Category Archive: Ross Engel

The Return of the Bell Ringer

By Ross Engel –

This past January, as has been my tradition for the past six years, I made my way to the annual symposia at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Despite the often sub-zero temperatures experienced during this week of theological education, this has become a favorite event of mine to attend. I get to catch up with dear friends like Paul and Joel and meet all sorts of new people, too. The theological discussion is quite excellent, and the social gatherings are a real joy. Between all the learning, there are meals and cocktails to enjoy at the homes of professors and then banquets to celebrate great Lutheran things ranging from the Higher Things youth gatherings to the deaconess program. There is so much to do, and we always end up with a pretty full dance card.

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Women Weaken Legs!

By Ross Engel –

One of my favorite movies of all time is Rocky. I love the entire series (Minus the disappointment that was Rocky V). In the first film, Rocky is training hard for his shot at the champ He lands himself a girlfriend, the lovely and slightly awkward Adrian, who later becomes his wife. When his trainer Mick finds out that he’s involved with a woman, he grumbles at Rocky and tells him point blank, “Women. Weaken. Legs!” At that point, Rocky reluctantly agrees not to “fool around” anymore with Adrian.

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Up Before the Enemy

By Ross Engel –

It’s early. The sun won’t be up for another two and half hours. My alarm was set to go off at 4:45am, but it’s 4:26am, I’m already up, and my obnoxiously large cup of coffee is about to be consumed. In the words of Jocko Willink, it’s time to “Get After It.”

Jocko. I feel like I know the guy. Thanks to Twitter, his weekly podcast, and his book, it’s like I’ve got my own “cornerman” yelling instructions to me as I grapple along in life.

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Something Worth Boasting About

By Ross Engel –

As it exists in my memory, the 1980s were a decade of excess. When I think back to the popular movies of the time, those excesses were paraded before my young eyes. The Griswolds and their National Lampoon’s various Vacations, The Back to the Future trilogy, Goonies, Scarface, Top Gun, the Indiana Jones movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Risky Business, and all those John Hughes’ movies (just to name a few) lauded lifestyles that enjoyed the latest and greatest that culture had to offer.

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Success and Failure

By Ross Engel –

“Success” is a loaded word. It is such a subjective word that it can be challenging to nail down what a person means when they start talking about “success” and “failure.”

Consider the various vocations and duties that you have. If I consider the various stations of life that God has given me, I can say that I am a husband, father, son, pastor, boss, brother, friend, neighbor, and probably a handful of other things to a variety of people. But how do I determine whether or not I am a success in any of these stations of life? I ask this, because lately I haven’t been feeling terribly “successful” at life.

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Dishonesty in Death

By Ross Engel –

On January 1, 1998, MTV premiered a brilliant Claymation TV show called Celebrity Deathmatch. This vividly violent and quite hilarious show depicted clay versions of various celebrities battling to the death in the ring. While it was clever the way these clay celebrities met their demise, what was especially amusing was that announcers Johnny Gomez and Nick Diamond (and the celebrities themselves) were bluntly honest about these stars. If a celebrity had a drug addiction, plastic surgery, or some major character flaw, the creators of the show would mercilessly incorporate those flaws into the clever and gruesome ways that the celebrities would fight and die. The show ran for several seasons, pitting celebrity against celebrity to the death. Its violent run ended in 2002.

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White Elephants

By Ross Engel –

Have you ever gone to a Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange? You know, one of those deals where everyone brings a gift and then a game is played to select and steal gifts until they’re all gone? In my experience, people usually gravitate towards the big, oddly shaped, and cleverly wrapped packages. People will fight over one specific gift—stealing, trading, and hoping that what is inside is worth the effort. If you are a clever white elephant gifter, you can get rid of some terrific junk. One year, my parents had this giant pink ceramic piggy bank. It was a huge eye sore, but they wrapped it up nicely and watched as people fought over this heavy piece of junk, none of them knowing the “treasure” inside.

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The Least of These

By Ross Engel –

“You know Pastor, not every pastor would do what you did today. Thank you.”

I had just spent the day driving through the inner-city with two older ladies. My role was to make sure we didn’t get lost or accosted while we were in the rough part of town. Our mission for the day was to complete all the necessary steps to get one of the ladies on a path that would get her back on her feet for good. We accomplished our tasks and even managed to have a few laughs in the process! It was an enjoyable time, despite the circumstances.

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Humble Yourself

By Ross Engel –

Darkness started to swirl around my eyes, my neck pounded, and quickly I tapped my hand twice against the arm that was firmly pressed against my neck. It had only taken a few seconds (less time than it took to read that last statement), but I was about to pass out. It was my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class and on that day, the lesson of the day was seven different submission chokes. In the three hours that followed, I watched, I learned, I practiced, was practiced on, and then I rolled (grappled). And in the midst of it all, I was humbled. It would be safe to say that I’ve been humbled over and over again with each class that I’ve attended!

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