In marriage, there’s a rule you must follow. Eliminate the words “always” and “never.” In other words, don’t say to your wife, “You’re never are ready when I’m ready to leave.” That’s a buzz-kill right off the bat. Plus, it’s just not true. “Never” is a very difficult word when it comes to speaking truth….
My Stocked Up Grandma
My grandma always figured a pandemic would happen. I can just see her now, putting down her needle work next to Martha, Ruth and Eunice in the great sewing circle of Heaven and shouting down to me, “I told you that you needed to keep 5000 potatoes in the crawl space under your house!” I always…
Blisscoin, Not Bitcoin
A couple of years ago, I had some equipment for sale and this guy messaged me and asked if I would want to sell it for some Bitcoin. He started explaining it. The words he used were English but my brain could no more process the sentences than it could process Mandarin Chinese. Back then,…
Meditation 2: Today, You Will Be With ME
Listen to this meditation on the Scattered Feast Podcast! The mystery of salvation is never more astounding than this moment. A few feet away from Jesus another man languished under the brutal hand of the Romans. Just another man whose life would seemingly melt into the thin pages of history… This was his day to…
Father Forgive Them
This is the first episode of seven on “A Scattered Feast” Season three. ____ I fell headlong into the chasm of my willful atrocities.Some subtle and slight. Under the surface. Others are so visible I must tremble. The level of my careless rebellion is undeniable.Without a word of recompence I have stood, not knowing the grief…
No Such Thing as “Just a Mom”
Last Thursday, I was behind a lady at the grocery store. It’s a national chain, but not one of those fancy all organic places where they offer free samples of tofu ice cream and sushi. It’s the “bag your own stuff” kind of place where you can buy enough beans to feed the French resistance…
Ten Errors of First-Time Deacons
Welcome to life as a deacon! Always exciting, inspiring, fulfilling and self-satisfying. Wait… that’s not exactly true. Let’s start over. Welcome to life as a deacon! Much different than you expected (that’s a little closer to the truth). As you begin your ministry as a deacon, here are a few common errors to avoid for the sake of…
He’s Everything from A to Z
AUTHOR of my everything, my story A to Z BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR above, my blinded eyes can see COMFORTER of weary souls, COMPANION of the lost DELIVERER, DEFENDER despite the cruel cost EXALTED ONE who stooped to save, found in a humble place FAITHFUL ONE of Glory who came to me in grace GUARDIAN…
Worst Day Ever
It happened at the start of my first year of junior high school. My dad got a new job in another state and so the week before school started, we were moving. The great thing about this move was that in the middle of the chaos, I was shuffled off to my grandparents so far…
I miss her.
Do you remember her? Our rhetoric was imperfect, but there were guardrails in the grooves of our brain that kept us from the dregs of profanity. Do you remember the America where leaders respected each other, in spite their differences? I miss the trust that people had in each other’s decency, when we bolstered our…