One of the most memorable childhood lessons from my dad was, “Don’t force it!” He was a great self-taught handyman and mechanic. We had a succession of old VWs that required constant fixing. Sometimes, he’d ask for my “help.” I would join in and learn a little bit about what it meant to fix something. […]

… but God can. Recently I’ve spent time with different friends who are upset about what’s happening around them. More than ever, the world seems to be characterized by constant change and lots of the change looking bad. But as I step back, I realize that worrying about what’s happening and trying to figure out […]

I read the parable of the sower in a new way recently. Howard Schultz, the most significant CEO of Starbucks, said that he learned about failure when working as a sales representative for Xerox. His job consisted mostly of making cold sales calls. He faced a massive amount of rejection. Obviously, God used that in […]

I grew up going to churches where we sang hymns. Almost all churches sang just hymns back then. One of my favorites back then was “Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting,” by Jean Sophia Pigott, written in 1876. I looked it up and enjoyed reading the lyrics: Jesus, I am resting, restingin the joy of who […]

“Here is my greeting in my own handwriting—Paul. I do this in all my letters to prove they are from me.” The most prolific letter writer in the New Testament is Paul. In 2 Thessalonians 3:17, he wrote that – with his own hand. Sadly, digital preservation techniques were not in use back then. I’ve […]