Skip to content Skip to footer

Backstage

In live theatre, there’s a Zen-like calm you experience backstage much like the calm before a storm. Just a few feet away people are busy acting under bright spotlights. But you’re hidden away in dark solitude, waiting. Anticipation of going onstage is building, and yet I feel peaceful. I suppose that’s because the stage is…

Read More

People > Politics

A man asked to meet me at Starbucks after church one day. He was probably in his late 60s or early 70s, and he immediately impressed me by riding his bike to our little meeting. He explained that after losing his wife of 40+ years in death, he had remarried. His new wife was a…

Read More

Detours and Delays

So with the exit of 2020, we launched out to start a new church. The first two weeks were tremendous, with new people showing up out of nowhere. We had a highly visible location, though parking and seating were limited. While I worried the first Sunday’s crowd was a fluke, the second week we had…

Read More

Hands in the Air

There are two kinds of people you can choose to be: the one on the rollercoaster holding on white-knuckled to the restraint bar, or the one screaming with his hands in the air having a great time. The choice is up to you…      It’s a good thing God doesn’t tell you in…

Read More

At the ballet

So you’re a dad, and part of your “daddly chores” is dropping your 7 year-old daughter off at dance class. She takes two classes back to back, so you drop off and mom picks her up later. “Remember she wants you to stay and watch her. Just stick around a while before you leave,” my…

Read More

IT FOLLOWS

Last Friday night, I took my wife out to a nice restaurant for her birthday. The kids were at a Parent’s Night Out event, so we were finally on our own again. That doesn’t happen often enough for us, still raising two little girls now in our 50s. After a great dinner, we took a…

Read More

Another White Christmas

The gales of wind howled through the trees outside the old cabin. Smoke rose from the chimney as the old man ate his humble soup safely inside. His weathered hands were still steady, having stacked the wood by the cabin walls that would surely last the winter’s full duration. It’s a good thing he had.…

Read More

When Christmas Hurts

There’s a certain odd hush that comes upon a town at Christmas Eve. It’s not that people aren’t still working — those days when everyone got off work for Christmas are gone. But a calm still descends as families gather, and the majority of stores shut off their lights and workers head home. That’s the…

Read More

COMING SOON…

As I wrote in The Seven Surprises, following God will lead us directly into acts of "strategic recklessness" and go on new adventures with God. Sometimes, God will lead us away from complacent paths and send us off-roading a while. It indeed appears God may be asking us to dream once again and go off…

Read More