Israel, let loose and enjoy your Maker. Zion, simply enjoy your King. Move your bodies, Dancing your praise. Play your piano and guitar, Singing your praise. Yahweh is delighted, Thrilled with his people. He hangs […]
Tag: C.S. Lewis
The best books I read in 2022
This year was a big year for reading and listening to books. I made my way through 160 books in 2022. Yep. A lot. Everything from Shakespeare to Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. So […]
Ready Player Two & the resurrection of the body
First this: There will be a major spoiler for the book Ready Player Two (sequel to Ready Player One, as if you couldn’t tell) by Ernest Cline in this post. If you don’t want the […]
Taylor Swift’s False God
I have three teenagers and we listen to a lot of music. I also coach high school volleyball and lead a discipleship training program for teens. I am around teen culture a lot. I don’t […]
Journey with Jesus 2 — Scrubbed & refined (Mark 1:2-3)
One of my favorite musical works is the sublime Messiah by George Friedrich Handel. When I was in college, I listened to numerous recordings of it before buying two different versions: Antal Dorati’s clean and complete […]
Psalm 19
(For the worship leader. A David psalm.) The heavens shout God’s glory! The skies never stop talking About his creativity. All day, Every day, They just keep on speaking. All night, Every night, They share […]
Give yourself away
My youngest son is addicted to the piano. He plays it for hours every day. He watches endless videos of people playing piano. He spends his money on piano books. He falls asleep listening to […]
The magic of technology & the dissatisfied life
The more humans have become enamored with technology, the more we’ve become enamored with magic. The two are actually the same thing: A desire to control and change our circumstances. Contrary to popular belief, the […]
The Throne
As a kid, I grew up watching the Emmy-winning TV show All in the Family. In it, the family patriarch Archie Bunker attempts to rule his household during the late 1960s and early 1970s era where […]
Raising #NotMe kids in a #MeToo world
I’ve been saddened over the past few weeks to read the #MeToo stories of women abused by Harvey Weinstein and others. And that sadness has deepened into grief as women I know personally have added […]
3 practices for walking through grief
When my sister was killed by a drunk driver, we were crushed. We were not unique in our pain — many suffer similar sorrows — but we suffered out pain uniquely, as all do. But […]
"Magic" is everywhere — The Gospel according to Harry Potter, part 1
I have been reading and rereading the Harry Potter books since J.K. Rowling started publishing them. I can’t say I got my copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone the day it was released, but […]
The problem with my book shelves
I have an incredible library. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, reference — I’ve got thousands of incredible books on my shelves. I’ve even read some of them! But there are some problems with my having all of […]
The Lord of the Rings & the Bigger Story
I first read The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy, when I was in 5th grade. The books were having a resurgence after Tolkien’s death and bands like Led Zeppelin were referencing Mordor […]
Informed but unformed — regaining the purpose of preaching
I was satisfied. The preacher had provided extensive background to the biblical text and I had learned so much from it. The historical context. The use of certain language in the text. How Jewish and […]