There is a story about a marble statue of Jesus that stood in the courtyard of a small church in France. His hands were stretched out toward the village. During the war, a bomb exploded nearby and shattered the statue. When the fighting ended, the villagers gathered the pieces and put it back together. They found almost everything. But they could not find the hands. Some wanted to replace the statue. What good was a statue of Jesus without hands? Then someone placed a plaque

Thursday I was on a golf course instead of in my office. Thursday is when I write. Saying yes to the invitation meant pushing my sermon prep to Friday, and if you have ever tried to finish anything on a deadline, you know what that costs. I said yes anyway. I spent eighteen holes with three men I had never met. About four and a half hours, and I do not think we stopped talking the whole time. I also lost a lot of golf balls. I could stand on the tee box and picture exactly wh

“I’m not good at that.” Most of us have said. After all, we cannot all be good at everything. Journaling... I'm not good at that. Memorizing scripture... I'm not good at that. Praying... I'm not good at that. Insert "fruit of the Spirit"... I'm not good at that. Sometimes a limitation is real. But let's not mistake being unpracticed for being unable. Proverbs 24 gives us a different way to see it. Wisdom is not merely something we possess. Wisdom builds. Wisdom says, "See tha

There is a sentence I have learned to slow down for: “I used to be the kind of person who did that.” Used to. Something got built. Something came apart. And a whole capacity quietly went into storage. I know that sentence from the inside. What I Built to Last... Didn't I was twenty-four, six months into my first ministry job, with more energy than sense. My wife, Ashley, and I were dating and I wanted to do something impressive. Easter was coming, and I had an idea. We were g