I like to help people think about reading the Bible. I like to offer suggestions about different ways we can approach the text. I was thinking recently that God may use some of ways of thinking and the life experiences we’ve walked through to help us read the Bible in ways that are different than […]

First published July 12, 2011 Ruthie married an immigrant. His parents, hungry, had left their country. There weren’t many close relatives, wasn’t much holding them back. It was mom and dad and a couple sons, off to make the best of things. Ruthie married one of the sons. She, in her own land, crossed her culture, […]

First published February 7, 2012 I was a tuba player. For seven years of my life. For two years in college I was the fourth chair out of four. The low expectations suited me (pun intended). Every year during spring break, we went on tour, visiting churches and schools and sunshine. We got to know […]

On Saturday, some of you saw that there had been an earthquake in Nepal. And some of you thought, “I wonder if that’s where Jon was.” I know this because I heard from you by text or by Facebook or by email. I know this because you saw me on church on Sunday morning and […]

I have a book called Marathon: The ultimate training guide. It’s by Hal Higdon. He’s 83. At the back, in the appendix, are four training plans. Here’s what I know. You can get training plans for free through a simple web-search. They are for the self-directed, the independent, the learn it the hard way. But they […]