I just got back from vacation. Here are the highlights: I got up in the morning with my daughter and we jumped in the swimming pool together. I took a nap alongside my wife in the afternoons. I got to sit on a breezy porch and read “Invisible Monsters” by Chuck Palahniuk while drinking a…

My talk at the National Youth Gathering was entitled “Relax and Be a Christian”. When people asked what my talk was about, I told them that the gist of the talk was “Stahhhhp…..just stoppppp…” Sometimes we need to be told to stop, to relax, and to recognize that Jesus has this all under control. But…

I (Pastor Jay) have been out of town quite a bit lately, first in Milwaukee for the National LCMS Convention (read more about that here http://universitylutheranchurch.org/2016/07/15/inside-lcms-baseball/ ), and most recently in New Orleans LA for the National Youth Gathering. Of those two trips, the Youth Gathering was certainly the biggest. The Convention featured approximately 3,000 people…

Today marks the end of my ninth year of a very specific way of serving God, as a “called and ordained servant of the Word”. As year number 10 starts,  I look back to a weird moment when I felt the “inner call” of God to be a pastor. This “inner call” is a gut…

“Inside baseball” is a term that usually refers to a detail-oriented approach to the minutiae of a subject, which in turn requires such a specific knowledge about what is being discussed that the nuances are not understood or appreciated by outsiders. Hopefully this is a little easier to understand. This past week the Lutheran Church Missouri…

I’m all about the Gospel. I have the word “Gospel” literally tattooed to my right arm (I have “Law” on the left). But I’m just not sure that the average person on the street understands the word Gospel. If anything, they probably think I’m talking about one of the four accounts of Jesus’ life in…

In 1977, Iggy Pop released the classic song, “The Passenger”, a song that he says he wrote as he was riding Germany’s S-Bahn train, but also thinking of how he had been been driven around several countries for which he didn’t have a driver’s license. It’s not exactly a Psalm, or is it? The lyrics…

Today at the gym, a lady who usually takes the elliptical machine next to mine found a (hopefully unused) kleenex in one of the cubbie holes of the elliptical. She promptly took it out, and threw it on the floor, presumably for the employees of the gym to take care of later. On Monday, on…

What just popped into my mind was a troublesome memory from seventh grade. I was new to my school and was wondering where I fit in with everyone. One day in class, a note was stealthily passed to me. It read something to the effect of: “Tina says she likes you. Do you like her…

Diagnosing sin is pretty easy. It’s all around us. We don’t have to look very far. One diagnostic tool that I’ve used to find sin in myself and my surroundings has been the “I wish . . .” tool. I just sit there and wish. After all, a wish is just an acknowledgement of some…