As we get closer to the American inauguration of Donald Trump and the world seemingly continues to appear to fall apart, I am reading across many mediums a current of worry and concern. I want to consider worry this week and our posture towards it. A new project I am undertaking and will become more present in my future writing is my re engagement with my church as a professional pastor in some way. As I am relearning the language,... Read more
A Calling A common first question that is asked when you are brought in front of any ordination board is “tell me about your call story?”. Mine was nothing terribly profound, no “come to Jesus” moment at a youth gathering or spiritual awakening. Simply, it was a slow awareness that grew into what I would call today a mystical experience. When I was a Sophomore in High School, I received a bible from my grandfather, I am not sure if... Read more
A theme I have been playing around with in 2024 was the theme of loneliness. I want to continue this theme in 2025 and talk about building community in a world of brokenness and separateness. A Deer Hit My Car and Temporarily I Joined a Tribe In almost 30 years of driving, I finally had an incident with a deer. Now, I did not hit the deer, the deer hit me. Like ran right into the front passenger quarter panel... Read more
The Meme that Started the Conversation A friend recently shared this meme, and it has had me thinking all week: We diagnose depression because it’s easier than admitting we’ve built a world that’s poison to the human spirit. Easier to medicate the masses than face our collective soul wound. From this, I offered that one of the many problems I see as a clinician who deals with spiritual wounding is that our religious systems and ideologies are ego driven.... Read more
I am sitting down pondering what to write for the New Year, New You post and scrolling through all the crowded gym jokes and reading friends New Years fitness goals and watching thru hike announcements for the AT. This got me to really thinking, what is the Judeo/Christian response to all of this? When I searched “a Christian view on caring for our bodies”, I only came up with a list of bible verses, usually taken out of context and... Read more
As we approach 2025, plenty of people will be writing about goals, hopes and dreams for 2025. While these can be insightful and inspiring, I want to offer a challenge to the posture we ought to take as Christians who aim to live intentionally in the manner the historical Jesus would have intended. What follows are five postures to consider as we enter 2025. A Christian Response to the Upcoming Presidential Inauguration Throughout 2024, I regularly commented on how Jesus... Read more
Well, we are finally on the other side of Mariah Carey memes and Last Christmas (I did not make it this season without hearing this song, last season, I did), the cookies are almost gone, and the baby Jesus is settling in nicely with his mum and dad in the manger on the altar. And so, we come to the end of the year. This is my reflection. Peace on Earth On January 6, the Church celebrates what is known... Read more
In 2002, I became a dad for the first time. Adeline Joy was born on December 14. Little did I know at the time that the next twenty-two years I would be surrounded by women. I have heard it all at this point, “girls are so much harder than boys”, “wait till they are teenagers”, “girls are so moody”. In my professional career as a pastor and a therapist, I have raised girls and boys equally. I spent five years... Read more
“Crazy Train” I was training on my spin bike this afternoon thinking about this post and the song “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne came on and I got to thinking about the lyrics and how some songs aged well. This is one of them. The album, Blizzard of Ozz was Ozzy Osbourne’s debut album as a solo artist. Featured on this album was the song “Crazy Train”. The lyrics of the song deal with the ongoing cold war and... Read more
Christmas has never been my thing. I was a real pill as a kid. We did not know much about ADHD back in the 80’s, it was still treated as a retardation and had not quite made it to a learning disorder or behavioral health concern it is today. In my most recent training on Autism, the presenters even put ADHD under the umbrella of neurodivergence. Needless to say, I was often overstimulated, often hollered at and my family put... Read more
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