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Living Your Dream

I really like day dreaming. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the things I am best at. I could sit in my office, my apartment, a coffee shop or restaurant for hours and think about all the amazing and wonderful things I could do. Shoot, I’m pretty much an idea making machine! But that’s all most of those ideas have ever been; dreams of greatness that float around in my head. I know why this happens. I know exactly what has convinced me that it would be foolish, even dangerous, to put these thoughts into action.

Fear. Read more

Big League Dreamin’

One of the best things about summer in the Bay Area is that it’s baseball season and we have two teams. This past weekend I was really lucky to be invited to the A’s vs. Giants game in Oakland. We arrived pretty early and got to go down to the first row and see Tim Lincecum get some work in the bullpen. The first thing I noticed is that these athletes are really, really talented. The human body is capable of incredible things. I also noticed that Timmy, along with the rest of the players on the field, were suddenly “life-size” instead of the couple inches they appear to be when I measure them with my fingers from the upper decks. That’s when it hit me.

They’re people, just like you. People who dared to dream and then pursued those dreams with everything in them until they got there. Read more

I believe… At least I want to.

For the last few months I’ve sat down and tried to write, but I hated everything I wrote. In the midst of this frustration, I kept sensing God nudging me to be more vulnerable in my writing, like my last post about Chelsea. Well, here we go. This post is for everyone else out there who struggles with depression, anxiety, and any other issue affecting how we view ourselves in relationship to God and people.

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The Sum of Many Parts – My Friend Chelsea

There’s a lot of talk in many circles, both Christian and otherwise, that we were not made to be alone. “No man is an island” is something that came out of my pastor’s mouth many times when I was in high school. The more I study Scripture and the more I live on this crazy planet, the more I am convinced this is true. We need people in our lives, and not just so we can use them as rungs on our ladder to “success”. We need people to encourage and who will also encourage us when we’re down. We need to love and be loved, to serve and be served. We need, in a word, friends.

A few months ago when I started writing, one friend in particular was very encouraging to me. I joked with her that one day I would write a post about her. I don’t think she believed me, but today is that day. This will be the first post of many where I showcase one of my friends, who they are to me, and how they have helped shape me into the person I am. Read more

Sounds in the Silence

A few weeks ago I helped lead a weekend retreat for the high school group I am privileged to work with.  One of the activities we led our students in was some quite time by a lake.  I remember really looking forward to this part of the weekend.  I had been working nonstop at my new job.  So much, in fact, that I was beginning to think I was putting too much energy into my job at the neglect of other things (this blog for example).  Filled with anticipation, I sat down, took a few deep breaths, and began settling into the silence.

But there wasn’t silence.

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Imperfect People in a Perfect Kingdom Part 2

In my previous post I wrote about the betrayal of one of my greatest friends, and God’s grace in that dealing.  In this post I’d like to flip it around and tell a story of one of my greatest shortcomings, and how the person on the receiving end chose to extend grace and forgiveness.  I’m just as fallen as the rest of the world.  No matter how hard I try and how much work I do, I am still an Imperfect Person living in a Perfect Kingdom.

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Imperfect People in a Perfect Kingdom Part 1

I have come across many people who say that they like the idea of Christianity, but they don’t like church or they don’t like people who call themselves Christians.  Mohandas Ghandi once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ,” and you know what?  He’s right.  We really do fall short of the example Jesus set for us.  So do we just stop there?  Of course not!  That’s part of what it means to live in God’s Kingdom.  We’re a bunch of imperfect people that a perfect Being has called into relationship with Himself and are in the process of being restored.  We are fallen creatures desperate for God’s grace that we should in turn extend others.  This post, the first of two, will be very revealing and deal with more mature content.  They are stories about extending grace and forgiveness while learning to establish healthy and appropriate boundaries.  Today’s post is a story of the deepest betrayal and violation I have experienced.

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Living the Kingdom Life – An Introduction

In the fall of 2005 I was sitting at a desk in the Scott Building at Vanguard University.  The class was Developing a Christian Worldview in a Postmodern Society, and Dr. Ed Rybarczyk was give a lecture on something that was likely profound and/or important.  Unfortunately all I can remember from that class is thinking this question over and over again: Why hasn’t anyone told me this before?  As we discussed aspects of our faith, especially what it looks like when we live it out in the world around us, this question routinely popped into my head.  These were fundamental truths to living in God’s Kingdom, yet after being in church for 6 years I had not encountered these topics.  The more I learned, the more I felt called to share it with others.

What does it mean to live as members of God’s Kingdom?   Read more

My Life Is Not My Own

This is something I have been meaning to do for a long time – too long actually.  As soon as I am finished and click “Publish” a small monkey will jump off of my back.  It will not be missed.  It’s funny, really, that it has taken me so long to actually write a post.  It’s not as if there is little to write about.  The world around me gives me plenty, but this is the FIRST post.  The hardest.  How do I start?  What do I say?

“My life is not my own.”  I think I will start there.

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