Anxiety is an old friend of mine, but before we were friends we were…

I bought my first guitar on a dark, rainy night when I was fifteen years old. I saved up $45.00 in cash to buy the instrument from an older kid in our neighborhood. My dad drove me to…

Bless those who curse you is surely one of the most challenging teachings of Jesus. The thing that makes blessing someone who has cursed or mistreated you hard to do is…

I was down in Tupelo, Mississippi earlier this week to attend the funeral of the father of Ben Nelson, one of my oldest, closest friends. We met in…

His face is a storm, all clouds and thunder. I fear getting close because of the possibility of lightning. But…

What was the last argument you got into with someone? Jesus once said…

You don’t have to answer every…

I had this playful thought that it might be nice if we all had…

Christians have a very unique job to do. Before I say what our job is I want to say what is not our job…

What would you have seen had you been there when the child was born? I imagine one of the shepherds couldn’t be in the fields with the others that night. This is his story…

You are made in the image of God which means that…

On my good days I don’t notice the mistakes, missteps, blemishes, and the many imperfections that naturally occur in life. When I do notice them, on my good days, I don’t make note of them. On my good days I am not looking for…

We’ve had a number of funerals at Good Shepherd lately, and we have another one this weekend. Death is a part of the journey, there’s no doubt about that, even still I find

In 1692 a short book was published under the title, The Practice of the Presence of God.  The author was a wonderful French monk named Brother Lawrence. His little masterpiece was published after he died.

Sometimes I slip into self-pity because of some slight or another that life sends my way. When that happens I want to just retreat into my little corner of creation and bend my back to my work and focus on loving the people in my small orbit.

I know very few people for whom silence is complicity. Maybe that’s because I hang around with contemplatives a lot. For a lot of us silence speaks volumes.

Sometimes when I get anxious my wild, monkey mind roves about conjuring up ideas about what I might acquire in order to feel…

I think about her a lot. Don’t worry, my wife knows about Etty. She is not the object of my desire. She is my teacher. She has what I want…

Shortly before he died Jesus gathered his disciples together to say goodbye. He said to them, “Everything I’ve done and said has been so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. It’s all for joy.”

All anger comes from the fear that you're not loved enough. This is the meaning of the Cain and Abel story. Cain is afraid that there is not enough love to go around. He sees that Abel is…