July 5, 2026
Daniel Albrant
Blessed Assurance – Becoming
am in a season where many beginnings are happening.
Blessed Assurance – Underestimation
Ihave recently been involved in some car care issues and have had to have “estimates” performed for the work that needed to be accomplished. This is often a harrowing process on a car with 200,000+ miles on it. The estimates for one piece of the work led to estimates for the next broken or worn-out part.
Blessed Assurance – Engaged
It is wedding season once again. In fact, according to one source, 76% of all weddings in the U.S. take place between May and October every year. I am currently engaged to officiate four weddings over the next year, and they all fall in that time frame. People are once again getting engaged and married after a hiatus during and for a couple of years after COVID. It is good to see that people are finding love and are being led to commit to another person – it’s good for them and it’s good for society.
Blessed Assurance – To the victor
In 1828, New York Senator William L. Marcy uttered a phrase that described what he saw going on with political cronyism and nepotism leading to a small number of people benefiting from this unhealthy and unethical behavior. He said, “to the victor belong the spoils”. In his day and ours, the victors of any contest do not only win that contest, but they gain even more from contract bonuses and endorsement deals worth more than the winnings from the actual event. Likewise, we see small numbers of people benefiting from preferential treatment in contracting and in some political appointments. Insider trading, backroom deals, lobbying, dark money payments to political candidates are all bets by the givers that if they are victorious then they will reap far more than they have sowed.
Blessed Assurance – Pursuit of excellence
In my considered opinion, most people in the world want to do things as well as they can. We all pursue excellence as a rule; we just sometimes come up a bit short in the execution. Afterall, we all have different gifts and things that we are good at doing, but some folks have the deep drive as well as innate talent to do something excellently.
Blessed Assurance – Acting out
Ienjoy having children as part of worship. They bring spontaneity, joy, energy, inquisitiveness and wonder to what’s going on. There are times, however, where they are in an emotional state where they just need to act out. Sometimes life is just a little too much for them and they have a meltdown – sometimes right in the middle of the Sanctuary. While the parents are mortified, all of us who have been parents of young children know that these things will happen, and we rush to comfort the parents once the “event” has passed. Truthbe- told, in our world today it’s not just the children who are acting out – folks who are long beyond their childhood lose their minds and act out in ways that are both visible and harmful.
Blessed Assurance – Things that last
My father was a selftaught “handyman”.