My wife, Liz, loves packing lists. I’m not saying that she loves packing. Rather, what she likes is to put together the list of what needs to be packed. She likes to think ahead and consider what might be necessary for any trip that I am taking or that we are taking as a family.…

In 1912, Whitman’s Chocolates and Confections company began production of the product that is now the only thing that is known by the Whitman’s brand: the Whitman’s Sampler. Now I’m no snob when it comes to chocolate, but the Whitman’s Sampler was probably the first box of assorted chocolates that I really remember. Maybe you’re…

You know those self-serve kiosks that keep on popping up in grocery stores and fast food restaurants? Well, I’m pretty sure those are the work of the devil. Here’s why. In the early 1800’s, a Jewish preacher and teacher named Rabbi Haim taught a village of Lithuanians an interesting allegory for life. He said that…

The other day, my three year old daughter Willow told me that it “wasn’t Valentine’s Day” anymore. I chuckled and then asked her, “well, what day IS it, Willow?” She didn’t quite know, so she looked around and saw that Liz and the other girls had put up some shamrock decorations for St. Patrick’s day.…

This past week we started our new sermon series on “Measuring UP” for Lent. The idea of the series is that we would measure ourselves against God, and finding ourselves unable to measure up to God, going to Him for His immeasurable mercy. One of the things that I’m playing around with this Lent is…

In the late 1700’s when Napoleon’s forces were invading Austria, the small town of Feldkirch was getting ready to celebrate Easter day when they heard word that the French forces were just outside of the town limits. A town council was soon called to discuss what to do. One member of the council made an…

Would you like to be locked up for a little bit? I confess that the idea sounds somewhat appealing to me some days. Being locked up with no access to obligations like some meetings, email, and the mundane things of life sounds alright. Of course, I could probably get the same effect with better food…

I’ve always been attracted to doing something new. I just got off a phone call with a guy who was telling me about his new idea to get something up and going in our church body, and I’m super excited for the possibilities that he and I were talking about. I love that moment of…

The advent of writing was an important step in human development as it triggered the ability for us to communicate an an asynchronous fashion. That means that I’m typing this message to you maybe hours, maybe days before you read it, but it’s available for you whenever you do read it. You have to wait…