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Leaving Salem

My friend Brody is a self-financed missionary in the mountains of Honduras. He and his family have spent the last decade taking in abused, neglected, and abandoned children. They care for them medically, emotionally, and spiritually. They save their lives. Several years ago, along with a dozen men and women from my church, I traveled…

It was one of those perfect mornings for doing nothing. No one had to be at work, a soccer game, baseball practice, or the football field. The weather outside was wet and cold. The thermostat was set just right. The bed was soft and cozy. The entire McBrayer clan was sound asleep. Well, almost the…

My wife and I took a recent trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This Appalachian paradise has been a favorite place of mine since childhood. I love how the morning fog hangs over Wear’s Valley, the hardened breeze off Mt. LeConte, and the hikes through Cades Cove. My wife loves the shopping in downtown Gatlinburg, the outlet…

Marvin had spent more than two weeks in the hospital trying to clear up a clogged lung. When the final test results arrived, he had more than respiratory issues. He had cancer. Marvin wasn’t surprised. I visited him as he recovered from the minor surgery that placed a plastic tube into his chest. This tube…

Allow me to introduce you to my friend Susie. She is a nurse, and a very good one. Professional, skilled, and tough. If it can take place within the constricted space of a hospital room, she’s probably seen it. Not much rattles her. Like many in the medical profession, she has acquired the emotional defense…

A man went to his rabbi and complained, “There are ten of us living in one room. Life is unbearable! What can I do?” The rabbi answered, “Go home and take your goat into the room with you.”  The man was incredulous. But the rabbi was insistent. “Do as I say. Come back in a…

I seem to have more epiphanies in coffee shops than in church sanctuaries. I don’t know why this is. Maybe it is the combination of early morning air, a clear head, and the aroma of boiling java that opens me to things divine. It may also be because I rarely have time to reflect while…

“You haven’t changed a bit.” I heard folks using that phrase at least fifty times at my wife’s recent high school class reunion. The mighty Yellow Jackets of Sprayberry High School, Marietta, Georgia, were together again. Cindy said the class never looked so good. I knew none of them. Outside of my wife, they were…

My son Blayze has a frightful disease: Arachibutyrophobia. Though he didn’t know the technical name of the ailment, he properly diagnosed his case. Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Seriously. I understand my son’s fear. I was a pitiful little thing growing up. The list of things…

I can remember growing up as a child of the 1970s, envisioning my life as an adult. The turn of the millennium was coming and with it, my thirtieth birthday. I thought my life would essentially be over at that point. Thirty was cane-walking, belly-scratching, false teeth-wearing, old. Now, a half dozen years past that…
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