I recently read a story about an ambitious dad who decided to trump the Elf on the Shelf tradition by actually dressing up as the elf himself. Apparently, hiding a stuffed elf every night wasn’t challenging enough. His story went viral. Touché elf dad, pictures of you dressed up like a life-sized elf duct-taped to the wall are on every news site in America. Clark Griswold, eat your heart out. But I have a confession. When I see stories like this […]
Someone recently asked me how to experience God more fully—more intimately. They said that God felt distant. And life, well, it was a mess. I know that feeling. And while we fear those moments, while those moments make us feel like a bad Christian, I believe those moments provide us with a unique opportunity to truly encounter something divine. Those moments provide us an opportunity to be present. The question is, will we make that choice? My Greatest Struggle As a […]
I was lying in bed, my head resting on my wife’s chest, and I was weeping. I could feel her crying as well. Her hand gently stroked my hair, soothing my sadness. But it wasn’t sadness that caused the tears to flow that night—it was humility. Earlier that day, I had been diagnosed with cancer—spreading malignant melanoma. Despite this life-altering news, I felt remarkably close to God. Regardless of the prognosis, I felt certain that He had a plan. Listen to […]
When Liz and I were pregnant with our first son, my grandmother gave me something very special. She handed me a small, felt-covered box and said, “Your grandfather wanted you to have this.” I slowly opened the taupe encasement to reveal a small diamond set in a slightly embellished gold band. It was the same ring I had seen on my grandfather’s weathered hand many times before he died—it was his ring. This year marks fourteen years since Paw-Paw Ham passed […]
Over the weekend, my son’s disobedience prompted the internal thought, life was so much easier before we had kids. It sounded like the volume of my son’s screams were directly tied to volume of this internal notion, and both were shouting. His actions certainly justified my thoughts. To think, he was throwing such a fit over the fact that his car seat didn’t allow enough leg room for him to stretch his feet out. How childish. Yet, in the midst of the chaos, […]
We get busy in life. Matt reminds us of why we dedicate ourselves to something other than ourselves.
- Robert Wagnon, CEO, Republic State Mortgage
