I was told a couple of nights ago that I would be asked to testify for the Lord the next day but the next day came and I didn't leave the house. I was completely anti-social that day. But, that night, I had a dream... I won't go into the length and breadth of the dream but I did testify for the Lord in such a random and quirky way that intriguingly tied yams to Popeye to the Almighty. Yep. You read that right.  As I stepped into this backroom of a house, there lay dozens of boxes filled with potatoes and yams (aka sweet potatoes). I asked the women congregated throughout the room if they knew how yams remind us of the Lord. In the old cartoon and movie (with Robin Williams), Popeye declares, quite frequently, "I yam what I yam." Now, anyone with any sense of biblical studies will know that the Lord tells Moses at one point "I am that I am." Some Bible versions may replace that  with who  or what  and that would be because the Hebrew word אֲשֶׁר ('ăšer) m...

 "Don't you ever feel afraid?" I was asked for the hundredth time in regard to my hiking alone. Sometimes I do the day hike, other times I'm gone for 3-4 days, and once I hiked for a month and a half. This past Fall, I went hiking in the Eagle Rock Loop of the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas for only 3 days, 2 nights (only because it was a spur-of-the-moment hike with no warning of the numerous river crossings and unmarked trail. Fun, but the feet were bruised and hurting.) Due to the lack of markings and lack of visibility for any trail entrance on the opposite side of the river, I ended up pairing up with another hiker the first day and joining two more the next. The people I have been blessed to cross paths with on any trail I have ever hiked are ones I honestly feel I could trust with my life. That is, 99% of them. Sometimes I share a campground with them, sometimes I camp utterly alone. This question though led to a conversation with a friend that I paired ...