The cicadas have been singing their song. Somehow it reminds me of the summers of my youth. Everyday it gets to the eighties or nineties. That’s very unusual here in the upper Midwest near the shores of Lake Michigan, but it has been normal this year. When the inhabitants of… Continue reading
It’s not easy living in paradise. I am confronted with decisions, like are we going to hang out on the beach, go fishing, or go for a little drive to gawk at multi-million dollar coastal homes. Maybe I will do a little writing from our porch overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.… Continue reading
As I get older, I have a hard telling if I am getting wiser or just crankier, more discerning or just out of touch. Nowhere is that more apparent than in my taste in music. I once heard Justin Hayward (front man of The Moody Blues and solo artist) say… Continue reading
The Royals are atypical champions. They have no pitching ace, no huge power hitter, and no superstar. Two years ago, they were bottom dwellers. How did they become world champions? They built on the right foundation. (Character) Everybody has values and those values determine what you do, and how you… Continue reading
My column in the Kenosha News, last Monday: Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.— Howard Thurman What makes you feel alive? You may be able to answer quickly, or… Continue reading
In the summer, I was free to roam the entirety of the tiny Midwestern village, and do things with my favorite person on earth, my Grandpa. But fishing with Grandpa was the best thing ever. He got excited about fishing. I got excited about fishing. There was over sixty years… Continue reading
This post is part of the July 2015 synchroblog that invited bloggers to write about “What It Means To Be Pro-Life.” My fifty-seven year-old friend has been fighting for her life for over a month and half, after having emergency surgery to repair complications from a previous surgery. She is… Continue reading
Where I live in the upper Midwest/Great Lakes region, we are experiencing a summer we thought would never come. It was a full month late, with the dependably warm weather not kicking in until July. It’s so funny because July and August are crammed full of fairs and outdoor festivals,… Continue reading
Sam My Grandpa made everything better. He was my favorite person in the whole world. Somehow, he merged a stern German demeanor with a tender, yet manly love. As I look back, I think I was special to him, like he was to me. Six-foot-tall. Back straight as a broomstick.… Continue reading
Everyone likes winning. But, every time someone wins, someone, or several someones loose. The thrill of winning, usually keeps us from thinking about the losers. Victory trumps empathy. It just feels good being right. Having the right answer, being correct, being the most astute, identifying with the right group, being a… Continue reading
Hold on! I am going to cover a lot of ground in just a few words. We all have our narrative, our story. That story forms a grid through which we witness events and develop opinions. Our stories are very powerful as a means of communication. That’s why a good… Continue reading
Another “Arizona Sun” in my yard I have turned into the family gardener. Over the last two years, we have pulled out twenty-six, huge bushes that were about forty years old and replanted those areas with things we like a lot better. One of those plants was a pretty little… Continue reading
That’s what Elle Luna’s mother used to tell her. Elle is the author of the book, The Crossroads of Should and Must, a book I own, and will soon read. What does it mean when someone says, “You should…?” Let’s take a peek at what is implied by those words.… Continue reading
Have you ever taken a bite out of a perfectly ripened peach that was hanging from a tree jut a short time ago? There is a certain stance you need to assume when eating a good peach, so the juice doesn’t drip all over you, but it may still run… Continue reading
I am fascinated by the myriad of ways that people express their faith within the parameters of a particular religion. In my journey of the last several years, I have connected with so many people who have gown weary of how they have been practicing their religion. Hence, the conversation… Continue reading
Here is a copy of my column from Monday’s Kenosha News. I never thought about Leonard Nimoy dying, even after he was recently admitted to the hospital suffering from COPD at eighty-three years of age. He was Mr. Spock for Pete sake! As Mr. Spock, he just got cooler as… Continue reading
All of the photos of are of the vintage garden apartment where I wrote this post. For the last couple of days, I have done pretty much nothing. It’s called a vacation, really, a three-day mini get-a-way. We came to place where there is nothing to do, and are staying in a… Continue reading
Here is the possible beginning of a novel i have been working on, though this part is very rooted in my reality. I’m flying! A ten-year old cruising down the hill of State Route O in Cosby, Missouri with no hands on the handlebars is flying. I was free. I didn’t… Continue reading
Boyd & Ava chillin’ in a chair I didn’t know if it would work. We had inherited two long-haired Chihuahuas. Due to no fault of their own, we were their fourth home. They are siblings, brother and sister. While they are off-the-charts cute, they are also needy, attention hogs, who… Continue reading
Here is my most recent column in The Kenosha News. Don’t talk about religion or politics. People tend to have strong opinions about these matters, and they really don’t want to re-examine what they believe. Their minds are made up. Today, I am ignoring that sage advice to write about… Continue reading
It’s humid, sticky, sultry. It’s summer, the end of summer. For kids, the freedom of June has turned to into the boredom of August. They have resigned themselves to heading back to school. Parents are shelling out money hand-over-fist for clothes, school supplies, and hefty fees for every program imaginable.… Continue reading
People around the world have become a part of the community of the shocked and heartbroken, as they grapple with the death of the beloved, frenetic comedian and Academy Award-winning actor, Robin Williams. We all loved this guy, the comedic genius who made our heads spin, the actor who melted… Continue reading
Here is my column from Monday’s Kenosha News. Being Wisconsin, I could have entitled this column “Make Your Own Beer,” but there is a fair chance you are already doing that. Or, I might have used the title “Make Your Own Sausage,” but nobody really wants to see sausage being made. So,… Continue reading
My mother’s dad was a six foot tall, straight-standing German, the first generation born in the U.S. As a kid, I was fascinated by the fact that he served as an interpreter for the U.S. Army in WWI, and once met General John J.“Black Jack” Pershing, the commander of U.S. forces in… Continue reading
Out of all of my favorite musicians, there is one artist that has a special place in my heart above all others. When I was a kid, Johnny Cash has reached the second peak of a career that that waxed and waned through six decades. In those days, Cash was… Continue reading
What does it mean for me to follow Jesus? If I think about it in daily life, nitty-gritty terms, it looks something like this: I would stop worrying about the church and would not confuse it with Jesus or his kingdom. I would realize following Jesus is a personal matter… Continue reading
Jesus was not only counterintuitive back in his day, even today there is still a gigantic contrast between his ways and the ways of the religion that goes by his name. The Non-Agenda We have sacred creeds, sacred places of worship, sacred objects, and sacred leaders or clergy. Jesus had… Continue reading
Patty and I were vendors at the Kenosha Harbor Market last Saturday, which happened to also be our fortieth anniversary. The weekly market is an altogether lovely event in a beautiful location. There are over one hundred white 10×10 tents in a two block area and some side streets flanked by… Continue reading
Nothing says Memorial Day like noise, dirt, speed, heat, and cold. So the announcer proclaimed as the 900-horsepower winged sprint cars were being pushed onto the one-third-mile clay oval before a massive holiday weekend crowd of racing enthusiasts gathered at the county fairgrounds grandstand. It was sixty-seven degrees when the… Continue reading
It’s funny where it comes from. I am inspired by my ninety-one year old uncle that I love to visit when I am back in Missouri. To this day, he carries a bit of shrapnel in his leg from WWII that causes him some difficulty in walking. Yet, he finds… Continue reading
I was in a funk, terribly bored by the Internet, television, and movies; despising the regular patterns of my life. The more I dreamed of something that would bring a glimmer of life to my soul, the more unattainable it seemed. Fear was holding me tightly, even though I hardly… Continue reading
A reprint of my column in the Kenosha (Wisconsin) News: I have a confession. Brace yourself. I live in Illinois. There, I said it. Please, don’t stop reading. Even though I’m from “south of the border,” it’s only by a block and a half. And that’s how I explain to… Continue reading
Something is wrong, very wrong! Something is missing. It is making us stupid. It is stressing our relationships. It is creating a gaping hole in the middle of our culture. I see it every day. It’s in my face on the cable news networks as a Republican spokesperson and his… Continue reading
Here is my imaginary last sermon. (Sigh) I’ll just get right to it! Today I am tendering my resignation as your pastor. This will be my last month with the church as I help the board through the transition process, assuming they still want me to stick around after I… Continue reading
I cannot help but see the stark contrast between Jesus and present day Christianity. It is almost as if they are two different faiths… one separated, cloistered its own subculture; the other, on the streets, in the slums, and the suburbs, alike. One, trying to be holy through self-improvement and dissociation,… Continue reading
Saturday, Patty and I hung out with prize hogs, bulls, rabbits, geese, goats, turkeys, and chickens (my personal favorite). Baby pigs vigorously tugged on their mommie for their dinner in front of amazed city folk who had little knowledge of the origins of their bacon. Chicks hatched before our very eyes.… Continue reading
If you read the Gospels and you didn’t have any religious background, you would swear that Jesus was doing everything he could think of to agitate the religious establishment of his day. He wasn’t the ultimate hippie or some sort of crazed rebel; he knew exactly what he was doing.… Continue reading
In Jesus day, the Old Testament scriptures had been interpreted very legalistically. Things were spelled out to take out all of the guess work about what it meant to obey (and what counted as sin). According to the Talmud, the 6,200 page rabbinical commentary on the Old Testament, there are… Continue reading
.Penelope loved life and lived it at full throttle. She admired her daddy, emulating his mischievous little grin and his love of ornery escapades. There was an effervescence about her that, at times, just had to bubble over like a well-shaken bottle of Coke. After 9th grade gym class, her… Continue reading
I have seen him many times and I have discovered that he is full of surprises and is very irreligious. I saw him when I looked out at Lake Michigan yesterday from the bluff in Port Washington, Wisconsin as the sun was illuminating our massive blue inland ocean. I saw… Continue reading
This post is part of a synchrobog in which we recount our favorite prank. The links to the other writer’s contributions are listed at the end of this post. After work, the kids and I met Patty at Giordano’s, a deep dish, Chicago-style pizza place in a neighboring suburb. Upon… Continue reading
I like senior citizens, perhaps because I am well on my way to becoming one. There are some ways in which I don’t like for people to act their age. Middle-aged people and older people that talk about their ailments and complain about taxes incessantly get on my nerves. But when… Continue reading
I wish Peter Faulk were still living and wearing his crumbled Colombo trench coat. I would love to hear him approach a church leader at a convention and say, “Excuse me, sir. Just one more question. Did Jesus come to start a religion?” Good question, detective. Religions have their sets of… Continue reading
This month’s synchroblog focuses on helping Christians know what to do (or not do) and what to say (or not say) when others are going through times of personal tragedy. Links to the other writer’s contributions are listed at the end of the post. You will want to check them… Continue reading
This is a book that hardly anybody wants to talk about. That alone makes it important. We don’t like talking about death or “having our affairs in order,” and we really don’t like delving into financial and personal business matters that involve the likes of the IRS. When Someone Dies… Continue reading
I am occasionally peaking in on the NASCAR race at Talladega Super Speedway today (Sunday) and that caused me to remember that life is full of restarts. For those of you who think that motor sports are for hicks and watching it on TV is a sure way to induce… Continue reading
During those transitional years, I had a very difficult time figuring out how to do evangelism. Some of the things I have been taught seemed like they cheapened the message by making evangelism all about information and presentation. It seems like there was very little consideration for the person, my… Continue reading
I love Jesus’ response to the women caught as she was having sex with a man that she shouldn’t have been having sex with. Scooped up from the bedroom and thrown into the middle of a mob of self-righteous men, she cowered, quivering, ready for the first rock to hit her in… Continue reading
My book, An Irreligious Faith is now in the hands of my editor. Fortunately, she is not someone that a literary agent or publisher recommended. She is a friend and a gifted writer who gets what I am trying to do with the book. Besides correcting grammar and phraseology faux pas,… Continue reading
Good Friday sucked. The original one was filled with brutality, torture, confusion, doubt, guilt, fear, and oppressive grief. My Good Friday began in a cemetery in a military chapel beside one of those massive fields with their row after row of tidy white grave markers of veterans. The seats in the… Continue reading
