A goal of my life is to integrate my professional academic life with a deep sense of what God is about in our world and in the lives of His people. This means that I make it a practice to think "devotionally" as well as academically, as I live out my life. It is some of these thoughts that I plan to share from time to time.

• A favorite source for Rose and me is the book One Quiet Moment by Lloyd John Ogilvie, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate (Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR, 1997). In a reading for May 22 (would apply to any year!) I have the following marked in my book.
  
  “I know that a thankful heart is not just the greatest virtue, but the parent of all virtues and the source of transformation of my attitudes. Every virtue devoid of thankfulness is maimed and limps along the spiritual road.”
  
  What a helpful thought!

  A favorite text of mine over the years has been from the Gospel of John 21:15-19. I have given this more than once as “Christ’s Final Exam.” It reminds me, and hopefully those with whom I share it, of devotional priority in the Christian life. Jesus asks Simon Peter: “Do you love Me?” Does not Jesus ask us the same question? I gave this as a devotional in 1997 to a graduating class in our School of Divinity.

  A thought that has come to me very personally is from Mark 8:34: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” This had a very particular meaning for those whom Jesus addressed, as well as those Christians for whom this Gospel was first read. But it has a meaning for me as well! For me to “deny self” means to put the cause of Christ ahead of my own personal advancement. In particular I think of this as I play my violin. For I was trained to be a professional violinist, who would enjoy the applause of the crowd. As I play now in the church orchestra, I need to remember that it is for Him who has saved Me that I now live (and play the violin)! May we all who know and love our Lord remember to put Him first.

• This is a devotional thought which appeared in the University alumni paper in the Summer of 2000.