Small Things
A decade ago, my wife and I and our two boys were driving somewhere I forget–the destination as always being much less important than the moving together in a comfortable, dedicated space. Brennan, our then four year old, had brought
Beginnings and Endings
If you want to understand something, go to the beginning. If you want to know something, go to the end. The difference between understanding and knowing is as vast as that between a PC and an Einstein
Lives and Trees and Stars
Forests and trees. There is a very special relationship between forests and trees. Sometimes we say we can't see the forest for the trees, and when we do, we mean that, nose on bark, we've gotten so lost in minutia and
Preacher Teacher
The purpose of a preacher is to persuade. The purpose of a teacher is to make students ready to engage. I’m a teacher. I’m also a pastor, so many people call what I do on Sunday mornings preaching. But it’s not—not any more
What God Wants
I’ve often heard pastors and televangelists talking about what God wants. What God wants us to do or feel or say or [mostly] give. I’ve always thought it fairly presumptuous to claim to know what God wants from our perch
Lenny
I had just hit snooze on the phone alarm a few minutes ago and was still lying there in that early morning half awareness. And I wasn’t thinking of it at the time, but I’d lit a nine-minute fuse that
What Change May Come
I don’t envy people my age who find themselves dating again…or still. Dating is hard enough at any age–like being on permanent audition. But older we get, seems our attitudes and eccentricities, like our skin, become increasingly non-elastic, already stretched over
After the Mugging
There's an old saying—actually I'm not sure how old it is—but it is a saying, and it goes: A conservative is just a liberal who got mugged. Now I know that half of you reading this are already traveling down
Momentary Meaning
Off to the mountains last week. All the pieces were in place: rented house at Big Bear Lake for four days, my wife Marian, our fourteen year old son, and his grandparents. Our son is one of the quietest kids you’ll
Sharing Meaning
Communication is such a fragile thing. Often an exhausting thing. How close do we ever get to saying what we really mean? Or hearing what was really meant? Conversations, like wrestlers circling each other on the mat, moving in closer with
