Author page: davegipson@hotmail.com

Once I was a thief… for about 6 times each week onstage. A few years ago, I played Jean Valjean in a production of the musical Les Miserables. It was a life-changing experience, and a story that continues to teach me. As a newly-released convict, Valjean robs a Bishop who had shown him kindness. When Valjean is…

Watch Pastor Dave's message on age and running out of time...

Winning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. For instance, do you remember everyone’s favorite Grammy-winners, “The New Vaudeville Band”? Anyone? Well, they won 1967’s Best Contemporary Rock and Roll recording, beating out two unquestionable masterpieces, “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles, and “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys. Got the name of New Vaudeville Band’s hit song yet?…

About a year ago, our lives were tragically changed in an instant.  Last June on Father’s Day, my brother-in-law Claude Williams was killed. He was a pastor in New Orleans, with a wife and three young boys. He’d stopped to help a stalled motorist and was hit by a drunk driver speeding at approximately 100…

One of my favorite jokes is the one about the student who wrote across his religion professor's chalkboard, "God is Dead' - Nietzsche" The old teacher saw it, but went on with his lesson unphased. The next day the student came to class to see if his statement was still on the chalkboard. But instead, it appeared…

We used to live across from a man who watched our house every single day. Even worse, he was constantly leering at our kids. Anywhere else, you’d call the cops on him.  But in Florida, you elect him to the Neighborhood Association board. It was as if that nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched lived across…

Here's an excerpt from my new book The Seven Surprises, available now at Amazon.com. Hope you enjoy it - Dave I first started waking up around the age of 41. I’d just started work at a very great church. I knew it was a great church because the people were sure to tell me that most…

Allow me for a moment to do a bit of "virtue signaling"... One morning last winter, Facebook decided to post an old photo from the winter before on my newsfeed. It was taken by my wife, who tagged me when I was shoveling snow off our neighbor’s front yard. We were living in St Louis, and…

This is a picture of my baby girls a few days before Fathers Day 2020. I remember the exact moment and where I was when the one on the right entered my life. Her name is Elizabeth (“Ellie” for short) and she was my second chance at being a dad. It’s not that I was…

These are my two little girls, 5 and 6 years old, asleep in our home. A picture of safety and peace. We adopted them after fostering them from birth. One is part African American, the other Latina. The lives of both me and my wife revolve totally around them. Put simply, we adore them.…

     Have you ever noticed that heroes don’t run from explosions anymore in the movies? Seriously, that’s so “last year”.      No, the really cool movie hero simply tosses his cigarette toward a fire near him. That fire just happens to be around some massively combustible edifice (gas stations work best for…

By the way, here’s a true confession… I hate rollercoasters.  Yeah, I know that makes me a hypocrite now with all the rollercoaster talk. They say there’s always some point at which an analogy falls apart. For me, it’s where you actually board a rollercoaster.  I simply don’t trust those hastily-assembled rust-buckets you’d find at your…