While I was packing for a trip this past weekend, Liz noticed something interesting on the bag that I was packing my stuff into. The bag I was packing my stuff into was from “Be The Match”, the National Marrow Donor Program. Because I donated my stem cells through a process called apheresis, they gave…

The second article of the Creed teaches us something important about God and math, namely that God uses math when He feels like it – but there are other times, especially in relation to His being, He eschews math for something greater, Himself. This means that He is 3 and also 1 and also 3…

Many of you know that last week Liz and I were in Orlando for Pastoral Leadership Institute’s “Missional Leader” training. This is a 2 year continuing education program that Liz and I are doing thanks to a generous $2000/year grant from the FLGA District and a $1000/year grant from University Lutheran.   A part of…

Scorsese’s 1990 mobster film, “Goodfellas” revolves around the story of Henry Hill and several other associates as they navigate the waters of mafia drug trafficking. In one of those scenes, Henry talks about what it means to be what they call a “made man”. A made man was someone who was officially brought into the…

We don’t own people, do we? That’s the awkward question that you have to address when you’re reading what we confessed this past week, the 10th commandment: “What is the 10th commandment? You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his maidservant or manservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.…

There are plenty of ways of asking people about their future. One of those ways is asking “Who do you want to be?” The healthy way of answering this is to imagine yourself in a desired future – explaining what you look like, what you have, who is surrounding you, etc. The unhealthy way is…

  I enjoy Yelp. I’m not the best Yelper, but I enjoy the process of reviewing places and acting as a guide for people trying out a place for the first time. Recently I have also become a Google “Local Guide” which is basically the same thing as being a Yelper, but with Google. It…

  As a kid I was taught that my stuff was important. I was taught to take care of my stuff, and if I was going over to a friends’ house, I was taught that I was to take care of their stuff. One time when my parents invited some of their friends over who…

I remember feeling weird the first time that I was at a wedding and thought to myself, “those two people are going to leave here and have sex.” I mean, in a lot of ways, my attendance – and the attendance of their 100’s of guests at their wedding – was to celebrate two people…

It has been a Baptism heavy month here at University Lutheran with the baptisms of Tempest and Taylor, and a few upcoming Baptisms. That is definitely a reason to give thanks to God, because as we confessed together last week: What benefits does Baptism give? Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the…