But did you die?

American's praise the individual.  Men, especially, are pushed to be self reliant, quiet, loners.  We struggle to tackle life's problems ourselves without ever asking for help.  By doing this we are proving we are strong, right? “The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages.  -Ayn Rand We do it alone.  We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.  We can blame no one but ourselves when we fail.  We achieve success by only caring for ourselves.  Right? Earlier this month I took time to get away with a group of men.  While we were spending time together we were learning some of what it means to be "Sons of Grace."  One of the b...

I cannot help but to notice that there have been a lot of heated discussions going around lately.  The “drug use is a disease” vs. “drug use is a choice” has been sparked from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death from an apparent overdose.  There is also the freak-out people have had because coke’s “superb owl” commercial had a gay couple in it.  I even read about people bashing a member of a Christian band because he said Bruno Mars rocked the halftime show . You may be asking yourself why I bring these topics up.  Well, folks, I’ll tell you.  I know this may be a shock to you but people’s view on having a relationship with Christ is impacted by the way you say things.  I am by far not perfect.  I say things I don’t mean in ways that I shouldn’t.  I struggle to be a good example for my kids and I try to live in a way that would make my heavenly father proud.  However, I have been seeing a bunch of people who call themselves Christians freaking ...

Sorry for the absence my friends, but I'm back!  I've started doing these weekly creative writing prompts hosted on Writers Digest .  I wanted to post it here as well for you all to read.  I hope you enjoy. Paranoia is something I struggle with on a daily basis.  I regularly feel as though I am being followed.  I can sense people looking at me, when I walk around town.  I’ve voiced my concerns but no one believes me, not even my girlfriend Heather. “Oh you are just being silly,” she would say.  “Why would someone be tracking you?” “If I knew that then it wouldn’t be so unnerving,” I would reply. I do my best to be normal.  I don’t let fear keep me at the house.  I attend classes in person even though every fiber of my being screams for me to take the courses online so I can stay home (where it is safe).  I really try to not let the paranoia run me, so you can imagine my distress when I received the following email on my phone as...

I consider myself to be a good dad.  I am around, I help with homework, and I generally like to be with my kids, but I am constantly trying to be better. I regularly screw up, so I try to learn from my mistakes. I regularly get things right, so I try to learn from my triumphs. Here are five things I've learned recently. Laugh with your kids.   This week we were making Christmas lists when my daughter said she wanted to get me a "butt that will fart on daddy."  I know!  Gross right?  My son though that was hilarious and they have been laughing about that for days now.  Laughing with them (even when it is disgusting and slightly inappropriate) validates that they are worthwhile.  We all like to be funny and to get a response from those we care about.  Laugh with them, even if the joke doesn't make sense. Think about what it looks like to others.   This week one of my biggest screw ups was when we were out shopping at CVS.  The k...

Happy Thanksgiving folks! As promised here is the second part of the prologue for the upcoming Jonah book.  In this section we introduce the other two main players in the book.  I hope you enjoy and know that I am so thankful that I have you all to encourage me and give me feedback.  You can reread part one here . *****             The town of Khorsabad was located on the outskirts of the Nineveh province.  It was a rural town that once held a mighty fortress.  The town was in the midst of rebirth.  One could see new construction alongside of four hundred year old homes.  It was a town of transition with a population that was ever fluctuating.  The staple of the town, fishing, had been dwindling ever since several factories were built to the north, but the factory did bring several jobs, which was why the town was growing for the first time in a generation.  Along the western side of the town r...

Helplessness is one of my most hated feelings.   We all want to feel like we have the power to effect the things around us, right?  One of the things I hate the most is when I know there is nothing I can do about a situation I am in. My wife Courtney and I had to deal with feelings of helplessness from January 2012 to September of 2012 This was the time we were preparing for and welcoming Seth, our youngest son. Seth's pregnancy was extremely difficult.  At seven weeks we went to the emergency room, thinking Courtney was having a miscarriage.  Then, beginning in the second trimester, we had to go to specialists two to three times a week because of abnormalities during the pregnancy.  He ended up being delivered early, and by the grace of God was healthy.  Then, when Seth was almost 2 months old he contracted RSV which made it difficult for him to breathe.    He had to spend several days in the Pediatric ICU to recover.  These were very ...

Several months ago I had an idea.   I found myself skimming over whole passages in the Old Testament and I began to wonder why. Are they boring?  No. Am I missing the context?  Sometimes. Is it because they were stories that I had heard hundreds of times?  Yep. I then realized that there are probably plenty of people like me, people who find it easy to skip whole sections of the Bible because they were stories they had heard before. I began to wonder if there was a way I could help myself and others read these stories with "with new eyes." The idea that I came up was to retell these "old stories" in a new way; a way that hopefully people could relate to.  This is the first section of the prologue in my upcoming novel based on the book of Jonah.  I hope you enjoy and would love any feedback. ********************             He looked at himself in the mirror.   When did I get so old?  The p...