• Living Vertically,  Serving, Leading,  The Mystery of Marriage,  The Story

    Living Vertically

    Every day we get another chance to adjust our settings; turn the dials of our vision, our focus, our intention, our daily starting point. When we are overly focused (read: obsessed) on the person-to-person interactions, we are choosing to live horizontally. This often results in serious side-effects: frustrations, worries, expectations and, on good days certainly, even delightful joy and thrilling…

  • Living Vertically,  The Story

    Scandalous

    I got caught shoplifting when I was 18 years old. I know, I know.  REALLY late-bloomer.  The security guard’s cold hand clenched my left wrist as I attempted to leave the store without paying for the pair of jeans that hid in my bag.  The crime took place in a Hudson’s department store in 1980 in a middle-class suburb of…

  • Living Vertically,  Serving, Leading

    Always, constant, the one thing that never changes…

    Lots of folks have written smart expository about the greatest change agent in history. Jesus of Nazareth was the original agent of change.  God’s in the business of change.   Wait.  God’s in the BUSINESS of change.  Or better still:  God’s in the CHANGE business. For commercial and organizational success, we write wonderful books about Switching, Changing, and getting Good to…

  • Our Kids, Our Family,  Serving, Leading,  The Story

    Childlike Faith

    Steve was reading to Jack tonight before bed and they found themselves in the story of Jesus walking on water.  Jack asked, “what’s he doing?” Steve answered, “He’s walking on water.” Which made Jack ponder a bit and say, “It looks like he’s standing on the water.  How’d he do that?” “It’s a miracle!” Then Jack smirked and nodded and…

  • Living Vertically,  The Story

    Did I Miss Something?

    My reticular activator might be offline for maintenance.  Perhaps it’s “normal” for us to have what seems like obvious connections in our deeper mind and heart but we ourselves don’t intellectually see the connection until our reticular activator gets the message…. sometime much later.   Which probably isn’t technically how the RA works.  Hmmm. I know I have certain realities tucked…

  • Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family

    Two Sisters

    Two Sisters Both 45 years old. There’s a delightful story as to how one family can have two sisters both 45 and not twins.  It’s a good one.  It’s mom-marrying-uncle and we’re not from Kentucky (because people have asked).  That’s more for later. It’s about two sisters who were cousins and childhood pals.  The little ones. Among eleven kids, they…

  • Living Vertically,  The Story

    The [Way] Back Story

    A train from Detroit to Chicago in 1955.  A transatlantic passenger ship from Liverpool to Ellis Island in the same year. Each of these simple, everyday passages carried a young, scared teenager who would soon come together to establish life’s direction for another generation of people. Today, I can touch the words that were entered on the ship’s log as…

  • Living Vertically,  The Mystery of Marriage,  The Story

    Keep Walking

    People often ask “how do we know what God wants for our life?” I tell the stories about how my life has transformed into new depths of peacefulness as well as more genuine excitement and NO-FAIR!-awesome opportunities. New friends nod with some assumption that it’s always been that way. “What a nice life.  You’ve done well.” Nope. I’ve been rescued. …

  • Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family,  The Mystery of Marriage

    Camping Out

    PLANS WELL MADE It’s somewhere between 4 and 5am and we’re camping.  Actually we’re staging ourselves for an early arrival to the Wheatland Music festival that starts tomorrow and we’re on Take #9 of trying to beat the morning queue.  We rented the same reliable 35’  trailer we’ve used for a few years (which we now consider ours) and we…

  • The Story

    Re-Reading

    My life has had so many new chapters that the volumes would fill an entire mental hospital – physically.  The paper itself.   And the actual written content of the paper might fill up a mental hospital with the doctors trying to solve my insanity that’s revealed throughout the endless journals. The particular height of insanity in the year proceeding the…

  • Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family,  The Story

    Intentional Rhythm

    We did it. All kids are all in school.  Even, presumably, the two in college; and the tallest one who’s in North Carolina. I now sit with this moment that I’ve projected tasks into for weeks.  “When school starts I will have more structured time to get done what I need to get done.”  Often said in the context of…

  • Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family

    Parent’s Love

    My precious mother-in-law sent an email this morning with a link to a famous and stirring video by AndiesIsle and  as I watched it, the enormous gift of her constant love wove through my insides like a living, breathing vine.   As parents, we give bits of ourselves to our children from the moment they are conceived, and every day throughout…

  • Our Kids, Our Family,  The Mystery of Marriage

    So Much New

    Today. Eldest son got his long-coveted tattoo.  He’s in Portland now, safe and sound.  Ready to start Year Two of Multnomah University and Season Two of college basketball.  While these all spin away from my reach, I am grateful for the always visible hand of our Lord – and a solid knowledge that I have done my best so far. …

  • Living Vertically,  Our Kids, Our Family

    Time For Spring

    It’s August.  It must be spring. And why not!  We’re heading into a week of vacation, coming out of a season of redefining “intentional” ( how intentional are we really?).  Let’s celebrate renewal … and another opportunity to begin.  Today.  Tomorrow Eldest Son leaves for his road trip back to the U in Portland, and the excitement for the adventure,…

  • Living Vertically,  The Mystery of Marriage

    Wow

    How can this be? Flooded with a new blessing.  Understanding grace as it overcomes me with a love and forgiveness undeserved. Gifts of love on this earth that shock me with joy.  Each time I feel a new sense of my on weakness(es!), I am simultaneously washed with the blood – the unmistakable and unfathomable love of God.  I see…