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?
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:
In the last few weeks, I have heard news of several personal tragedies in the area that we live. Suicide, overdose, cancer, betrayal, and more that cannot even be described with a single adjective. It casts a cloud of sadness over life. It is a reminder of the abject brokenness of the world, and the effect it has on the human soul and body...
"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
This week was homecoming for the high school my two girls attend. Since we live in what is essentially a small town in the middle of a large city, some small town events still occur. One of them is the annual homecoming parade. It occurs at 4:00 in the afternoon and travels about 2 miles up the main street of the town. It is led by the town police cruiser and the big ladder truck from the fire department.
“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).
“Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I’m only falling apart
There’s nothing I can do, a total eclipse of the heart”
Bonnie Tyler
I was driving this morning when these lyrics entered my conscious from the radio speakers. The reasons that Bonnie Tyler wrote these lyrics is not something I know, but I really know what it feels like to have a heart that is not exposed to the light.
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!
