Nostalgia Moments

This past week, our last teenager hit his 20th birthday. Now, we have no more teenagers at home. This lends itself to pondering the way the world has changed even in the 20 years since the last baby was born.

First thought, as I sit here with Spotify running through an Amazon Echo: our kids grew up with CD players in their rooms. We made mix CDs of soothing music for them, burned them on our laptops. There was instrumental music, playtime music, etc.. 

Now? They've got phones and bluetooth speakers and their Spotify accounts. Our middle child, 23, actually still has physical CDs but I'm not sure the other two do. 

Second, physical media of movies. We were still buying VHS tapes when our youngest was born. The kids watched TAPES. Tapes of singing vegetables and tapes of a rabbit doing opera. Tapes that taught wrong nature facts, because coyotes are faster than road runners....

Now? Stream it! Although we still have a stockpile of DVDs and Blu-ray, and even a few VHS tapes. I know, the physical media degrades. But it also cannot be altered remotely. And when I was a kid? Fast-forward, rewind, all those tricks with tapes. Generally, though, you want Bugs Bunny? 9 AM Saturdays.

Life changes. Technology evolves and develops. The rhythms of life adjust. After all, when I was a young adult, you could meet people at the gate for incoming flights. (Little Rock National Airport still needs to catch up with 2001 and build out an arrival area, it's been a quarter of a century.)

Some general thoughts on the nostalgia moments:

1. Remember the good parts and forget the bad ones as best you can; but just don't deny that it wasn't perfect. Again, nothing wrong with holding more tightly to the good than the bad, but there are challenges with everything. Sure, we walked to school and thought nothing about school shootings and such, but was it really safter? Stats show a mixed picture of the good ol' days. Plus hidden faults were just that, hidden.

2. Don't miss the good in the now just because you remember good from then. You're right: it was awesome to be on the field/on the stage/in the band. Now you're not. Is there anything good about your life and how you can enjoy it now?

Likewise as college move-in hits: sure, those were crazy days. But can enjoy the adulthood? (Except that sleep apnea garbage. Take it away!)

3. Listen to the joys of the people in your life in what they find good. And listen to others about what they found good. Realize that many of these judgments are subjective, not fixed. You can have a different opinion and still get along (unless you believe baseball is better with the universal DH, then you're just wrong). Let people enjoy their things, you enjoy your things, and build relationships together.

To-Do Lists

 A to-do list is a great thing. 

However, it's predicated on the assumption that you will get everything written down.

And that you will check back on it.

See, it's not that simple for most folks. There are learning curves and habits to be made.

That's why you try and try and try again until you find tools for self-discipline and self-direction that work for you.

Consistency

Consistency is one of the keys to turning where you are right now into where you want to go. 

If you're happy with the probable results of your habits, stay consistent with them and you'll get those likely outcomes. 

If you aren't happy with the probable results of your habits, make a change and be consistent with it.

Either way, bouncing back and forth will keep you from getting anywhere. 

The road of life is covered with flattened squirrels that wouldn't stick with a direction.

Health Reflections 4: Exercise

We need to be clear up front here: I'm no fitness expert. I'm very much in line with the old joke about being into fitness: "Fit'n diss pizza in my mouth." You want professional advice, go to a local gym. Or at the very least, sign up for The Pump Club with Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're getting my opinions here. They're worth every penny you pay for them---eventually I'll move to Substack and I'll have to make it worth paying for.

As I'm working on my own health, there are certain realities in adding exercise.

First, I have more excuses than exercise enthusiasm. I'd rather just not. I can come up with a variety of reasons why I can't exercise. After all, there's some truth to the challenges of having a bum knee and asthma. However, these realities do not undo the necessity of some form of exercise.

Second, an important truth: imperfect is better than perfect; done is better than undone. There are some levels of "wrong" to avoid: you can lift, do a sit-up, even stretch wrong and hurt yourself. But, you can also start toward exercise by doing intentional repetition of movement you already do. That way, you are not putting your body under strange strains for exercise.

For example, walking is a great exercise. If you are walking, even a bit slowly, even with a bit of support, then you've already got the motion down for one of the best, most durable exercises you can get. You may not move fast. You may not move much.

You may even do what the old joke was: put a concrete block in the middle of the floor and walk around it twice, claiming you "walked around the block." But that motion and that movement helps.

More than you might realize. The goal is to get into motion.

So start there: what are you doing that you can do at regular intervals through the day? Can you make the time to get up and walk, even 200 steps? Go to the bathroom that's farther from your office? It may add 5 minutes to each trip, but if you are being productive when you are at your desk, that might be feasible.

And it's better if you are doing a half-sit-up than doing no sit-up. Do it right, do it slow, do it halfway. Or do a push-up from your knees. Push off from the wall.

Lift 5-pound dumbbells if you've got them. instead of 10s. Do something.

Third, do it repeatedly. Make it part of your habit. If your lungs won't let you do long cardio, do short cardio. If your knees won't let you take the stairs, take the ramp twice.

We often make picture-perfect, instagram exercise the goal when our bodies just need us to get the blood circulating.

Take the small win and build on it.

Sermon Recap for August 9 2026

 Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is https://www.audible.com/podcast/Doug-Hibbard-Sermons-and-Thoughts/B08JJND2RP  https://bit.ly/3WnLNR2

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons

August 9, 2026, saw us get into the last chapter of Hebrews. We'll be there this Sunday, take a break as CJ Womack from the UAM BCM will bring the word and share a bit about the ongoing work of collegiate ministry, then finish off Hebrews at the end of August.

So, on to yesterday: Hebrews 13:1-7

Break Time: Coffee Roasting

We're going to divert a touch from the general reflections on watching your health and give you an example of a hobby. If you read Ann's blog today, you'll see that she highlights the value of building a tool box as you start up a new hobby and building it by chatting with folks who are involved in it.

Well, today I need to engage in my hobby, as it is something I do both for fun and it provides a benefit: I roast my own coffee. Do I do this because it's cheaper than buying already-roasted coffee? No. Eventually, the equipment purchases might break-even and then buying unroasted (green) coffee will save money.

For now, we're not going to pretend that this is cheaper. I do it because I like it.

So, how did I start? First, I started with one of these: 

First Coffee Roaster

Mine has a different brand name on it, and you cannot buy one from the same link on Amazon that my order history shows, but a very similar device is here. This took about an hour a batch, and ultimately led me to realize that I wanted more control. Still, you can follow easy directions here and it takes a *lot* to burn the coffee if you use a stirring roaster like this. Set it, let it run for an hour. It's not easy to remove the beans from the roaster, though. One of these, though, can also be used to roast peanuts, cashews, cacao beans...so we still have ours.

After roasting in one of these for a couple of years, I wanted something a bit more focused. The friend who first showed me home-roasting uses one of these, FreshRoast.  Specifically, mine's a FreshRoast SR800 with an expansion tube. I bought the package from Amazon that had all these accessories, based on the assumption that the salesmen knew more than I did. Probably wasn't true. The great thing with the FreshRoast is that you get more fine control over heat and time. The AMAZING thing about the FreshRoast is the chaff basket at the top which helps you have a cleaner bean result after it's over. That's very, very helpful.

That's equipment. Your equipment will include guidelines on how to get the results you want along the grading of coffee roasts. I personally like a "Viennese" or "Full-City" roast, though a bit of flexibility is in order.

Now, if you just want to buy everything from Amazon, you can get "Green Coffee Beans" there. Some of mine have come from there, I've enjoyed the beans I've gotten from Smokin' Beans brand there. 

However, you could also go with a specialty coffee show. Burman Coffee Traders has great varieties. They are also a reasonable source for equipment and have some good how-to guides available. 

The other thing you can do is check with local coffee sources to see if they sell Green Beans. My personal favorite coffee comes from Leiva's Coffee in Little Rock, Arkansas. I have met the owner, I've been to his shop--both the old one he got started in and the new one that has a fancy coffeeshop attached to it!

I love the mission and the work that Geovanni Leiva is doing through coffee. And he sells green beans (coffee ones) for as good of a price as I get anywhere. Almost all are sourced from the same general group of coffee farms in Guatemala as his roasted products come from. So, when I'm low, I get green beans from him. 

(Also, I still get roasted coffee from him, especially flavored coffees. His Dolce Amaretto is my favorite.)

The beans I do not get from Leiva's are decaf beans. This is another place where the health concerns match up with the hobby: I need to cut back on my caffeine. I decline to eliminate coffee and 100% decaf is a bit bitter. Plus "cut back on" does not mean "eliminate" and I like the coffee. So I buy decaf, usually from Burman, and roast decaf and regular beans and make my own blend.

A few tips as you get started:

1. Watch your beans as you roast them. Especially if you're using something quicker like the FreshRoast. The 15 minutes you are roasting are NOT multi-tasking minutes. Focus. 

2. If possible, roast outside. There's a bit of smoke, just enough to lightly color your ceiling. If you do a lot, you definitely want somewhere ventilated. In the winter, if you live where it gets cold, you'll want a warmer area. Right now in the South, it's too hot and humid. Roasting is pushing back moisture and you're going to need to be inside for that.

3. Roast THEN blend. Different beans from different sources roast slightly differently. And decaf roasts differently. So today I'll do two batches: regular and decaf, then I'll blend it.

4. Don't skip the "let the beans degas" step. They get bitter quick if you seal them in early.

5. Remember, there's a lot of heat here. Be careful with yourself.

Health Reflections Part 3: Stress and Conflict

We're going to take a brief detour and talk about stress and conflict, especially in churches and ministry situations. Why? Because much of the stress that churches give church members and church leaders comes from people trying to avoid stress through conflict.

So the first key: Conflict occurs any time there are two different ways to do something. Therefore, conflict is normal and inescapable to the human experience. You are going to have conflict if you have more than one person involved.

Second: the other people involved in the conflict may not be aware they are involved. They may not even be alive. Many people in church leadership encounter stress because they compare themselves, their work, their ability to do things to people in the past. Or to other exemplars that you do not see all of. Far before "Influencer Culture" started wrecking normal life, it was disruptive in the ministry world. One would hear of a pastor "over there somewhere" who amazingly made all the visits, preached all the best sermons...and then start trying to match him.

Doubly-so if your deacons/church leadership heard of him. Or you read The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter in seminary came to believe your work needed to match his, without making any adjustments for culture changes, economic differences, basically failing to acknowledge that you're not a 17th-Century Puritan. These conflicts arise between unstated expectations and results.

A frequent place they show up is when you are ministering in the shadow of someone. Every person has a different personality and the shift from Gregarious George to Contemplative Christopher can raise a conflict between a church member who found George great and Christopher seems...colder. Both ministers love their church, but the unspoken conflict rises.

Third truth about conflict: Left unaddressed, conflict will grow into crisis. Crisis then becomes catastrophic after a time. Here's the hard part of all of this: you are going to have to address the conflict. I know, you want to get along with everyone--but a false unity is like the skin that grows over a splinter. Underneath, problems are getting worse, not better.

What do you need to do?

First, listen for those voices of conflict early and try to address it. Start with the unstated expectations or the ones brought in from outside. Keep in mind that there are no definite Biblical examples of what pastoring a church looks like. The closest you get is Paul reminding Timothy to "appoint elders" in each town, but beyond that, Paul's generally a missionary and traveling teacher, not a long-term pastor. 

Any comparisons you make are to historical figures or contemporary figures and never to a complete profile in Scripture. That means they can make mistakes; it also means that you may not have the full picture. It's interesting to read biographies or book forewords that peel back the home life of some of the "heroes" of the age. Ask yourself who was cooking, cleaning, taking kids to school, etc., while Famous Pastor was spending 4 uninterrupted hours in prayer and Bible study. Who mowed the yard? Who did the administrative tasks at the church?

You are very possibly stressing yourself because you don't see the help he had, so you assume he carried it alone and therefore you must or you're not good enough.

Second, you'll probably have to talk this one out with others, but you'll have to confront the conflict that you are not meeting people's expectations. Now, some expectations are legitimate. I'm the pastor of a traditional Baptist church. My folks expect that I'll be the main guy preaching most of the time. It's not unreasonable for them to expect that out of 156 ordinary sermon opportunities (Sunday AM/PM, Wednesday), I'll do 120-140 of them. There are also unreasonable expectations: 156 of the sermons would be unreasonable. That would require never taking a break, vacation, or ever being sick.

If you are being held to unreasonable expectations, you need to have a chat with those putting them out there. It is also likely, though, that you are perceiving demands that aren't real. You may need an ally in the discussion, such as a denominational worker or fellow church leader, to help you be clear. (I know, sometimes it's hard to trust some of those outside folks; I have some I trust and some that I do not trust.) You may even need to just calmly chat with some of your folks about how what they say hits differently than what they mean: they think it's a joke that "you can't go on vacation, preacher, we can't live without you." You hear "pack twice, once for the mountains, once for the guilt trip."

But you're going to have to confront it, especially if you can't get it out of your head.

So, address the conflict. It may or may not end well for you, but conflict is real and it causes stress, especially when left unaddressed. And, as a wise man once said, "when you set out to clean up a mess, you don't sit around watching the mess get bigger." You'll need to be about it sooner rather than later.

Fronting some stress now can save you loads of it later. And stress-loads onto your health are like radiation: cumulative. It builds up over time, bit by bit, even without a major event.

Health Reflections Part 2: Stress

Carrying on from yesterday's post, I noted two things from the last few months. The first is my own health crisis/health scare. After all, being in a hospital bed in an ER and watching the computer monitor display "Oh, man that's bad!" when it takes your blood pressure is a tad scary. The second is that I've had too many friends, specifically ministry friends, pass away unexpectedly recently. None of them from accidents or from crime. Most of them from stress-aggravated illness, including at least one death-by-suicide from stress issues.

By the way: even with as small of a circle of connection as I have, I have known of at least ministerial death-by-suicide every 6 months since 2018. Pastors are not immune to desperation. This does *not* include definite criminals evading earthly accountability for their actions.

Let's start off with this very basic reality:

If you are in ministry, you are asking God to entrust people's spiritual well-being to you. That is inherently stressful. Period. If you are not taking this seriously, you need to get out now. We are better off with a pastor shortage then pastors who just come up short in caring. 

You may be like me and your caring doesn't always look like other people's caring, but you had better care. That's part of the calling.

Now, you may think that we can spiritualize away all the stress and say "Just rely on God, you won't have any stress." That's nonsense and if you're honest with yourself, you know it is. It's vague enough to have a ring of truth, in the same way that claiming I had "something like eggs and toast" for breakfast because "eggs and toast" have the same ingredients as "cake." (They do: flour, sugar, eggs, seasonings...) Or saying you eat a well-rounded meal because you eat the whole pizza.

Truth is, faith does not utterly eliminate stress in the everyday life of anyone. Including those of us in the ministry. The lie that we should be able to just "float away from it" makes it even harder, because you pile that sense of failure into the stress.

So the first thing to do is own that you're in the ministry and that is a choice. It was the call of God that brought you here, but you still chose this life. We'll address that duality in another place. Just know that you need to own that your life is a result of your choices.

Usually we say about things like seminary or Bible classes that "the call to preach is a call to prepare," but we don't take the next logical step and include "prepare yourself for the lifestyle," as if lexical forms and funeral outlines are all we need. One ends up learning on the job: you have to find a way to manage the stress.

Community and good friends are frequently a key factor in helping with stress. However, friendships take two people and we're going to focus on things that each of us can tackle on our own. Besides, to an introvert or L1 autistic guy, "go make friends" adds stress.

First, as stated above, acknowledge the stress is real and inherent in the work. Embrace the reality. And then be sure you are seeking God for your guide and help in the midst of it all. He will carry you. He will also help you have wisdom about what additional steps to take.

Next, identify the differences in stresses of the moment and the general stress-load. For example, are there specific activities that spike or heighten your stress? I've served churches with good deacon meetings and churches with anger-filled, distrust-laden deacon meetings. Guess what? Deacon meetings are now always stress-inducing. It's not the general stress of life, it's a specific moment.

If you can separate out the two primary types of stress: everyday, endemic stress and momentary stress, that will help you start to deal with the consequences. Generally, the efforts you need to make are slightly different.

For example, if you have moment-driven stress and can identify it, you can also start to plot stress-relief ideas to go with it. For me, it's impractical to come home before deacon meetings but I do it anyway because a hug is a good help for stress. Also, to the fullest you can, ask for adjustments that might ease the stress. We've slightly reformatted deacon meetings here, it helps allay my stress. 

Eventually, hopefully those high-stress moments can be defused for you. Other stress moments hit differently: hospital visits or funerals tend to pump the blood pressure a bit. Address the funeral issue by getting to know your local funeral directors (easier if there's not many funeral homes, otherwise pay attention to the ones most frequented by your church members) and that will increase your trust in their professionalism at handling the details. Remember that they may do a hundred funerals for every one you do; they should know what they are doing.

Hospital visits may need a smidgen of stress relief going or coming, and it's okay to sit in your car in a parking deck and cry over the fact that you know someone you care for is not leaving that hospital room alive. Let it out. Be strong for that family as you need to, but cry it out.

One habit to avoid, though, is addressing stress by eating. If you find, for example, hospital visits stressful and treat that stress with French fries, you are not doing yourself any favors. Maybe you need to find a calm, peaceful spot to sit and collect yourself before or after--a lot of hospitals do have garden spaces.

Another thing about stresses of the moment is to be less hurried from moment-to-moment. I know that we often feel like we must hurry from this situation to the next--and in a real crisis, that is true. But everyday is *not* a crisis. 

Which brings us to the big issue: you may have to frontload a bit of stress by telling people: "NO." Or even simply telling people that you will get to it in due time. Be a person of your word and actually get to it, but you do not have to fill every last moment with activity. Doubly so for frantic activity. If you have to be on the phone with the office to dictate the bulletin as you rush out of the hospital, you are doing things you ought not do. Let some of it be handled by others. Let some of it go undone.

Believe it or not, your sermon can go with a plain slide that says "SERMON." And your staff (if you have one) should be competent enough to not need you managing every moment.

Because that stress is coming from your choice to control things. You have to let that go.

Which transitions us into talking about the all-the-time stress. This is different, as you cannot really set an offset for it. 

Instead, you need to build-out the disciplines that will help you carry it. First, your spiritual disciplines. Prayer, worship, time in the Word of God are all crucial. So is seeking Christian community that you can find encouragement within. Second, you need some physical discipline: basic walking is truthfully enough if you can do it. Especially if you can find a place outside with green stuff like trees and grass and walk 20-30 minutes a few times a week. 

And don't be on the phone while you're doing it. If you have a family, see if you can work this in with them. 

But you need it. You also need a hobby. And that hobby should not be "oh, I'm a pastor and my hobby is helping my pastor buddy write his sermons, too..." And no, past-Doug, "seminary" is not a hobby. Something that you can do that helps you relax and set aside your stresses. Some people golf. Some hike. Some do woodworking.

Find something.

Rest helps address stress. And you need to do that.

Health Reflections Part 1

I don't know quite how many posts I'll put in the health series. I know I have some thoughts and don't want to put them all at once. I should note that if anything in what I say sounds like medical advice, you should talk to your own physician. I'm a history doctor. I can advise you on what happens, typically, in plagues and pandemics and wars and droughts. I am not qualified to tell you what medicine you need now.

(I can most assuredly tell you how wrong things can get without medicines like vaccines that we take for granted now, but ultimately, you should talk to a real medical professional about such things for right now. If you wonder about someone's qualifications for that role, ask them basic questions about human anatomy, what disease-causing organisms look like, and what disease vectors are. If they need a quick YouTube video to answer, go find someone who went to medical school. And get your MMR.)

Back in March of 2026, I went to the doctor for the first time in several years. This was the included "Annual Wellness Exam" that individual insurance plans are required by law to cover 100%. We haven't done it, because our previous insurance company had a very limited network and then also expected you to front costs and then wait for reimbursement. Trust me, if the insurance company has all the money, it's not coming to you very quickly.

However, we changed insurers this year. Another time I'll run down what a blessing that was starting in January with our son's collapsed lung, but that opened up the possibility to get a basic checkup without worrying about having to front all the money and hope for some back later. 

Ann and I went in, and my blood pressure was a "little high." Well, honestly, it was 180/140. That's not a little high. It's a lot high. Doctor told me to start keeping a journal on that and come back to see if we need to try some medication to get it down while I do the work of losing weight. Blood pressure is like any other hydraulic pressure: if you are over the specifications of the hoses, you can do damage with pressure even if it doesn't blowout and leak. If your BP is high, you need to get it down while you make the lifestyle changes to keep it down.

So, that was the plan. Then a few weeks later, I was not feeling right. I went back to the doctor. Nursing student took my blood pressure. Left the room, got a nurse, who took my blood pressure. Who left the room and got another nurse. Apparently, the numbers they were getting were just a bit outside the range of experience. After a brief incident where I threw up while walking out to the truck, I was sent to the emergency department at the hospital next door.

Where my blood pressure was taken and was 232/115. Folks, you should not have blood pressure like that. It's bad. The emergency doctor shot me full of stuff to bring the BP down. They took CT scans of my head and chest, looking for blockages, aortic dissection, and more. They found nothing.

I came very close to not leaving the hospital. Then, my BP came down just enough they let me come home. I'm still on meds, trying to be diligent to lose weight, etc., but a few quick notes:

In this same time span, I've had 4 friends in ministry die from health complications. One more died by suicide related to stress in the ministry. None of them were "old." Not to take away from beloved older folks, but generally one is not surprised when 80-90 year-olds die from heart attacks and strokes. When it hits people from 40-60, something has really gone wrong.

I'll make my first health reflection here: get to the doctor and address your health. Find out the basics, and make it happen. If you are serving a church, pastors, and they begrudge you taking time to visit the doctor, get someone you can trust to help you have a confrontation with the obstacles. Same with a church that will not let you take time away for rest and recovery. They are actively working against you living.

Don't let them.

Now, the next installment, we'll talk about our own responsibility for our health.

Sermon Recap for August 2 2026

Good Morning!

We're still in Hebrews, although we're about to run out of it. After that, we'll be in Psalm Pseptember then I'm probably starting Romans.

Sunday nights and Wednesdays are still running chronologically through the Bible. We're at the Flood and will likely be out of the boat Wednesday night.

Here is what you’ll find: there is an audio player with the sermon audios built-in to it, just click to find the one you want. You’ll also find the embedded YouTube videos of each sermon.

If you’d like, you can subscribe to the audio feed here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/DougHibbardPodcast

Audible Link is https://www.audible.com/podcast/Doug-Hibbard-Sermons-and-Thoughts/B08JJND2RP  https://bit.ly/3WnLNR2

Spotify is here: https://doughibbard.libsyn.com/spotify

The video is linked on my personal YouTube Page here: https://www.youtube.com/user/dheagle93

Sermons are stockpiled here: http://www.doughibbard.com/search/label/Sermons