Today I turn 35. I’ve decided to enjoy getting older. In spite of the increasing white in my beard, and the realization (thanks to my friend Doug) that I am just as close to 50 as I am to 20, life seems to get better each year. Wait. It’s not that life’s circumstances are getting that much better; I just feel better equipped to enjoy whatever life has in store.
But I do have great expectations for this coming year. Continue reading “Five Reasons I’m Looking Forward to Being Thirty-Five”
Three or four ornaments have fallen under the tree, byproducts of Sam’s curiosity. From where I’m sitting, I now realize the missing sippy cups are under the coffee table. Coats hang from the backs of most of the dining room chairs.
Cade is asleep on the sofa, wrapped in his blanket like a mummy. Some of the books fell off the shelf tonight, a scattered pile of pages. I need to unload the dishwasher. Oh well, that can wait until tomorrow morning.
Continue reading “The Incarnation in the Midst of Chaos”
The online world connects us like never before. One thing I’ve discovered is this: there are a lot of talented writers, artists, and musicians in the world. Here are four projects you should consider following or getting involved in:
Continue reading “Help These Four Awesome Ideas Become Reality”
Just before the baby entered the world about six months ago, the nurses covered all the mirrors in the delivery room with sheets and dimmed the lights, like superstitious ancients. They piled pillows on the mother’s ripe stomach. All of this so that she wouldn’t see the girl-child when she emerged into the world. Continue reading “The Best Birthday Present”
I sat quietly, waiting for the funeral to start. The church was large, the auditorium spacious. Silence crept around the room, behind the flowers and under the seats.
In the midst of this peace, the ushers brought a man in a wheel chair to the aisle seat, perhaps four rows in front of me. He was gruff and unpleasant, mumbling about something. After the ushers kindly helped him into his seat, he looked around with a harumph and wanted to know what they were going to do if he had to go to the bathroom. A valid concern.
Continue reading “The Pastor and the Man in a Wheelchair”
When you push your body to the limit, spiritual lessons creep to the foreground. Whether it’s through the endurance of unasked for pain or voluntarily running a race, there is something about the body edging close to its limit that impacts the soul.
The thing I keep thinking back on regarding the Tough Mudder is how many of those obstacles were impossible to accomplish alone.
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Four of the guys who ran the Tough Mudder in our group sat side-by-side on the stage, and the silent crowd of three hundred people looked up at them, waiting. Continue reading “Influence, Grace, and The Tough Mudder”
