Don’t be afraid to enter the ‘why?’ The great why question began with Jesus, when from the cross he asked God, “My God, my God, WHY have you forsaken me?” These why questions are too lofty to understand, and so we must sit and wait and contemplate, to see how the Lord will answer them. …
Tag: christianity
What is a Missionary?
What is a missionary? That’s easy, a person who travels the length of the world to tell others about Jesus, right? Yes, but to understand the true guts of a missionary, the spirit behind the action to “go and make disciples,” we need to understand something about blessings. When a person my age looks at…
A Beggar, and the beauty of Advent
I was standing in line for coffee, when to my left appeared a homeless man. His stench overwhelmed a normally aromatic space. People fidgeted, and he went straight to the counter, leaned in and spoke with the manager. I overheard him ask for a cup of coffee. The manager shook her head, and the beggar…
Emil and the Wiz-Bomb
My grandfather Emil was a medic in a battalion that entered the Argonne Forest, France in World War I. Months later, only 13 walked out whole, he among them. It was a ghostly and gangly squad of survivors of a hellish encounter with the enemy. Whether it was gas, or mortars, or hand to hand…
Hard-Wired for Joy
God has hard-wired us for joy. This fruit of God’s Spirit sits ready to surprise and even overwhelm us, and is a sure sign of God’s presence. If we work at plumbing deeper depths of intimacy with God. If we fuel that ambition with love, with our hearts open to another shore. If we boldly…
What’s In Your Tank?
The movie Chariots of Fire was not primarily about Eric Liddell, the winsome missionary/sprinter who ran “to feel the pleasure of God.” Rather, it was about the other guy, a Jewish man, Harold Abrahams, fighting to sit on equal terms with the most noble among men. For Eric, love drove him to the finish line…
Purple Rain on the F Train
In the early days of our stint in NYC, I met a youth pastor named Dario who had a fantastic church facility, but few students to fill it. We got talking one day about what Cru did well, and how he wanted his church to serve his neighborhood in Jamaica, Queens. So, I asked a…
On Leaving and Coming Home
The Gospel invites us to walk out the will of God. We can do that because of Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will, to be the perfect Lamb Sacrifice. His obedience categorically crushed our disobedience. Not that we won’t on occasion slip, stub a toe, stumble, or fall, as we try to stay in step….
A Sow Named Gertrude
There’s a sow who lives on my daughter Brianna’s farm named Gertrude. Because of her trim figure, she has avoided being a pork chop, and become a pet. A while back dogs attacked her and ran off with her ears. Yea, that’s right, her ears! Oh, don’t feel too sad for Gertrude, she’s still one…
Fire In The Belly
Lessons for the first-half crowd Subject: Fire in the Belly This is the second in a series of short letters, addressed to what I call, first-half-of-lifer’s. I grew up watching Twilight Zone and remember one episode that began with a room full of people at a masquerade ball. In his usual creepy voice, Rod Sterling…
Forty Years
The following poem was texted to me by my friend Paul Roberts, someone who knows my story, and celebrated God’s faithfulness on my spiritual birthday, January 15th. “A cold dark night. A rangy silhouette with a wild mop on top. A lost, wandering soul. A weary thumb. A destination unknown. A kind and patient stranger….
One Morning On Miller Street
The hot August air sat heavy on the street, as though too tired to stir. Brooklyn, East New York, with few trees, just ripples in asphalt. The window fans whirred. Mama’s sat on fire escapes dabbing their forehead, watching children scurry after bubbles. I was here with Joy, a college sophomore from Minnesota, who was…
To Sir, with love 