A feast is made for laughter. – Ecclesiastes 10:19  I'm learning, slowly, a rhythm of feasting and fasting brings a rich cadence to my year. I use the word fasting loosely, as an opposite term to feasting – permission and discipline, necessary slides back and forth along the continuum of…

"If you love Me, you will keep My commands." (John 14:15) If you have a background of abuse like I do and have fallen victim to a colossal misuse of authority like I have, the thought of obeying anybody's "commands" may make your skin crawl. This is one of the…

Christmas tends to bring out the best and worst of everything – the joy, the pain, the excitement, the annoyances, and the blessings. To usher us into it, I’ve compiled twelve quotes that cover it all. I hope you enjoy it while experiencing the best for you and your family…

Over the past few years, I have come to know Dale and Shoko Araki who lived in Tokyo, Japan. Both are university professors, teaching in separate universities, but both teach intercultural communication. Therefore, they teach people about the importance of cultural sensitivity. They come to Northwest Arkansas annually. As the…

As we enter into the Christmas season, we face a world of uncertainty, turbulence, and conflict. Economies rise and fall, racial strife simmers in the streets and on college campuses, and refugees flee murderous Islamists in the Middle East and Africa. Darkness seems to be closing in, but we are…

What does this phrase "Jesus is enough" actually look like in practical everyday life? Sure, it means we have nothing except Jesus, and all we have is his sustaining grace. But what might that actually look like for us? When Jesus is enough, we might not actually be poor in…

I love rivers. They cut through the earth like mysterious mazes with no rhyme or reason. Buried deep in the mountains and forests, raging and full. Running along the edges of small communities, stream-like, but constant and alive. Dry beds in the heart of summer lying dormant until the winter…

It is sad to watch the American people trust the “arm of the flesh” and the “deceptive powers in this present world” as their hope. The New Testament refers to Jesus as “the Blessed Hope”1 and points to His promised return. This is a promise we can be assured of, but…

We all have things we'd rather keep hidden. For me, it was my doubts and fears. I didn't want people – especially the church people – to know I didn't have all the answers. When I was in the midst of my unresolvable brokenness, the last thing I wanted to…

In elementary school I was quite the problem child. I was bored. And when a little boy is bored, he usually gets into trouble. Routinely I did such things as turn off the lights in the bathroom when boys were in it, shoot spit wads at other kids, and other…