Blog
image from commons.wikimedia.org
Life can suck us dry. Home life. Work life. Economic life. Family life. Yeah, the list can go on. We get exhausted and have little to give. We need a break, some rest, like the lion above. A time to refill spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally. But we can't seem to find, or create, a break in the fast pace. Even so, sometimes we need to suck it up. Not always, but sometimes. Here's why...
Read More
Years back, one of my students got me hooked. On Sudoku. During study hall he pulled out a puzzle book and I wandered over, and that's all it took. The pic above shows a puzzle, and for those not aware of Sudoku requirements, you enter the numbers 1-9 in each box of 9 spaces, in each row and column, without any duplicates. You begin with some numbers filled in and you do the rest. Every possible number candidate gets placed in a box, then you ...
Read More
image by lunaticg.blogspot.com
Hard times and trouble and frustrating people seem imbedded in my life. I suspect you share the same condition. My high sense of justice merely compounds this, and serves as a strength and a weakness. I care about those taken advantage of, who get treated unfairly. Rightly, I want to support and encourage them and take their side. That's the strength side of the justice coin. The weakness occurs when ...
Read More
image from clipartpanda.com
After months of faithful readers and a semi-disfunctional blog, Zak Erving of Spark Punk fixed the non-working subscribe feature. So now, if you'd like an email notice of each new blog post, just hit the subscribe button and enter your email address. And, feel free to pass the news on!
image from en.wikipedia.com
Funny how some changes and mistakes can benefit us. Although a regular at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers conference near Santa Cruz, I missed the last seven years. However, my confidence never dimmed regarding directions, so I left the map at home. Never even glanced at it. A well-worn route. But Palm Sunday came early this year, right at the switch to Daylight Savings Time, and the conference changed its close from lunch to a 7:15 breakfast, so I left in the darkness at 6 AM, hoping to beat the metro LA afternoon traffic. Those changes led to my mistake...
Read More
image from mariposaresearch.net
As I put together this post on Wednesday, I'm getting ready. The Mustang is gassed, soon to be cleaned. A case of clothes soon to be filled, then all packed in securely so cruising the coast with the convertible top down won't blow anything out--except worries and cares and stress. As you read this, starting Monday, the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference will come close to its conclusion. Set in the redwoods just above Santa Cruz
Read More
image by media.photobucket.com
A major step in my spiritual development came when I finally discarded a legalistic view of sin. Yes, sin violates God's laws. Yes, that violation has consequences in our lives. But I focused on the wrongness of sin. So, if I could rationalize that it wasn't that wrong, then it became easier to slip into it. Kind of like running a red light if no cars are in sight. Basically, viewing a wrong as less wrong made me more likely to do that wrong. Then I discovered another dimension of sin, one that changed not just how I view sin, but how I view ...
Read More
image from youramazingplaces.com
On a late June morning we fired up the bikes and rode out of Kalispell, Montana, expecting great things at Glacier National Park. Early indications didn’t encourage us. The chill cut deep, even through our leathers and layers of clothing, and we had to endure 30 miles of mostly urban traffic before approaching the park. So far, the shivers from cold and the frustrations from traffic seemed like a typical day. Nothing awesome, just unpleasant conditions. Then we entered Glacier...
Read More