I’m often blown away by the beauty of my kids’ artwork that comes home from school. I often see a Bible passage jumping off the page and captured by their paint strokes. Artsonia emails fill my inbox, inviting me to print their art onto a coffee mug or t-shirt. I have found other fun uses for their masterpieces. … More Abby’s Art: Streams in the Desert
I’m thrilled to announce the release of three of my “Untold Tales” short stories available in time for Easter! These imaginative and moving portraits of the passion present beloved stories and characters in new and fascinating ways. Collect all of these beautifully illustrated books, and give a copy to a friend for Easter. Read excerpt of “Love Cut the Rope.” … More Book Release: Untold Tales Series
Last night was a sweet kind of homecoming for me. I was invited back to speak at the church of my childhood, where I was baptized and confirmed and the early seeds of my faith were sown. I brought my two boys along to show them where it all began for me. Here’s what I shared. … More Goodness & Mercy Follows
My new short story tells the story of Paul’s shipwreck in Acts 27, imagining Paul, a lone Jew on a ship of superstitious pagans, each telling stories from their sacred texts. As the storm outside grows more perilous, and the shipmates begin to panic, Paul remains calm and brings spiritual leadership to these doomed “souls in chains.” … More New Book Debut this Sunday
In this week’s lectionary text, 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle Paul emphasizes his holy obligation and divine calling to proclaim the gospel, representing a countercultural surrender to a higher purpose. I share some of my own experience and challenges of my call to full-time ministry, and conclude by highlighting the current crisis of clergy burnout and offering a call to love and support those who have surrendered their life to full time Christian service. … More The Company of the Summoned
“Isaak, grab a notepad and pen, and go watch Trump’s victory speech. Tally up how many mean things he says about someone else.” Isaak loves counting, and he’s very sensitive to bullying, so he relished the assignment. He caught only the last 10 minutes of the speech, but the photo here shows the result. … More 32 Put Downs in 10 Minutes
Hope isn’t a wish or happy thought, a longed for result or creedal confession. Hope is an atmosphere of grace. Hope is a spiritual address. We live in Hopeville on Hope Street. We breathe its pure air. We run across its soft grass. Hope’s water bubbles up from the spring of Living Water and runs out our faucet. We have planted our family’s fortunes in Hope’s rich soil. Like a person who lives their entire life in a small town, we live in Hope and someday we will die in Hope. … More Suffering into Hopeville
We sat in a sacred circle with a chair placed in the center. Myself and about a dozen other pastors were on retreat at St. Mary of the Lake north of Chicago back on October 8-13. We each took a turn sitting in the “hot seat” where we held a candle in our lap and … More God’s Healing Light
In case it has escaped your attention, today is Day 22 at Children’s Hospital with our 10-year old son, Isaak. It was four Mondays ago I rushed him to the ER in stomach pain. Things continue to improve and there is real talk of going home “soon”. I haven’t had the energy or time or … More Divine Bowel Movements
From my comfortable spot in the jacuzzi I can see people upstairs moving and sweating on the machines. Today, as I toweled off after 20 minutes of reading Brueggemann’s book on Exodus in the hot tub, I pondered the value of both running and soaking in spiritual terms. … More Soaking in Christ
As I turned 44 years old this past week, I’ve been ruminating on this breathtaking quote from Saint Augustine’s Confessions: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you.” … More Better Late Than Never: 44th Birthday Reflection
I went on a retreat recently with my good friend Peter and our spiritual father David Johnson. We spent much time around the fire talking about our desire to be better fathers. Ironically, this absent-minded father didn’t realize this retreat would take me away from my son on his 10th birthday! … More Fathers Around the Sacred Fire
Kingdom Harbor 