My friend, may I ask you a question? When the storms of life squeeze us into anxious wrecks, when they invade our lives, and all of us will experience them, can we rise above them by setting our minds and belief toward God? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. When I was a little boy we used to have an old-fashioned wringer washing machine. This was an early type of washing machine in which you had to hand feed the freshly washed clothes through a pair of moving rolling pins to squeeze the extra water out before drying. I often wondered how those clothes felt going through them. My mom used a wooden handle to pick the clothes up and push them through the

My friend, may I ask you a question? What are you looking for in life? Well, for most of us the answer is easy. We’re looking for good things and not bad. I guess that would sum it up pretty nicely? Yet, is it always true that our attitudes about and toward life reflect this? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. What are you looking for in life? Well, for most of us the answer is easy. We’re looking for good things and not bad. I guess that would sum it up pretty nicely? Yet, is it always true that our attitudes about and toward life reflect this? My grandfather always had something to say about life. Good or bad, he always said this: “It all depends upon

My friend, may I ask you a question? When we include worry in our lives, is it like taking a shortcut, one that is ill-fated to turn out the same way every time –unfounded? Doesn’t worry gives us the false hope that we’re in control while all the time we’re really headed in the wrong direction? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. I had the idea the other day to take a shortcut from the office to a client’s office across town. I was behind in my time by a bit and decided that it would be a good idea to save the few minutes that I had lost by simply cutting across town on a couple of surface streets rather than taking the main streets I would have normally

My friend, may I ask you a question? Taking a contrary attitude to life when there’s always a better alternative may be human nature but is it God’s nature? Scriptures condemn attitudes that are contrary for the sake of being that way. Cynicism and skepticism may be comforting when we feel bad, but do they breed correction and endurance? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Many years ago I worked with a coworker who just loved irritating the rest of us by posting signs around his desk. It wasn’t the “No Loitering” signs that bothered us. No. It was those little signs that he would post which made you stop and think. One in particular that I can remember

My friend, may I ask you a question? When we become dependent on toys and other things that give us pleasure, the stuff of living instead of waiting on God to impact our lives with the stuff that makes living purposeful, is it time to rethink our priorities? Are we listening to the siren call of things and shutting out God’s message to prioritize the spiritual over the material? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. We live in an age where gadgets abound. I can read current newspaper headlines from all over the world with the click of a mouse. When I need a Bible text, a Bible program will effortlessly find it for me. Certain microwaves can connect with th

My friend, may I ask you a question? If you pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, will there be no lack of what to say? Will you ever exhaust the subject if it is continually being renewed? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Did you ever find yourself in a situation where you just couldn’t hold back? I mean, there was no loss for words. They poured out; you were so full of enthusiasm, astonishment or whatever the motivating emotion was. I remember just such a time, many years ago, when I saw something in the sky that I couldn’t explain. It was, I guess, what you might call an unidentified flying object. It was unidentified because I couldn’t fi

My friend, may I ask you a question? If you’ve ever suffered persecution because of your faith, think about this. If they try to bury you with their words and actions, are you able to climb above the dirt? When we’re willing to do what’s right, is it Ok to expect to be persecuted? In the end whatever they throw at us, we can just rise above…right? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Like anyone else, persecution isn’t something I look forward to. It leaves me with a creepy feeling on the back of my neck. Recently I was walking down the street near my office and I spotted a group of teens standing on the street corner. They were cursing and I debated whet

My friend, may I ask you a question? Could it be that God himself is grieved when those He has personally touched with His love, refrain from touching one another? Could it also be that by removing intimacy, we remove the surest way of knowing who our friends really are? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. I recently attended a political rally with a young friend who was interested in getting into politics. We witnessed a rousing campaign speech in the midst of a closely packed crowd. And, when victory was promised and the candidate again made his way to the bus, there were hugs and kisses among campaign workers and the candidate. As the bus pulled away

My friend, may I ask you a question? What do we really deserve? Apart from the love and grace of God, the Bible tells us that we deserve only punishment and damnation. Deserve this or that thing? On what grounds? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. “You deserve a break today . . . ,” so the jingle went! The TV was asking me to buy something to eat. And, “Well, don’t you think that you deserve it anyway?” Now it was telling me that I was a fool if I didn’t go and pamper myself with the car that already had “my name on it.” Take a little test tonight. Watch television for about an hour. Pay particular attention to the commercials. It doesn’t matter if it i

My friend, may I ask you a question? When we're jealous is it like going down a one-way street with no turn-around in sight? Is it like knowing that you are going the wrong way but just can't seem to get turned around? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. A number of years ago my youngest brother celebrated a birthday. He had spent the better part of the past three decades in the navy, where, achieving high rank and distinction, he had achieved a place of honor in our family. He was turning fifty and one of my sisters decided to throw a party for him. As it was a family gathering, everyone within driving distance was invited. Upon first hearing of it I t

My friend, may I ask you a question? Has it ever seemed to you that over the years you’ve discovered that people who are happy are people who have made the decision that this is the way that they want to live their lives? It’s a matter of perspective, isn’t it? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Do you sing because you’re happy, or are you happy because you sing? You’ve met the person. They always seem to have a positive attitude about everything. They’re the people you see on the freeway in the midst of rush hour, bumper to bumper traffic, singing inside their car as they slowly inch their way through traffic. You glance over at them and watch their l

My friend, may I ask you a question? Is old age in some ways like a bank account?You withdraw from what you’ve put in? Perhaps the best advice would be to deposit a lot of happiness in that “bank account of memories now, choosing today to bank enough happiness for the days to come? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Since the beginning of our marriage, Holly has always done the bills. She has a unique way of making sure that funds are there when it comes time to make the payments on a purchase or a bill. She writes out the check and dates it for the date when the bill is due. She places the check in a crisp, white envelope and then pins it to the bullet

My friend, may I ask you a question? How’s you attention to details? Some of us are generalists and others detail persons. When it comes to our faith, however, which is best? My friend, Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Delicate strokes. I guess that’s how I would describe the way my mother-in-law does her needlework. Each little push-and-pull is but a tiny line of colored thread. It’s remarkable how she spends hours upon hours as she pushes-and- pulls literally hundreds of these little strokes of color. Each one, by itself, isn’t much to look at. But, when they’re taken as a whole, as a part of an entire needlework piece, they become a thing of beauty. The color

My friend, may I ask you a question? When you make choices each day of your life to find the joy that God has put there, life can become a fantastic ride of love and joy that takes you a little further along the road to Heaven every day. Is it possible that the longer you ride in this life, the less steep the hills will become. Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. When I was a kid we didn’t go on vacation very often. I’ve often felt that part of the reason, at least, was that there were six kids and a dog in the family; combine that with two adults, cargo, and grandma, there really wasn’t a whole lot of room in that old 1961 Buick, compact wagon. It was noisy, close

Just a note to let you know that our email address has changed. <mark@thispassingday.com> is no longer a valid address. The new email address is: <thispassingday@gmail.com>. Please make this change to your contacts list. Thanks and God bless your day! M. C. Brunner

My friend, may I ask you a question? If the grace of God covers all sin, not just some sin, when you and I show partiality toward someone who has sinned a particular sin, one we’ve ranked as extraordinary, aren’t we are, in effect, telling God that we are the better judge than He is? Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Did you ever have one of those days when everything went wrong? I mean, your car doesn’t start in the morning. You’ve put on two different color socks, the computer doesn’t work when you get to the office, there’s a call from school that one of your children has misbehaved and now, when you look in the mirror, there’s a canker sore nestled right in t

My friend, may I ask you a question? When it come to the question of our bodies, has God set the standards by which we are to regard them and maintain them? Have those standards unfortunately, slipped and the weeds and rocks have invaded? Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. There is an old saying that “Nature is biased to the wilderness and not the fruitful field”. Ask any farmer and he can tell you that if it doesn’t come down from above in the form of weeds it comes from below in the form of rocks. A fertile field remains a fertile field only as long as a farmer takes the time to kill the weeds and remove the rocks. A field’s natural state is weeds and rocks, not

My friend, may I ask you a question? Is It good to be reminded that God DOES often move in mysterious ways; especially when it comes to the moments He chooses in life to make a point and demonstrate his love and mercy in our lives? Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. “I didn’t see THAT coming!” I looked at Holly and shook my head a bit. We had just finished dinner and a long after-dinner discussion with our youngest daughter, Hannah. At 17, Hannah had always had a great number of interesting insights beyond her years. But, this particular discussion left both Holly and I a bit bewildered. My daughter had been taking a pretty strong stance on her plans after High sc

My friend, may I ask you a question? Does God wants us to carry one another's burdens? Is your “stuff” heavy today? Are your heavy burdens heavier because you've too long been trying to bear them alone? Is that really something to be proud about when you think about it? Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. I believe that I've discovered a universal axiom; that is: "My stuff is heavier than your stuff." A number of years ago I moved a friend's piano. It was a piano much like the one I owned, a small upright spinet. When we went to move it, I discovered that it simply wasn’t as heavy as mine. We were able to move it with I felt, less of an effort than when we had move

My friend, may I ask you a question? Life is full of daily hardships, but of this we can be assured; it will all seem worth it someday when we hear these words from our Heavenly Father’s lips: “Thank you beloved.” Perhaps these are the most comforting words this side of Heaven? Life’s a story, welcome to This Passing Day. I'm Mark Brunner. Years ago my daughter’s car broke down. It seemed that the alternator was faulty and it wasn’t recharging her battery adequately. She didn’t have the money to have it serviced so I volunteered to do the work for her. I had a busy schedule that night and it was cold and windy outside. Deep down I really wasn’t looking forward to standing out in the cold an