“Lord, did I participate well with You?” On Sunday, in our gatherings, we were introduced to this as our prayer for Friday – to seek the Lord, to reflect and to examine our week at its end with this simple, yet specific question.  In our devotional today, Mike will be using the Psalms as a lens for a prayer of confession, as we reflect on our deepest longing to be whole and right before God. 

My world got rocked today. Everything I know is wrong. Since you are wiser than the person wearing the dunce cap (ME), you were probably well aware that it's "for all intents and purposes" and not "for all intensive purposes.”…

Today, let’s focus on eternity. Sounds nice, but this is not going to get the laundry done, the kids to school, the report finished for your boss, or your research paper turned in. Neither will this line of thinking change any of those interruptions and obstacles you are currently facing…

The person in charge of running the meeting was missing in action: no text message, phone call, or email letting us know about his whereabouts. With every minute that ticked off with him still being a no-show, the conversation turned into the legendary college debate…

The other day my wife Jenn and her friend took a day trip to visit (and shop..and shop..) IKEA in Charlotte. The longer it took for her car to pull into the driveway the more I could feel my wallet getting nervous. Fortunate for our budget, she showed amazing restraint by just picking up a few odds and ends…

It’s Wednesday.

The middle we spoke about when we gathered on Sunday.  I invited us then to see Wednesdays as a point of Midweek Connection, a time set aside to reflect on our week so far and to intentionally pursue God’s presence.

I'm not a morning person...at all. Being an "adult," I've learned to adjust out of necessity to kids waking me up from my hibernation or having an early morning work meeting, getting up to exercise, well, not so much…

Living in the suburbs in the 80's, my cul-de-sac served as the activity hub for the neighborhood. Bikes left in the front yard were akin to social media posts that fun was going down. In the warm summer months, we'd play outside from sun up to sun down. Some of the games got quite competitive, especially Tag whenever my friend Keith played…

Don't let my current "dad bod" fool you; I swam competitively for a few years while in high school. Okay, so competitively might be a bit of a stretch to describe my athletic prowess in the water…

The light and the dark. It’s the epic struggle we’ve seen depicted in our stories since the beginning of time. The hero of light struggles against the villain of darkness. We love these stories because they seem to reflect our world. They reflect our own desire that the light will win out over the darkness…

The older I get the more habitual I have become. I wake up in the morning, turn on the coffee pot, drink a glass of water, grab my coffee, and then go straight to my chair for my quiet time. Then dressed and off to work. I talk to my daughter on the ride and my day is underway. I am sure my days are like yours with more mundane moments than exciting ones.

"Where are you, HEART!?!" I quickly realized how loud I expressed my frustration as soon as I looked up and saw everyone in the lobby staring back at me. While waiting for my daughter to finish her doctor's appointment…

As my boss rambled on about projections and sales goals, my stomach growled, and my mind began to wander. It was almost lunchtime, and the all-day conference seemed to have no end in sight. And that's when it happened…

"Daddy, I love cuddling with you. You're like the world's best squishy pillow."

Talk about a punch in the gut. Granted, it is apparently a nicely cushioned gut, but a gut nonetheless. Even though my daughter's words strung, it didn't make them any less accurate…

I’ve heard it said that there are two types of people in this world. First, there are those individuals who see the "E" illuminated on their car's dashboard and think, "I got this…I can drive 15 more…

We’ve all had numerous people who gave us advice that went “in one ear and out the other.” To take this to another level, we’ve probably caught ourselves giving the same advice to someone else and as we hear it come out of our mouths we’ve realized that we don’t even heed what we’re saying…

We walk through our days consumed with a million little concerns and cravings that steal our attention. I don’t know about you, but my mind is constantly running through a list of things I have to do and decisions I need to make. As a result, I have difficulty staying in the present because I am so caught up thinking about what’s next on my schedule. And when I’m not thinking about what has to be done, I am thinking about what I want.

If you ever need a ride from me, I should give you a fair warning that I failed my driver's license exam three times. I became such a familiar face at the DMV every instructor knew me by name. I've never been a great test-taker but put me behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, and my already anxious nature skyrockets even more…d

If you were on the row of treadmills at Planet Fitness the other day, I want to take this moment to apologize for my huffing and puffing. Yes, that person plodding along gasping for air was yours truly…

When I think back to the first time a curse word left my lips, I get a bad taste in my mouth. My mom sticking a bar of soap in my trap as punishment failed to wash this memory from my system. But I think that was the whole point. Dirty words weren't allowed in our household…