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This week, Jen Luitwieler, Kristin Tennant and I are each taking turns blogging about writing, community and solitude. Check out Jen’s take today (link supplied at the bottom of the page).

A young boy (maybe four, maybe five) walks into the house of his great-grandparents. It is crowded with people he does not know – his family recently moved back home, from Texas, and his memory only goes back so far.

His great-grandmother has a kind face and the snow-whitest hair he’s ever seen. She is Amish, as are most of the people in the house, but the boy’s grandparents left the Amish church when his mother was a child, so he does not understand their ways, or their language. Or why they are dressed that way. He feels out of place.

The boy’s parents walk him into his great-grandparent’s bedroom. His great-grandfather is asleep in the bed, dead, dressed in all white. His Santa Claus beard spills down over his chest like so many years. His eyes are closed and his skin is gray, like flaking paper that’s been burned to ash. People cry quietly, the muffled sound that tears make when they are absorbed into a sleeve, or a handkerchief.
Continue reading “What Does God Want – “Love Wins” Book Discussion, Week Three”

“One of the most tragic things about the life that most of us live is that we have lost our sense of adventure.”

To read more about this idea, please head on over to the blog of my good friend/1st-and-a-half cousin Janelle, where I am guest posting today . It’s the story of my wife’s bravery and insistence that I follow my dream of writing full time.

And if you’re visiting here from Janelle’s blog and you haven’t read the whole story of my business failure, our brokenness (both financial and otherwise) and our move back to the place where I grew up, you can get that HERE.

Now I’m off to take a nap.

I wish everyone a wonderful Memorial Day weekend (the best of which normally include sunburns, water in the ear, and some sort of pulled muscle from overdoing it on the yard work).

Here are a few random, unnumbered thoughts for you:

– A huge thanks to all of you readers for making May the most-visited month in the history of this young blog’s life. I love the comments, the kind ways you guys speak to me and to each other and the fact that there are a few people out there willing to ask these questions along with me. Thanks!

– We are now the proud owners of 10 chickens, four of which will hopefully lay a lot of eggs for us, and six of which will be eaten. The kids are fully aware of the identities of the boilers and have already made a few impassioned pleas for leniency.
Continue reading “Ten Chickens and Impassioned Cries for Leniency”

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Ben Emerson, one of the extraordinary (I’ve been using that word a lot lately, thanks to Ramona Quimby) folks I met over at BlogRocket. He’s at the beginning of a monumental undertaking – blogging about each and every chapter in the Bible, starting with Genesis and working his way through.

Today he’s taking a break from his normal exegetical style and providing us with something a little different: Five Writing Secrets I Learned From Genesis (the book of the Bible, not the musical band that brought us “I Can’t Dance” and “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”). Enjoy!

A couple of months ago I decided that I wanted to blog through the entire Bible. I work in ministry and (confession!) have never actually read through it. So it was about time to buck up and go for it. I am nearing the completion of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and was surprised to find so many helpful little nuggets about writing.

What follows is my humble contribution to Shawn’s “Five Writing Secrets I Learned From . . .” series.
Continue reading “Five Writing Secrets I Learned From Genesis”

Yesterday I read a Twitter profile that made me sad. It caught my eye, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Underneath the picture, this person wrote a brief introduction: where they live, what they do, that kind of stuff. Then they ended their profile with a sentence that made me sigh.

“I aspire to be a published author.”

I can see the expression on your face. I know what you’re thinking.

“That’s it? That’s the offending sentiment? It doesn’t take much to make you sad.”

And if you are thinking that, you are right (I nearly cried while watching “Ramona and Beezus” with the kids the other night). I was born with overactive tear ducts.

* * * * *

Why would such a worthwhile goal bring me heartache? Why would I, a writer, find it sad that someone would want to be a published author?
Continue reading “Why “Aspiring to be Published” is a Dangerous Goal”

What if we are (almost) missing the point completely? Is it possible that an entire religion can jump the rails by forgetting something foundational?

About a week ago I got an email from my friend Jason. We’ve been buddies for many years, although now that he lives in western Canada I never see him. But, thanks to the interwebs, his physical location hasn’t stopped us from continuing conversations about our shared interests, namely philosophy and theology.

He has always sort of vacillated back and forth between Christianity and eastern religions, and I value his opinions, one reason being because I feel he is one of my few close friends who can accurately clue me in to what people outside the church think about things.

Which is why I was kind of surprised when he emailed me this:
Continue reading “What My Eastern-Religion-Leaning Friend Taught Me About Being a Christian”