One Saturday morning I got up early and went to the velodrome. Well, the first time I went around the track I slowed down, made the right turn, and realized I did not have enough speed to get up the hill. I had to walk it from halfway up. The second time wasn't any better. So the third time I went around the track, I decided to switch both sets of gears at the same time. If you've ever ridden a bicycle you know that this is a really stupid idea. I was having a really bad day, and it wasn’t even ...
Feb 07, 2023•6 min
I got a phone call the other day from a friend. It sounded like he was driving because his voice went in and out. He was going on and on about different aspects of his life, and a trip that he took, and I responded to him and raised a couple questions, but I wasn’t sure he heard me with the poor cell reception. Well after a while I realized he must have been talking to somebody else. He must have called me by accident while he was in the conversation with this other person. He probably had no id...
Jan 31, 2023•4 min
A few weeks ago, there was a terrific football game on. It was on a Saturday evening and the Jacksonville Jaguars were playing against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers got off to an early lead, and by halftime, it was 27 to 0 in favor of the Chargers. Can you imagine going into the second half not only behind by 27 points but with 0 points on the board for yourself? It must have felt hopeless. But it wasn't hopeless. Yes, there will be times in our lives when we're tempted to quit. They'll...
Jan 24, 2023•4 min
Twenty six years ago I spent time with my then 93 year-old grandmother. I said, "Grandma, you've seen a lot of tough times. What was the roughest time? Where did you have the most difficulty?” She turned her head toward me and she said, "Oh, I've forgotten." It’s not that she was forgetful at all – she just let go of the hurt and the pain. She remembered all the good times and all the blessings. But she intentionally forgot the rough times. You see, when you look ahead, you can't see what's behi...
Jan 17, 2023•4 min
It's nearly Epiphany, the day when we celebrate the three wise men, or the magi, coming and finding baby Jesus. When the wise men arrived, they brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I mention this today because the beginning of the year is a good time for us to take stock, to check in with ourselves, check in with God, and seek out our calling in life. We all have different callings and we each have gifts that God has given us to use. Though as my friend Willie says, “Too many of us ge...
Jan 03, 2023•5 min
Last week, right before Christmas I wrote about sometimes when my kids were little gifts actually got thrown away with the wrapping paper. Well let me tell you about something that happened and Christmas Day last year. I had given my wife a bracelet that I bought in Georgetown, but wouldn't you know it, the day after Christmas she couldn't find it. It was nowhere to be found. Then this year Andrea went into the garage to get some extension cords, and when she did that, she found her bracelet! Th...
Dec 27, 2022•4 min
When my daughters were little – really little, Christmas was amazing. Later, as they got a bit older, but were still little, Christmas morning got a little bit more wild. Sometimes we can get so excited about the time with family and friends, the big dinner, the gifts, the excitement, and fun of Christmas, that we can miss Jesus in it all. It’s not that we “throw Him away,” it’s just that sometimes He gets lost in the wrapping paper. Don’t let that happen this year. Jesus is the center of Christ...
Dec 20, 2022•4 min
Once Upon a time in a congregation far, far away, my staff decided to surprise me on my birthday. We were just finishing up our weekly staff meeting, and one of them brought out a box with a cake in it. They wished me a happy birthday, and took the cake out of the box and written on the cake in bold letters were the words, “Good luck, Bob!” It turns out that life doesn't always go exactly the way we had planned. There's an old saying, “We make plans, and God laughs." God has filled our lives wit...
Dec 13, 2022•3 min
Life is like a snow globe, every once in a while, it gets shaken, and the snow comes down differently. It’s never exactly the same twice. It’s a little bit like the times we are shaken up in life – except for one thing: the wonder of life shake-ups is that we get to help decide how the pieces of our life are going to come back together. In short, we can use those times to either become bitter or become better. The choice is up to us.
Dec 06, 2022•3 min
I don’t know if you know, but here is your interesting historical fact for the day. The Bible says nothing about halos being on angels. So, one can only wonder, how did we end up with paintings, movies, and costumes of angels and saints with halos around or above their heads?
Nov 29, 2022•7 min
Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday for me. I always loved it when the little kids made handprint paintings of turkeys. Or when my kids were little, having them dress up as pilgrims and Native Americans for their preschool classes. I can still remember them making tom toms out of salt boxes. And I have long associated Thanksgiving with football games against the rival high school – and, of course, the traditional Dallas Cowboys game. And turkey and stuffing and all kinds of foods with...
Nov 22, 2022•3 min
Back when I worked for Weyerhaeuser Corporation, I often conversed with other salespeople around the northeastern United States. I got to know some of them very well, but I didn’t get the chance to meet them until we had a regional meeting. I had an image in my mind of what they looked like, but when I finally met them, I realized that they actually looked incredibly different than what I had imagined. Things are not always what we expect; they are not always what they seem. What assumptions do ...
Nov 15, 2022•4 min
Nov 07, 2022•3 min
Nov 02, 2022•9 min
Taylor Swift’s new album “Midnights” just dropped this week and there's one line that really caught my attention: “Everyone will betray you.” I would guess that happens to all of us at some point in life. People will disappoint us. And we have a choice at how we're going to look at life, how we're going to deal with what's coming. We can be like Taylor Swift’s antihero alter ego and go through life believing that everyone will betray us. On the other hand, we can go through life expecting the be...
Oct 25, 2022•4 min
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Oct 11, 2022•5 min
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Sep 27, 2022•6 min
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Aug 31, 2022•10 min
At our youth gathering in July in Houston, we had an opportunity to go to the Museum of Natural science. I really enjoyed the exhibits being with a group of about 50 teenagers. What I enjoyed the most was the sheer enthusiasm of the people we met there. When we went into the precious gems vault, the security guard at the entrance told us to make sure that we saw the world’s third largest gold nugget and the Opal, valued at $40 million. He was so excited about it and wanted to make sure we saw al...
Aug 23, 2022•7 min
One of the more interesting jobs I had as a young man was a flag man with a road crew. This job was a longing, well-traveled main road with a speed limit of about 45 or 50 mph. The crew was putting in in large pipe about eight feet underneath the road surface. It was a summer job, and it was hot outside. Sometimes I felt like my shoes were on fire on the hot pavement. It was also the kind of job where you really couldn’t take breaks throughout the day very well. You keep traffic moving, pay atte...
Aug 16, 2022•6 min
In July, I had the opportunity to attend a youth gathering in Houston for youth from our Synod. It was a great event. We learned a lot, we worshipped together, and we served together. All in all, just being there was a blessing. Not only did I connect at a deeper level with some of our youth, but I was also able to connect with other kids I had just met. There's a passage in the Bible that says with the measure that we give; the same measure will be used for what we receive. I don't think that m...
Aug 09, 2022•6 min
Back in the day, when I was in my late teens/early twenties, I was a garbage man…sanitation engineer. Well, one day I got talking with a friend about who had the more difficult and challenging job, and believe it or not, we got permission to switch jobs for the day. She was a hotel housekeeper. So, for one day, she was the sanitation engineer, and I was the housekeeper.
Aug 03, 2022•6 min
As soon as I turned 16, I applied for a job—I was hired on the spot as a cashier at a large grocery store—part of a chain. I was the first male cashier in the company—I was the experiment. I don’t know if they thought that males couldn’t count back change or if we didn’t have customer service skills, but they took a chance on me. It was a good job. Yet it had its interesting moments.
Jul 26, 2022•8 min
Of all the jobs that I have had, one of my least favorites involved directing traffic as people were leaving a 10-theater multiplex cinema. No matter what, you can’t make everyone happy. People will think that they should go first, and when you have three lanes of traffic coming from three different directions, and each think that they have the right of way, and people are impatient and think you let too many cars from the other lanes go before the cars in their lanes…people get upset, and they ...
Jul 18, 2022•7 min
Ever been there? Ever felt left out? Picked last for a team—or not even picked at all? Ever wonder why others are popular and you don’t have many or any friends? Ever felt “less than,” or unimportant, or just plain left out? It’s not a very good feeling. If you have ever felt that way, there are two things I want to tell you.
Jul 15, 2022•5 min
