As a native Louisianan, I grew up in the midst of king cake, gaudy beads, and all things purple and green. I don’t understand it all and when I ask, everyone has a different take on the nuances of this season. One thing that I love, after all the weird, freaky rites of late winter, […]

There is nothing worse than the sound of cars colliding. A few weeks ago I heard the sound. It was so loud, I first thought someone had hit my car. It was on the side of a busy, complicated intersection. After the collision, a man jumped out of his car infuriated and screamed immediately about […]

As the father of four sons I’ve picked up a lot of life experiences and I understand much more about the journey to manhood than I did when I began. Here are a dozen things I learned in the process. There are a million types of odors that can emit from their bedrooms, cars and […]

The incarnation is God’s message that God the Father holds nothing back in order to make room for us. So common and yet so extravagant! Heaven and earth embraced that night and this is what we celebrate. It’s also is a grand proclamation that if you enter the story, you’ve got everything you need in […]

Dear Joseph, I’m worried about you. I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t try to speak some truth to you. Please don’t get me wrong–I was all for this marriage until the stories started. Reality is hard to swallow when you are in the early months of a relationship. You and I both know […]

He scattered stars to the outer regions of infinity. He separated the dry land from sea. This great God created each cell as intricate, alive and dynamic as a tiny city. The One that created Jupiter and the Milky Way would choose to create me. Our skin and the inner workings of the human body… the blood and bones, […]

Beloved, Look closer into the manger. I so long for you to look into My eyes. There was a time you saw Me as Someone who tolerated you and all the messiness of your life, not knowing for a second the depth of the love I offer. I came to you, first, as a baby […]

James Frazee was a 90-year-old man in our church. He stood out to me primarily because he was the oldest man in our contemporary service. Not that electric guitars or drums were his preference. He just wanted to be there with his grandkids. It wasn’t until he got sick that I learned the backstory of […]

Throughout Dad’s illness and death, I knew one thing. I would learn. God has given me the gift of experience. Yes, gift. C.S. Lewis said it perfectly: “Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God how you learn.” This post is a reminder to me. I need to remember this experience as […]

In every line of the Lord’s Prayer, there’s a common thread. It’s releasing. We scan through the words and notice that the Lord’s Prayer is radically different from the modern mantras of mortal yearning. Instead of coming to God to change our circumstances, we encounter a releasing of ourselves into the gracious hand of the Father […]