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How Not to Be Afraid
You’ve probably heard me say that I like storms. If you haven’t heard me say that, we probably just met. I like storms. The sound of rain. How the clouds open up and the deluge moves toward me. From the time I was little I liked to watch storms from our carport. I would sit outside the front door and smell the storm. I would watch as it moved across the cornfields and listen as the rain began pounding all around me. It was immersive and beautiful. If I was safe at home, game over! Of course, this is predicated on being safe and sound. It’s a little more disconcerting to be in a…
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The Most Wonderful Tournament of the Year!
Ok, everyone. I have a fun little Christmas activity for you. I solicited feedback on Twitter a few weeks ago and got your favorite Christmas songs. Thanks to all who contributed. Now the game is afoot! What is the greatest Christmas song? We will finally settle the debate, and I have devised a way to figure it out. I have set up a bracket challenge, and I will award a $25 gift card to the winner. Christmas songs Want $25 for Christmas? To be considered for the gift card, here are the rules: Be a subscriber to my blog. Post the link to this on either Twitter or Facebook (retweeting…
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3 Simple Lessons to Be More Joyful
I can be pretty deadpan (or ugly deadpan for that matter). In fact, I’m so subtle with my humor sometimes that I have learned to quickly let people know I’m joking. When I do, I destroy the power my joke had, but I hopefully keep my audience from being angry with me or thinking less of me. I suppose it’s worth the cost of a joke to ensure tranquility. But I digress. My deadpan manner isn’t just my sense of humor. Since high school I’ve often said I default to an emotional midpoint, somewhere between a peaceful dispassion and a melancholy ambivalence. Some situations simply don’t warrant a passionate response.…
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All You Need for Your Family to Thrive
My Amazing Idea When I was four years old I had an amazing idea. My mom had bought lemons at the grocery store. As she made fresh-squeezed lemonade, she tossed the rinds and seeds off to the side. I knew that when we planted seeds a new plant grew of the same kind of fruit or vegetable that we got the seeds from. (Although I never understood where one gets banana seeds. But I digress.) So my amazing idea was to take the seeds that my mom was throwing out and plant them. That way our family would have fresh lemons and not have to buy them at the store.…
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The 2 Simple Rules for the Fruitful Family
I’m a terrible gardener. If you garden, I just don’t understand you. You’re probably a well-balanced person full of self-discipline and good old-fashioned gumption. You look at a patch of dirt and see what beautiful plants could be growing there. I look at it and think about how much work it would take. Ain’t nobody got time for that. My wife and I have tried gardening. We head into each spring with grand plans of a vegetable garden teeming with cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelons, and bell peppers. This was the first spring in our new house, so we picked out a plot, tilled, and planted all the vegetables we…
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The Only Way to Succeed
I have a friend who never does things the easy way. I think in a sick, twisted way he enjoys doing things the hard way. I don’t judge though. When I think about it, I’m really not that much different. I was once an engineering major. I had 5 semesters of physics and math under my belt, and I chose to change my major to Philosophy and Religion. The inevitable argument with my mom ensued. “What will you do instead, Chip?” “Well, I really liked my philosophy course, and my religion professor is really great. I’d like to change to Philosophy and Religion.” “What kind of job will you get?…
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Jesus is for losers
My daughter and I just read Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I highly recommend it for parents and kids alike. It’s a middle grade novel about a boy named August who suffered from birth defects which left his face malformed and inhuman. In the book, August is 11 and is just starting 5th grade in a private school. It is his first school year away from the safe confines of his homeschool life with his mom, and he is understandably worried. When the school year begins, August meets a lot of kids. Most are scared or disturbed by his malformed face. The kids pretend he has a disease they will catch…
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Your Definitive Church Shopping Guide
I used to be a waiter when I was 16. My first job was working for A&W in my hometown. It had drive-in car service and homemade root beer in chilled glass mugs. We had regulars we loved to serve, but we also had regulars we didn’t like at all. Diet Lady was one of them. She came every week on Tuesday and ordered 1 medium diet root beer and 2 coney dogs (since Tuesday was BOGO). She was nice enough, but she never tipped, that’s never, as in never. We made $2.85 an hour, and we relied on tips to even make the trip to town worth it. Being…
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This Is the Reason Your Life Hasn’t Changed
Ladders are not my friends. For the most part we get along, but it’s a mutual distrust. We used to be closer, but I was betrayed. I was doing some paint touch-ups in our great room near the skylights. As we prepped our house to sell, our realtor recommended we clean them up and paint around them. It was an ordeal finding a ladder that could reach that high. My step ladder didn’t quite extend high enough, and I respected ladders enough not to stand on the top rung 15 feet in the air. So I improvised. I stacked cinder blocks 2 high as a platform for each ladder foot…
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Dealing with Disappointment
I’m dealing with a range of emotion right now as I sit down to write. In general my life is really good. I am healthy, my family is flourishing, and I have a good community. I have gainful employment doing meaningful work in the world. I have a solid church family, great in-laws, and friends who love me. So why do I feel such disappointment? Don’t get me wrong. All those things are so important to me. If one of those things becomes off-balance or disappears entirely my life would be much less enjoyable. I would immediately have to rearrange all the other priorities of life to backfill the void…
