(a Steve Orr Bible reflection) The view: breathtaking mountains, sculpted cliffsides, high, jagged peaks—paved highways winding their way through the connecting valleys. All around me were signs of desert life: cacti, scrub, and juniper—dry ground and dry air. To the casual observer, it would appear I was driving through a desert. They wouldn’t be wrong. But it was also an ocean. We’ve been told that if we turn back the clock 265 million years, the area where I was d

I have a Pacemaker and it runs on batteries. The unit was inserted in 2012, and I was told the batteries would last “about 10 years.” Recently (August, 2026), I had my semi-annual checkup at the pacemaker center, and I was told that I would need new batteries very soon. They have been good batteries because I have had them helping pace the heart for 14 years. I have several items that depend on batteries: computer, phone, clocks, flashlights, fire and CO alarms, and so on. Th

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection) "Nothing you confess Could make me love you less. I’ll stand by you." That lyric really grabbed me the very first time I heard Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders sing “I'll Stand By You.” The full lyrics speak to something deep within me. My soul responds to them. “I'll Stand By You” is about someone struggling with life’s most difficult challenges: experiencing deep sadness, suppressing anger, encountering the darkness of this world—an

Recently I bought a very nice-looking peach. It was slightly hard, so I decided to wait a couple of days before eating it. However, later when I went to slice it, it was moldy and I had to throw it away. I have had the same thing happen with mandarins and bananas. What a disappointment. What looked like good fruit had gone bad. It is like the Enemy had crept in and sowed mold, like the story where “One night, when everyone was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the w

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection) At the summit, the temperature on Mount Everest never rises above freezing. Most ascents are in May to take advantage of relatively gentler conditions. Wind speeds then are 20-35 miles per hour, temps range from 0° to -2° Fahrenheit, and the precipitation at base camp is rain instead of the usual snow. David Breashears wanted to ascend Everest in May 1996 to make an IMAX film. But long before they assembled the team, long before the fil

Consider the mustard seed. Wikipedia reports that it “is very tiny. It measures about 1 to 2 millimeters (1/32 to 3/32 of an inch) wide. It is round and about the size of the head of a pin.” Jesus compares it to faith: “It was because you do not have enough faith,” answered Jesus. “I assure you that if you have faith as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this hill, ‘Go from here to there!’ and it will go. You could do anything!” (Matthew 17.20 GNT) English translations

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection) I love a good time-travel story. In most of them, characters use technology or some kind of power to intentionally travel through time. My favorites are the unintentional time travelers, the reluctant ones. They have no control over when they vanish from their present life, none over where and when they travel, none over how long they are gone, and none over when (or if) they ever return to their original time. Also, and this is key: They don’

(a Steve Orr Bible Reflection) I don't know how long I lay there, eyes fixed on the starry skies above. Even as a five-year-old, I was a free-range kid. So, it was a while before anyone came looking for me that night. Did I see Sputnik (Russian for "fellow traveler"), the Earth’s first artificial satellite? I did see something arcing across the night sky—blinking, blinking. But really, who knows? There is some controversy over whether the satellite was actually visible to t

It is common to talk about the weather in Texas (and elsewhere). Is it going to rain today? (Usually not much in Texas in August!) Most evenings, I watch the weather man (aka weather person, sometimes weather woman) on a local station. I learn what the temperature was today and what to expect for the next 10 days. In Central Texas, it will be “hot,” which is not really news. We probably won’t establish a record this month for triple digit days (temperature over 100), but the

"September is the other January." — Gretchen Rubin This week is a strange one. For the past decade and more, the beginning of September has meant extra events on our family’s personal calendar. Meet the Teacher nights, PTA kick-offs, Youth events, Band practices… All of that and settling into the routine of the new school year–new schedules to remember, new teachers to get to know, new friends in our orbit, new lessons to learn. August and September meant change. This was th