Last week I presided over my sixteenth funeral since taking up post as pastor of Second CRC two and a half years ago. The fifteenth funeral had taken place two weeks prior. Funerals come in batches, it seems, especially when…
Monday night I finally got around to watching The Two Popes on Netflix. Directed by Fernando Mereilles, the film centers around Pope Benedict’s surprising resignation from the papacy in 2013, and Pope Francis’ unlikely ascendancy into the same role. It’s…
I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness recently. And how to get more of it. In early December I had one of the crummiest weeks I’ve experienced in a long time. Nothing horrible happened. But enough little things piled themselves…
For the past eight weeks, members of my church have been participating in a small group series we called StoryLab. Each Sunday I preached on a different biblical character, looking at how God showed up in their story and used…
Thanksgiving in November still feels a bit foreign to me. In the “true north, strong and free” Thanksgiving is celebrated in early October, free of the impingement of Christmas carols and the threat of snow (usually). But I’m not one…
“Not knowing where you’re going isn’t an excuse not to write.” Pardon the triple negative. In my defense, it’s not mine. It belongs to Isaac Anderson, one of the workshop speakers at last Monday's Bast Preaching Festival down the road…
Tuesday. Lorelle and I, having decided that at twenty-eight we are much too old to stand for an entire concert with all the merely twenty-seven-year-old-General-Admissioners, settle into our mezzanine seats feeling exceptionally pleased with ourselves. Seats or no seats, my…
Fact. I love Survivor. As a kid I went to my neighbor’s house on Wednesday nights (during summer of course, when there was no church programming) to watch new episodes. Now I stream them and can watch whole seasons in…well…a…
The table came with the house, and like the house, it was old, a little tired, and rather nondescript. With the table came four mismatched chairs, which we accented from time to time with Richard’s desk chair that leaned so…
I want to take back the Song of Songs. I want to take it back from its designation as “Wedding material.” I want to take it back from sniggering high schoolers. And I want to take it back from the…
