It's time for another true confession. Remember the Disney driver's education movies starring Goofy? (This reveals my age, but that's not what I'm embarrassed about.)     Goofy plays the kind, friendly Mr. Walker when he is a pedestrian -- but put him behind the wheel of a car, and he morphs into the crabby, impatient, self-righteous Mr. Wheeler.   Gone is Mr. Walker's warm smile; in its place is Mr. Wheeler's glowering countenance, angry voice and heavy hand on the horn.   I've been That Lady, way too many times. Oh, I might not honk much, but my attitude when Continue Reading

He found it in his father's workshop, beat up and weathered almost beyond recognition, its  compartments filled with nails and bolts and screws. But that's not what it was made for.   My cousin Matthias, who lives in Germany, recognized the old secretary as one of the woodworking masterpieces our great-grandfather had hand-crafted in the 1890's. He paid somewhere around $2,000 to have it restored.   This stunning piece is now displayed in Matthias' living room.   I've often heard about the process of restoration from my father, himself a worker in finely crafted wood Continue Reading

We're  Americans. We tend to confuse our value with our just desserts. But our intrinsic worth as human beings created in God's image is a universe away from what we deserve from him.     Unfortunately, we hear messages all day long that tell us we deserve all kinds of special treatment.   "You're worth it," said the old L'Oreal advertisement. "He doesn't deserve you," says the girl to her friend. "You deserve a break today," said MacDonalds.   In a world of entitlement, it can be counter-intuitive to hear, accept and properly respond to what God has to say Continue Reading

Okay, maybe not all of these will surprise you… but you may not be aware of some of the reasons why Jesus veiled himself in flesh and entered our world.     He came to die for our sins, you might think. Or, He came to teach us to love each other.   I recently did a quick read through the red words in the gospels (things Jesus said directly).   Together with some thoughts from the epistles, it’s really interesting to note what the Bible actually says about the purpose of Jesus coming to our world. Ready? Here's why:   To preach the good news of the Continue Reading