“Lord, I seek mystery, not a mishmash of existential thoughts, symbols and trendy quips. I cannot contain you, cannot begin to plumb the depths of your love, let alone the perplexing ways you work in the world. To one you heal, the other dies. Mother’s cry, fathers fume at the injustice they see. Where is…
Tag: Love
“…the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
The lantern of Love shines a brilliance Untested, unknown, unraveling and clear, Shines before the children of God To show that darkness never owns them. There will be seasons when light is dim There will be times of suffering There will be moments of doubt and fear There will be angels, dark and dangerous. Yet,…
The Violin-A Christmas Story
Place: New York City. A final Bible study before Christmas break. A group of young men who seem to really be tracking and growing, consistent…some of them straight off the streets, clawing their way up and out of some heavy stuff. Yet, Ace is missing, in fact for two weeks straight. The next day I…
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 Prayer For Those With Cancer
Abba, Tear Catcher and Boo-Boo-Made-Better- can we talk? Your friend is sick. An anomaly was found in the glare of an ex-ray image. That signals only one thing, you are about to move through time, not into it, but through it, as eternity cannot cohabitate with minutes and hours. In that movement, please carry their…
The Contagion of Joy
Of all the leaders I have ever known, Dr. Bill Bright, the founder and president of Cru, was the easiest for me to follow. I think it’s because I love to follow joy! Whenever I ever heard him speak, two things became apparent and found their way straight to my heart. His continuous call for…
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…
The Hands of God
*In Rembrandt’s painting of the prodigal son, he uses light to draw our eyes upon the hands of the old man who has placed them on the back of his youngest son. The prodigal has returned, and is kneeling in broken apology, waiting for punishment for an unspeakable crime. The younger son’s request for his…
The Weight of God’s Affection
I recently discovered a unique journal packed away in a box during our move to Austin. I had created it during a season I can only describe as a very dark night. On a sketch pad I had written words, then colored them in, creating a poster each night I spent with the Lord. One…
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….
To Sir, with love 