As I watched 7 softball games in one tournament weekend, I noticed a pattern.  When it came time to run from third base to home to score, there were two kinds of runners. Continue reading →

Every day as I return from driving kids to school, I have a choice at a particular intersection. Will I turn left and merge into the fast lane — the hustling, bustling rush hour traffic on the feeder to the expressway? Or will I turn right and take the slow lane home, past the nature preserve?  Continue reading →

Young Pastor Dan had been serving in his new church less than 3 years when he found himself feeling very weary. A pastor’s life is full of emotional ups and downs; he knew that. But in a single weekend he had presided over a 10AM Saturday funeral for a church founder and celebrated the birth of a first child with a family on Sunday afternoon – only to be called away by frantic parents at the hospital. They were in ER with a child having seizures. Monday morning he was questioning Continue reading →

Baby bottles and dishes littered the kitchen counter. Miniature clothes covered the family room floor – some the toddlers thought it fun to take off, others were escapees from a basket of unfolded laundry. Sounds of chaos cluttered the air. A Thomas the Tank Engine DVD grew louder and louder as the twins tried to drown out the 2 month olds’ cries on the baby monitor. Sitting on the couch, silent, dazed and buried under it all… Continue reading →

Christmas makes us think of beautifully wrapped presents, but the first gift of Christmas was wrapped in nothing more than simple cloth – swaddling clothes. Jesus Christ came to earth as a baby without the fanfare of foil paper or colored bows. His wrapping was poor, but the gift He brought was ever so rich. He came into our world carrying the exact price for our salvation in His pocket – the ability to live a perfect human life as both fully God and fully man. Yet, before His work was done here, He would be “gift-wrapped” again. Continue reading →