I took some time at lunch today to watch the online feed of the memorial service for Tim Keller, who passed several weeks ago from cancer. Keller, founder and lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, was a giant in evangelical circles, if nothing more for his constant Christocentric approach to church and...
Read more →I met my pal and writing chum Tammie this morning, and as we settled into our semi-monthly routine of ordering some coffees, unbundling our gear at our table at the restaurant, and chatting a few about the recent events in our lives, our talk touched on current life and relationships, and my mind revisited...
Read more →A the start of this year, I joined a group of people who wanted to read through the New Testament in the year. It’s a convenient exercise to do, because there are 260 chapters in the New Testament, which makes accomplishing the feat involve reading 1 chapter a day, 5 days a week. Anyways,...
Read more →
It is often a little sad to get up from lying there, my body stiff from my awkward headrest against the side of the bathtub, that angle cockeyed to my flat sprawl on the bathroom floor linoleum. It is hard because in the cat bed beside me, kneeling on the folded green towel, he...
Read more →It’s funny what sticks with you over the years. When I was a freshman at Eldorado High School, unsure and unconfident, I remember one fall evening sitting out on the big rock by the east parking lot waiting for a ride home. It was following an evening tryout for the school’s basketball teams. It...
Read more →I have a sense of where to go with the Ruby story, but just do not have it in me tonight to whittle the next chapter out. Too tired. I will just say Thank You to my folks for raising me around the Bible. The world is weird. Progress says that all of our...
Read more →I don’t have a lot today. I spent much of it like I often seem to do on long holiday weekends- doing nothing. And inevitably, I tell myself “Next time, I won’t waste it.” And that is the pain of it. When the long weekend comes, I plan nothing. I have no motivation. I...
Read more →“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” Luke 11:11-12 Ten days into the Trump administration, and it has been dizzying to see what the President and his people would do from one...
Read more →
And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. ~ Micah 6:8 Recently, I find myself tiring a little more each day of visiting Facebook. It seems like every other post by people I know has become a political statement or...
Read more →
On Monday, my old friend Chris and I took an opportunity to go see a movie together. It’s rare we get to do that, mostly because he’s a busy guy with work and with lots of family activities. But for this occasion, we both wanted to get to this film. since, to us, It...
Read more →
A busy work day after a long Memorial Day weekend, I was grateful it was interrupted midday by a lunch appointment with Steve. I was lost in space driving over to the downtown Monroe’s on Lomas when I realized I had drove past it on Central, and then made a long detour north up...
Read more →
I’ve been pretty fortunate throughout my life. Instead of being born in Liberia or in Croatia or in Palestine, I somehow drew the lucky stick to fall out into this world in the United States. I made the cut to hit the tail end of the 20th century, and I also drew the middle...
Read more →
My guess is we all have those moments when it feels like the walls of life are pressing in on us. Or, rather, the walls of being alive press on us. Decisions squeeze us, and choices ask for a decision. Sometimes, it’s the wheeze of mortality heard way to close to us, through a...
Read more →I’ve had several good conversations with a work colleague this week about Christianity, and how it should impact a life. These conversations grew out of some reflections I had talking with a friend and also from considering the experiences shared by others I have known that felt similarly: Christianity is negative. The key complaint...
Read more →The Gospel is first described in the New Testament as the message that Jesus and his followers shared with those they encountered about the Kingdom of God. “It is near”, they said. It’s also the message that Paul says his life was set apart for, that inspired his missionary journeys, his work with Gentiles,...
Read more →As I have been digging through literature on male development and masculinity, I find I return to think about the concept forwarded by Eldredge and touched on by other authors: that those men who grow up with a stunted or damaged masculinity somewhere along the way were either abused or neglected in that area...
Read more →