This image painted by Guyeth Nash sits on my porch. I find myself looking more and more at it during these trying times, considering the words attributed to GK Chesterton. --I discovered I had COVID on December 18, 2020, just before Christmas.  It was enough to blow Christmas wide open.  Our kids were coming home to be with us for the holiday along with their significant others.  To say that we had been eagerly anticipating their visit would be a great understatement.  We were beyond excited!  --I had tried to be careful but obviously I hadn’t been careful enou ..read more

In the summer of 2009 I received a telephone call.  It was the one I had been waiting for for months, and looking back, I now realize that I was more thankful for this call than perhaps anything in my entire life.  All of my past and all of my future came down to that one moment.  … Let me back up just a minute.  I graduated college in 2006, and the economy was booming!  So when I earned a full scholarship for a Master’s degree, it seemed like a no-brainer.  But then you remember what happened in 2008.  When I started my Master’s degree, I could have found a ..read more

“Jesus Christ and all the writers of the New Testament call us to break free of mammon lust and live in joyous trust...They point us toward a way of living in which everything we have we receive as a gift, and everything we have is cared for by God, and everything we have is available to others when it is right and good. This reality frames the heart of Christian simplicity. It is the means of liberation and power to do what is right and to overcome the forces of fear and avarice.” ~Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World Did you know the word we translate ..read more

Spiritual growth is not merely about receiving affirmation and acceptance from God.  ~Brian D. Russell, Connections Commentary “It’s the people not like us that make us grow.” - Jonathan Sacks Growth is hard.  And to do it right, we have to be willing to confront what we’re doing wrong.  But one of the problems is that you can easily lapse into an unhealthy sense of shame and regret.  So how do we find the balance?   God’s people have a habit of over-correcting and winding up in a ditch on one side or the other of the straight and narrow path.  Am I right?&n ..read more

"The men and women who knew Jesus personally were not immune to random, inexplicable tragedy and loss. And in spite of believing that God could’ve kept those bad things from happening . . . they turned to him for comfort and help anyway." —Andy Stanley Are we crazy?  We believe in a good God even when all the bad things keep happening.  No wonder the atheists laugh at us.   But I don’t think we’re crazy.   I was once in an extravagant, elegantly decorated dining hall with full place settings and oil painting over a hundred years old at Oxford University.  It ..read more

Scientists tell us that on a molecular level, it’s true that you are what you eat. So when we eat the bread and drink the cup which represent the body and blood of Christ, we are, quite literally, becoming the body of Christ.  I think that’s what worship is really about-BECOMING.  Have you ever stopped to think bout why we bother to worship on a weekly basis? The answers are all over the place, and it’s funny how much in common we still have without pagan ancestors. In the ancient world, sacrifice was the dominant mode of worship, and you did so to appease an angry god or ..read more

When it seems like there’s no way through, nowhere to go, nowhere left to run...God will make a way.  That’s what the story tells us, and that’s the truth to which we cling when we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place like the Israelites between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea.  We’re no stranger to adversity in this life.  We know that challenges, struggles, and heartbreak are a part of living.  But if we are people of faith, we know that when we’ve reached a place where we can go no further on our own, God shows up and walks with us so that we can say with co ..read more

The kingdom of God is like a giant “Sunday dinner” where we are all seated with a bountiful table in front of us, but the catch is that our arms have become three-foot-long spoons with no elbow.   The guests start to wonder, “What good is all this food if we can’t feed ourselves?”  Some get up and leave.  Some angrily bang on the table.  But there are those who figure out that everyone can eat their fill by simply feeding each other across the table. There is something sacred about eating a meal together, and there’s something even more special knowing that you’ve brought ..read more

“Then the LORD said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians…’” (from Exodus 3:1-15). Charlton Heston is Moses.  At least that’s how I’ve seen it in my mind, and I don’t know if I’ll ever see Moses as anyone else.  There’s some reluctance in this scene (take 2 minutes to watch it), but there’s also a challenge.   The Cecil B. DeMille version has Moses asking God, “Lord, why do You not hear the cries…?”  Isn ..read more

You see what you go looking for.  Sounds obvious, but it’s true.  Stop reading right now and watch this video, carefully following the instructions. How’d you do?  Did you get the right number?  More importantly, did you notice what was right in front of you?  It slipped right by me the first time because I was so focused on following the instructions.  I had already made up my mind about what I was going to see, so much so that I didn’t notice anything else.   So it is with us humans.  This happens all over in our lives.  Once we’ve made up o ..read more