Humans, we have a problem

There are not many things in the first world that compare to bailing “dirtied” water out of your sons toilet because he has put an entire roll of toilet paper into it and flushed. I would know. After about an hour of plunging I decided that wasn’t going to work, and so I moved on to the ‘Plumber MAXX.’ When that started bubbling almost to the point of unintentional evacuation, I decided that an ice cream bucket ‘bailing’ system was…

daddy’s little girl

I still don't really believe it happened. One minute I was sitting at home watching nighttime television with my wife - the next I was holding my daughter. My daughter. The words don’t even make sense as I type them. Her name is Esther. People keep telling me she’s beautiful, and she is. People keep saying she’s perfect, and she might be. People keep saying she has so much more hair than I do, and they’re right. I see all…

False Start

There’s a penalty in football called a false start. The basic premise is that it is illegal for someone on the team with the ball to start the play before all the others. So after they all line up and get ready, someone moves before the ball is snapped and the whole play has to be stopped and the offensive team is penalized 5 yards. It’s one of the only times in life I can think of that someone gets…

fixer upper

Lately, Em and I have been caught up watching a show on HGTV called ‘Fixer Upper.’  The premise is that a couple from Waco, Texas helps couples purchase homes that are in need of some repair for a cheap cost, and then uses the remainder of their budget to completely remodel the house to their taste. The houses they choose are always cool places that just need someone with a keen eye to help them reach their full potential. It’s…

Come, follow me

Jesus was an interesting dude. He was in fact; God in human form, sent here to show us a walking, talking example of what God is like. And yet, he didn’t do the things that you would expect God to do. Most people would expect a holy, righteous and perfect God to want to hang out with people who had their acts together. Yet Jesus spent the majority of his time hanging out with sinners and outcasts. It would be…

The line

A few months ago our church went through a study on the book of Hebrews entitled "Jesus is greater." It was a pretty convicting look at what it means to really put Jesus above every and anything else in your life. As a Christian, I am often torn between the words I sing on Sundays and speak from my 'platform' and the actions I choose throughout the week. Do I really value my relationship with Jesus above the rest of…

Something new

New things are hard for me. I wish the reason they are was better. I wish it was because I had some sort of intense phobia that had a sweet name and was so debilitating that they could make a movie about. Arachnophobia after all was a colossal box-office success. Maybe it would be better if instead of a phobia, the reason I was averse to new things was because I didn’t have time for them. If I was literally…

Shine

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. (Luke 2:16-18 ESV) But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ…

even so, come

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you…

A light

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who…