Over the last several years I have witnessed four Celebration of Life/Memorial services for friends who I would say each finished well as people. As I remember Randy, Kris, Mary, and Bill, I am continually struck by the beauty of their lives. It’s the sort of beauty that Simone Weil speaks of when she writes […]
Many years ago I sat down with a group of Biola University professors and fellow graduate students over lunch to hear Dr. Jim Houston from Regent College (Vancouver, BC) give a brief lecture. In his early seventies at the time, this small, Scottish man, with half a century of experience in the academic settings of […]
On the Iowa prairie where I live, the most humbling hobby I tend is as a beekeeper. This is my 6th year of beekeeping so you would think I would have a few things ironed out. But, instead, I am among the ranks of beekeepers with multiple years of loss, disappointment, hard work that nets […]
When the last of our three children left for college it was a big deal for me. I had this emotional tension vacillating between sadness and satisfaction. And truth be told, I was ready for a “break.” I had earned it, right? Within the same month that I watched our son’s earthly possessions pack up […]
Last week I spent an early morning over zoom with a group of men from Cedar Falls, Iowa who meet together every Thursday. It is a wonderful group who over the last 16 months have become good friends, fellow travelers on the journey. They went through VP3’s The Journey last year and are now working […]
Tomorrow we will spend a couple hours with some men and women who will be facilitating groups through our second-year process, A Way of Life. As I thought about tomorrow’s conversation, I was re-engaged by a portion of the first session of the year entitled An Invitation to Discover. It began to ask some questions of […]
God plants inside every human being a desire to know him. It’s how we were made. Every. Single. Person. I was reminded rather poignantly of this a few weeks ago when I got to sit on the participant side of the VP3 training table while I enjoyed the leadership of one of our VP3 Coaches, […]
I recall in my mid-twenties sharing my faith story with a very wise man. After listening attentively for 20 minutes or so, he responded with a few affirmations and observations and prayers for me. His one observation that still lingers with me today is this: “Rob, seems like growing up you knew all your answers […]
As we face the new millennium, we acknowledge that the state of the Church is marked by a paradox of growth without depth. Our zeal to go wider has not been matched by a commitment to go deeper. The Eastbourne Consultation on Discipleship (England, 1999) It was almost 2,000 years ago that the Apostle Paul […]