Joseph was a farmer near Hebron in the hill country of Judea. He heard the prophet Isaiah was traveling through the Judean countryside sharing God’s message of judgment and promise.

When Isaiah stopped in Hebron, Joseph invited Isaiah to have dinner with his family in his home. After their meal of roasted lamb, wheat bread, vegetables and goat’s milk, they sat together in Joseph’s family room to talk.

Abram had every right to be skeptical. He had already made a major move from Ur to Haran - a trip of 600 miles (Acts 2:3). They had settled down in Haran. Abram’s father had died and left him with a large inheritance. Abram was a wealthy rancher. He had livestock, servants, real estate, investments and even well-trained soldiers.

Abram’s only poverty was that he and his wife, Sarai, remained childless.

Rocky Marciano is the only undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion. His record is an amazing 49-0. He was small for a “big fellow” standing only 5’10”. His equalizer was his right hand.

Marciano began his boxing career in March 1947 with a knockout of Lee Epperson. He retired in April 1956 at the age of 31. 49 victories. 43 of them by knockout. Sportswriter John Schulian, who grew up following Marciano, said, “He was brutally strong. When you get hit you stayed hit.”

I have gone to see two different optometrists in the past few months. I wasn’t seeing so well, so I went to get my eyes checked. I wasn’t really concerned. I figured I just needed a new prescription. The first optometrist said my prescription hadn’t changed, but I might think about getting bifocals.

So I admitted to myself that I am getting older and got bifocals for myself. They helped a little, but my vision still seemed blurry. That made me nervous. So I went to the second optometrist.

Jason stared at the makeshift barricade against his door. He rubbed his back and shook his head. “Will that keep them out?” Jason had been afraid when he heard the crowd gathering outside his window. He was scared when he heard them pounding on the door. The hinges started to shake. Then, BOOM! And just like that, they were inside, and the nightmare begins.

Keara O'Neill went shopping for a dress she could wear to an upcoming wedding. When she hesitated in buying an outfit, the salesperson insulted her size-eight figure and said she and her friends "were a joke."

O'Neill wrote a letter of complaint to the folks at Gasp, a chain of boutiques in Australia.

It was O'Neill's expectation that the salesperson would be disciplined for his insult or, at the very least, would be taught how a salesperson should wait on a customer.

Have you ever walked into a place and immediately felt like you didn’t belong?

I had lunch this week with a pastor who told me that before he met with me at the restaurant, he had stopped at the funeral home. He wanted to stop by the visitation for the grandfather of one of his members. He went into one of the rooms at the funeral home. He greeted people and shook hands. People were looking at him strangely. He quickly realized his member wasn’t there. He was at the wrong visitation.

When I was a kid, my two younger sisters and I would ride in the back of our parents’ blue conversion van. It had wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling blue carpeting. The back seats had been removed to make three benches around the back. There was a round pedestal table in the center of the benches for drinks, food and cards. There were no seat belts in the back. It was totally unsafe! But that was OK. It was the 80s!

Several years ago, I baptized a baby boy in our church. Later, at the baptism party at the parents’ home, I was introduced to the baby’s grandfather, who is a Lutheran pastor and missed his grandson’s baptism because he was preaching that morning. He shook my hand and asked me one question.

“Did you get the boy wet?”

You will all be failures in 2020.

Isn’t that a cheery statement to hear from the pulpit to begin the New Year?!

But it’s true, isn’t it? We don’t need prophets or prognosticators to reveal this to us. Just stand in front of the mirror. Is the image staring back at you the same image that’s always been there?

New year, same you. The same you that’s failed in big and small ways, your entire life.