I’m still messing with the “good measure” passage in Luke 6:38. Or perhaps more accurately, it’s messing with me. Check out the background here and here. Jesus and I had to take a walk through the RUV—Rich’s Unstandardized Version—when I read past verse 38. “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree […]
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The Easy Button
As folks in the Boston area begin to put the pieces back together, I notice a nearly universal phenomenon following tragedies: the search for an “easy button.” We want THE answer, happy endings, a fast fix. And mostly, they don’t exist. In real life, there’s rarely an easy button. When faced with significant loss, people […]
Continue readingA Good Measure Of Dog Food
A few days ago my friend Jon Swanson asked blog readers to explain how we read the Bible. I finally figured out my response by feeding the dog this morning. When it’s meal time, I tell Monte to “get his dish.” He eagerly fetches the scoop we use to measure his food. The scoop is […]
Continue readingThings I Didn’t Know
About a year ago I started seriously preparing for IJM Freedom Tour 2012. I’d never heard of International Justice Mission. I sort of knew, in the distant background, about issues of human trafficking. But there was much I didn’t know. I didn’t know… there are places where a man can order a child for sex […]
Continue readingForgiveness
Happy Monday! This weekend’s teaching on Luke 6:38 inspires today’s word-of-the-week… FORGIVENESS I’ve told you before about my unauthorized personal version of the bible. It’s called RUV—Rich’s Unstandard Version. Occasionally I encounter a conversation with Jesus in RUV when I’m trying to make sense of words from the real bible. Jesus and His friends are […]
Continue readingUnconventional Sermons…
…are some of the best. Happy Saturday! Have you watched the TV show Duck Dynasty? A friend told me about it, and I’ll confess I sort of dismissed it without giving it a chance. I think I’d like spending time on Phil Robertson’s porch. He’d likely think my handcycle is silly, just as I think […]
Continue readingWhat Can I Do?
It’s been a tough few days. Explosions, investigations, arrests. Bloody images. triage, heroes, evacuations, survivors, and casualties. The stuff of war zones, exponentially more horrific because it played out on our own streets. If you’re like me, you probably aren’t directly impacted. Unless you live in Boston or West, Texas, the routines of your daily […]
Continue readingTurn Up The Light
Last night Becky read a quote from Facebook. “If you’re trying to defeat the human spirit, marathoners are the wrong group to target.” It’s easy to become discouraged and cynical in the wake of the senseless violence of the Boston attacks. It’s also true that light overwhelmed darkness in the moments following the explosions. Runners […]
Continue readingYou Can’t Do That!
A couple of days ago (It’s Too Hard!) I challenged us to re-think the notion that serving others is supposed to be easy. One of my role models for this lesson is my friend Una. I first wrote about her several months ago when we rode together on IJM Freedom Tour 2012. Una grew up […]
Continue readingA Tale Of Two Pictures
I recently had the honor of speaking to my church’s Prime Time group. They’re in the prime of life—past age 55 and eager to deploy their accumulated wisdom and experience in service. I shared a story centered around two images. The first image was a hospital hallway about five weeks after my injury. Therapists loaded […]
Continue readingIt’s Too Hard!
Can I challenge us a bit as we begin a new week? I talked to several people over the weekend about U COUNT Front Range Tour 2013. Common comments went something like, “Riding 450 miles in a week seems like it would be really hard.” Well, yeah. There’s sweat and work and commitment involved in just about […]
Continue readingAgenda
Happy Monday! The last couple of weeks have reminded me about today’s word-of-the-week… AGENDA I can’t seem to figure out how to quit trying to figure out God’s agenda. I keep telling myself I’m not responsible for the results. I see all sorts of evidence that my plans rarely end up being God’s plans. I […]
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