When I first saw it in a gallery in L.A., I knew I had to have it. The painting, now my favorite, is titled, “Gargoyles,” by Michael Parkes. It depicts a young girl, likely coming of age as a woman, who stands atop a stone ledge facing out at blue sky that surrounds her. Beside […]

My wife can charm anything. I think it’s a superhuman power, actually. Wonder Woman had bracelets and a lasso. My wife has a sweet, disarming, infinitely less tacky, Crocodile Dundee-like power over animals. She pads up to cats and dogs, any animal, domestic or wild, and puts them in a trance. At a local mini-golf […]

I suck in shallow breaths as I tighten my grip around the stroller handles and force one foot in front of the other. It’s been a long time since I worked out, and my body barely remembers. My heels hit the pavement with impacts just strong enough to settle all my joints into position to […]

The other day, an epiphany occurred to my mom. We were discussing the difference between the world and the church. She remarked, “You know, we often talk about our witness and how different we are supposed to look from the culture. I think possibly the greatest witness is when strong men in the church can […]

This is the point at which we have found ourselves. The church is waiting, like the dunes of northern Michigan along the great lake, where legend tells of a bear who fell asleep beside the waters and was covered with sand that blew over it. It never awoke, thus beginning the Sleeping Bear Dunes. People […]

A great date, I thought. Both of us had been pretty quiet. The idea to take the family out for ice cream on date night now seemed like not such a good idea. It isn’t like nothing had happened, though. Angela had hovered with eagle-eye precision over Luke’s stroller at every whimper. And I…I had […]

We crouched around the mat as seconds ticked off the clock, everyone thinking we could—we might—do the unthinkable. Canton Wrestling hadn’t beaten its cross-town rival, Salem, in twelve years. Those weren’t twelve years of friendly close calls, either. It was over a decade of dominance—bitter, in your face, taunting dominance. In the previous Canton coach’s […]

(This is the beginning of Chapter 11 on growing family relationships with God from Breathing In and Breathing Out by JP.) The trees rustled above me. The canopy of leaves stirred with a slow trickle, each shape tinkling against the next, excited to pass along its gentle whisper. A steady swell picked up the wind […]

(This is the beginning of Chapter 12 on growing family relationships from Breathing In and Breathing Out by JP.) The sun had almost set over the ocean from the cliffs of Jamaica. Our round hut, built entirely out of rock with a thatch roof, overlooked a breath-taking 180 degree vista of ocean that seemed to […]

(This is the beginning of Chapter 13 from Breathing In and Breathing Out by JP.) The beauty of this pageantry leads us to the church, created in Christ to draw his family to himself. To draw his Bride. He has great plans for her. She is beloved. He has written an epic tale and invited […]