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Deep learning is personal and transformational. Some of my deep learning moments with God have been through pictures that only my eyes could see. I’m writing to give you a peek at some of these private and personal images that fill the gallery of my mind. Author and pastor Warren Wiersbe compares our lives to art galleries and wisely observes: “No Christian rises higher than the beauty and quality of the pictures than hang in the gallery of his or her mind.” What picture dominated…

The traffic was terrible. Peggy and I chose Savanah, Georgia for a brief vacation because it had a reputation as an easy-going Southern city with history to see and exotic food to eat. We hadn’t expected jammed streets, limited parking, and people wearing green t-shirts and drinking green beer. Welcome to Savannah on St. Patrick’s Day. It turns out that Savannah has one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the U.S. and we were stuck in its aftermath.  Most Protestants don’t think much…

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away . . . I was an art student. In fact, I was once certified to teach art in grades K-12. Why didn’t I pursue this career? A deciding factor was a grade on a watercolor painting. The painting was a collection of nondescript bottles gathered from my dorm room to quickly complete an end-of-the-semester assignment. The instructor picked up my haphazard approach and wrote on the back of the painting, “Trite and unimaginative. C-“ I…

Have you ever had a picture lodge in your mind that you can’t stop thinking about? No matter where you are or what you’re doing, this picture creeps into your consciousness. Here’s my latest re-occuring picture. In his book The Contemplative Pastor, author Eugene Peterson describes a scene from Moby Dick of a whaleboat dashing after its prey. You can feel the men straining at the oars to attack the behemoth. “In this boat, however, there is one man who does nothing. He doesn’t hold…

Houses don’t appear out of nowhere. There’s no magic wand that makes them materialize. Nearly a hundred years ago, you could order a home from a Sears catalogue, have it delivered to your site, and built in a few days. Today, you can buy modular homes that can be assembled within hours. However, no matter how fast the home can be built, there’s always a plan, a foundation, and deliberate action to make the house happen. A house may go up fast but the process…

I’m a vinyl record enthusiast. Nestled on my office bookshelf is a vintage stereo system. This isn’t a five-channel surround-sound extravaganza; it’s just two speakers, a turntable, and a splendid Yamaha 1970s receiver. I love the sound of vinyl but there is a downside. Sometimes a needle gets stuck on a scratch, playing the same note over-and-over again. That’s why when people repeat the same thing over-and-over, we refer to them as “a broken record.” My writing on relational disciplemaking can feel like a broken…

I can hear my wife Peggy saying, “Not another sports’ analogy!” Bear with me even if you’re tired of one more sports comparison to life and ministry.  Have you noticed that our compliments often include sports’ analogies? We evaluate a message or workshop by saying “That was a home run.” or “You hit it out of the park!” It would be embarrassing if someone said “You struck out!” Close to striking out is thinking that I only “hit a single.” Singles, in baseball and life,…

I’m slightly obsessed with time. There’s a clock in every room of our house. This includes a grandfather clock and three mantle clocks. In my study, I have a “bird” clock with bird calls marking the hour. I have a Beatles clock over my window. Hanging above the closest door is a Nashville skyline clock made out of a Hank Williams’ record. Not only am I time conscious during work days but I carefully plot out my schedule for my days off. Peggy keeps reminding…

The obvious happened to Derrick recently. “At a recent leaders’ retreat, eight of us sat around a circle expressing how much we appreciated each other’s contribution to our group. Men wept, laughed and affirmed one another.” “Most of us had never experienced a group of people giving us positive and specific affirmation for our lives. What was scheduled for an hour became two hours. I walked away grateful, affirmed, and energized. We need to do this more often.” Derrick experienced the obvious — encouragement is…

Want to ignite a discussion in a church gathering? Show up with a MAGA hat or a Biden bumper sticker and watch people take sides! We live in polarizing times and the up-coming mid-term elections are capturing the divisions in our society and in our churches. While the New Testament is largely silent on politics, there’s one passage that steers an alternative strategy to our current debates. It’s a passage that all of us are called to obey irregardless of our political affiliation. To grasp…