I remember sitting and having a cup of coffee in Cascades park in July of 2020. As I sat there, I watched workers construct the new hotels that are now functioning around Cascades. As I watched them, Martin Luther’s quote, “everything that is done in the world is done by hope,” came to mind. That…

Do you want a guarantee that Jesus is going to show up someplace? He gives us that guarantee in Matthew 18 when He says “where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” While the quote is taken from a passage about resolving a dispute, Jesus’ words are true in…

When Renaissance painters painted depictions of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they did a sort of odd thing. Normally speaking Matthew, Mark, and Luke would be looking one way and John would be looking another (often staring off into space). This was an artistic way of communicating the similarities of Matthew, Mark,…

A while back I learned an acronym about something that we should do regularly, “STOP”. The elements of the STOP acronym are to sit, think, organize, and plan. The author who was talking about this acronym said that much of what goes wrong in our live could possibly be traced to not “STOPping” or rushing…

When I was on my vicarage (internship) at First Lutheran in Gainesville, FL, I noticed something that had been produced by my predecessor, Vicar Matt. Matt made a magnet with the University of Florida football schedule on it, which he then used to hand out at tabling events. Now, some 15 years later, I just…

Recently, my 6 year old has taken to showing off her reading skills by reading road signs as we traverse from place to place on a road trip. I ask her to look out for certain signs to be helpful and to read certain signs when they come up. As she does, she inevitably misses…

The Fourth of July is coming up this coming Sunday. We have recently started calling this holiday simply “The 4th of July” but it’s proper name is “Independence Day” as we celebrate our independence of our country from Britain on this day. As a nation, we wrote this thing called the “Declaration of Independence” which…

This past Monday was the first day of summer. June 21, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, is also the first day of summer. (I know this because Professor Fuelberg told me so during Bible study this past Sunday.) From here on out, the days will get shorter as we approach the…

It happens every time we plan on leaving for some kind of vacation — the increasing of the already hurried pace of trying to get things done, make sure details are cleared, and communications made. And every time there is a moment, sometimes a short one and sometimes a long one, where I think to…