On average, a high school senior will have already lived approximately six thousand five hundred and seventy days when they graduate. And while some of those days might be more memorable or seem more significant than others, all six thousand five hundred and seventy days were necessary to get there, to the day, graduation day. … Continue reading 6,570 Days
Clear and Open
I have come to understand the many paradoxes of life so that I can rightly assign the works of God. If you peer long enough and find enough stillness, you will see the living word brooding over the ruins of fortresses. You will feel it in your bones like when Joseph felt the exodus before … Continue reading Clear and Open
You Don’t Have A President
This noble experiment known as America, thrives on personal autonomy. The idea goes: you determine your own life, free from the forced choices of authoritarianism or tyranny. Pursue the career of your choice; invest where you want; exercise religion as you see fit; and cast your own vote. While we could argue whether that experiment … Continue reading You Don’t Have A President
A Christmas Poem To Be Read All Year
Come, let us adore him Come, let myself, let yourself Wake from this sleepwalk Come out from behind the paneling of your fantasies Come out from behind the pain of your sleep Come out from underneath the nightmares of your regret Come, let us adore him Come, let myself, let yourself Peek around the corner … Continue reading A Christmas Poem To Be Read All Year
Psalm 23 Revisited
In some ways our age is arbitrary, not that the past years are for naught or the future ones are futile, but arbitrary in the sense that a measurement of time is not the sole indicator of progress or purpose. It has taken me over forty years to realize how fragile my perception can really … Continue reading Psalm 23 Revisited
An untitled, poorly written poem concerning apathy
We stirred up the spiders with our discontent We abdicated our souls in the evening and by morning we had resolved to do it all again We learned to live with the constant droning of disappointment It sounded like the slight movement of leaves as we hid from God in that garden It sounded like … Continue reading An untitled, poorly written poem concerning apathy
Put away your resume and start running
At first glance, James’ opening to his (book) seems like a formality: “James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.“ James 1:1 NASB. But like many things in scripture, context is critical. He declares his authorship and greets the diaspora (both the historical … Continue reading Put away your resume and start running
It is Valentine’s Day—quick, start dying!
I have a fear of being average. It is an insecurity. It is sin because it is really a fear of being irrelevant or insignificant. Average, at least how I’m interpreting it, has little to do with my spiritual impact and everything to do with my status. It is sin because it is about self. … Continue reading It is Valentine’s Day—quick, start dying!
Congratulations and Happy Easter
A note to myself: Congratulations on someone else’s resurrection. Congratulations on Christ’s finished work. He ran you down from behind. You tried to fight him off with reason and busy schedules and dress clothes, but it was all treason against heaven. And Christ still had joy to finish his work, so congratulations. Congratulations on your … Continue reading Congratulations and Happy Easter
Talk to me dad…
I have always held the opinion that most successful movies (and movie series) tap into at least one of the following elements: 1. Time travel, time manipulation, or the multiverse theory 2. Apocalyptic events, large scale crisis, etc. 3. Origin story and ancestry—specifically paternal dynamics In short, our storytelling is almost always centered around either … Continue reading Talk to me dad…
Marvel
Marvel itself will not move me forward. It may keep me high for a season, but it will not sustain me. Only agape can arrest and properly arrange the entire human frame: spiritually alive, emotionally anew, and physically alert. To be clear, marvel, or the sense of wonder, is a powerful impression upon an individual. … Continue reading Marvel
Holy Ghost Workhorse
I first saw you in the starting gate, underfed and overlooked The currency of the blasphemers and reprobate staked all around, but none on you You surged from the field and breezed by the void, they all stared at firebrand and Logos You kept working I first saw the tracks of your gospel shoes in … Continue reading Holy Ghost Workhorse
Advent and Abortion
When reflecting on the virgin birth of Christ, there was a single miraculous moment: the conception. Following that moment, which could be argued as one of the greatest moments in human history, was the natural cycle of gestational development and child birth. God purposely encompassed the full human experience for the coming Savior. Whether it … Continue reading Advent and Abortion
Solomon’s Ant
I watched an insect labor across the kitchen rug tonight, somehow possessing more drive than what my own actions have revealed of recent. In an instant I crushed it, but that is not real power. I have stood in the light and in the shadow—I have stood on both sides of the crucifix. Real power … Continue reading Solomon’s Ant
To all our past and current Youth Group Live students…
Roughly twelve years ago my wife and I took over our church’s 7th-12th grade program (in which we named Youth Group Live). We were not young believers, but we were young. And I have no qualms in saying now: we really had no idea how to run a youth program. However, that ended up being … Continue reading To all our past and current Youth Group Live students…
Thoughts will bow…
I cannot afford my thoughts the freedom to run unbridled within my mind. No matter how noble or notorious, calm or chaotic, pure or polluted—they will inevitably try to stand on their own. And anything that attempts to stand on its own stands against the Creator of the cosmos. For within the cosmos is the … Continue reading Thoughts will bow…
He Opened His Mouth
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5) was in fact a sermon given on a mountain. But it was not like any Sunday morning sermon that has been given since then--it was in fact, the only sermon. And I mean only as in the original sermon. When the scriptures state that Jesus opened His mouth … Continue reading He Opened His Mouth
The Inauguration of Heaven
In my early twenties I would attend recovery meetings in a community building next to a local coffee shop. It was somewhere along East McDowell in Phoenix. The memory of my time in the downtown desert is blurred by live-in rehab, halfway houses, and being surrounded by broken people. Everyone seemed doomed to repeat the … Continue reading The Inauguration of Heaven
The Absurdity of Anfechtungen; The Absurdity of Audaciousness
Anfechtungen reared its ugly head just a few miles outside of Erfurt, Germany in the 5th year of the 16th century. In short, Martin Luther had been caught up in a frightening thunderstorm as he was journeying across the German countryside. So frightening was this storm that he cried out as lightning struck near him, … Continue reading The Absurdity of Anfechtungen; The Absurdity of Audaciousness
Enfolded
"Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person..." II Corinthians 5:17 TPT I am not stepping into Christ as I would step into my car. Nor am I getting into Christ as I would get into bed. For eventually I will get out of my car and likewise I … Continue reading Enfolded