The book that changed my life........

is being made into a movie. I hope its good. The trailer looks promising.

Much Peace and love on this Tuesday. 

Everything is preparation......

I'm not the smartest man alive. In fact I'm pretty sure I'm somewhere near the bottom of the percentile but as I've trudged myself through life I like to think I stumble across little nuggets of knowledge that are worth sharing. I like these moments because I feel as if I gain something out of my day thats valuable and doesn't just add to the noise of the world around me. All this to say that this journey is all preparation. Thats right I'm convinced that this is orchestrated,  in a very strategic manner by our creator.

Think of it as this, you're life sucks because of (fill in the blank) and I totally agree your life sucks. Been there thought that, despite the fact that if we have food in front of us we are pretty damn lucky, still life situations cause much pain and heartache no doubt. However I'm maybe starting to acknowledge the greater purpose in all this pain and heartache.

Maybe we are learning, hurting to become better.

I think maybe my failures in life have taught me quite a few things about humanity. Maybe the God of the universe cares so much about us getting better that he allows us to go through ish that none of us like at all and yet when its finished we look at something good in our life and say I could have never done this right without doing that wrong.

We learn, we toil, we fall apart. Then we grow, we teach, and we gain what we worked hard for. Their is nothing wrong with scraping your knee as long as you learn to ride the bike. I'm learning.........look God no hands :)

Thanks for reading and praying. Stay wild. 

Welcome summer......

Summer is arguably the best time in the Midwest. Its so very nice here. Vitamin D is flowing in the skin. Pools are open for the kids to splash around. Amusement parks are in full swing. The Reds are playing hopefully good baseball.

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is just to explore. Hop in the car and drive a road I've never been on before. Go hiking in some forest just to discover whatever their is to find.

This is also a season of renewal. Summer rain storms are the best they just soak the whole place, washing the world clean. A new chance for creation to be beautiful.

We all need these chances. Me as much as anyone, because I've been through a lot over the last year. I guess I have a shallow hope in this summer. That maybe for the first time in a long while I'll find some goodness to pull from the world around me. Some sort of cool blessing that shows itself into a future full of wonder. Haha maybe I'm asking for a bit much. The truth is life is changing and for the first time in my life I have no human hand to hold as I move forward. I am on my own for better or for worse. With the exception of my loyal traveling partner, Jesus that is.

I really love people. I have this fondness for human relationships. I see God in people and the way we chose to be good to one another. On the flip side I see satan in the way we chose to be harmful to one another.

Lately I feel as if I've been isolated from people and that in turn has made me more angry as a person. And this is why I need healing in this summer time. Some good conversations with new friends and old ones alike will certainly do the trick. However I've seen also how temporary those things are because I also need to place my hope firmly in Christ. In the fact that he has a future for me in his kingdom that I cannot wait to arrive in. Like seriously the idea of getting to go home sounds so wonderful. I think thats a good thing.

Anyway if you read this and you're in the cincy/dayton area of ohio this summer please inform me because I want some adventure!!!!

In light of my thought on going home here is a song to embrace it.

Learning how to heal.......

I'm not much for healing. In fact I think that I've never taken time to let things heal. To learn how to forgive. To learn to turn over my own inability to let go to a God that wants nothing more than to see me better. Te see me stronger. I am not as strong as I'd like to be in so many different areas of my life. I really believe maybe for the first time that all my strength must be derived from God. I have to lay down myself everyday till I reach heavens gates.


I'm really trying to live a good story finally. Not a story that has its good parts. Then has its very poor parts. I want the story to really be about God and what He can do through me.


My plans. My ways. My desires. Even my dreams.


Must come second, to His narrative. The story of salvation to a world that abandoned its King.


I can't believe he stuck around. Never gave up on us. We serve a really cool God.


Thanks for listening and if you're praying thanks for that as well.

The only peace I've found..........

The longer I’m alive the more I see how chaotic life is. The more I see that its so easy to get washed away in the storm of the day to day. I see how people live for the next little glimmer of hope in their lives. A momentary fleeting joy to cover up the truth that they are floating without direction in an endless sea of other human bodies. 

I can’t live like this. 

I don’t know how people do. 

Here’s the deal. I know life is hard. I know it exhausts us to either retirement or an early grave but I refuse to believe that life must be lived this way. I refuse to hold to the patterns of the common. I refuse because I know their is more to this existence. Their is true unbridled joy that comes not from human ways. 

God has never claimed to be normal. Jesus was a radical every way you slice it. Why should I be different? Why should I settle for a life of average when I can find peace and joy in the life of living as a radical in Christ. 

I can honestly say that my life is only at peace when I am resting in the arms of my savior. I am truly starting to believe that this is all I want for my life. I just want to serve and learn and share the peace I’ve found with others. 

My life would be complete in that. Completely emerged in the presence of God. 

Just been on my thoughts a lot lately. Also God has really blessed me with a few cool job opportunities so I feel very thankful for that. 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” Romans 15:13

A few tunes that are meaning a lot recently......

"You're Beautiful" - Phil Wickham

This song for me is unusual because its by Phil Wickham which is sort of girly but I think this song has some wonderful imagery about the beauty of God in the world around us. I love the wedding bells line to, so very hopeful! 

"Untitled"- My Epic

I think this band essentially gets it. I think this song is a wonderful look at that majesty of Christ the man that came and walked the earth in flesh like ours, so our flesh could not control us anymore. Wonderful imagery again used. 

"Dirty and Left Out" - The Almost

This song is extremely personal to me. I remember the first time I heard it, I just sat motionless and prayed with tears in my eyes. I think its honest and intensely human.

"How he loves" John Mark Mcmillian 

Instead of linking to this song this is a video of John talking about the story behind this song. He's a man thats truly in love with a Jesus some of us never get to see. 

Aarons Story

This is a video with Aaron just talking about his life, struggles and perseverance in Christ. Good stuff.

I hope these video and songs bring you joy and hope as they do me. Worship is something so precious so please allow these to help you in that act. 

Hosea..........

Through out the old testament their is a very common theme. Its sort of like a violent shoreline that God orchestrates into something beautiful. The shore line is of course Israel but what is so interesting about Israels story is the way that it mirrors our personal human story. This is maybe no better summed up than in the book of Hosea. A lot of people think I'm crazy when I say thats my favorite book of the Bible but for me I think its a no brainer.

You see Hosea is about a whore. Thats right, a prostitute. Its also about a man that is commanded by God to go and take this whore as a wife. A odd request from and even odder God but as always their is beauty in this bit of madness.

You see God uses this couple, people from two completely different worlds to show Israel itself. To show the depravity of the situation. God even goes so far as to have the kids conceived from this marriage named after the different parts of the situation. I find this to be well, crazy! But God shows his faithfulness to this situation.

You see once a whore, always a whore. Or so they say. However whats truly amazing is the God of the universe doesn't really believe in all that rubbish. In fact God proved his faithfulness to the whore by having her husband take her back.....again and again. God also took Israel back very much the same way.

And then their's us. Yes we are whores. We are rampant sinners stuck in these frail frames that have been destroyed by so many years of abuse, brokeness, depression, and addictions. Like the story of Hosea we are bought, paid for, redeemed. We have been given names in Christ. Second chances, third chances, and so on.....

I am in awe of this story. Mostly because I am constantly in awe of our story. The story of whore. That whore was and is me. A man that lost his way. That had no chance to survive.

Then someone came and took me home and said your a part of the family now.  You are my son. I am your father.

What a story. What a narrative to be a character in.

I am so thankful for Gods love for me and for never giving up on me.


"Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods" Hosea 3:1