To come of age—at least in our family—means earning the right to watch The Wizard of Oz. (Isn’t a certain degree of maturity required for facing those evil monkeys?) The film adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s novel is a classic story about the search for home. Dorothy and her dog Toto… Read More

It can be easy to connect with God and spend time reading the Bible when we feel peaceful and happy with everything in our lives. But what do we do when pain and loss have slammed into us, when our lives and hearts are a chaotic mess? It can be… Read More

Questions in a time of pandemic We all want answers. Many times they are easily given: What time is dinner? When is my trip home? Who will join me? Answers bring clarity and structure to our lives. They help us know what to expect, giving us concrete handles to order… Read More

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This past weekend we celebrated Palm Sunday. We looked on at the celebration from the outside, as we still cannot gather publicly for worship. Ironically, that may have been a fitting reality this time—seeing this from a distance. Read More

Marked for all to see I’ll never forget the first time I received ashes on my forehead on Ash Wednesday. I was part of a non-denominational church in New York City, a church that, although it was a relatively new church plant, was committed to be grounded in the historic… Read More

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about three common mistakes I have made when reading the Bible and how my relationship with God benefitted when I corrected those things. The first mistake I made was approaching Scripture with a lens for myself instead of a lens for God. … Read More

Last week was Veterans Day and I couldn’t help but remember that day by honoring a late neighbor and reflecting on how our lives intersected at a critical time in his life. The encounter also helped me to find a theme in Scripture that I had not noticed before.  … Read More

We try valiantly to limit media consumption in our home, but as any parent knows, it’s incredibly difficult. And as any stay-at-home parent knows, it’s especially difficult when your kids are operating at maximum “twerpitude” and driving each other—and you—crazy. Sometimes, when we are in each other’s faces, the combined… Read More

Though I’d grown up in the church and had earned my share of Scripture memory badges in Sunday School, I was an adult before I realized I didn’t actually understand much of the Bible. I knew how to pull out a verse of encouragement when I needed hope, and I… Read More

For years I struggled with Bible reading. Not only was Scripture challenging to understand, but that challenge also left me with a lack of desire to read it. Every day I felt defeated before I even started; and most days I didn’t start at all.  I eventually learned that… Read More