The new school year has arrived, and with four kids in school, I’ve received approximately 10,000 emails in the last week regarding school. Many of these emails are logistics, but... Read more ..read more

I believe the first time my parents told me I was adopted was one day when we were driving home. We were heading up our dirt driveway and I was... Read more ..read more

Today’s world moves at such a hectic pace, and we can, too. The thoughts, questions, and desires of our hearts can be drowned out by our frantic schedules or stuffed down because we are afraid to look at them or don’t know what to do with them. When are we ever quiet, simply alone with our thoughts? When do we take a break from activity and our phones to just allow ourselves to be still and invite our hearts to speak to us? When do we allow our feelings to come up for air? For a long time, my answer was hardly ever. My busyness fueled a lot of frenetic activity and contributed to my anxiety an ..read more

I have three children and two grandchildren, and there are two things that I know for sure about parenting: There is no singular “right way” to do anything. As a parent, you definitely lose your marbles, and you just can’t get them back. Let me explain a little bit. Parents (or primary caregivers) are the greatest influence by far on a child’s faith journey. Even if a parent brings their kid to every week of Sunday School and youth group, the church, on average, has about 40 hours directly teaching that child in a year. Parents have over 3,000 hours a year of direct influence. And with kids ..read more

Happy 4th of July! Last week Omaha was on full display as we celebrated the land of the free. Francis Scott Key famously deemed America “the land of the free and the home of the brave” in 1814; since 1931, those words have been the conclusion of the United States’ national anthem. Every American is familiar with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” While we live in the land of the free, that free comes with a costly price. And that got me thinking: is anything really free? I have heard the phrase “free grace” used many times by pastors and theologians. I understand that we do not do anything to receive ..read more

I grew up in the remote village of Nano in Togo, West Africa, from 1983 to 1994, which allowed me to witness the final years of traditional village culture before the modern West crept in. Life in rural Africa requires a lot of hard work, and that includes the kids. They had little time for play and relaxing. Their life was filled with chores. One of my friends, a young village girl named Lamis, helped her mother sell beanballs in the local market. Lamis looked forward to market days. On Sunday afternoons, our family would head to the market to visit Lamis and purchase beanballs. I loved watch ..read more

This coming weekend, I will be celebrating my 50th birthday. I can remember thinking just how “old” 50 was when I was a teenager. Ancient almost. And it seems like just yesterday that I was turning 30, but the years keep ticking away… and here we are. I’m not scared about it or feeling like this is the end of all my good living. In fact, I have realized when you get older and wiser, that’s sometimes when the really good living begins as you just make better choices for yourself and your loved ones. But I am stuck thinking that there are likely more years behind me than ahead of me and wonderin ..read more

“Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you, it will.” These are the words Yoda uses to teach Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, imploring his young learner to resist the dark side of the force and remain in the light. It’s an important lesson… but I think the sage Jedi might be missing the picture here. Because if there’s any theme in the Star Wars, it’s redemption. For just a few examples: Han Solo is a smuggler and a crook but chooses to selflessly join the Rebel cause and becomes a hero. Lando Calrissian betrays Han but later helps rescue ..read more

One of the things that makes jazz music popular is its ability to break out of traditional “music rules” and use unexpected notes or elements in its structure, and no one utilized this like the legendary Miles Davis. Davis was called a ‘one-take’ musician. He would intentionally not give his band members the songs they would perform until the day of the show. He wanted their performance to be spontaneous with intentional mistakes. He loved live-sounding music that had an unpolished quality to it. Even when recording an album, unlike other musicians who worked to try to make it sound perfect, h ..read more

As a coach, I found it incredibly important that each player knew their role. Each player’s role was crucial to the success or struggles of our team. A basketball team with 12 players who embrace and embody the role they were given and suited for is a team that succeeds to the highest levels. As a pastor, I encourage each person in our church to embrace their role in the church and work together as the body of Christ to reach more people who will join the journey with Jesus for eternity. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. Fo ..read more