faith (Christian living)

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A persecuted people

If you want to know how much I love Jesus, just know this - a couple weeks ago, I ate lunch with my friend at a vegan restaurant so we could talk about church stuff together. My friend is vegan, so we went where he could eat. There was NO meat. No beef, no chicken, not even the other white meat (pork). There were no eggs, no milk and no cheese. There wasn’t even butter. We had cauliflower “wings” -…

At any cost

If you have ever heard me speak or read my writing before, I think what I am about to say is fairly self-evident. If you haven’t, I invite you to go back and read some of my other stuff, or come hear me as proof that I am indeed telling the truth. What I want to say is this; the truth is ALWAYS the best option. Like always.  I can already hear some of the objections. “Aaron, what if my…

Miracles out of messes

They say hindsight is 20/20. Well, right now it is 2020, and I’ve begun to do a little reflecting. A little over ten years ago, we lost my father-in-law to suicide. It was awful - there’s no other way to say it. It was a complete shock to our family, and rocked our entire world. It was the result of brokenness and hurt - and I don’t for ONE SECOND believe it was God’s fault, or His plan. In fact,…

The ever-changing church

When I was 14, usher wasn’t the name of a famous R&B artist, it was the job title of someone who walked people to their seats at an event and/or greeted people with bulletins (programs) and passed offering plates at churches to help collect the weekly donations. It was a job reserved for adults who knew what they were doing, and could be trusted with the money and responsible for all the things that came with the job. For MANY…

The times & TMZ

I need to start off by saying, I can’t imagine what it would be like to be sitting at a table at my favorite restaurant and have people gawking and snapping pictures on their phones. Worse yet, to have them approach me during a romantic meal with my lovely wife and ask me for an autograph or to take a selfie with them. Perhaps even more annoying, would be to have to navigate throngs of people while driving my car,…

No matter where you’re from

Kiln Mississippi used to be just a little nothing town in the middle of nowhere. I’m betting even the majority of the people reading this might not have ever even heard of it.    The second most famous person to ever be “from” there, is a woman named Deanna Favre. She started an organization that helps fight cancer. The population of Kiln is under 3,000 people. It’s about an hour from New Orleans, and has a rich history in the…

Neighbors in America

My neighbors name is… well, his dog’s name is Frank. I know that because he yells it when he wants him to come inside. While I can’t remember his name right now, I DO know a few things about him. He drives a truck. It’s black and has a bunch of fancy tinted windows. He also is really into race cars. Stock cars to be more exact. He drives them for fun in some sort of “league” or something. He’s…

Make the most of it

I stay up late. It used to be cool. Teenager Aaron loved the thought of being the last one in the house to go to bed - I think because it gave him some sense of power. College aged Aaron decided that watching shows on this new fangled device called Tivo was more important than the sleep his body told him he should be getting - and so he stayed up well into the night making sure he was all…

A plan so simple

The plan was simple. We were going to burn the figurine because it was ugly and haunting the front door to my apartment. There were a few details to be worked out, but it was the only way we could destroy the thing, and not leave behind evidence. We knew WHAT we were going to do, and WHEN we were going to do it, we even knew HOW for the most part, but one thing was for sure, the Santa…

Kingdom Come

I can imagine being right there next to Him. Hearing His words, and feeling His presence. Listening as He spoke to His Father in ways that I did not or could not understand. I can imagine the looks on the faces of my friends, as we experienced together the kind of prayers that would lead us to ask the question too.  ‘Lord, teach us to pray?’ Was it a question, or more of a statement? A demand in the gentlest…