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The Dude Abides: Day 7 – The Kingdom of God

I'm a pastor's kid. I married a pastor's kid. We have 5 pastor's kids. Sundays have always been the Lord's Day in my house. Like my wife and myself, my kids have all been in church since infancy, but this doesn't stop them from coming up to me every Sunday, almost without exception, to ask...

Hugs Please

I wish I had a photo of what I'm going to tell you about. My family and I were back home in Indiana this past week and I got to see my grandparents. My grandad was a pastor, and he and my grandmother still live in the old parsonage on church property. Coming down their...

Killing the Prophets

I was a musician in another season of life and had aspirations to write for CCM (Christian Contemporary) and country. While at a songwriters convention in Nashville one of the speakers said… “If you want to write for CCM you have to listen to CCM.” There was one problem: I didn’t like most of what...

A New Nickname Written Down in Glory

A little over a year ago we came home from church one night and my then 12 year old came downstairs visibly upset. I asked him what was wrong and he said he knew we need to read the Bible as Christians, but it's such a big book and always feels bad for not wanting...

A Letter to an Old Friend

Old friend, you've aged. Your laughter has creased the sides of your mouth and eyes, but I still see the 10 year old beneath them. Old friend, you're tired. The wind of your cares has blown its' mark on your head and hands, but did not erase the scar above your nose from the baseball...

Creating vs. Not Destroying

Maybe you're not supposed to create the next big thing. Perhaps it already exists. Yes, it's true that you won't be recognized, but glory can turn on you or go bad overnight. What's wrong with promoting the thing, and it's creator, instead of yourself? After all, creativity is really just assembling already existing pieces. You...

Red Friday

"He's a red isn't he?", our host said to my wife and I when speaking of a popular writer we were talking about.  By that, she was comparing certain influential people as the red shirt washed among a load of whites, making every other garment pink. There are light reds, as in a favorite uncle or teacher, medium...

8 Healthy Habits For Any Evening

You're probably reading this on your phone. No judging here. I'm the worst at staring into my phone screen late into the evening. I think I'm developing retinal image burn and scrollyosis. Basically, I'm writing this for myself. Scrolling through Pinterest, I found this interesting article from Productive and Free called 12 Evening Habits Worth...