Just about every day, Lori and I check the weather apps on our phone. Ok, to be honest, we usually check two of them. We look at the app that tells us the forecast. (Partly cloudy…high of 76…10% chance of precipitation…etc…). Then we also will look at the app that has the radar on it, … More Predicting the Weather
Sabbatical Day 11 Lori and I are spending the week on Minnesota’s North Shore, about 25 minutes up Highway 61 from Two Harbors. It’s been a good week. We’ve had opportunities to sit and stare at Lake Superior, to read, to write, and to take hikes through state parks. (Side note: The week after Memorial … More Beauty Surrounds Us
Our home backs up to a wooded area. Every spring, I try to pay attention to the trees, plants and other growing things coming back to life. I go out and look at the buds on the trees. Because it seems like we go from bare branches to small, green leaves overnight. And I want to “notice” when the … More Watching for New
A question I wonder about a lot is: “When God imagines Trinity in the days to come, what does God see?” Our leadership has spent a lot of time thinking…and praying about this question. We are confident in our mission, (Remember the mission? “Through Jesus’ love we welcome, connect, learn and serve.”) But what does it look like to be … More God’s Vision for Trinity
The new fence went in this past week around the playground at Trinity. It replaces the (quite ugly) temporary, plastic fencing that has been in place since the beginning of the school year. We put the fence in to fulfill a state licensing requirement, needed because the Trinity Nursery School was expanding its hours. We … More The Law of Love
Do you remember the first time you felt really, really trusted? The first time that someone entrusted you with an important responsibility, or a task? I remember when I was young, probably just in jr. high, and my parents and my brothers had to go out of town for something, and they left me completely … More Well Done
There are moments that stand out…that catch our attention. These are moments that make us pause, look and take it all in. These are moments that change us. I’ve experienced those moments; you have too. Some of mine include: Al Michaels proclaiming that “The Twins have won the World Series” at the end of game … More For Whom the Bell Tolls
Miss Lucille was a woman who lived in what was basically a plywood shack, in the small community of Morehead City, North Carolina. The youth group I was leading was there as volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, to work on her new home. Living with Miss Lucille was her daughter, who was herself a single … More #ForOwatonna Part III: Treasure
Sam, our youngest son, and I were on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area trip a couple of weeks ago. We’d been paddling up along the Canadian border. It was our last night in the wilderness and we were looking for our camp site. Paddling on two different lakes, Alpine and then … More Crossing Boundaries
Human beings have an interesting and sometimes complicated relationship with our own emotions. As children, we try to learn to manage them. Everything is immediate and everything is a crisis. Then we hit puberty, and our emotions become a hormone fed firestorm. As then as young adults, we begin to learn to regulate our emotions, … More From Compassion to Action
Test Driving Theology 