I don’t like church anymore. There, I said it. I don’t like complicated, wordy worship songs that make me feel like I need a seminary degree to understand them. I miss the days when we sang simple, heartfelt songs that lifted our eyes to Jesus instead of making us squint at lyrics on a giant screen. I no longer like stage-centric services where 99% of the activity in the room is focused on what happens up front while the rest... Read more
I had a dream the other night. And before you read too much into this, let me clarify: I’m not building a theology based solely on dreams. I’m not claiming God spoke to me in an audible voice. It was just a dream. But it hit me like a freight train, and it hasn’t let me go since. In this dream, I had died and gone to heaven. (No smart comments about my destination, please.) When I arrived, I began... Read more
Some of us aren’t burned out from doing too much. We’re burned out from feeling too much, from carrying too much, and from dealing with too many people who don’t seem to care how heavy life gets for us. So, we’re feeling weary and worn out and have no idea what to do next. Maybe your grown child has ghosted you, leaving you in deafening silence as they no longer seem to care. Maybe your coworker walks into the room and... Read more
There is no easy or gentle way to say it: I set my house on fire. Not literally, but figuratively, I burned most everything in my world to the ground. If trust were a vase, I didn’t just knock it over; I bulldozed it with the emotional equivalent of a Mack truck, backed over it a few more times to ensure it was thoroughly pulverized, and then attempted to piece it back together with excuses and duct tape. So, this... Read more
You’re standing in the kitchen, cutting crusts off a PB&J while your spouse silently scrolls their phone in the other room… for the fifth night in a row. The kids are loud, the dog needs out, and connection feels like a distant memory. Sound familiar? In today’s world of snack schedules and soccer practice, it’s easy to slip into child-centered parenting without even realizing it. But here’s the surprising truth: Putting your kids before your spouse might be doing more... Read more
Finding Hope in the Ruins: God’s Love in Brokenness The other night, I was driving with a gas light on (again), hungry (always), and muttering about Chick-fil-A being closed (because it was Sunday). I was grumbling about gas prices and digging through my console for a half-melted protein bar when Love Me Still by Seph Schlueter came on the radio. Without question, this is one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard. Seph sings about the unstoppable, unfathomable, and unbelievable love... Read more
There’s nothing quite like a divorce to make you feel like you’ve just been handed a one-way ticket to Disappointment City. Population: me. (And maybe a few million others who know what it’s like when your life doesn’t go according to plan.) Divorce is the kind of soul-crushing life event that doesn’t just rearrange your furniture. It flips your entire life upside down and leaves your heart in a pile of emotional rubble. (I wrote more about the high cost... Read more
I never imagined I would walk through the valley of divorce. My grandfather and grandmother spent the last decades of their lives separated (essentially divorced), my dad and mom divorced, and I swore I’d never end up like that. But I did. Two years later, I am still navigating the wreckage, learning to breathe again, remarried, and slowly finding my footing in a place that no longer feels familiar. (I wrote about the devastation of my divorce here.) Finding hope... Read more
Let’s have a little heart-to-heart, shall we? Some of you have given up on God, church, or both because someone who represented God let you down. Maybe it was a pastor who fell hard. Maybe a church leader said something stupid (it happens more than I’d like to admit). Maybe someone in the pews was judgmental and harsh with you, not at all like Jesus. So, you walked away. You ghosted the Church. You’re out there living your “spiritual but... Read more
A Pastor’s Journey Through Burnout, Failure, and Redemption Failure—real, soul-crushing, “what-have-I-done” failure—is rarely sudden. It’s usually a slow fade, a long road of small compromises, exhaustion, and unmet desires that pile up like a Jenga tower, waiting for that final piece to send it crashing down. I didn’t wake up one day and decide, Hey, today seems like a great day to crash and burn! Today feels like a great day to ruin my life. No one does. Failure—especially the marriage-ending,... Read more
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