Here’s what I learned from this moment: Always have the tools within reach that allow you to share your gifts with others. 

Reading. Reverie. Rest. Rise. 

As a dad, I believe that one of the most important things I can do is to figure out what my kids are really passionate about and give them the ability to pursue that passion. However God has wired them to think and dream and do—part of my role is to give them a pasture to play and experiment in.

It’s tough stuff for dads and moms, but. . . we don’t raise children; we raise adults who used to be children for a little while. 

Ansel Adams once said, “Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.” 

Recently, I was at a morning meeting with a small group of guys who have been meeting for about two years. We’d been reading a book that a mentor and dear friend of mine had me study about 25-30 years ago. So, I decided to get these guys to write a thank you letter to my mentor.

In marriage, I out punted my coverage so much that the statisticians have given me an asterisk.

“I think the things we want most in life, the things we think will set us free, are not the things we need.  And that's the tricky thing about life, really, that the things we want most will kill us.”  —Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

My son, Steady, and I were watching a movie last night, and he asked me to pause it for a moment. Then he said, “Why do you think we only use 10% of our brains?”

We need artists, mystics, and clowns speaking truth these days. Especially on days when we are arguing about the wrong stuff because we’re so angry that we’ve lost sight of the root of the real issues.

I've realized this taking pictures: life and photography are very similar. Sometimes, my life is a little out of focus. Now and then, I get over-exposed to the stuff of this world and my picture of God gets washed out by white noise.

I was with my dear friend, Michael Haun, last week and we passed by a church and saw all the WASPs coming and going in the narthex (lobby). They were congregating in the Nestibule.

I go to Julia’s to get a great cup of coffee, but I also go there because I need to be a little more uncomfortable these days. Don’t misunderstand me: there are some really cool people at Julia’s. What I love about it is that I also see people in my town that I wouldn’t normally see. Just sayin’.

As a parent, spouse, and friend, I’m tempted to just show up sometimes—preoccupied with something else I need to be doing or somewhere else I need to be. One of the great temptations in life is to lament lost moments while missing the ones right in front of our noses. 

If science doesn’t point to a God who created, then God either doesn’t exist or is a cosmic clown playing a very bad joke on us.

Of all the quotes I’ve ever heard, this is one that I repeat the most. 

Being movie buffs with bladders, that app allows us to know when to go—if you know what I mean. (You laugh now. You’ll download it in a minute.) That’s why I downloaded it years ago. But we found another great feature in the app. It tells you whether or not there are any extra scenes after the end credits.