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…
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.
Last new years my friend Cayce Harris emailed me a document that walked me through questions to ask Jesus.
It was a rescue, helping me receive some interpretation from God regarding the past year and some counsel on the upcoming year. Here it is for you.
"That could never happen. This is the U.S.A." -said almost everyone just a few months ago.
The world is getting its eyes opened. Nation by nation, kingdom by kingdom, the powers of evil have been working quite secretly to secure power and bring the world into chaos and darkness. It's like in the great movies, only it's real.
Can we handle this much reality?
Like our heroes, could this be our finest hour?
There are moments when beauty hurts. Sitting with my bare feet in the cold running water I watched my kids frolic. We'd been here catching bugs and other critters for a while to stretch our legs after hundreds of miles on the road. We needed to carry on if we wanted to cross the continental divide while it was still light. But this small stream had exactly what I wanted.
I recently read a quote from a book by John Ortberg defining leadership as "... the art of disappointing people at a rate they can stand." In light of the last several years of my own personal journey, this feels like the most vivid and realistic picture of leadership I have heard yet. After a friendship of many years someone very close to me, both personally and professionally, became disappointed with me. Disappointment grew to resentment and on to abandonment. The way he left was both painful and public. I can't recall a time in my life when the voices of failure and disappointment have been so loud or felt more true.
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." -MT 13:44
For the bulk of my life as a believer I thought this scripture was overly dramatic. After years in the church I'd seen hundreds of well-meaning, dutiful Christians teaching others about their need for salvation, but few of them could convince me that the impact on their lives was akin to that of finding "treasure".
Act of Valor got to the big screen and has been a hit with audiences nationwide, even without applying Hollywood’s standard politically correct formula. It is unapologetically pro-American. The enemy, an Islamic Radical, is clearly depicted as evil. Not simply confused or justly angry with capitalism, but eeeeviilll. How often do we see this? Act of Valor does not ask us to
I was by myself with the windows down in Big Bend National Park. Mine was the only car on the highway, meandering through painfully beautiful landscapes and listening to a playlist I created for just such quintessential Texas moments. With the red granite cliffs of the Chisos Mountains to the left of me and the desert to the right and in front of me, the imposing landscape begged to be complemented with loud music from the masters of Texas songwriting:
"Train a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." -Proverbs 22:6
As I have the privilege of playing baseball with these 8 and 9 year old boys I am constantly reminded of the critical and fragile role a man plays in his son’s ever-evolving world. It’s sad but true that, as a culture, we've largely forgotten the art of raising boys into men. It's only been in the last 1-2 generations that father and son have not worked awkwardly close to one another in a field or a workshop. Fathering a young boy skillfully to manhood is an art
This Blog is dedicated to encouraging and equipping my young warriors on the diamond to run faster, throw truer, hit harder and play smarter. Every sport and challenge God gives us is an opportunity to learn more about life and about ourselves. Every honest victory is reason to celebrate, and every defeat is an opportunity to learn, improve, and show true grit. Baseball is the perfect place to learn some of the great lessons on becoming a man. As a man
“The story of man is the story of God’s desire to make men into kings and men’s inability to handle it.” This is a poor translation from memory of a quote by Dallas Willard (or somebody else). The author’s name didn’t stick with me but the quote did, and for two reasons: 1. I know the statement is absolutely true and 2. I
“Step again, old man. Breathe.”. That's what my head kept telling me to do. So I did. Thousands of times. The hypnotic voice talked me up to 14,255 feet where the air is thin (compared to San Antonio) and the view is...indescribable. It was like being in an airplane, except that it was cold and windy and you had plenty of legroom (but without the desire to move your legs any more).
I spent a few hours with my Band of Brothers tonight. Our discourse floated around from jobs to sports camps to the expenses and emotions associated with a daughter's wedding. But somehow we kept coming back to the topic: “How does the beauty of the gospel become visible to the common man?” The talk wandered again, this time to
Last night I was told by Doug, my loud-mouthed Canadian buddy, that the problem with me is that I'm a huge control freak. Are these the words of a friend? I immediately asked him to repeat the statement, fully expecting it's revocation with some followup like "Only kidding. Lighten up man." What I got was a repeat without hesitation and with greater emphasis on the word HUGE... "You are a HUGE control freak." Ouch!
