Daryl and Pam: Looking for Home Insurance

This is a series of prank phone calls Lisa and I made. We called our friend Amanda as an absolutely insane couple who recently moved up from Texas after navigating some relational difficulty.

Enjoy…

I Don’t Miss Writing

I wrote this last night, a couple hours after the girls went to sleep and I couldn’t find anything worthwhile on TV.

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I don’t miss all that empty space I used to have that I filled with lazy work. But now that the space is so full of pre-bedtime ice cream runs, perfecting a manageable four person, no leftover spaghetti and meatball recipe, and a new influx dueling early-morning leaping wake up calls, I just don’t have the space to write like I used to.

Be Violent In Your Dependence

Christ found Himself standing before a wild man in the middle of a river refusing to be honored by the world.

It was from this place of submersion and holy talk, Jesus got up and walked into the wilderness. He was led there. He was led there by a dove perched on his shoulder. For forty days our Jesus walked and slept in the wilderness. He ate nothing. He said nothing. And it was after these days of silence and a rejection of  every comfort that the evil one came to Him.

We all know this story. We have an image of the devil standing before a tired Jesus, speaking so perfectly his questions. “If you are (indeed) the Son of God, then…” And we all have heard sermons about how Jesus responded and found victory over this liar. But, I think we may have missed something in the constant hearing of this story.

Was the evil one questioning Christ’s identity as a Son of God, or was he asking something else? Could it be the evil one was trying to get Jesus to fall in line with how the world thinks a responsible adult should behave at the cost of His relationship with the Father?

When Gardeners Become City Builders

Production and Creation Part 3

The biggest problem I have with the story of Cain and Abel is that it doesn’t tell us what was so wrong with Cain’s offering.

When the writers of Scripture wrote Genesis, it was most likely not the first book of Scripture written. Most likely, the first book of Scripture written was Exodus. This was the beginning of Israel’s heritage, and it all began with the understanding that “We were once slaves to Pharoah, in Egypt, now we are free.” From the understanding of having been lifted up from the pit and placed upon a rock of freedom, the writers would tell the stories of all that was before the days of Egypt, to explain how they came to be slaves and in need of salvation.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then, God put Adam in a deep sleep, and split him in half to make a woman. The woman and the man sinned against God and were cast out of paradise. She bore two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain worked the land, while Abel tended the herds.

When it was time to bring an offering to the Lord, Abel sacrificed a lamb, and Cain gave some of his harvest. The Lord accepted Abel’s offering, but refused Cain’s. The Scriptures tell us nothing other than that Cain turned and took Abel’s life. Sin crouched at his door, and the Lord entreated him to worship as he should. But with all the divine activity surrounding him, Cain still found Abel…

Production and Creation Part 2

Greenhouses and Gardens

Last year I decided to plant a garden.

Lisa and I spent an afternoon tilling and stirring the soil. Our friends came over and shared some space for purple basil and strawberry bushes. I put up a little trellis for the tomatoes and cucumbers to climb.

A couple months before, I started growing little seedlings of herbs and green onions, making sure they had enough sun from our east facing windows. I remember sketching out placements, researching Colorado garden best practices, and thinking of pickling and canning all the produce for the winter months. But there was one crucial thing I forgot to do…

Production and Creation Pt. 1

Why do you think God commanded the sabbath?

When the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt their entire lives were centered around bricks. Every day they woke up to a new quota of bricks. They ate and slept so that they would have the energy to produce bricks. And they were punished cruelly if that quota of bricks was not met. There was no worship, nor was there time for personal development or beauty. Everything, all they new was bricks. Then, one day they found themselves standing on the other side of the Red Sea with a pillar of fire over their heads. So, what were they to do? Make more bricks?

Love is Trust, Not Magic

“You know, it’s okay if nothing actually happened.”

When I was twenty I took a kayak and a tent and planned on spending a week in the wilderness fasting and praying that I may encounter God.

Instead of an encounter with God similar to the prophets or the mystics, I flipped upside down in that stupid kayak and nearly drowned, burned my arm while trying to build a fire with a dinky lighter, sat in the rain, and then went home after only one night.

The next night I took a girl out for a date and told her of a near magic night where I started a fire by  rubbing sticks together, saw visions of angels, and had dreams of God Himself speaking to me. I told her about all these revelations I had about the Kingdom of God and how it somehow connected with string theory and quantum physics. She sat and listened with a smile, ate a salad, and then let me walk her to her car. Before she got in her car she said, “You know, it’s okay if nothing actually happened.”

The Problem of Certainty and The Life of Soil

McDonald’s is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the exact same cheeseburger you ate as a seven year old.

Whether we like to admit it or not, we are a people who crave certainty no matter the cost.

Striving for the certainty of perfect convenience is not new, it’s now just materialistic. People have longed for comfort since mankind first experienced the unyielding heat of 3pm in August. This is how technology, agriculture, marriage, architecture, and warcraft came into being. Someone was tired of hurling rocks at animals, so he invented a spear. Someone grew annoyed with thorns in his garden, so he bred out thorns. People grew tired of the savagery of death and old age that was seen every day, so they created senior living facilities, where fathers and mothers can be tucked away until they die. And we grew weary of faith in what was not seen, and demanded results from our God.