Tim Eichenbrenner's Blog

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.”
–President Abraham Lincoln

The month of January is designated as National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, an attempt to make the public more aware of this nefarious activity, its signs, and our efforts to fight it through law enforcement and Congressional action.

It’s estimated that there are more people enslaved today than all of those who were victims of what we consider “traditional” slavery. Men, women, and children are caught in the sick web of sex- or labor-trafficking.

Trafficking goes on under our radar in the worst and best of neighborhoods, communities, and cities. It’s particularly rampant in larger cities with quick interstate access and/or busy, large airports. People can be easily transported from region to region, making it harder for the authorities to rescue victims and arrest their traffickers.

Some sobering facts:
• Trafficking is more lucrative than the illegal drug trade. A drug can be used once, but a body can be sold multiple times a day.

• Men and boys account for about 25% of victims, and 50% of sex-trafficked youth are boys.

• Men are primarily labor-trafficked. Women and children are almost always sex-trafficked.

• Over forty percent of victims are trafficked by a family member or intimate partner.

• Trafficking occurs everywhere, including the nicest of neighborhoods.

• Victims often fail to seek help, as they’re either ashamed or afraid, or they’ve succumbed to “Stockholm Syndrome.”

• About twenty-five percent of child sex traffickers are women, with mothers sometimes trafficking their daughters for financial gain or to support a drug habit.

• ANY child with a screen device can be trafficked. Children are immature in their thinking and often fall for schemes and traps set by traffickers on the dark web. The “cleverest” criminals can get into a child’s device in five minutes or less. Access to social media makes children more vulnerable to being trafficked.

• Victims not only lose their freedom, but their dignity and sense of self-worth, often resulting in a greater chance they will never be set free.

Fortunately, law enforcement–even to the highest levels of the Department of Justice–and Congress are aware of the pervasiveness of trafficking. Officers are fighting it every day and our elected officials are drafting legislation to limit it. That said, only 1,912 persons were referred to U.S. attorneys for human trafficking offenses in the year 2022, representing a small percentage of all traffickers.

Some of the warning signs that your loved one, especially a child, may be undergoing “grooming” by traffickers:
• Mood swings and behavioral changes.

• Unexplained poor school performance and/or truancy.

• Use of street language.

• Possession of unexplained, expensive gifts.

• Couch surfing (spending nights at different people’s homes).

• Suspicious injuries.

• Answers to questions seem rehearsed and stories often contain inconsistencies.

Why should we care about trafficking? The reasons are both international and local. Globally, it’s a tremendous human rights issue. Closer to home, of course, our own children are just as vulnerable as children in other countries. And, everywhere, it’s an indication of how sick some elements of our society are.

All of us need to be aware of the risks of being trafficked. Parents must know and monitor the social media sites their children visit. Children thirteen and under shouldn’t be on such sites.

In his 1941 State of the Union speech, President Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated our four freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. Clearly, the world has changed, but we’re still far better off in the U.S. than are people in many other parts of the world.

Notwithstanding how startling this subject is, let’s be grateful to God for our relative safety and for the many other blessings in our lives.

The post Tuesday Thoughts: Why Give Freedom a Second Thought? appeared first on timeichenbrenner.com.

Paradise Alden returns home to Nova Cambridge, Alabama, and steps back into a past laden with broken relationships, loss, and grief. As the new veterinarian for The Sanctuary, a wild animal reserve, she knows she’ll be reacquainted with Blake Lawson, her teenage boyfriend who, in her opinion, betrayed her. She’s also fighting the mental and physical scars of a jaguar attack–one of the big cats she’ll be responsible for taking care of. But, she needs a job and the money . . . and there are unexplained murders to solve and personal attacks to withstand.

Colleen Coble’s Ambush is a romantic suspense, one of the hottest-selling genres in fiction today, and Coble, a prolific, best-selling author, is one of the most successful writers in the genre.

If you’re looking for a clean mystery suspense combined with romance, Ambush is the book for you!

reviewed January 2026

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“Our goals can only be reached through the vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”
–Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist

The other day, a friend admitted he didn’t make it to the fitness center that morning. “Really?” I said. He responded, “Yep . . . and that makes four hundred twenty-three days in a row!”

It’a a new year, and with it come newly-crafted resolutions. Maybe yours is to go to the gym, or get some other type of exercise regularly. That’s a popular one. Commercial fitness centers enjoy an upswing in enrollment every January–not visits, mind you; just memberships!

We’re almost one week into the new year, and many of us have probably already “dropped the ball” on our resolutions faster than it dropped in Times Square last week!

What is it about a turn of the calendar year that garners so much attention? Realistically, were we marooned on an island with no access to media or other sources of information, going from December 31 to January 1 would be no different than any other day–just another rotation of the Earth.

There’s something psychological about the new year. A turning of the page, so to speak. We all get a mulligan on things we meant to do last year. So, we try again, but we also make new plans, set new goals, and start new endeavors. Of course, there’s the old saying: “We make plans, and God laughs.”

For some of us, the new year holds the promise of fulfilling one of life’s stages: graduation, the beginning of a career, marriage, starting a family, retirement. Any of those landmark events would warrant bated-breath anticipation.

Or, maybe some of us are putting unpleasant events behind us: a disappointing friendship, health challenges, sorrow, a broken personal relationship, loss, financial hardship. The new year doesn’t change what’s happened previously, but it gives us hope for better circumstances in this new season of life.

We also need to remember the unmerited blessings we experienced in 2025 through God’s grace, and not let the memories of disappointments overshadow all the good that we enjoyed.

Probably all of us do have an idea of things we want to accomplish this year. Such things don’t have to be, and likely won’t be, grand. As Mother Teresa once said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” That’s a notion worth remembering.

So, as we enter 2026, let’s set goals, be they large or small, and do our best to accomplish them. Perfectly? Probably not. And that’s okay. There’s an old admonition: “Don’t let the ‘perfect’ be the enemy of the ‘good.'” We’ll do our best, and count our blessings as we go. What more could we hope to look forward to?

Best wishes for a peaceful and healthy 2026!

The post Tuesday Thoughts: Be it Ever So Resolved appeared first on timeichenbrenner.com.

“The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.”
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As I’ve said on these pages previously, no one likes to wait. Nevertheless, we’re in a season of waiting–the season of Advent. The word implies a coming into existence. We capitalize it to signify the coming of the Christ Child–this year, something we began celebrating November 30th, even though it actually occurred over two thousand years ago.

Each year, for about four weeks, we celebrate, we party, and we worship as we wait in hopeful anticipation of Christmas, the day we mark the incarnation of God as Jesus, or Immanuel–“God with us.”

Millenia ago, the Jews were waiting on the coming of their savior. Prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah foretold of that event, word spread, and the news was handed down from generation to generation. The Jews thought a mighty warrior would come into the world and conquer all those who would disparage, imprison, and kill God’s chosen people. Who could have blamed them?

What happened? That mighty conqueror entered the world as an innocent and vulnerable newborn, delivered to a single teen in a nondescript location in the podunk town of Bethlehem. His parents, Joseph and Mary, were citizens of Nazareth, a town to which they would eventually return with their child. “Could anything good come from Nazareth?”, the eventual disciple Nathaniel would later ask.

Well, to answer Nathaniel: A lot of good. In fact, a goodness unsurpassed by any human being before his time, or ever to come. A goodness who taught forgiveness, acceptance, non-judgment, compassion, and love. Jesus’ message and his actions were different from anything previously heard or witnessed. He walked the walk that he talked.

And what was his fate? The very people who had waited centuries for his arrival rejected him, humiliated him, persecuted him, and ultimately killed him . . . and then he forgave them. Could we bring ourselves to that level of forgiveness? It’s not a rhetorical question; it’s what Christ challenges us to do.

This Christmas, don’t let the glitter, glamour, goodies, and gifts obscure the fact that the Christ Child came into a dark world and ushered in the light of salvation. After the presents are opened this week and then the bills come due in January, try to keep that Christmas spirit, because God is still with us. Immanuel. The light of the world. And that gives us hope as we continue to wait. That’s right–we’re still waiting!

We’re waiting on the promise of his second coming. An entry into this world that won’t go unnoticed like the first did, save for a handful of shepherds and magi and a stable full of barn animals. Until then, we’ll continue to acknowledge his significance throughout the year, but especially on the anniversary of his birth.

So, enjoy the birthday celebration, and keep waiting. But for now, may you and those you love and cherish enjoy a season replete with wonder, comfort, and joy!

The post Tuesday Thoughts: When It’s Worth the Wait appeared first on timeichenbrenner.com.

“You’re in a season where joy and happiness should be a daily staple, but you’re totally numb and exhausted. You question if you’ll ever be able to feel that joy and happiness again.”
–Author unknown

Buckle up, folks; it’s here. The Christmas season’s now in full bloom. The halls are decked, the tree is decorated, and the outdoor lights are shiny and bright. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday have come and gone, but shoppers soldier on, determined to check off items on their “Gifts to Buy” lists.

It’s Christmas, with its parties, gifts, food, church services, concerts, and family get-togethers. Everyone’s in the Christmas spirit.

Well, no; not everyone. For some, this is their first Christmas with a parent or older sibling no longer present. For others, for the first time in a long time, it’s a Christmas without a spouse or perhaps a close friend. There’s an empty seat at the table, and that means things aren’t the same.

Listen, life without hardship, tragedy, and grief is just a fairy tale. In the real world, all of us have experienced, or will experience, such emotions. They just seem more poignant and heart-wrenching this time of the year.

Maybe you’ve been there. Spirits are bright, folks are unusually cordial, and joy fills the air . . . and all you can think is, “How can everyone just go about the business of Christmas when my life’s been shattered?”

Believers were never promised a “rose garden.” Jesus warned his closest disciples of the hardships they’d face in life. Even Paul, the erudite author of over half of the New Testament, wrote, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV).”

I can only imagine how long the line will be for people in queue to hear God explain to them why bad things happen to good people!

For things do happen that we can’t explain or reconcile. Our faith is tested. Somehow, we get through it, for we know, as David assures us, “. . . weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5 NIV).” We lean on our faith–something we know in our heart to be true that we can’t explain with our brain, as a pastor friend of mine likes to say.

So, if you have been there, maybe, just maybe, you can use your experience for good by reaching out to someone going through a difficult and lonely time in their life. Use what you survived, and learned from, to be a blessing to someone else. Your call, note, or visit might just be the thing that makes their Christmas bearable.

And, for all of us, go out at night and look up at that star in the east. It not only guides us to the Christ Child, as it did the wise men that first Christmas, but it glows with the assurance that in Him we have faith, we have hope, and we know there will be rejoicing in the morning.

The post Tuesday Thoughts: Tis the Season for Joy . . . and Sadness appeared first on timeichenbrenner.com.

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer.”
–Maya Angelou, American poet and author

First, my annual list of some of the things for which I’m thankful. Then, a few thoughts on gratitude.

During this Thanksgiving week, I’m particularly thankful for:

• My faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Without faith, I’ve got nothing.

• Family, both mine and my church family.

• A strong marriage.

• Being born in the USA. I’m one of the millions of lottery winners!

• First responders, nurses, and teachers–all of them dedicated . . . and underpaid!

• North Carolina. From the ocean’s shore to the trout streams in the mountains, a fisherman’s paradise.

• College football, even though the powers to be are doing what they can to ruin it.

• The man who invented pickleball.

• Good health. May we not wait until we lose it to appreciate it.

• Friends–I’ve acquired so many new ones in the last year and a half.

• Books, and those who read them.

• Laughter. If you’ve ever been in a season of life when you couldn’t laugh, recapturing it is wonderful.

• Everyone on my author’s email subscription list. Thank you for sticking with me!

• Independent bookstores–the “David” trying to slay “Goliath.” We know who Goliath is, right?

• Fly fishing.

• Coffee.

• Grace. In my opinion, it’s the most beautiful word in the Bible.

• Healthy and decorous debate.

• And, of course, Ocean Spray cranberry sauce!

I started writing this blog over five years ago, when we were in the midst of the Covid scare. I wrote about many things–Covid, politics, and sports, to name a few. Gradually, my posts morphed into what I hope are more uplifting, positive words about our lives.

On a macro level, how can we not be grateful for living in this country, notwithstanding its political and social shortcomings? On a micro level, we’re all blessed. Pause before you dig in this Thanksgiving Day and look at the bounty on your table.

Is life perfect? Of course not. We all experience illness, loss, grief, and other challenges. But I believe what doesn’t kill us really does make us stronger, and that there’s an omniscient and omnipresent divine power, God, who watches over us. We were never promised life would be easy, only that our Father would be there for us, and carry us when we couldn’t take another step. In fact, Jesus taught that lesson repeatedly to his disciples and other followers.

I love the story of the healing of the ten lepers, found in Luke 17:11-19. Normally isolated and shunned, they went to show themselves to the priests when Jesus commanded them to do so. By faith they responded, and their faith is what made them well. But only one of them had an attitude of gratitude–the one who returned to Jesus and threw himself at Jesus’ feet as a gesture of thanksgiving.

Don’t miss the fact that he was a Samaritan, a member of a people who were a “mixed race” of foreign blood and practitioners of idol worship. Judeans and Galileans went out of their way to avoid going through Samaria as they traveled back and forth.

There’s a lesson for us there. A downcast member of a hated tribe, an individual afflicted with an awful disease, was the only one who expressed his gratitude. Can we–a blessed people living in the greatest country in the world–not do the same? Can we not stop and give thanks for all that a gracious God has given us? Not just the week of Thanksgiving, but every day of the year?

I’m going to try. I hope you will too.

The post Tuesday Thoughts: Why Have an Attitude of Gratitude? appeared first on timeichenbrenner.com.

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, is an imaginative story of Tova, an elderly widow who works as a cleaning lady at Sowell Bay Aquarium, and one of the featured marine animals there–Marcellus, a Pacific octopus. Who would have thought to give an octopus a voice, personality, feelings, and ingenuity? Van Pelt did! It’s a cute story with a sweet ending. In my opinion, the ending was predictable and Van Pelt could have gotten there a little faster. Clearly, the book’s been well received, as it was featured as a “Read with Jenna” book on the Today Show and is a New York Times bestseller.
If you’re looking for a sweet story about growing older, loneliness, friendship, and family relationships that’s told in a creative way, Remarkably Bright Creatures will not disappoint.

November 2025

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“I don’t want to live in the kind of world where we don’t look out for each other. Not just the people that are close to us, but anybody who needs a helping hand. I can’t change the way anybody else thinks, or what they choose to do, but I can do my bit.”
–Charles de Lint, Canadian author

As I write this, my town is in the midst of its third day of rain–nothing heavy, mind you, but nearly always present, even if just misty and annoying. I catch myself griping. We often don’t appreciate the sunshine until we go through a rainy spell. The sun’s up there somewhere above the clouds, but we can’t see it.

How often do we complain when bad weather interferes with our plans? No pickleball, three days and counting. Egads! Poor me. Or, maybe for you, it’s golf, tennis, a picnic, or some other outdoor activity. And what about the “eau de wet dog” odor in the house? Life can be hard, right?

And then I think of the Caribbean countries of Jamaica, Cuba, and Haiti, recently hit with the powerful wind and torrential rain of Hurricane Melissa. Do you think any of the citizens affected by the storm would pity poor, little me? Do you think they’re worried about a golf, tennis, or pickle ball? I suspect they’re more concerned about merely surviving.

We wonder if we’ll see the sun tomorrow. Many of those folks will never see their homes again.

Everything is relative. For most of us living in the United States, our worst day is likely better than the best day of the majority of people in the world. We are a blessed nation–likely something we often take for granted.

But then, it hits closer to home. There are folks in western North Carolina still recovering from the ravages of September 2024’s Hurricane Helene. The devastation was breathtaking, and now some citizens, still homeless, are facing another brutal winter.

With the government shutdown, people in need are doing without their SNAP benefits. While they lack the resources to get much of the food they need, most of us make our routine weekly trip to the grocery store. Thank goodness for food drives, food banks, and other nonprofits, whose mission is to feed the hungry. Right now, they need our support more than ever. Isn’t that the least we can do?

And, speaking of the least, recall Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46, the passage titled, “The Sheep and the Goats,” but what I like to call, “The Parable of the Least of These.” In it, he compels us to care for the downtrodden. It’s the essence of his three years of ministry. As was often the case, his disciples were confused by his message.

But we read it and the message is clear. We’re called to help those worse off than we are. By luck, we were born into a world of plenty. We shouldn’t feel guilty about that, but shouldn’t it motivate us to reach out a helping hand to those in need?

The season of giving thanks is upon us. On Thanksgiving Day, most of us will be in warm homes with tables overflowing with food and football spilling out of the television. That will be the opportune time to thank God for our blessings, and to ask for his guidance in showing us how best to help those who need it the most.

May it be that he will show us how to do “our bit.”

The post Tuesday Thoughts: How Do We Weather Life’s Storms? appeared first on timeichenbrenner.com.

“In the silence of the heart, God speaks.”
–Mother Teresa

On my runs (a word I use liberally), I frequently encounter folks out for a walk who don’t respond when I say “Hi” or if I wave. Typically, they’re using ear buds or wearing head phones, seemingly oblivious to what’s going on around them. Perhaps they’re making a statement that they’d prefer not to be bothered.

You might say, “Well, they’re listening to music, or a podcast, or maybe even an audiobook or sermon.” Maybe so, and that’s their rightful choice. But don’t they, or all of us, ever tire of the noise?

In today’s world, we are bombarded with auditory stimuli: television, radio, podcasts, and social media–our sources of “silent noise” that fill our heads just as much as the audible words fill our ears. What’s more, we seem to crave it, a fact that probably explains why there’s such a market for these purveyors of auditory disruption.

And it’s not just noise, it’s loud noise. Have you ever noticed how much louder commercials are than the TV show you’re watching? And music, from rock concerts to church services, is cranked up, as though the louder it’s played, the more attention it’ll get or the better it will sound. It’s no wonder ENT doctors and audiologists are concerned about our population’s increased incidence of hearing loss.

I suspect many of you have sworn off television coverage of the news, as have I. It’s biased, disruptive, and often replete with half-truths. If you still watch the news, sometime when it’s on, turn it off and soak in the silence, a welcome respite from the “Breaking News” that also broke yesterday and the day before.

The psalmist wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10 NIV).” This was written when the people of ancient Israel were under attack and existentially threatened. But it’s just as apropos for such a time as this–a time when vitriol spews from the right and the left, and even from the halls of Congress and the White House, places where calm and reasoned discourse and debate once prevailed. Now, we are bombarded by noise from those whom we elected to govern us and lead us forward.

When we quiet our environment, we’re able to reflect on life and its meaning, our personal station in this world, and God’s sovereignty. We realize he’s in control, not us, and suddenly things no longer seem so noisy and precarious. The vitriol that fills our ears and is meant to frighten us, or motivate us politically or socially, seems like little more than gibberish. We can’t let what we hear, or read, for that matter, fill our brains and crowd out more useful input.

To be sure, there are positive sounds we should avail ourselves of: music (played at a reasonable decibel level!); podcasts and television shows that seek to educate us or sometimes just entertain us; audiobooks; and especially polite conversation.

When is the last time you silenced your phone, turned off the television, put away your laptop and iPad, and just sat and listened to the natural sounds of our environment? That’s a big ask, as we’re addicted to our devices, right? Just think of what you miss when you’re tuned out and plugged in: birds singing, the wind rustling through the tree leaves, the laughter of children at play.

May I encourage you to do just that? Try immersing yourself in the silence. If you do, you might just hear that still, small voice of God, filling you with calm and hope and peace.

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“Don’t leave anything for later. Later, the coffee gets cold. Later, you lose interest. Later, the day turns into night. Later, people grow up. Later, people grow old. Later, life goes by. Later, you regret not doing something . . . when you had the chance.”
–Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Japanese author

In my day, the cartoon “Popeye” also featured Wimpy, Popeye’s buddy who loved hamburgers. His famous line was, “I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” It was a dig at Americans’ tendency toward financial irresponsibility. Imagine what Wimpy would say about the financial condition of our nation today!

For practical purposes, most of us do put off paying for things. We finance big purchases like houses and cars, rather than waiting until we sock away enough cash to buy them outright. That makes perfect sense.

Who likes to wait? In line. In traffic. For purchases. For Christmas. For a text reply or an email response. A college admission response. A job promotion. A medical report. Even for a hamburger! And the list goes on and on.

I suspect none of us likes to wait if we can avoid it. Delayed gratification builds character, but it’s no fun. Why do you think Amazon is such a success? “Expected to arrive by 8 AM tomorrow.” Why does every kitchen have a microwave? Instant gratification.

But what about our interpersonal relationships? Why are they sometimes the things we do wait on? My “To Do” list? That note I’m going to write? That phone call I’m planning to make? That personal visit, just to touch base? How easy it is to put off such things, and how often we do just that. And then, as Mr. Kawaguchi suggests, the opportunity passes and we regret not doing something.

The Bible has a lot to say about procrastination, especially in Proverbs. “Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing (Proverbs 20:4 NIV).” In other words, if we fail to do the work now, we’ll suffer consequences in the future.

In his gospel, Matthew wrote, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5: 23-24 NIV).” We believers think worship’s pretty important, but according to Jesus, it takes a back seat to healing a flawed relationship.

Our mindset: There’s plenty of time, so if I don’t get to it today, maybe tomorrow. But do we know that to be true? Time is our most limited and precious resource, and we don’t know when our time on this Earth will end. Tomorrow’s not guaranteed–for us or for the person or people with whom we need to connect.

Have you ever sat in a memorial service and thought about what you should have said to, or what you should have done for, the person being memorialized?

“I love you.” “I’m sorry.” “How can I help you.” “Forgive me.” “Just wanted to touch base and check on you, as it’s been a while.” “Can we meet for a cup of coffee?” All of these are great things to say . . . before it’s too late.

So, carpe diem. Seize the day! What are you waiting for?

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