Compassion… North Dakota Style

April 4, 2014

A North Dakota fishing spot and a relationally-engaged Youth for Christ staff person provided the perfect conduit through which a memory could be forged.  Justin was hungry for an experience that involved both adventure and companionship; and in a single day he got both. Some simple instruction and a few well-equipped guides provided the fertile […]

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Broiled Not Boiled

March 28, 2014

I get it.  Really, I do.  High tech momentum is fueling innovation and discovery at increasing velocity.  Phones, watches, health and exercise bracelets, houses that respond through instruction from those very devices; and all this in your automobile and more. Faster, smaller, smarter… barriers have been blown by without so much as a speed check. […]

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Ready!

March 21, 2014

Desmond is our three-year-old grandson.   His love and life are a gift to all of us. Just last night Desmond spent the night at our house.  Over the last year he has shifted his sleeping location from a crib to a queen-sized bed in our guest room.  But in the course of this transition, one […]

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The Impala; The Meek

March 14, 2014

The 2014 Chevrolet Impala is not like the Impala I remember.  I remember a rectangle that was predictable, reliable and nondescript.  At the Alamo rental car counter a week ago, a sympathetic agent flashed a smile at me and offered a week long rental in this new vehicle.  “Yes” burst from my lips before my […]

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Please no…

March 7, 2014

Wednesday evening Mary opened up her gmail account and read the following from the daughter of a close friend.  Erin is thirty years old… vibrant, bright, lovely and wise in a way that only pain, disappointment, and suffering can nurture.  The words exploded… This Afternoon March 5, 2014 2 years and 6 months ago I […]

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The Like Dilemma

February 28, 2014

I’ve encountered a dilemma… I wouldn’t call it a moral dilemma, but it’s a perplexing challenge.  Let me paint the picture for you.  A Facebook friend, several years my junior, posts a picture of he and his wife on their wedding day some twenty-five years ago.  In an overzealous effort to commend his bride he […]

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… the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music…

February 14, 2014

I don’t know about you, but when I read some of the Old Testament accounts of idol worship, I shake my head in disbelief.  The story of Daniel recounts the life of an ego-centric leader by the name of Nebuchadnezzar who had the audacity to build an image of gold that was roughly 90 feet […]

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The 9 Steps to Nowhere

February 7, 2014

A recent trip through a bookstore pulled the curtain back on the public appetite for books that create an orderly, predictable, and nicely controlled life.  Three steps to this. Ten practices that will rock that. Fourteen lessons to achieve this. Our desire to take control of our lives has oozed black ink onto thousands of […]

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A Lesson in Unvarnished Questions

January 24, 2014

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was […]

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“Some People”

January 17, 2014

When ambiguity is the most prestigious role we can play. “And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed.” Matthew 9:2a A paralyzed man.  A miracle working teacher.  A swelling crowd.  Intense scrutiny.  Skeptics.  The desperate.  Mystery.  Momentum.  Controversy. […]

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