Fort Knox: No, Not That One

In summer 1998 I visited the Fort Knox gold mine operated by the Kinross Corporation. This open pit is located just north of Fairbanks, Alaska. It is the largest gold-mining operation in North America. While gold has been enticed from the Fairbanks mining district for a hundred years, no one has drilled, blasted, and processed [...]

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Some Assembly Required

Do you know the three most frightening words in the English language? “Some assembly required.” You order something online; a toy or a bicycle for your children. Or you go to a big box store to get a grill or piece of patio furniture. When UPS brings it to your door or you find the [...]

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Fellowship of the Unashamed

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the African country of Zimbabwe was torn by political strife and war. Depending upon where you were in the country, it was a dangerous thing to be an outspoken follow of Jesus. An unknown, unnamed Zimbabwean pastor was warned by his villagers that the rebel armies were coming [...]

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Give Me Some Skin

Do you remember the story of the Velveteen Rabbit as a kid? It’s about a toy rabbit that becomes real, but of course he doesn’t enter the nursery real. “He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be. For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor, and [...]

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Love Enough

Love is not something you muster or work up. You can’t do this by trying harder. You do this by emptying yourself of you – the true ambition of the Christ-centered life – and allowing all that God is to flow out of you. It’s that simple and that profound. What, then, does this look like?
My [...]

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Just Drive

The Christian life isn’t learned; it is lived. There are no hidden secrets, no new knowledge. God has given us what we need to be his people in the world. We don’t need more knowledge, more learning, or more information. We need more practice, more doing and being, more living out the gift God has [...]

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Get Out of the Kiddie Pool

I wonder if our spiritual journey looks anything like what I saw some days ago at a water park. Our family went to one of those tube and pool places, and the kids had a great time. But at one point a kid, maybe 12 or 13 years old, caught my attention. He was almost [...]

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