Have you ever had someone ask you to “pray hard?” I have. Often it’s for a pressing personal issue or a distressing situation—and they implore me to “pray hard.” When they say this, I think I know what they mean—or at least I hope I do. I think “pray hard” means, “This is serious, so […]
My wife and I are on track to start our “52 Churches” adventure this coming Sunday—look for my first update on Monday. As friends prayed about this, they prayed that we would have a positive impact on each of the 52 churches we visited. This surprised me. Though it is generally my goal to make […]
52 Churches: The Journey Begins
For an Entire Year, We Visited a Different Christian Church Every Sunday Next week, I will begin reposting a thread called “52 Churches.” It reflects on my church experience when my wife and I took a year to visit a different Christian church each week. The journey begins—again. Each week it will be of a […]
Have You Had A Desert Experience
From time to time, I’ve heard people say they’re “in the desert.” They are speaking figuratively, of course, but nevertheless it is a dry place, a barren wilderness, an unhappy situation to be sure. Their desert experience is not a literal place of residence, but a spiritual condition, a state of being. For them, the […]
one child policy
A friend of mine once startled me by saying, “Sometimes I think the spiritual realm is more real than the physical realm.” That gave me a start, but I understand what he meant—and yearn to understand it more fully. It’s been said that “we are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in […]
Watch Your Language
Avoiding Christianese I once shared a story with a new friend and fellow followers of Jesus about a young boy praying for his teacher. My friend was perplexed and silent for a moment. Finally, she stammered out an explanation, ”I’ve never prayed for people before.” I didn’t know how to take this. Did she mean […]
What Happened to Spring?
Yesterday was the first day of spring—and the temperature hit a record-breaking 86 F. The average high for this time of year is 48. That’s an astounding in 38-degree difference. And today, the high temps pushed 90. Interestingly, the average high temperature for us in three months, the first day of summer, is only 84 […]
A Missed Opportunity to Help
Last week I attended a convention and gave a couple of presentations. Traveling is not an adventure I enjoy; instead, it is a duty I endure. Knowing this—and that self-focus is not God-honoring or kingdom advancing—I asked God for opportunities to interact with and help others during my trip. This did indeed happen, especially after […]
I’ve never been a fan of our twice-annual time change, in and out of daylight savings time. My perspective is to pick a time and stick with it. This is in part because of the hassle of resetting clocks, but also because it takes my body about a week to fully adjust. I also struggle […]