One of the most painful experiences of my life was the discovery that someone very close to me, with whom I had served in a local church setting for many years, had “deconstructed” and no longer considered himself a Christian. I initially responded poorly by getting personally offended and aggressively making my arguments for the…

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By a show of hands, how many of you have experienced some type of pain over the past year or so? I know I can’t see them lifted, but humor me and do it anyway? For the record, both of my hands are lifted pretty high. With all sincerity and candor, as I type I’ve…

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Many of you are most likely familiar with the Choose Your Own Adventure, or Secret Path Books. In these series of children’s books, where each story is written from a second-person point of view, the reader assumes the role of the main character, and makes choices that determine the outcome of the book. We are…

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It was a blistering hot day hiking in the Tetons. Keeping up with my sons and friends who were in better shape than me was quite a task. There were times they would get ahead of me and, in goodwill, wait till I caught up with them … and then we would all take off…

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I’m tired.    I’m really tired. My guess is many of you are tired too. The last thing we need is to rehash all the things that have worn us down this past year and a half.  We also don’t need more theology on rest. This isn’t some sort of devotional to inspire you not…

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“You’re like a chess piece that God has moved around the board.”  What was I supposed to make of that comment as I interviewed for a middle school pastor role in my forties?  Rewind many years. In the Lord’s sovereign grace toward me, he has disrupted my plans and my ambitions at many points in my life. To say that my vocational pathway has been like taking the scenic route is a huge understatement. However, when I landed the middle school pastor job…

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