I used to joke that a school would be a great place to work if it weren’t for all those pesky kids. Same thing’s true of serving in communities—it would be easy, if it weren’t for all those messed-up people. The problem is that God seems to like using messed-up people to accomplish His work. […]
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We’re Blessed To Be A Blessing
We’re surrounded by an incredible circle of support. You don’t do something like FRONT RANGE FREEDOM TOUR or RICH’S RIDE on your own. Those things happen in communities, and occasionally I shake my head in amazement at the power of a community to follow and accomplish big dreams. Every big endeavor has corporate sponsors. Those […]
Continue readingWhat If You’re Not In The In Crowd?
Jesus stopped at a well to speak to a Samaritan woman. (John 4) He shouldn’t have associated with someone like her. She was a Samaritan, a woman, and woman with a sordid past. No Jewish rabbi would be seen speaking to her. She was an outcast. The woman herself recognized the inappropriate nature of the […]
Continue readingWhat If You’re On A Mission?
What if God had something in mind when He created you? What if He gave you specific gifts, stuff you enjoyed and were good at? Don’t you think using those gifts would be a big part of what you were made to do? What if you could figure out what you were made to do, […]
Continue readingOutcast
HAPPY MONDAY! A personal weakness got me thinking about today’s word-of-the-week… OUTCAST Jesus hung out with outcasts, right? We all know it’s true, and we all believe it’s a noble idea—for someone else. But if I’m honest, I don’t want to hang around with the homeless, the developmentally disabled, the poor, the addicts, the abused… […]
Continue readingEver Get The Urge To Complain?
I sent an email yesterday that put some things in perspective. I wrote to two American missionaries. As I proofed my message I realized the danger they encounter in tasks I take for granted. I wonder about the remote possibility of identity theft if my personal details end up in the wrong hands on the […]
Continue readingWhat’s Your Story?
Becky and I discovered this week that lots of people don’t “get” what we’re doing. That’s a little frustrating. When you’re in the middle of something and you’re passionate about it, it’s hard to imagine how any rational being can’t understand every nuance of our project. Obviously, they’re not listening. And then I recall something […]
Continue readingWhy Do We Remember?
Yesterday I wrote about memorials. I referenced a special memorial, a pile of stones God told the people to leave at the place they entered the Promised Land. “In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark […]
Continue readingMemorial
HAPPY MONDAY! The holiday sparks today’s word-of-the-week… MEMORIAL Today’s Memorial Day in the U.S. It’s a day for remembering, but memorials are also about traditions, markers, and monuments. Many of us will travel today to special places, either physically or in spirit, to pay our respects and remember loved ones. In Joshua 4, God told Joshua […]
Continue readingWhat Do You Do With An Open Door?
Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) I think I spend a lot of time in front of open doors. I can wonder all I want about opportunity and possibility and dreams, but an open door […]
Continue readingSometimes It’s Best To Wait
When you encounter a life-altering event, others are always eager to advise you when it’s time to move on. At the time of my injury in 1987, I wanted to get semi-serious about cycling. I’d purchased what, at the time, was a decent road bike. Twenty-seven years passed, and that bike sat in a few […]
Continue readingWhere Do You See Jesus?
Sometimes the simplest questions are the best. The pastor asked one of those simple questions when Becky and I visited a new church with our FREEDOM TOUR teammate Andrew Thorne last weekend. He began the message by asking, “What would change if you saw Jesus in the person next to you?” The pastor shared a […]
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