Therefore the Cross

The World that Was

  Life was different then. 202 had started with such, promise. Life was flowing; it felt natural. Finally, my wife and I felt settled. We felt like we were home. After starting off our marriage, our relationship, in the midst of transitions, in the midst of hardship, we were able to take a deep breath.

Selah.

Winter Camp went off without a hitch (in the life of a Youth Pastor, that’s a big deal).W…

Lessons from the Road :: Elk

I like seeing the unexpected.

That’s one of the things I so love about road trips – it’s an excuse to see the unexpected.

Sometimes, you have an urge, when you’ve researched your road trip a little, to take a turn off the beaten path, to a road less traveled. You decide to ignore your GPS. You decide that there’s a better experience waiting for you on a different road, towards a different…

Lessons from the Road :: Dip

Dip. This isn’t the good kind of dip – like spinach and artichoke dip. No, this dip is one that can damage your car.

If you’re going to fast and you’re not yet fully prepared for it – a dip can be super damaging. It’ll mess up you suspension. It’ll mess up your neck. It’ll even knock off your smart phone holder attached to your car vent.

Dips are no joke.

Go to fast and ruin your road trip. Slow…

Road trips provide a chance to encounter scenarios and situations you wouldn’t normally.

For instance, the threat of tsunami’s.

In life, we can have a tendency to get comfortable, to get complacent, and ease into an out of sight, out of mind life.

Everywhere or anywhere you are, has its own unique situations. If you live by a coast – tsunamis; if you are near any body of water – floods; if…

Lessons from the Road :: Bump

You ever been in a car, been driving along, nice and innocent, only to drive over something and feel your car jump up as you hit your head on the roof?

I bet you have.

It’s called driving over a bump.

Bumps, on a road trip, come and go.

Sometimes, if you’re lucky, there is a sign to let you know they are coming.

These signs let you slow down. They keep your eyes open. They make you more alert.…

Lessons from the Road :: Road Closed

And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it, if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

Matthew 10:11-14

Rejecti…

Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

1 Peter 4:12-13 (MSG)

When you’re on a road trip, driving along in your car, sometimes you find yourself on a rough road. A road with bumps, pot…

The heart of man plans his way; but the Lord establishes his steps.”

Proverbs 16:9

Detours.

One of the first things you notice about a road trip, is that no matter how much or how well you have planned – things won’t always go your way. There is going to be some issue, on some road, which will make it where you can’t follow the road you thought you were supposed to. It’s the moment where you…

Happy Summer!

School’s out. The temperatures are getting warm. Baseball season stands in it’s fully glory. And chances are, you are planning some sort of summer vacation.

Speaking of vacation, have you ever been on a road trip? A multi-state, cross-country, lengthy road trip?

What did you do? What was it like? Where did you go? Were you a child on a road trip with your parents? Have you been on one as…

What do you hope for? What is it you are waiting for? What have your waited for that you finally received?

Personally, I was very content single. I had been in relationships – some good and some bad. I had done well and I even failed a little. I learned and I grew – but none of them were the best.

So, I waited. Contently.

I hoped to be married, but trusted God and refused to waste my singleness. I…

Two & a half plus years ago, when I started my journey to the Pacific Northwest, I decided I needed to hone up on my Seattle culture. So naturally I turned to the wit & wisdom of television’s favorite psychologist – Dr. Frasier Crane.

He’d greet his listeners with: “Hello Seattle, I’m listening.”

That was my motto for the journey.

I’m listening. I’m open. I’m willing. I want to learn.

Now,…

Stuck.

Sometimes in life you just feel stuck. Am I right?

You feel that you’re not moving forward or backwards or even side to side. You feel like you’re not moving anywhere.

You’re just stuck.

You’re adrift at seat. You’re lost in the middle of the forest. You’re stranded in the sahara without any water or food.

Stuck.

You can scream all you want. but no one can hear you;  maybe they can but now…

As a man and Pastor I spend a lot of time inside my own head – thinking, dreaming, hoping, planning, strategizing, and generally imagining every possible situation that could ever happen for any given situation I find myself in.

It’s a blessing; it’s a curse. It’s who I am.

When I’m at my worst, my mind can make it hard for me to find peace. It can make it tough for me to rest. Especially in…

Hope.

We are all hoping for something. We are all longing for something better.

It’s part of what makes us human; it’s part of what unites us through every culture, people, and demographic. Hope is what stays consistent through history.

We hope.

We hope for a relationship. We hope to see our parents get back together. We hold out hope the cancer won’t take the mother of our children from us. We…

Advent :: Coming Soon

We are finally past the Thanksgiving holiday; we are past Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. We are fully in the holiday season.

But, we are not yet fully in the Christmas season.

The Christmas season officially starts tomorrow – if you follow the church calendar.

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent.

Advent: the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.

Tomorrow churches…

There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand (A.K.A. Practicing the Art of Thankfulness)

Seasons come and seasons go.

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to…

Graduating from the Basic

Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.

1 Thessalonians 4:9

I’ve been sitting with this verse, on this verse, for the better part of two weeks now and it is still wrecking me.

It’s these verses that far too often we read and we fly over them. I look at the as unimportant, as inconsequential to the point…