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This morning I read Brad House’s words about the futility of, “being satisfied with the peripheral blessings of God rather than enjoying God himself. I paused beneath the shade of my umbrella and gazed from my beach perch. I pondered what I had just read. I closed my copy of “Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support” by Brad House. There were peripheral blessings being enjoyed all around me. Sun, water, family… but was anybody enjoying God? The family…
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I met a friend for breakfast this morning. This guy is an infertility specialist doctor. Years ago he was a funny little kid in the youth group I led. How cool is that? Having a 7 a.m. beach side breakfast with my friend was just the best. We talked about our brides. He’s in a good marriage with a good family. So am I. We also talked about the Church. We both love the Bride of Christ. Maybe I didn’t…
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I have a dolphin theory. I’ve been working through this one for years. It’s a transcendent and significant theory. It goes something like this: God placed within dolphins a special honing device towards interested humans. On early morning coastlines … beach dwellers & soul searchers looking for something beyond themselves (transcendent and significant) … will have dolphins appear within proximity to said humans along the shoreline. Within a sight line of 10 & 2 (just like the steering wheel rule),…
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The fam finished up our week of camp in SW Ohio, and drove nine hours back home on Sunday. We left again Monday morn for another nine hours south and my study break. Within the span of a couple days, we went from no cell phone service and 115 smelly campers to beach and the aromatherapy of Coppertone. Quite a contrast. As I soak in the rejuvenating salt air, I can’t get those little rug rats off my mind. This…
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Most of you probably drive past the community I live in on your way to church Sunday mornings. There is nothing externally notable about our little slice of heaven, but on the inside… It is a vibrant, melting pot community richly, teeming with culture and diversity. Over the years I have met and become friends with people who live here from all over the world. There is Enego from Spain. He is a gentle, bear of a man with a…
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We recently moved into a neighborhood that we absolutely adore. People take care of each other. They grab your mail while you are out of town, they call when you forget to put down the garage door, they have impromptu dinners, camp fires, romps on the trampoline, car washes, and slumber parties for the kids. They do things that happen in a Norman Rockwell painting. It’s how I remember my neighbors when I was growing up. We found it. We…
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When my daughter, Morgan, was 2-3 years old, I put her to the test. It was the dreaded marshmallow test. You’ve probably heard of such tortuous parenting techniques. With a hidden video camera, we placed Morgan in a room all by herself. She was sitting in a little person’s chair at a little person’s table. On the table sat a beautiful piece of china with 5 marshmallows. I told my little red-headed monster, “Morgan, if you wait and DON’T eat…
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Sherry has been purging our basement. For the past several weeks she has been filling up the trash bins and taking schhtufff to the garage in preparation for a big garage sale. Today is the day. Signs are up, and our driveway is lined with stuff we don’t want, but hope other people will pay money for. J It’s funny how this works. Eventually when there’s leftover schhtuff even garage sale scavengers don’t want, we’ll give it away to the…
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I met with a savvy businessman this week. We had a power breakfast. I had watermelon, cantaloupe, and black coffee. He threw down two eggs, toast, kielbasa sausage and black coffee. It wasn’t so much about the food as it was the possibilities brought to the table. His energy and focus created an extremely attractive synergy I like. With no lack of vision, this high achiever sees a preferred future where intentional social engineering will lend itself to sustainable gospel…
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Officially summer does not arrive until the day after my second-born turns 20… on June 21st. Did you follow that? However… in Atlanta, summer often comes well before it’s designated Northern Hemisphere solstice at 6:51 a.m. on the twenty-first day of the six month. Did you follow that? Bottom line: summer is here. On my day off, I love to soak in these warm southern days with an early cup of coffee while reading, thinking, and praying on the back…
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