A Time to Weep

Today there is weeping. Not just crying, but weeping. A weeping that comes because there is no other way to adequately express what is going on inside of us. When we feel sorrow beyond words, we weep. Today, sadly, we weep for children. These children who lost their lives today in Connecticut were not my children. I don’t even know their names. But they could have been my children. Or yours. We can't even begin to imagine what...

Read More

Pulling Weeds and Planting Men

  It may sound strange, but I am thankful for weeds. Weeds are a fact of life. Like unwelcome visitors, they show up unannounced and make themselves right at home, spurning the fact that they were not invited. As men, we take pride in our lawns, and each year millions of dollars are spent on products that claim to rid our otherwise pristine properties of these pesky intruders. Yet despite our best efforts, they just keep coming back. With...

Read More

Touchdown Breakdown (or, How to Win in the New NFL).

A thorough and scientific dissection of the now infamous Touchception. Intended for instructional purposes only. Adapted from Monday Night Football September 24, 2012, Seattle WA. 1. Go ahead and start with a pass interference penalty to get that pesky defender out of your way. It's cool; no one's watching. 2. Do the Hokey-Pokey (you put your right arm out) 3. If you still can't catch the ball, at least catch the guy who did catch...

Read More

Ready or Not, It's Autumn!

It is again September, and with the start of September comes the end of Summer. And the end of Summer can be elusive, but look beyond a passing glance and it is hard to miss. The Olympic flame has been extinguished; the venues now empty and the athletes gone home. The local pools, brimming over with laughter just days ago now sit silent and still. School supply aisles are slowly dwindling, leaving the shelves exposed and bare, reminding us...

Read More

Koncert 2 Kolkata

Lord, I will go anywhere you send me and do anything you ask. Just please don’t send me to ______________. Admit it, we have all had this thought. But from what I have learned, God has a funny way of sending us where He wants us anyway, and we have a funny way of being used by Him, and finding ourselves blessed when He sends us. Last January, my wife and daughter went to Kolkata, India to work with victims of human trafficking, through...

Read More

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Kids say the darndest things. But more often than not, kids say things that sound an awful lot like what their parents say. Our kids look up to us, respect us, and learn from us. They get their social cues by mimicking ours, and in many respects, this can be a great blessing. For example, I make it a point to always say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and there is nothing as great as hearing my children do the same. In fact, I no longer need...

Read More

For Love of the Games

For most of this week, my family has been immersed in the quadrennial ritual known as the Olympics. I absolutely love it, and it is a firm rule in my house that if the TV is on, we are watching Olympic events of some kind. It is one of the few times of the year that the kids are expected to watch too much TV, and are not allowed to go to bed before 11:00. But what is it about the Olympics that draws us in? For starters, the Olympics are...

Read More

The Heart of Worship

A few years back, Matt Redman wrote the song “Heart of Worship”, which is at its core an apology for making worship just “a song”, and this song is lyrically right on the mark. The terms ‘praise’ and ‘worship’, as used today, almost always bring to mind a particular style of music in a church service. We often hear questions like, “what is the worship like at your church?”, or “how was worship today?” Sadly, some of most bitter disagreements...

Read More

A Coffee Culture

Hello.  My name is Jason, and I drink coffee. On Monday morning, my coffee is bold and black.  By mid-week, sugar and creamer are standard fare, and by Friday night, coffee resembles an ice-cream sundae, topped with cinnamon, chocolate and whipped cream. But it wasn’t always that way.  As a kid I was intrigued by coffee.  This drink was not recommended to the young or faint of heart. It was a ‘grown-ups only’...

Read More

Ever Heard of Carl Boberg?

                   Ever Heard of Carl Boberg? Our family is in the habit of having a daily worship time together, and one of the important parts of our worship time is to sing a hymn together.  Each Sunday night we sing a hymn and read about the story behind the song.  In a world filled with modern worship music, where a song from ten years ago can...

Read More