I Need Some Laughter, Lord
I have had enough
of sad saints
and sour religion.
I have had enough
of sin spotting
and grace doubting.
I need some laughter, Lord,
the kind you… Read More
Category "Uncategorized"
Crickets
Crickets. That’s what you hear when you’re sitting around a campfire late in the evening. Not the sound of Fox News or CNN. Not the firing of weapons from Call of Duty. Just the joyful song of crickets.
It’s also the description we give when there is absolutely no response to something… when people are quiet. Pastors talk about this often: “When I preached on ______________, it was crickets out there.”
I suspect the subject of living a quiet life with less is one of those cricket-inducing themes in the American church today.
The shouts and hanky-waving and “Amens!” are gonna come with statements like… Read More
Pain & Protest
I returned to work today. It’s been a week now that I have been suffering from debilitating back pain. Over the past week, I’ve measured success by whether or not I could sit on the toilet, get into the bath tub, and put on clothing by myself without causing further damage to my back. Life has been pretty basic while dealing with this pain.
About 12 years ago, I went to… Read More
What The Spirit of the Age Blesses vs What Jesus Blesses
The following is from Brian Zahnd’s recent sermon on the Beatitudes entitled, “The Declaration of Blessedness.”
* * *
The spirit of the age blesses the cocky and self-confident… But Jesus blesses the poor in spirit.
The spirit of the age blesses those who are shallow and thus happy all the time… But Jesus blesses those who have the capacity to mourn deeply.
The spirit of the age blesses the… Read More
Just Stay Focused On Helping People Today
It is the meek, not the aggressive, pushy, big, entrepreneurial earth-shakers, who are the real hope of the earth. —Pete Scazzero
When Derek Sivers started CD Baby, he wasn’t planning on building a major business. He was a professional musician who just wanted to sell his CDs online. He started in 1998 by helping his friends sell their CDs too. In 2000, he hired his first employee. Eight years later, he sold CD Baby for $22 million.
Sivers didn’t need a business plan, and neither do you. You don’t need to think big; it’s better if you don’t.
Here’s what Derek Sivers says…
Do you have a big visionary master plan for how the world will work in twenty years? Do you have massive ambitions to revolutionize your industry?
Don’t feel bad if you don’t. I never did.
A year and a half after after starting CD Baby, it was just me and… Read More
Becoming Human Again
The other day I stumbled across a video of Martin Greenfield, “Tailor to the Presidents,” and fell in love…
You see, I have a thing for craftsmen and women—people who make handcrafted stuff: rustic Italian bread, wine, skateboards, pottery, whiskey, furniture, cabins, letterpress printing, whatever.
And I also think old men are… Read More
We heard through the wall a kid’s voice yelling “You effin…”
While out on the trail for a walk, Shari told me this story from her day at work (as a school counselor). She said:
I was doing a presentation in a classroom today. We heard through the wall a kid’s voice yelling, “You effin…” The teacher quickly opened the door and went into the hallway. I figured she was going to stop the boy and give him a detention or send him to the office or something like that. But instead, she went up to him and… Read More
Celebrate The Victory And Embrace The Burden
My church celebrates MLK Day each year. Yesterday, our friend Tiffany Bluhm spoke in all three services. She’s an immigrant – adopted from an orphanage in Delhi, India and raised by a white family in an all-white community (for the first 10 years of her life). Tiffany and her husband Derek adopted their son Jericho from Uganda in 2013. She’s passionate about the subjects of race, reconciliation, and justice.
In the morning service, while talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, she said:
I hope you don’t just binge-watch HGTV tomorrow on MLK day. Celebrate the victory… and embrace the burden.
After nodding my head and saying amen, I took my bulletin and wrote down a short list of suggestions – other things to… Read More
With Us by Scott the Painter
Scott Erickson is a graphic artist from Portland, Oregon. He’s the guy who designed the image on my favorite T-shirt (one I wear at least once a week – it says Love Thy Haters). You can get prints of his work on shirts or hoodies or posters and other things at Society6. Be sure to check out his website too. He has just posted a series of three “With Us” images for Christmas on Instagram (images shown at the top of this post).
Here is the text that Scott wrote from the most recent image… Read More
Favorite Books Read In 2016
I thought I’d share the list of my favorite books read in 2016. A new thing (for me anyway) that I’ve been doing is reading poetry and fiction… I think Brian Zahnd convicted me with something he wrote that included the following quote from Eugene Peterson:
Isn’t it odd that pastors, who are responsible for interpreting the Scriptures, so much of which come in the form of poetry, have so little interest in poetry? It is a crippling defect and must be remedied.
So anyway, this year’s list includes a little poetry and fiction too. Not everything on the list is new—in fact, some of the books are quite old. It’s just that I read them in 2016 and they made my favorites list. Here they are (in no particular order):
1. Water to Wine: Some of my Story by Brian Zahnd – OK, so I might have lied about “no particular order,” at least concerning this one. It’s number one on my list because this was the best book I read all year. Honestly, I wish every Christian would read it. If you only read one book from my list, please read this one!
2. Way of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianity by Norman Wirzba – this book is accessible, enjoyable to read, and totally connects with the heart. I rarely mark up a book as much as I did this one. And this line is gonna stick with me for a long time:
It is a profound calling to look at whatever is before us and ask, “How can I make love visible here and now?”
3. Celtic Daily Prayer: Book Two: Farther Up and Farther In by the Northumbria Community – this is designed as a daily prayer/devotional book. It is both thought-provoking and beautiful… something to look forward to every day.
4. Life’s too short to Pretend You’re not Religious by David Dark – David has become… Read More