There are only a few things that seem to span every generation of people at University Lutheran. One of those is a (sometimes painful) memory of being chosen on a playground by a captain for a team. Whether it was kickball or soccer or basketball or something else, all of us probably have this memory…

Give to the poor. It’s one of those “easier said than done,” things, unfortunately. Jesus tells the rich young ruler to do so in Mark 10. He also tells His disciples that they will “always have the poor,” after He is anointed before His betrayal. Put those two things together, it is a command that…

Happy Seven Eleven day! If tradition holds true, you can make your way to a 7 Eleven store today and get a free slurpee. You will have to drive to Midway, FL however. Tallahassee doesn’t have a 7 Eleven. The store was named 7 Eleven back in 1946 to promote the (at the time) outlandish…

I remember either hearing or reading that the Anglican scholar and churchman Bishop N.T. Wright said that Christians should be serving mimosas at church throughout the Easter season. I don’t even really like mimosas, but the idea stuck with me because when you say “mimosa” one of the things that gets conjured up is a…

In Matthew 23, Jesus calls the Pharisees out for a strange practice – they tithe their household spices, but they “neglect the weightier matters of the law: justice, and mercy, and faithfulness.” What Jesus is doing here is not denouncing the practice of tithing, but rather pointing out that the Pharisees have gotten to a…

I learned to play chess when I was young. I actually taught myself from a Bobby Fischer book, but because I taught myself, I never really got the actual playing concepts of the game. I knew how the pieces were supposed to move, but knowing how the pieces are supposed to move is an important…

I’m writing this before I leave for Kenya, but if the Lord wills it and everything has gone well. I should be back in the United States when this newsletter goes out. That will mean a lot of things, but probably one of those is that things will be returning “back to normal” in many…

I’m writing this message before I actually leave for Kenya, but since I have been once before I can give you the broad strokes of some of our trip to Kenya. We left Atlanta in a flight to Amsterdam and then another flight to Kenya. All in all, that’s a lot of time in the…

“Well I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the kind….” As I write those lyrics, you may remember them as the one-hit wonder “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by the Proclaimers. For whatever reason, the Scottish duo’s band name has stuck in my head – the “Proclaimers”. Our…

I used to be the president of my neighborhood association. I don’t know that I have ever had a more disillusioning position. When Liz and I moved into our neighborhood, we were greeted by a smiling, bubbly woman who came bearing some kind of bready sweet thing. Later, we met the old hippie who walks…