My son loves puzzles and (allow me to brag) he’s pretty good at them.
Intended for older kids? No problem. He’ll work diligently trying connections over and over until at last he’s looking at a completed picture, staring at me expecting applause as he puts the last piece into place.
My daughter, on the other hand loves the taste of puzzles.
Continue reading“Houston, we have a problem.”
Apollo 13 is a good movie. I think we can all agree that Tom Hanks is a national treasure second only to the movie National Treasure 2. Both star Ed Harris so I rest my case.
Here are some little known facts about that movie that I’m certain you didn’t know:
Continue readingI may have avoided every math class possible in college but I do know this equation:
When we found out that a 2nd child was on the way, we jokingly put up an eviction notice on the nursery room door for our son Joshua. As the belly got bigger and the due date got closer, the laughing stopped and we might be in trouble.
Instead of being just outside our bedroom door, he was across the house. And instead of his window being just under a street lamp, it was dark after sundown.
We were sure that darkness would be a problem so I went out and bought a new night light. I rushed home to plug it in (in the middle of the day) and that night I realized that buying a night light on clearance has consequences. This thing doesn’t put out a lot of light. The room is still full of scary shadows but now there’s an orange glow across from his bed.
I was sure that we’d have to find a replacement.
But then he slept through the night just fine. And the next night. And the next.
I snuck a peak at him recently and saw him sleeping peacefully but his little frame was bunched in the corner of the bed where he could see the night light through a gap in the side rail. And that’s when it hit me…
He was able to rest just knowing the light was there. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t showing him everything in the room; he could sleep easy in the shadows because he was looking to the light.
I felt a little silly because I can’t do the same in my soul.
Spirtually speaking, I’d much rather have a powerful night light that scares away the shadows of life and lets me see all my surroundings. I want to be able to know where the threats are and – even better – where they aren’t so I can rest easy. But that’s not how things work around here…
In the book of Exodus (the story of the Israelites fleeing Egypt) it says God went ahead of them as a fire by night to guide them on their journey. A lot of times we find ourselves in the “dark night of the soul” and the shadows seem to overtake us. If you’re in one of those times I’d like to tell you a couple of things:
Tonight I am looking at my son and hoping that I can learn from him how to sleep in the shadows.
One night back in the mid-90s I noticed my tv skipped from 13 to 15. I tuned in directly to Channel 14 to discover it was the scrambled signal of HBO. As a sheltered homeschooled teenager, I knew this was a major discovery.
Somehow I guess my wife and I decided one wedding and three new jobs in 2014 wasn’t quite enough. We decided to add to the chaos by putting my house up for sale. I swear it seemed like a good idea at the time.
My first official business trip was to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in August of 2000. At 21 years old, I felt like a young professional jetting into New Orleans and meeting a client a short drive across the Mississippi State Line. I barely remember the reason for the trip, but I did learn something about faith that echoes in my head to this day.
When I moved to Arizona in 2007, one of the major contrasts from Texas I noticed was efficient highway construction. When one of the major highways needed work, they’d schedule it for overnight on a Saturday and crews would have all the work done and the cones collected by the next morning. The only sign that they were ever there is the improvement they left behind.
It completely makes the whole “90 degrees at dawn” thing worth it.
A day ago I realized I have two Palo Verde trees in my front yard when I met my neighbor Joel. Joel has an immaculately manicured desert landscape lawn and mercifully stopped by to talk with me when he saw me at work in the jungle that my property had become. In the nicest way possible he gave me advice, offered me tools and one thing he said stuck out to me: “These Palo Verde trees could definitely be cut back, that would help them grow.”
“Oh so those are Palo Verde trees. Imagine that!” I thought to myself as I nodded seriously. Then I went inside and Googled how to prune them.
I’m in love. I’m proud of my work. I’m surrounded by great friends. And I’m pissed off.
There is a special kind of shame that only grown-up humans are capable of feeling. It’s the kind of shame you feel when you realize you’re singing along to Justin Bieber song. I felt this kind of shame today when I was moved by something said by a personal trainer on an infomercial as I was flipping through tv channels.