Blog


On Holy Ground
Calling my dad a real estate developer is a bit misleading. A typical “development” for my dad was finding an old block of real estate


Garage Sale Lessons
One summer years ago, I shocked my son by saying, as I began sorting through stuff that I thought we needed to have a garage


When they go low,
I’m wondering how or if we can hold on to something like Michelle Obama’s hopeful call while also engaging with a vile man doing all


Of Faith and Fiction
A sermon is invariably made better by telling stories, but a story is never made better when it sermonizes.


On a Sunday Afternoon
We met in the parking lot of the country church on either side of which we had lived, my father the pastor and his the


Great work is done while we’re asleep
Last summer, my family and I went for a bike ride along a trail on our way to one of our favorite lunch spots. We


Never Take More Than Half
When my writing crosses the line into sentimentality, I am taking more than half, by which I mean that I am doing my own emotional


WWJP: What Would Jesus Post?
Normally, my relationship with social media is complicated—but on my birthday, it feels fun. Messages, pictures, and love pour in.


A Time for Tender Compassion
Of the many words that name aspects of love, tender is one of my favorite. I used to sing my daughters to sleep, and later


The Library, Acts 2, and Sharing
The books, the board games, the educational toys, the movies, the building blocks, the pots and pans, the guitars, and even the seeds for planting


Flare Legs Jeans and Early 2000s
Popular film after film in the early 2000s had the same premise: young men behaving poorly, but claimed as lovable and good if they managed


Windows on Mystery: Doing and Seeing
Those who limit Easter to the bodily appearances of Jesus slight this promise of Jesus: “I will appear to them.” In worship, we should expect