Dealing with mean people

It’s the start of a new semester. So this evening I prepared for my first Spiritual Formation class.


It’s the start of a new semester. So this evening I prepared for my first Spiritual Formation class.

Calvin Miller writes, “Mystics without study are only spiritual romantics who want relationship without effort.” Miller, The Table of Inwardness, 83. Study is more than a consumption of information. It is a spiritual discipline that requires time, focus, and a willingness to change. For Christians the Bible is foundational in our pursuit of God. So…

Okay. I admit it. I’m obsessed with Dallas Willard. I read this tonight in his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines. “The secret of the easy yoke, then, is to learn from Christ how to live our total lives, how to invest all our time and our energies of mind and body as he did….
I’m preaching this weekend. Since our lead pastor left, I’ve had some extra opportunities to speak. I’m thrilled because I love getting up and yacking behind the pulpit. I love taking a biblical text and wrestling with it until one of us has come away mastered by the other. Usually I’m gripped by a…

My parents just left. They came up this past weekend to spend some quality time with me, Erika and the kids. It was relaxing and fun. We ate good food, spent time catching up and even had time to put a roof on our treehouse.

I got a phone call at the church on Wednesday. An unfamiliar woman was looking for our congregational care pastor and was accidently redirected to my extension. She had an urgent prayer request for her daughter who was on her way to the hospital. She needed a miracle. The woman called me back at home…
After responding to Alanna’s blog comment I thought this song worthy of a post by itself. Sometimes John Mayer plays in our home. Not John Mayer (that would be cool), his songs. A few months ago I tuned in and actually listened to the lyrics of the song Walt Grace’s Submarine Test. It made me…