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All Dried Up

My mind was racing, and quite honestly, tired of racing. My wife was going to be gone for three days at a conference, during which time I would be solely responsible for our four kids under the age of seven. Our first album recording at church is coming down the final stretch. I was trying to prepare for leading worship. And I had a number of quick decisions that were needing to be made for my business.

If I were to line up four glasses of water, I would have been pouring into my family, my church, and my community. But my personal glass was empty. I literally felt like an engine without any more oil. Read more

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Who’s Leading Who?

It was your typical Sunday worship service. I invited the congregation to gather for worship. There was some sort of theme that went along with the message. We had a variety of old and new songs, with a balance of celebration and confession. But to be quite honest with you, I don’t even remember any of the particulars. I don’t remember the theme at all. I couldn’t tell you what the songs were if my life depended on it. I don’t remember what colors the lights were, or anything about the stage design. Yet, it was one of the most powerful corporate worship experiences of my life. Read more

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Myself, All Grown Up

As a father of four, I really enjoy when my kids begin imagining their future. Do they want to be a parent someday? Where would they live? And inevitably, the question comes up, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I’ll never forget when I asked my son Blake that question when he was five years old. As most people do, I asked the stereotypical question, “What do you want to be when you grow up? A policeman? A fireman?”

Blake thought about it and said, “No. I just want to be myself, all grown up.”

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Early In the Morning

The bitter breeze was cold under the dark night sky, while wet snow melted on my face and hands. I briskly ran into it across the road from our overflow parking lot. Then, the walk up the driveway to our new campus began.

I looked up at the building, with fiery orange lit windows. It was inviting me in. Yet, I had to stop walking and recognize the quiet stillness of leaves and gentle breeze that were reminding me that the songs were not yet rising.

Or were they? Read more

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When Castles Crumble

The heat was heavy, and laid like a thick wet blanket as I lifted my tired head to look out of the small open window to see what I could not the night before, when I had first arrived.

The ground was gray and broken. And just across the small yard was a worn down, chipped concrete house that wasn’t much more to look at than the scrawny billy goat that was tied to it.

Yesterday, our church showed a video of one of our missions trips. The video began with one of the team members making this exact observation of their trip. And my mind was drawn to that morning years ago when I had experienced the exact same thing on one of my trips. Read more

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