I’ve got a place I want to spend more time in 2014. And I want to invite you to join me. The place is right here, right now. Wherever that may be. I’ve begun to notice that I spend an incredible amount of time “elsewhere”—that space so many of our hearts and minds go that’s not where we are. I go elsewhere when I focus on what I’d like to have and miss what I do have. Like when at 6 p...
Replay: Bait and Switch
(Originally posted in March 2012. Enjoy!) It’s a form of fraud. A store offers a great item at a great price, but when you show up, that product is gone and you’re shown something “just as good” but at a higher price. If you recognize the scam, you turn on your heels and leave empty handed. There’s a spiritual version of bait and switch, too. And most people buy it hook, line, and sinker...
Vagabond
If you’ve seen an alleyway lined with blankets and cardboard boxes or an underpass flickering with the light of empty oil drum fires, you’ve had a glimpse of a vagabond fellowship. It’s a place where the beat down and broken find an accepting community, but one where they remain broken.
Collision
We’re not too comfortable, it seems, with being real—particularly about the most painful, or sinful, or out-of-control parts of our lives. What if we were?
Better
I’ve been noticing a crazy idea floating around in my head and heart. It’s one of those ideas that’s gone on undetected and unchallenged, like background noise that’s so familiar you don’t notice it until someone points it out to you. It goes something like this: The better you are, the less you need others. Once you’ve earned your diploma, you stop going to classes. The stronger you are, the...
Spark
The internal struggle against sin is itself reason to hope. It’s evidence of the Master’s work in your heart, a spark of goodness within that wants to grow. But for many who struggle, however hard they try, the spark of good remains just a spark, seemingly ineffective amidst the familiar dark waters of temptation. Can you relate? You want to stop yelling at your kids, but you lost your temper...