJqEb5c). It would go on to be one of the greatest hit this singer would ever have, and a favorite of mine from then until now.The most memorable part of the song, of course, comes in the middle--the long repetition of just o...  Read More

Lots of time on my hands these days gives me plenty of time to think. Even late into the night various thoughts spew out onto the page of my journal, in no particular order--My annual A Year in the Life column will be much briefer in late December 2020. No traveling, and every day very similar to the last-- or the next--all clumping together. Picking a favorite movie will be tougher, though....Pre...  Read More

There are people who derive a lot of their self-worth from the work that they do. They are their profession. And so each day they drive or Metro in to the office and get it done, feeling, at the end of that day, that they have contributed something to make life better for their family and their community.Staying home for days on end, and not doing what they are called and paid to do, leaves them f...  Read More

I stopped by Barnes & Noble on Saturday to pick up a good book to read this coming week. My selection: Every Drop of Blood, an account of the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, by Edward Achorn. Not just the famous address-- the finest ever delivered by a US President-- but the entire event and what swirled around it, only a few weeks before the assassination. I'm just a few pages in by now b...  Read More

Pastor Don’s Journal3/10/2020"The Sound of Silence"It may well be true that God sometimes speaks with a "still small voice"--but that simply will not do for the preacher. I have to have a voice strong and loud enough to be heard. With so much confusion and noise in today's world, it seems that the louder and clearer the better.And that's been my problem this week. A cold led to laryngitis and over...  Read More

3/3/2020ramblin’...with Don DavidsonJust some of the thoughts coursing through my brain this morning—It’s Super Tuesday, and for many it is a chance for us to respond to the hype and hundreds of millions of dollars of campaign advertising (and that’s just from Michael Bloomberg!). To let our voices be heard. I love to vote!...A mother told me that her little girl asked her on Sunday: “Does Pastor ...  Read More

Mardi Gras, or “Fat Tuesday," has been going on since early January, but actually culminates today. This is the last day to indulge in fatty foods and excessive celebration before the austerity of Lent begins--tomorrow.I have been to New Orleans many, many times over the years (while serving on the board of trustees for our seminary there), but never during this raucous festival. My lifestyle is m...  Read More

The Washington Nationals are back together in West Palm Beach, FL for their spring training. I've been watching my favorite sportscaster, Lindsay Czarniak, on NBC-4 this week with her live reports from the field. The big question on everyone's mind, of course, is: "Can they do it again?”Manager Dave Martinez has issued a mantra for the team about that: "Not repeat—compete.” In other words, they ar...  Read More

He's as old as I am now, but thirty-five years ago Wayne was a teenager in my church in Orlando. On Sunday he was in the area and visited us at First Baptist. Afterwards we went to lunch at Zoe's. Time and distance melted away as we reminisced about those days at Dover Shores--eight great years for Audrey and me. And, apparently, for this man, too.It all set my mind to thinking....Sometimes Orland...  Read More

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference."- Robert Frost I was thinking last night about all of the big decisions I have made in my life, and how each one joined with the others to make me who I am today. Some major decisions were made without any agony of the soul. They were the right things to do at the time and, there have been n...  Read More

As a student of history, I have always known about the trench warfare of World War One, a hundred years ago. In Orlando in the 1980's I pastored (and eventually buried) a fine old gentleman who had served in that war. During frequent visits I would sit and be regaled by and amazed with the fascinating stories that Clive would tell me.But I could never quite picture what the trenches were like. Two...  Read More

Just jotting down scattered thoughts this morning. A little stream of consciousness.GREAT NEWS! At our quarterly business meeting Sunday night it was reported that we actually exceeded our 2019 church budget goal! Just barely--but a surge in giving this December put us over the top. That, and we are also likely to exceed our goal for the Lottie Moon offering for International missions ($200,000). ...  Read More

Much like life, you don't complete a puzzle by throwing away the pieces.-- Craig D. Lounsbrough Audrey loves to put jigsaw puzzles together-- the 500 to 1000 piece kind. When we're half-watching a television program at night, I may have my nose in a book but she will be hunkered over a tabletop, examining the edges of small colored pieces and comparing them to the box placed nearby, off to the sid...  Read More

What beastly incidents our memories insist on cherishing! The ugly and disgusting. The beautiful things we have to keep diaries to remember!                                                 -- Eugene O' Neill MONOLOGUEThe past decade has been a wonderful set of years for me, and my diaries have documented every day of it. Audrey and I spent these years in Alexandria, Virginia, and at First Baptist ...  Read More

"For the eye sees not itself, but by reflection, by some other things.” Wm. Shakespeare PROSEThis year was quieter than many recent ones, but still unusually blessed, it seems to me. I didn't do any international traveling, but Audrey had several overseas trips. We did vacation in Daytona Beach and Austin, TX (where John Mark and Daniela live now). Mostly I concentrated on my ministry here at Firs...  Read More

Christmas Eve is my favorite time at First Baptist, a holy night for sure. Gathering with hundreds of others to sing, light candles, recite again the story, and share the LORD's Supper. All in an hour. Families together, in one place-- something rare for some of them now that the children have grown up. But it still happens, if ever it happens, at Christmas.The church I grew up in was a wonderful ...  Read More

Christmas at First Baptist is such a rich experience! Especially because of the music.Every Sunday of Advent (and, really, all year) we have a feast of it--with all ages participating and bringing their preparation as a gift to God and to us. We are a multi-generational church, with choirs for all ages, and everyone has an opportunity to join in the celebration of Jesus' birth. "A First Family Chr...  Read More

"The peace of Christ be with you.” Response: "And also with you."We do not normally call it that, but it is what we are doing when Roger asks us to greet each other early in our church service on Sundays. I also use the several minutes before the service begins to roam the aisles and do the same thing.A lot of it is simply chit chat, of course. "Glad to see you this morning," "Hey, thanks for comi...  Read More

Type your new text here. Coming off of a long and pleasant Thanksgiving week, I'm just letting my thoughts scribble themselves onto the page today---300 adults and children attended our Thanksgiving celebration at FBCA last Tuesday night. The food was delicious and the program was excellent. Our speaker, Erin Mullen, really gripped our hearts with her story of faith and courage... Winston Churchil...  Read More