Category: Reflections

Poor Charlie Brown. He wanted so badly to discover the true meaning of Christmas, but his friends were too caught up in their activities and busyness to hear his desperation. They decided the answer was to involve him in their craziness by having him direct a modernized version of the Christmas story. When that didn’t […]

An enemy is coming for us. A terrible enemy threatens the very core of all we hold dear. The media, the politicians, sadly even many preachers proclaim the power and might of this ruthless adversary who strikes with reckless disregard for collateral casualties. This enemy entices us to strike back in anger. The anger may […]

The long arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. Hate will not rule the day. Violence won’t have the final word. That’s what we believe, and that’s why we can’t be discouraged. It’s hard, isn’t it? It’s hard when we’re surrounded by evidence suggesting we’re fools to actually believe and follow Jesus. Love your […]

I’m not impressed by fancy titles. I’ve been fortunate enough to be close to a few people with big-time titles to realize they’re just regular men and women, with the same issues, struggles, and brokenness as the rest of us. I’ve become skeptical of the notion of positional authority. “Chief Muckety-Muck, PhD” at the top […]

There are lots of gaps between what we know and what we believe. We know outcomes don’t depend on the size of our efforts. We know God asks us to do what we can, where we are, with what we have and then trust Him for the results. We know, but do we believe? Do […]

LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND.  In battle, soldiers do everything possible to bring fallen comrades home. Even at the risk of their personal safety, every member of the unit holds sacred the commitment to leave no one behind. Recently I encountered a circumstance in which I wish that commitment applied a bit more closely to my […]

A friend’s in some trouble. You know it. Everyone else knows it. Your friend knows it. And right now, there’s nothing you can do to help. You’ve done what you can, so now you wait, and hope, and pray. And feel helpless. You know God’s in control. But God was in control when the trouble began, […]

Lots of thoughts lately about next steps for the FREEDOM TOUR. How can we do more for the kids at the Home of Hope? Who can we bring into the circle? Where is God leading us? All great, meaningful questions worth asking, but as I scan the list of What’s Next possibilities I realize I need to add […]

The 22 kids at the Home of Hope are victims. Or they were victims until the folks at Project Rescue removed them from a situation over which they had absolutely no control. As you might imagine, I get a lot of questions about the notion of being a victim, whether I felt like a victim, etc. I know the precise time and […]

A few weeks ago my bike’s rear derailleur got slightly out of adjustment. It wasn’t bad enough to make the bike unrideable, but you could tell something was a tiny bit off. You couldn’t see anything wrong, but the chain just didn’t quite feel right. It took about a quarter-turn of an adjustment screw to get everything […]

Seems like everyone’s taking sides. We’re divided along political lines, racial lines, gender, social, ethnic, cultural, generational lines. We’ve drawn lines everywhere, and it seems like everyone is supposed to pick a side. Stranger still, we’re all pretty sure God’s on our side. Thing is, dividing and taking sides isn’t what God does. We have […]

They focus on the wrong issues. They create illogical arguments. They stretch the truth and spin the story. They yell and treat others disrespectfully. Generally, they do all sorts of stuff that drives us nuts. And we spend a ton of time complaining about it. We write articles and make speeches. We protest. We fill our […]