Blog
Sons, Baptism and Warfare
Occasionally I get to baptize men on our adventures and offer them the opportunity to baptize their children into the Kingdom. It is one of my favorite things to be a part of because it carries so much significance.
“But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
This morning I sat down with Jesus to confess my embarrassing numbness to the significance of this sacred Good Friday. Am I alone?
Bug Eyes and Butt Bubbles
8 days ago this grouper was safe on the ocean floor. After years of getting fat he fell prey to a crafty hunter. Once I hooked him, I reeled him up 1000'. The further I pulled him away from home…
Talk to Yourself, but Don't Listen to Yourself.
Some might suggest 2021 has not gotten off to a great start. And I might agree. I'm not alone I don't think. A popular meme right now commiserates "'I'd like to cancel my subscription to 2021... the 7-day trial is enough".
In any case we have an invitation to continue learning what we were invited to learn last year - that hope in anything but God is foolish. For our future preservation in tough circumstances we simply must learn to find our souls some better footing than to place our hope in a year, a person, a nation or an earthly outcome.
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The Opportunity of Pain [Blog]
“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” -C.S. Lewis
How appropriate an observation from Lewis for this day and hour. Unquestionably our world is in pain, but is it yet ready to face the hard truth?
Many are certainly ready, and we are on duty to be God's signposts to help bring the rest of the family home. This is our time to be about the Father's business and ready for the Master's return. But are we ready?
Some of us are and some of us are not.
Some parts of us are, and some parts are not.
Jump! For God's Sake (pt.1)
Not all fathers are heroic but I'm unmovable in my conviction we are all meant to be. And that we can be.
I witnessed it myself in the remarkable story of my father. It’s likely my dad’s greatest lesson for me was when he taught me how to jump.
My Father is a Glacier
Like the chiseled Arctic coastline and like Jesus himself, God's sons are born again and disciplined in full view of the world. God's intention is that we become attention grabbing revelations of some aspect of His nature and goodness that can be seen nowhere else.
Becoming Priests
I've been a full time pastor, a company CEO and have probably led a thousand more people in other capacities over the years, but these offices have proven mere child's play compared to offering a simple Bible study with my family.
I know few fathers today who crack open the Bible with their family...
I am your father. Sorry.
Becoming a True Son - Part 1
The first miles in my journey as a father are reminiscent of the Titanic's maiden voyage. Just below the calm surface of my manhood was an iceberg my son's ship was destined to hit. When it finally happened we were both ripped open by the collision.
No man can foresee that fatherhood, which usually begins so promisingly, will inevitably require a violent pruning of our manhood.
Real Men Sighted at Dunkirk
Maleness is beautiful.
It may be a little awkward to say, but isn't maleness beautiful? There are no arguments about whether femininity is. Many would now argue that diversity is. And tolerance. But who is arguing that authentic masculinity is? Nobody. And it is killing our sons. It is frankly killing us as men too.
A SHREWD INVESTMENT
Baer and I have mud stains in our pants that will never come out and memories of a shared adventure that no thief can steal. I am a wealthy man.
It was an expensive trip, but I think it would have been more expensive to not have taken it.
REBEL YELL - Part 1
With tack-sharp clarity I recall the day I was handed the keys to my family's 1978 Chevy Impala station wagon. Turd brown. It was there and then, as I stomped on the accelerator, that I began to road test a new strategy for coping with personal pain.
North Pole. South Pole.
By the hand of providence, I have a friend in Russia and a few in Scandinavia who are laboring for the gospel courageously. Like the running salmon that draw fishermen from all over the world to that region, there are a few men swimming furiously against the swift current of a culture that is attempting to neuter the God-given hearts of men and women. The result is the recasting of male and female
There and Back Again
I love seeing how through random relationships with kingdom minded men and women, the Father has outlasted my resistance. He continues to shock me with the intimate way He offers himself in both fathering and friendship. Somewhere along the way in the journey of my becoming a son, the Wild Goose called me into a relationship with a wildly glorious Russian saint,
...that's what it's all about.
It has taken me a lifetime to begin to understand what you are saying here, Jesus, and I am beginning to believe, and it is changing everything. Thank you for showing the Way. I'm right behind you.
CORNER OFFICE
...a pinecone from the Grand Canyon. ...the cyrillic "Pilgrim" branded water bottle from a Russian convenience store.
...the fishing buoy from the beach on the Barents Sea where Yura and I made a bonfire.
JAILBREAK
A few painful question leaked out of my lost and wandering heart 15 years ago. "What did you create me to do?" and "Will you give me one thing I can do really well for you?" Beyond the joys and challenges of my most important occupation as a loving husband and father, this poem, a simple and heartfelt reflection of my heart's most enduring desires, is his answer to the ever-present question of my calling.
OUT OF THE SCABBARD
Out of the scabbard of the night, by God's hand drawn, Flashes his shining sword of light, And lo, -the dawn!
-Dawn by Frank Dempster Sherman
BIGGER IS BETTER. Part 1
When I was 10 years old I payed good money to see Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark nine (9) times in the theater. Regular price was a whopping $1.25 but the matinee was only $.75, leaving money for a soda. That Summer I carried a makeshift whip at my side and changed my name to Indiana.
LITTLE LIGHTS
In defiance of darkness' historic claims on me, I chose to install lights in my backyard today instead of letting my joy be stolen by the pressure of preparation for an upcoming mission. My heart's ache and desperation, historically addressed by striving and over-preparation, found true healing today by stringing up little luminescent reminders of what's to come