Thinking Critically . . . Acting Faithfully

(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 11 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) Over the past year, I’ve often been counseled, by friends who have experienced deep grief in their own lives, to journal my feelings regularly. Some have advised that this would be helpful to me, in time, to look Read more . . .

I just finished writing my column “A word from Bill Jones,” followed by proofreading of every last word and every last link in the last-ever issue – # 500 – of my Weekly Baptist Roundup e-newsletter. Every link but one, that is. I want to use this blog post to jot down a few reflections Read more . . .

(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 10 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) There is much in life that is a matter of perspective, much that is open to interpretation, subject to our personal experience and understanding. For instance, as much as many of us would like to enforce our religious Read more . . .

To my Weekly Baptist Roundup family, The Weekly Baptist Roundup issue of Saturday, December 18, 2021, will be issue no. 500. That number is hard for me to fathom, but it represents 10-1/2 years – except for a 10-month “hiatus” after Texas Baptists Committed ended operations in August 2017. In May 2018, I told Joanna that Read more . . .

(Scroll to the end for links to my previous 9 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) This time of year – Thanksgiving week and the days following – have had an extra-special meaning for our family through the years. This year, Travis’s birthday – November 25 – fell on Thanksgiving Day. He turned 36. Read more . . .

(Scroll down for links to my previous 8 blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) Joanna passed away 9 months ago today on Feb. 14. Somehow, the days, weeks, and months keep moving along, and I keep half-expecting to see Joanna “reappear” around every corner I turn, even though I know that’s not going to Read more . . .

(Editor’s note: David Sallee – then president of William Jewell College in Liberty, MO, since retired – wrote this post originally, at my request, as a “Baptist Reflections” article for the Texas Baptists Committed Web site, published on October 17, 2008. It is republished here, verbatim, in its entirety. The principles that David sets forth Read more . . .

Forty years ago tonight – October 7, 1981, Joanna and I were celebrating my promotion to management as a supervisor with Mountain Bell Telephone Company in Denver. It was an exciting time, a meaningful achievement. So how did I get to that point? When I was in college, being a manager/supervisor with the phone company Read more . . .

(Scroll down for links to my previous blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) It’s been 7 months since I lost the love of my life, and it isn’t getting any easier – for me or my kids and grandkids. Some have said that grief is a weird thing, in that it affects us in Read more . . .

(Scroll down for links to my previous blog tributes to Joanna since her passing.) September 4, 1976, 3 p.m., University Baptist Church, Shawnee, Oklahoma. Joanna and I were married 45 years ago today. We couldn’t have imagined last year, when we ate out at Sushi Marquee to celebrate our 44th anniversary, that it would be Read more . . .