David Dollinger

One of the universal truths in the world is "Death brings life." You see it in many facets. The healthiest foods we eat were once connected to a lifesource. It's like you pick that grape from the vine, it dies. But yet the fruits and vegetables that we eat carry the nutrients that our body needs to stay alive. Meats were once alive. And yet, when we eat meat, it provides the nutrients that we need to stay alive. It's like to say, "that strawberry died for you" or "that cow died for you that you may have life." It's only healthy foods. There is nothing in a Twinkie or Mountain Dew that died for you. It's true in sports. For the Red Wings season to stay alive, the season for Columbus must die. For us to experience life, something has to die. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us that he has come to give us life and give it to the full. If that is not true, then Jesus is a liar. So the best possible way to live is the way of Jesus. By the way, Jesus...

As a wrestling coach, one of my biggest thrills is coaching someone to their first victory. Sandusky High School in Michigan is a small school that does not have a feeder program like many other schools have. We didn't have any depth either. So if you joined the team, you are on Varsity. So when guys start wrestling for us, they have no experience whatsoever. It makes their first year a tough year. Nick was a 189 pounder as a first year sophomore. He still had a little baby fat on him, and he was taking on juniors and seniors who have a lot of experience and are built like men. Nick lost his first 20 matches mostly by pin. He was getting a little discouraged. In wrestling, they have a term for this: bait. Nick finally got his first win at the Bluewater Invitational in Port Huron. He took a guy down with a head and arm throw. He had him on his back, but they went out of bounds. So the referee had them go back to the center with Nick on top. The ref blew the whistle, and I screamed, ...

I have been in the ministry since 1995. I have experienced some real highs in ministry and real lows. It's easy to praise God and sing all the happy songs when things are going real well. But when things don't go so well, it seems that our joy is robbed. I find myself falling into a bad, even evil mindset that when things aren't so good, that God owes me. That is called entitlement. It's toxic and from the pit of hell. I have found entitlement to creep in on me in three different ways. (1) I find my self saying that God owes me because I gave up a comfortable job to go into full-time ministry. (2) When things aren't going so well, I want to remind people of my resume, and all my successes. I tend to forget those successes were mine to enjoy in him. (3) When things aren't going so well, I go back to old wounds of the past. In each of these cases, I want to remind God that he owes me. It sounds silly doesn't it. Maybe I am the only one who has done this and no...

A few years ago, I was doing some simple grocery shopping at Jerry’s in Sandusky, Michigan. It’s a good grocery store with an express lane to check out. I grabbed some milk, bread, and eggs and then proceeded to the express lane. I was standing in line behind a gal that had 19 items in her cart. You know how I know that she had 19 items in her cart? It’s because the gal in line behind me counted the items and proceeded to throw a massive fit. The sign for the express lane says “12 items or less.” It really didn’t matter much to me. But to that gal behind me, you would have thought that we were dealing with someone who drove 55 mph through a school zone. She lambasted the poor high school aged girl at the checkout for allowing this injustice to happen. She even announced to the manager that her husband was a lawyer and he could slap an injunction on Jerry’s market so quick that their heads would spin. I offered to let her cut in front of me. (I thought maybe she was upset because she is...

Years ago when I was in high school, I went to a teen club with some friends in Waterford Township. There was a girl across the dance floor who was amazingly hot. To quote Thin Lizzy, "I mean she was steamin." My friends pushed me and prodded me and finally shamed me into asking this girl to dance. Now it was my senior year of high school, and I have had girlfriends before, but I never just walked up to a girl and asked her dance, nor have I tried to strike up a conversation.The walk across the floor seem to be a mile long. I felt like every eye in the room was on me. And as I tried hard to not hyperventiliate. But yet I did it, I asked that girl to dance. Does anyone else know this feeling? She now has control of where this relationship will go. She could either accept my invitation or reject it. She now has control of where this is going. It's the same with God. In Philippians 2:5-8 it says, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in v...

I just got back from a vacation in Florida. I took a few books with me because I thought that I would spend time on the front porch and along the ocean doing a lot of reading and relaxing. Laurie and I flew out of separate airports because she booked her flight a month before I did, and we were trying to save my in-laws a buck because they were paying for the tickets. The airport is charging $30 dollars per luggage item checked in, so we were creative in our packing. I took my golf clubs to check in, and I had two carry-on bags. One of those bags was my backpack with books that fit nicely under the seat. The other bag I assumed was a mix of clothing that couldn’t fit in the big suitcase that Laurie took with her. As I went through the security and my carry-on bag was being x-rayed, they saw something in my bag that was a cause for alarm, it looked like a container of hair gel. They pulled me aside and frisked me and asked me if I knew everything that was in my bag, and before I could a...

In my household, we have carry on the one tradition that has been passed on from one generation to the next. I am talking about the livingroom wrestling match. When Melissa and Amanda were quite young, I would wrestle with them on the floor in our livingroom almost daily. We had a lot of fun with our wrestling matches. Melissa would deliver the flying elbow from the top of the couch, and Mandy would smash me with her foam chair. They learned that stuff from a dad who was raised on Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper. I carry this on with my 7 year old daughter Emily. She prefers to hit me with the flying body block off of the top of the couch. In all reality, as they really tried, they could never hurt me nor take me down. (Granted, this is true when we stay true to the no hitting below the belt rule.) but they could come at me, but never defeat me. In the same way, Jesus endured everything that was thrown at him. He was betrayed, lied about, gossiped about, mocked, spit upon, beaten, tortured ...