Category: Personal Essays
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Bringing Funnel Cakes to Homecomers
Nervous parents take a risk, driving to Jackson, Missouri in 1981. What starts as a five-minute chat becomes a glimpse into how a Homecomers tradition was born.
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Grateful
Father, Wake me in the morning. Fill my lungs with breath. Strengthen my legs to run. Give me imagination, vision, and light. Let me see everything You have graciously given me. The sun rises because You love us. You show me how to be a good father. You hold me in Your hand through grief…
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When Did Showing Kindness Become Unpopular?
COVID-19. That’s what broke us, fracturing our collective cultural souls. Locking our doors to keep out the virus. Watching our neighbors’ suspicious activity. Somehow we lost two full years of casual, everyday interactions. The very ones reminding us we are human.Two years later, emerging from our isolation, we forgot. We stopped being kind. Today a…
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Incorrigible
When two cops knock on your best friend’s bedroom door at 7:45 AM looking for you, every instinct screams run. But at fifteen, where do you go when the law is on the wrong side? Some knocks change everything. Some systems fail everyone. A true story about family, justice, and survival.
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He Knows My Name
A stranger in Pioneer Square quotes lines from banned books. Ink-stained fingers. Knowledge of old stories makes him dangerous. But it’s what he knows about me that turns my blood cold. In a world without books, how does he know my name?
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The Year We Made Our Own Rules
George Orwell wrote about 1984. I lived through it. They weren’t the same thing. Junior high was worse.
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Drinking The Poison
Outrage? That’s easy. Love? That’s a whole lot harder. And I’m tired of wounding people with my words. This is my messy, hopeful attempt at fighting less, loving better, and hopefully helping others to heal.
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Beyond the Battlefield
We scroll through endless battles. Comments sections become war zones. Everyone demands you pick a side. But what if there’s a third option? What if the thing we’re all desperately searching for in our divided world isn’t found in winning arguments or defending positions? Sometimes the most radical choice isn’t choosing Team A or Team…
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Love Wins
I keep messing up with my words. But maybe that’s the point. Love wins when we stop talking and start living it.
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After 9/11 and Charlie Kirk’s Death, I Still Believe We Can Find Each Other
The person sitting across from me, even if they disagree with me completely? That’s a human being. Flesh and blood. Kirk’s children will grow up without a father. That should break our hearts, regardless of ideology. That’s the America I want. One conversation at a time.
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I Didn’t Know
“I didn’t know” – three words that drive every parent crazy. Until I realized I use them with God too.
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Two Hearts, Same Row
Two people. Same row. Exact same sermon and communion bread. How do they leave with polar opposite experiences of God’s message?
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The COURAGE to Face What Leaders FEAR Most
Someone brings you their pain. Do you offer programs or presence? Find out why the answer reveals everything about the leader you are.
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Still Showing Up
We rally well in the beginning. Meals, flowers, promises to be there. Then we disappear. By year two, someone you love faces grief alone while we’ve moved on. There’s a better way to love them.
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How Jesus Heals Broken Families: When God Shows Up in Your Darkest Moment
Some family curses hide behind garage doors at 2 AM—until Jesus shows up uninvited and refuses to leave.
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That Grinding Sound
That Grinding Sound You know the one. That grinding noise when you shift into serious conversation. The warning lights that flash every time you bring up money, kids, or the future. You keep driving, but deep down you know something’s about to break. Just like when your partner shuts down every time you mention the…
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Say It Out Loud
Healthy relationships start when we learn to say what we actually need instead of hoping others will figure it out.
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Character Creates Lasting Culture
Great leaders do more than give directions, they give DNA. Discover how spiritual fathers build cultures that outlast them, and why character always wins over charisma.
