belief

Too often, my life has been like a broken washing machine. I keep “repeating the cycle”. Hindsight is 20/20, they say. Sometimes I wish it were a little more hazy. I've worked lots of jobs through the years, many times serving in churches. Though I never did anything illegal, I did behave in ways early…

The lady was in her 90s, seated by a window with a spectacular view of the golf course landscaping outside. She had been an artist, and her oil paintings decorated many of the walls around us. Her condo was not elaborate but tastefully decorated. I guess that’s what you’d expect from an artist. “I didn’t…

My baby girl Sarah got married last week. And honestly, I didn’t really feel anything. Until today. I arrived in town on Thursday, my wife had been there with our two little adopted girls since that Monday earlier. The man Sarah’s marrying already had a 3 year old girl and a 2 year old boy…

Hello, dear reader. Your arrival here is actually very timely. I’ve got some thoughts I’d love to share with you right now… But I can’t. Really, I can’t. I can’t because I’m seriously afraid. I’m fearful of what your response will be, because for the first time in my life I feel that writing a…

You remember the dumbest things from childhood. Mine was a PE coach. Not that she was dumb, but that she did something completely innocuous that emotionally destroyed me one day. I was maybe in third or fourth grade, standing in a line to come in from the playground. I suppose the PE teacher had said…

October is officially Pastor Appreciation month at most churches. But I don’t think it’s coincidence it falls in the same month as Halloween... ...because being a pastor is scary business. relative of mine goes to a church that’s really been struggling in recent years. Once thriving, now it’s all they can do to keep the…

If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? For even your brothers, the house of your father, even they…

Growing up in a southern church, every Easter there was one hymn you had to sing: a waltzy little ditty called “He Lives”. At the end of the chorus we’d all exclaim, “You ask me how I know He lives - He lives within my heart!” As I entered my college years, that explanation ceased to satisfy…

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…

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…

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…

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…