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The couple next door

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…

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Second Chance Dad

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…

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The Explosion Walk

     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…

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“click, click, click…”

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…

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Won’t you be my neighbor?

I hate finding pictures from my childhood. I’ll be cruising through a photo album and it’s like being blindsided by a 300 pound tackle.  Speaking of 300 pounds… I was a fat, lonely kid with a lousy home life and no friends. Seriously, none. A slew of allergies, asthma and a particularly weird skin ailment…

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How I Know He Lives

Growing up in a southern Baptist church, every Easter there were two hymns you had to sing…or you probably weren’t really Baptist. One was “Low in the Grave He Lay”. Most people don’t remember it by that title, but by the bouncy chorus that interrupts the sad, mournful verse. After lamenting the crucified Jesus, suddenly…

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Thoughts and Prayers

When a tragedy like a school shooting or a natural disaster happen, people feel helpless. They wonder what can be done and look for solutions. Then a cycle begins that repeats itself every tragedy. Often they look for someone to blame. One group sincerely believes the answer is a simple, practical one. They propose legislation…

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FEAR ITSELF

Scared yet? I think my least favorite phrase for the past year is “an abundance of caution”. Like you, this week I’ve turned on the news every morning to make sure the zombie apocalypse hasn’t started yet. Over the next few weeks I believe the things I’ll most be thankful for will be: my Jesus, my health,…

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Time Heals Everything…if you let it

There’s a devastating song in the Jerry Herman musical MACK AND MABEL that goes, "Time heals everything…but loving you”. The female lead who sings this song eventually dies a drug addict, never reunited with the lost love she's still pining for. So much for the term "musical comedy"! We’re often reassured by well-meaning friends that no matter…

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