Written in Stone?

A funny thing happened on the way to a memorial service. I don’t even remember what we were talking about, but a granddaughter of the deceased said, “well, it’s not written in stone….” In that moment, I made a connection that seemed so obvious I was at once wanting to think more about it and

Not against religion

I just can’t take it anymore. The next time I hear someone say “Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship,” well, I don’t know what I’ll do, but I won’t remain silent any more. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve said this myself! I’ve said lots of things. only some of them have been

I don’t always agree with me

Tom Wright, I believe, said something like, “I believe I’m right 2/3 of the time. The challenge is that I am never sure exactly which 2/3 that is.” I’m pretty sure I agree with him about this. What I mean by that is that I recognize I am not right about everything. On the other

Is God like this?

When I climb the stairs in our house to check on our kids, I usually don’t announce myself. It’s not that i want to catch them doing something they shouldn’t be doing. I would just as soon catch them doing something they should be doing. In fact, I would prefer the latter. But I still

Who am I to tell you…?

Can I admit to you here how much I hate being treated like I don’t know what I’m doing? Except, of course, when I am admittedly a novice or rookie. But: I’ve been at this pastoring thing for almost 30 years! So when someone approaches me – especially when they condescendingly share that it’s from

Knowing When

as in: Knowing when to say what you’re thinking, and when not to. I called 6 times before an actually person picked up. The message I received the first five times indicated I had called outside of business hours. Business hours began at 8 am. I started calling at 8 am. I cannot tell you

Are we in Sync?

I saw and re-tweeted a request for prayer for Belize this morning. Our Church is sending a team on mission there in April, so it caught my attention. That I was invited to pray for Belize wasn’t blog-worthy. The other point the tweet shared was. Apparently much of Belize has been evangelized, but there is

Overwhelmed: Putting God on Trial

We are some MESSED UP people!  The good news is that the Bible clearly establishes that we are messed up in the same ways people have always been messed up, and that God both loves us anyway, AND has already done everything necessary to deliver us from our sin and to begin our healing of

IncarnATE 1.0

Mary, did you know? No, really, Mary: did you know? Maybe a better question would be, “Mary, what did you know, and when did you know it?” I mean, really: dare we think that Mary could have possibly imagined thinking about Jesus the way we think about Jesus? When you think about thinking about Jesus

How will you remember?

Six years ago today, we checked Eliza into Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children. It was the beginning of what would end up being an almost 7 month process of correcting the dysplasia in her left hip. The hospital was wonderful; we still have annual follow-up appointments as she grows. If we didn’t have these