Musings

By Gueary Clendenning Christmas is just around the corner. After Thanksgiving, the pace quickens toward the big day! We’ll find ourselves in a big rush, always pursuing one more thing we need to get accomplished. We look for the nearest parking spot in the crowded mall, searching for the perfect...

By Sean Dietrich I feel a little silly writing you. Recently, I wrote a column about how when I was a boy I always wanted you to bring me a cowboy hat. A silver-belly colored Stetson. A few days later, one showed up on my porch from an anonymous person....

By Pastor Dave Holland Gently falling snow paved my walk to our village church on Christmas Eve so long ago. We lived a few blocks from the church I pastored in that small New England town and I expected the Light of the World to visit us as we celebrated...

By Rick Moore They say the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. My mother was a preacher’s daughter, and my dad was a professional gambler. I’m still not sure what that makes me. Some people bet on sports, some bet on the stock market, and some on real estate....

By Sean Dietrich Birmingham—I am eating hotel breakfast in the dining room. This past year, my wife and I have stayed in nearly sixty thousand hotels. That is only an estimate. And I rounded down. I have become so accustomed to hotels that when I fall asleep in my own bed...

By Rick Moore Supposedly, in the days of the Wild Wild West, if a prisoner on death row was well behaved, the sheriff would ask if he had any last request. Such requests would range from asking for a Holy Bible to a T-bone steak with a bottle of wine....

By Sean Dietrich In honor of college football season, I want to tell you about the biggest SEC football fan I know. He lives in Monroeville, Alabama, which is your quintessential all-American town. Walk the square and take a trip backward on the timeline. Drive around town. You’ll see barbecue...

By Pastor James Ross, First Baptist Church of Niceville It seems as if a popular narrative in national media outlets is that people do not see the value of the Church in our society. In an article featured in the Washington Post, writer Dylan Matthews references common critiques about how...

By Sean Dietrich It’s a perfect summer evening. The world is moving slow. It’s hot. The sounds of the world are music. Crickets. Insects. Frogs galore. And the magnificent sound of my redneck neighbor, Jerry, four-wheeling his pickup truck through the mud on the property behind mine, shouting “THAT’S WHAT...

By Local Pastor Dave Holland The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 As Destin Life celebrates its first anniversary, let’s take a moment to reflect on the kind of foundation that produces greatness – whether it be in a newspaper or in life. Great people are not so different...