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Dec 20, 2024: Faith is more about longing and thirsting than knowing and possessing David Brooks has a lovely essay published in the New York Times yesterday on his journey from agnosticism into faith. It came not, he says, through …

Dec 20, 2024: Some customer ahead of me at the bakery bought a $250 gift card to be used on the next customers. I would’ve happily paid for my pecan roll and …

Dec 19, 2024: 2024 Reads: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss 📚 I don’t read a lot of business books, and I …

Dec 19, 2024: Singing with the orchestra chorus this weekend for the holiday concerts. First rehearsal with the orchestra was last night, went from 6:30 to almost …

Dec 18, 2024: High enough anxiety Earlier today a post came across Bluesky that stopped me short. Canadian author Ryan North put it this way: All pleasures are guilty pleasures if you …

Dec 18, 2024: Oldest daughter got in from college last night, and now we have everyone at home for the next two weeks! The delight comes with the growing, sobering …

Dec 17, 2024: Iowa work potlucks are always tasty. Iowa work potlucks, when supplemented with the Indian co-worker’s homemade chicken biryani are 1000% …

Dec 16, 2024: I mostly use Due for short-term reminders, but using it for long-term ones feels like magic somehow. 9 mths ago I thought “hey, my college kid …

Dec 16, 2024: Stunning graces at church yesterday: the man whose wife died on Wednesday back in the pew after two months gone caring for her in her last days. The …

Dec 14, 2024: 2024 Reads: Shadow of Doubt by Brad Thor 📚 A good reminder why I rarely spend time with books like this. So thin and repetitive…

Dec 14, 2024: The weather guys weren’t kidding about the ice! Thankful I could make the 10-hour trek to pick up a college kid yesterday and we can all just be home …

Dec 12, 2024: Sin as Debt: Thoughts after reading David Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years I’ve been reading the anthropologist David Graeber’s book Debt: The First 5000 Years this week. It’s a remarkable and thought-provoking work. He …

Dec 10, 2024: Sharing my own music for the season: Carols for Christmas (piano instrumentals) Hard to believe it’s been a dozen years since I recorded a set of Christmas carol piano instrumentals which I inventively titled Carols for …

Dec 8, 2024: Catching up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and just got to the musical episode. It’s like they crossed Glee with Star Trek and I am slightly …

Dec 5, 2024: Unpleasantly cold for an Iowa December this morning - currently 7F feels like -12F. But the office is warm, and there is coffee. And it’s …

Dec 4, 2024: A few thoughts on formation Sunday in an adult forum discussion at church we talked about how our theology is formed by prayer, and our prayer shaped by our singing, and today …

Dec 1, 2024: Chattering from his perch on high. #photography #nature

Nov 30, 2024: 2024 Reads: Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot 📚 A wonderful, brilliant book. Harriot’s humor combined …

Nov 28, 2024: Time to go Turkey Trot! It’s 24F here in in rural southwestern Wisconsin. Why did I sign up for this again?!? 😂

Nov 27, 2024: Packing up the car this morning to visit my mom. First holiday season since my dad passed. Thankful that we have family and friends to share the day …

Nov 25, 2024: Marjorie May (Stepp) Hubbs Obituary Posting from the original to ensure I have a permanent copy. Marjorie May (Stepp) Hubbs, the youngest of five children, was born on May 31, 1930, in …

Nov 25, 2024: Remembering Marjorie (Stepp) Hubbs, 1930 - 2024 Last Friday my last living grandparent passed away. Marge Hubbs, my paternal grandmother, was 94. She had been on a slow decline for a few years now, …

Nov 25, 2024: Good to see the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team finally get a little respect, ranked at #22 in this week’s AP poll. Without Caitlin …

Nov 25, 2024: Look, Max and Red Bull Racing had a phenomenal year this year. But every article that trumpets him as a “four-time world champion” should …

Nov 25, 2024: In the office this week for a couple of days before the Thanksgiving holiday. Have a feeling it’s gonna be really quiet in here. Time to get …

Nov 23, 2024: 2024 Reads: 2054 by Elliot Ackerman 📚 It wanted to be insightful and futurist, but ended up being thin and disappointing.

Nov 23, 2024: Installing OpenGarage Last week on a whim I ordered a little OpenGarage unit. OpenGarage is an open-source hardware and software design that allows for remote monitoring …

Nov 22, 2024: On Killing First and Loving Your Enemies Last night I finished up reading Rise and Kill First, Ronen Bergman’s extensive history of Israel’s secret services. My friend Matt …

Nov 21, 2024: 2024 Reads: Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman 📚 A detailed, compelling history of the Israeli intelligence services. Lots to think about. Such a …

Nov 19, 2024: My unsolicited opinion this morning on AI, speaking as a computer scientist who has spent the last year working on AI-based tools: there are some …

Nov 16, 2024: A quick online interaction this morning reminded me of this Sony clock/radio I got as a kid probably in the late 80s. As far as I know it’s …

Nov 14, 2024: Business trips seem like fun, but the days get long… left the hotel at 7:30 to head to the workshop. Workshop went until 5, then group dinner …

Nov 12, 2024: It’s Library Board meeting time! I’ve missed a few due to work travel… good to be back. Public libraries are special institutions …

Nov 10, 2024: John Gruber: How It Went John Gruber wrote a really beautiful piece about his mother’s death, his father’s hope, and the election. As an author who writes mostly about tech, I …

Nov 8, 2024: Well, it’s been a week. Haven’t said much here, mostly because I don’t really have my thoughts sorted yet. I am thankful to have a …

Nov 7, 2024: "Leave it to good old Jesus and the rest of His family..." Chris Green writes about the communion of the saints and Jesus not just loving us but liking us. It’s all wonderful stuff and worth a read, but …

Nov 6, 2024: Small Wonders: The Pixies Are In the Attic This short piece on Small Wonders by Azure Arther titled “The Pixies Are In the Attic” just made a real mess of me. It’s short …

Oct 31, 2024: Low key, work appropriate costume this year.

Oct 30, 2024: Tonight’s movie: Death on the Nile (1978). Peter Ustinov sounding a lot like Prince John from Disney’s Robin Hood. David Niven. Mia …

Oct 30, 2024: Life’s too short for uninteresting books Nick Hornby, writing over at Lithub, says something that I am finding increasingly true: as you get older, life is too short to spend time on bad …

Oct 29, 2024: Today the blog turns 20 Twenty years ago today, October 29, 2004, my friend Geof set me up a Wordpress install on his server and sent me the keys to login. I wrote a hello …

Oct 29, 2024: Had a really lovely time last night eating dinner at some new friends' house. Sat around and talked until way too late for this old guy. This morning: …

Oct 24, 2024: Marilynne Robinson on Community and Absence Posting this quote from Marilynne Robinson here just so I have it at hand for later use: To speak in the terms that are familiar to us all, there was …

Oct 23, 2024: When I started my keto diet back in January, I still really wanted some kind of purchasable breakfast option for days when packing two meals …

Oct 22, 2024: 2024 Reads: Moonbound by Robin Sloan 📚 Well, this was delightful. Hints of Monk & Robot as well as Narnia. So imaginative.

Oct 21, 2024: My daughter is soon to need her own car, and one option is to give her my RAV4 and find something else for me. Looking around, though, not sure …

Oct 20, 2024: Visitor underneath our bird feeders tonight.

Oct 19, 2024: Cleaning up cast iron cookware with SCIENCE! (Ok, it’s an electrolysis tank.)

Oct 18, 2024: Just got an email from the library that I have a book available to pick up. I don’t remember putting it on hold, but it looks like a good book, …

Oct 18, 2024: With all the mess going on with Wordpress these days, I’m happier than ever that I took the leap this year to move my 20 years of blog history …

Oct 18, 2024: Tony Bennett, men’s basketball coach at Virginia, reportedly retiring immediately, right before the beginning of the season. He’s only 55. …

Oct 16, 2024: I made it through an audition and will be joining the Orchestra Iowa Chorus this year. In the spring we’re doing Mozart’s Requiem. I …

Oct 15, 2024: Ah, the typical library visit: return two books, borrow six more.

Oct 14, 2024: Looking back or looking forward? Reading Ivan Illich up against Ilia Delio A useful maxim for me over the years has been to find out who my favorite writers are reading, and start reading those authors. As I wrote previously, …

Oct 12, 2024: 2024 Reads: Die Trying (Jack Reacher, #2) by Lee Child 📚 Back when Lee Child was writing really good stories. Fun stuff.

Oct 11, 2024: 2024 Reads: All Things Are Too Small by Becca Rothfeld 📚 Rothfeld dislikes the practice of mindfulness. And really, really likes sex. I found her …

Oct 11, 2024: Recommended reading: Excavating AI I hadn’t run across this until today when Michal Wozniak shared it on Mastodon, but it’s an excellent read: Excavating AI: The Politics of …

Oct 11, 2024: Started the morning dropping my wife off at the airport; she’s headed to visit our oldest at college this weekend. Hit the gym, grabbed a little …

Oct 10, 2024: This Lynx-Liberty game, y’all… 😳 Most entertaining basketball game I’ve seen in a long time.

Oct 10, 2024: I see the WNBA just announced that next year their finals will be a best-of-7 instead of the current best-of-5. Unfortunately they’re not …

Oct 10, 2024: Too many sports choices to watch tonight! Two MLB playoff games, Stars hockey opener, an NFL game… and the one I’m actually watching: The …

Oct 9, 2024: A planned 5-day business trip last week rolled over into a family emergency which means I only just got home last night. Family situation is …

Oct 7, 2024: Recommended podcast: Chris E. W. Green's Speakeasy Theology Lately I’ve really been enjoying Bishop Chris E. W. Green’s podcast called Speakeasy Theology. Green is a bishop in the Communion of …

Oct 1, 2024: This is my first trip traveling with my new personal MacBook Pro (after years of traveling with work Dell laptops) and the experience is just lovely. …

Sep 30, 2024: Wow, Verizon has been down for me all day. Thankful for wifi on airplanes and in airports to help my travel go smoothly. I won’t be wandering far from …

Sep 28, 2024: 2024 Reads: Extinction by Douglas Preston 📚 Over and over, Preston has his characters saying “This isn’t Jurassic Park!”. And it’s not. At least not …

Sep 28, 2024: Nebraska in the second half looked like a different team. Relied on the run game and just pushed Purdue around. It was an ugly win, but we’ll take it. …

Sep 28, 2024: Through one quarter, Nebraska looks like a team with great potential but no polish. False start while going for it on 4th-and-1, then they miss the …

Sep 27, 2024: 2024 Reads: Airframe by Michael Crichton 📚 I’m sure I read this years ago, but it’s interesting to re-read after spending a career in …

Sep 27, 2024: You can become more holy by becoming more merciful Fr. Matt Tebbe is one of my favorite writers at the moment. A former evangelical turned Episcopal priest, Matt has a keen eye for the systems at work …

Sep 26, 2024: My HS sophomore got the job shadow hookup that she wanted, which means that in a couple weeks she’s going to spend a morning shadowing at the …

Sep 26, 2024: Bryce Harper: Mentoring at 1B Here’s a really lovely story on The Athletic about Phillies 1B Bryce Harper and his gentle efforts to mentor younger players, even those from …

Sep 25, 2024: Flu and COVID shot clinic at work today. Couple of sore shoulders is far preferable to a bout with a virus!

Sep 24, 2024: As a necessity of my job I am signed up for FAA email notifications when they update certain guidance documents. Something in the system broke, and I …

Sep 23, 2024: So, if MLB had a promotion/relegation scheme like English football does, the White Sox and Marlins would move down to AAA for next year and the Sugar …

Sep 23, 2024: I have played the piano and sung with it for most of my life. I’ve rarely ever sung in a choir, though. This weekend I’m going to audition …

Sep 22, 2024: In Which Chris & Becky Visit Yale When I was probably 15 years old, a nerdy homeschooled kid living in Texas, I was one day browsing a clothing rack at some cheap retailer - probably …

Sep 21, 2024: 2024 Reads: Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde 📚 It’s rare that I read a novel that feels like nothing I’ve read before. This combination of …

Sep 19, 2024: What we need more of in popular music today: powerful and appealing ballads with ukulele accompaniment.

Sep 16, 2024: If Moses really signed this I think they should be asking more than $75.

Sep 15, 2024: Finding it remarkably hard to decline an automatic upgrade on American Airlines. I just wanna keep my economy seat next to my wife!

Sep 14, 2024: Eric Collins has play-by-play for the Iowa-Troy game on FS1 today and sounds like Gus Johnson on coke. Yelling to the point his voice breaks for a …

Sep 13, 2024: Pretty sure this is the first time I’ve preordered a new iPhone on release day. 16 Pro 256 GB in natural titanium. 👍

Sep 13, 2024: Made it to YOW plenty early for my flight home… turns out US Border Patrol doesn’t open until 0500. At least I’ll be within the first dozen in line …

Sep 11, 2024: I knew that the WNBA audience has grown substantially this year. I was still surprised to turn on TSN here at my Canadian hotel and see the Aces-Fever …

Sep 10, 2024: Summer has been for family trips and fun; fall is apparently now for work travel. 5 of the next 9 weeks I will be out for at least part of the week …

Sep 8, 2024: 2024 Reads: An Autobiography by Mohandas K. Gandhi 📚 If one of the Desert Fathers had training as a lawyer and wrote a Substack, you would get …

Sep 7, 2024: Look I know we’re only 6 quarters into the season, but this Nebraska football team looks WAY better than they did last year. This is fun to watch.

Sep 7, 2024: Sitting out on the drive with a fire going and the football game on. The kid is there in person. #GBR #football

Sep 7, 2024: PRd my 5k this morning! (27:55 still has lots of room for improvement!) Beautiful chilly morning for a race.

Sep 5, 2024: There are days where work drives me bonkers; there are other days when I come away deeply appreciative that I work with some fantastic engineers doing …

Sep 5, 2024: Nice cool morning to get out and run. 5k nice and steady. Running my first real race in several years on Saturday.

Sep 4, 2024: Caitlin Clark with a garbage rebound at the end of the game to make it a triple-double. What a performance!

Sep 4, 2024: As a first year WNBA follower, one of my big takeaways is that the league needs to upgrade their refs. So many poor and uncommunicated calls every …

Sep 4, 2024: The blessing of the dedicated civil servant There’s a wonderful long-form profile on the Washington Post right now about Chris Mark, a man who eschewed an opportunity for a upper-class …

Sep 3, 2024: Youngest daughter has her school permit and is driving herself to school for the first time this morning. End of an era of doing drop-offs and …

Sep 2, 2024: Brisket turned out great! I’d give myself maybe a 8.5/10. Think I could’ve pulled it a little sooner. Still, great flavor, texture is fine, lots of …

Sep 2, 2024: David Bentley Hart’s “The Experience of God” With some of my recent reading getting my mental wheels turning about the nature of who God is, I figured it was a reasonable time to pull The …

Aug 31, 2024: Nervously doing my research as I prepare to smoke my first brisket on the pellet grill tomorrow. Well, starting tomorrow night, going overnight into …

Aug 31, 2024: I grew up in Nebraska, a huge Husker fan, and never made it to a football game. My kid is now a freshman at UNL and attending their first game today. …

Aug 28, 2024: Looks like I’m going to need to buy a new suit for some work events. Last one was 60 lbs ago and cheap off the rack at Kohl’s. Think …

Aug 27, 2024: Wow, Jannik Sinner, the 1 seed at the US Open, dropped his first set to unseeded Mackenzie McDonald, and is already down a break in the second set. …

Aug 27, 2024: I live in Iowa and work with a bunch of 30-something white guy engineers who ought to be in the MAGA demographic. To overhear their conversations …

Aug 26, 2024: Bullet Points for a very hot Monday Afternoon First day of school today for our two oldest kids… both at college so we won’t get chalkboard pics this year. Back to a full work week; …

Aug 26, 2024: One more post for the morning: got a new professional headshot taken last Friday. I remember thinking back in late March when I got the previous one …

Aug 26, 2024: First day of school today for our two college kids! A junior in Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota Mines and a freshman in Accounting at …

Aug 26, 2024: File under: WTF.

Aug 24, 2024: 2024 Reads: Do We Not Bleed? by Daniel Taylor 📚

Aug 23, 2024: Following up on my insurance post from a few days ago: just got our yearly renewal bill, and they are raising our rates by 25% out of the blue. (No …

Aug 22, 2024: Moved kid #2 into the dorm yesterday for their first year at the University of Nebraska. The house feels pretty empty now… just the youngest …

Aug 19, 2024: A little personal work news: last week I was approved here at Collins Aerospace as a Senior Tech Fellow for software, with a focus on airworthiness …

Aug 19, 2024: We’ve had the same insurance company for 20 years and been happy with them. But our local office has shriveled and it’s now hard to get a …

Aug 17, 2024: 2024 Reads: Blue Moon by Lee Child 📚 Somehow Lee Child has turned Jack Reacher into a murderous vigilante. Bleh.

Aug 16, 2024: Feels like sort of a bittersweet weekend coming up - our middle kid’s last weekend at home before heading off to college. They’re feeling …

Aug 12, 2024: Henri Nouwen: An alert and aware spiritual life Currently reading Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. What a wonderful little book! This bit in particular hit …

Aug 11, 2024: 2024 Reads: The Midnight Line by Lee Child 📚 Sometimes you just need a cheap, easy, entertaining read. Jack Reacher novels fit that bill.

Aug 11, 2024: The view from the piano at Christ Church this morning…

Aug 10, 2024: 2024 Reads: The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness by Mark Solms 📚 It’s entirely possible that this book is brilliant and …

Aug 9, 2024: Hey hey, finished a 5k run below 30 minutes. Feels good to be getting a little bit of stamina back.

Aug 7, 2024: 2024 Reads: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 📚 As my friend Amanda said, more a vibe than a story. But a beautiful vibe. What do you do when the …

Aug 7, 2024: Jay Kuo calls Tim Walz The Ted Lasso Veep and that seems right on.

Aug 7, 2024: You wouldn’t think a state governor talking for 30 minutes to a bunch of geographers about the importance of maps would be compelling, but Tim …

Aug 6, 2024: That’s a heckuva win for #TeamUSA women vs Germany in the Olympics soccer semi. Smith/Rodman/Swanson are superb out front and Girma is a …

Aug 6, 2024: My employer now has an option for me to request a MacBook as my daily driver instead of a Dell, but I need a business justification. I’d say my …

Aug 6, 2024: Wow, what a cold front overnight. Yesterday: 93F and super sticky. This morning: 63F and misty, with a north breeze. Supposed to be in the 70s the …

Aug 5, 2024: Umpiring rec league softball. Some nights it’s great fun, other nights they’re definitely not paying you enough for what you put up with. Tonight, …

Aug 5, 2024: Rethinking who are "The Normal Ones"? A.R. Moxon nails it. I really appreciated A.R. Moxon’s weekend post framing up the “Weird” discourse from the past week. (This long-ish excerpt is still …

Jul 31, 2024: New Boeing CEO: Kelly Ortburg It’s not too often that the national news runs an update that talks about someone I know, so when the alert came up on the NY Times app this …

Jul 28, 2024: 2024 Reads: Space Oddities by Harry Cliff 📚 Maybe a little deep for the casual reader, but for me with a layman’s interest in quantum physics it hit …

Jul 27, 2024: 2024 Reads: Making All Things New by Ilia Delio Making All Things New is the most complete and succinct compilation of Delio’s theology and philosophy that I’ve encountered so far. She’s strongest …

Jul 26, 2024: Matt Tebbe on how supremacy systems work Father Matt Tebbe, on Facebook today, with a wonderfully clear explanation of how supremacy systems work: In supremacy systems - and white …

Jul 24, 2024: Had planned to go for a run before work this morning, but a batch of thunderstorms dampened my enthusiasm for that idea. Instead, took my time with …

Jul 23, 2024: Belatedly catching up on Star Trek Discovery Season 5. What am I watching again? We’re way behind on TV watching, but last night Becky and I started in on Star Trek: Discovery, Season 5. We’ve enjoyed Discovery thus …

Jul 20, 2024: Ok, that #WNBA All-Star game was the best all-star game I can remember, any time, in any sport. Very competitive, highly entertaining, everybody …

Jul 20, 2024: 2024 Reads: Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel by George Saunders 📚 Well, that was delightful.

Jul 20, 2024: Lowe’s at 8:30 on a Saturday morning: a parade of middle-aged men whose purchases reveal their weekend projects. In my case, two mini-blinds and a bag …

Jul 19, 2024: Posting big long blog posts after 9 pm on Friday night, as one does. (If you ever needed proof I’m not in it for clicks, it’s another piece of …

Jul 19, 2024: Lamb of the Free by Andrew Remington Rillera I have a small handful of theological books in my past that I look back on as turning points - books that spoke to me at my particular place and time, …

Jul 19, 2024: Heavily feeling the “thank goodness it’s Friday” vibes this morning. Reviewed my calendar and realized that this week was the first …

Jul 17, 2024: Caitlin Clark sets the #WNBA single-game assist record, has a double-double IN THE SECOND HALF ALONE and the #Fever are gonna lose to Dallas. …

Jul 17, 2024: Lego and a weird credit card payment A month or so ago I ordered a Lego set that my kid fell in love with. It was super-popular and backordered, so I paid for it via Apple Pay and figured …

Jul 17, 2024: Not made for omniscience This from Fr. Kenneth Tanner got to me in a way that lots of words about social media intake haven’t quite. The firehose can be addictive - to feel …

Jul 16, 2024: iOS 18 User Beta 1 is out! Now, the annual question: how long will I hold out before installing a beta? If history serves, about half a day.

Jul 15, 2024: And yep, 45 minutes later it’s all done for us but a little more rain. We picked up 2” in a hurry, but aside from one small branch that came down I …

Jul 15, 2024: Family party in the basement watching the storm coverage with a Tornado Warning in our county. Looks like the worst is past of us, but there’s still …

Jul 15, 2024: I’m never sure when I clean the coffeemaker whether the coffee actually tastes better or whether it’s just a placebo effect.

Jul 15, 2024: Sometimes being the responsible one at work means leading a big meeting; other times it means starting your day by running the descaling cycle on the …

Jul 12, 2024: The #Fever were up 31 early in the third quarter and are collapsing here in the 4th, allowing the Mercury back within 11. Some bad coaching here - how …

Jul 12, 2024: Caitlin Clark with 15 points and 9 assists at halftime for the #Fever leading the #Mercury. But for a couple of her teammates’ fumbles, she’d already …

Jul 11, 2024: More mess at The Village Church A small bombshell dropped in the Neo-Reformed evangelical world with today’s episode of the The Bodies Behind the Bus Podcast (BBTBPOD). BBTBPOD, …

Jul 11, 2024: The best kind of meeting is a cancelled meeting, but the next best kind is a very short one.

Jul 10, 2024: Yesterday was college orientation for our second kid. Six weeks from today we move them into college. I’m not ready for this.

Jul 10, 2024: When we were at U of Nebraska yesterday for freshman orientation there was also apparently a big evangelical youth camp of some sort on campus. Seeing …

Jul 10, 2024: A couple recommended reads: Trusting your Heart, and Christianity as an MLM A couple posts came through my inbox while I was traveling the last few days which I want to pass on and feel like they have some parallels: Katelyn …

Jul 8, 2024: In the past 4 weeks, we as a family have spent 13 days traveling together, spending every day together and every night in a hotel or dorm room. You …

Jul 4, 2024: Just finished watching Fargo Season 5. I’m sitting here in awe. 9.5 episodes of wonderful thriller drama, and the last 30 minutes was the purest …

Jul 3, 2024: Last day in the office before six days out. Let’s do this.

Jul 2, 2024: Am I coming or going? I looked at the calendar today and it said July, and I thought surely that has to be a mistake. July already? Where has the time gone? Then I …

Jun 29, 2024: Started in on a novel from the library. Had to put it down. Competently written dystopian thriller, but the dystopia is just a little too close to …

Jun 27, 2024: Ugh, this debate. On one side, a lying gasbag. On the other side, an old, tired man. I mean, I’ll vote for the old, tired guy over the lying …

Jun 27, 2024: 2024 Reads: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell 📚 Not bad, but not nearly as good as it could’ve been. Ended up sort of light …

Jun 27, 2024: After poking around a while finally realized that I can pay Tailscale to have it use Mullvad as an exit node. Think this is finally the right VPN …

Jun 26, 2024: Wordle 1,103 5/6 🟨🟨⬛🟨⬛ ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 So many options to guess. Gah.

Jun 26, 2024: 26 years with my favorite person. Here’s to a whole bunch more!

Jun 25, 2024: 2024 Reads: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 📚 What a beautiful story and exploration of life and meaning.

Jun 25, 2024: Worth a watch: Thelma Thanks to a couple online recommendations (for sure Jeffrey Overstreet, I don’t remember who else), Becky and I took the two younger kids along to see …

Jun 25, 2024: Got all my approvals in line, which means I have a paper ready to be presented at DASC in October!

Jun 24, 2024: One of the side-effects of losing a significant amount of weight is that I seem to be cold a lot more often than I used to. I guess when you get rid …

Jun 22, 2024: 2024 Reads: Wounded Pastors by Carol Howard Merritt 📚 Short and practical.. can see it being useful to almost all pastors and those in ministry.

Jun 22, 2024: After 28 months of an Iowa living experiment, we loaded my mother-in-law’s stuff into a trailer today for her to move back to North Carolina. …

Jun 21, 2024: Some quick thoughts as I synthesize Beck and Delio this morning... Richard Beck has a post this week addressing “intellectual problems with petitionary prayer”, or to put the question another way: how does …

Jun 20, 2024: 2024 Reads: The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes 📚 This went from middling espionage thriller to “WTF is this even?” in about 20 pages. Weird.

Jun 20, 2024: A couple recommended newsletter reads Quick recommendations for a couple things I’ve read lately that are worth a few minutes of your time: Diana Butler Bass’s most recent …

Jun 20, 2024: Yesterday I went through the final interview step for an internal role change that would be a significant career move. I think it went well. Now I …

Jun 18, 2024: 2024 Reads: A Window to the Divine by Zachary Hayes, OFM I just finished up a slow read of a wonderful little book. A Window to the Divine: Creation Theology by Franciscan theologian Zachary Hayes draws from …

Jun 18, 2024: Family vacation recap: DC and NYC I’m always a little hesitant to write about traveling while we’re still out on the trip, since it does put out there in public that our …

Jun 17, 2024: Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.

Jun 17, 2024: Woke up this morning to a notification that the first leg of our afternoon flight home from New York to Iowa was already delayed. Blessedly, we were …

Jun 13, 2024: If the post-series handshake is the best thing about the #NHL playoffs, the Edmonton fans singing O Canada is a close second. Chills.

Jun 13, 2024: When in DC, and your kid has a college interest, you do the college tour. It’s hot, but let’s look at Georgetown.

Jun 12, 2024: I don’t remember who recommended this one to me, but it hits the spot. Not half through yet and much to chew on.

Jun 4, 2024: Oh, man, this bit from D. L. Mayfield today: “But one day my own children asked me to look at them… They wanted to know if it was safe …

Jun 4, 2024: Rosaria Butterfield and the trajectory toward anti-LGBTQ violence Man, Rick Pidcock has become a must-read. His piece this morning on Rosaria Butterfield’s trajectory into anti-LGBTQ hate is really something. …

Jun 3, 2024: 25 years! A milestone snuck up on me this weekend: as of June 1st I have been working at Collins Aerospace for 25 years. In 1999, fresh out of college with a CS …

Jun 2, 2024: That being said, the post-series handshake line is the best thing in sports. #NHL

Jun 2, 2024: That’s a brutal loss for Dallas. Outshot the Oilers 35-10 and lost the game 2-1. Phooey. #NHL

Jun 2, 2024: Dallas #Stars have owned this game at even strength but haven’t managed to crack the goalie. Edmonton has owned the power play and hence is up 2-0. …

Jun 1, 2024: 2024 Reads: From the Maccabees to the Mishnah by Shaye J. D. Cohen 📚

May 31, 2024: Well, the Dallas #Stars have lost the recipe. Disappointing. #nhl

May 31, 2024: The reality gap So Trump was convicted of 34 felonies. This morning I have a distant cousin on Facebook last night complaining about how broken the justice system is. …

May 30, 2024: I have a big presentation / interview coming up in a few weeks and let me just say it’s amazing how much time and polish you can spend on only a half …

May 27, 2024: And the Cubs dive headlong into another mediocre season. Time to cancel my Marquee Network subscription; not worth the frustration. #mlb #cubs

May 27, 2024: Third time out running this spring after several years’ layoff. First time did my starter route with an 11:40 pace. 😩 Today: 9:41! My goal is to get …

May 27, 2024: With all the house guests gone this morning I had planned to go hit the gym. But it’s so nice out I may have to rethink those plans. Maybe go for a …

May 26, 2024: 2024 Reads: A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis 📚 A fine little primer on attachment, regulation, and limbic resonance.

May 26, 2024: After a full house yesterday for the grad party, it’s slowly emptying out. Three siblings left yesterday. Mom left just now. Oldest daughter and her …

May 23, 2024: Making progress…

May 23, 2024: Making progress…

May 23, 2024: Up at 0445 to put three pork butts on the smoker. It’s gonna be a fine day.

May 22, 2024: Heading into a busy long weekend… spent most of today cleaning. Oldest daughter and her boyfriend show up in 20 minutes. My sister comes in late …

May 21, 2024: 2024 Reads: 3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan 📚 Kaplan writes the history of bop, free jazz, and fusion through the lives of Davis, Coltrane, and Bill …

May 19, 2024: Quite a comeback by the Timberwolves. Denver just went cold in the third quarter and never recovered.

May 19, 2024: Things you didn’t know you needed until you heard them: a funk cover of Sandra McCracken’s We Will Feast In The House of Zion. …

May 19, 2024: Pentecost: the day you realize that the only red shirt that you own is a Nebraska Cornhuskers jersey. My wardrobe still hasn’t fully adapted to being …

May 18, 2024: Love hockey and the Stars but glad I didn’t stay up… 9 pm Central start time and game went to 2OT! www.espn.com/nhl/story…

May 17, 2024: 2024 Reads: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 📚 Simple, interesting, beautiful expression of Buddhism.

May 17, 2024: So, I love Kyle Hendricks, but it’s about time to DFA him, isn’t it? #cubs #mlb

May 17, 2024: Bullet Points for a Friday Between now and July there are only 2 weeks where I’m in the office for 5 full days. This week I was in DC Monday through Wednesday. I’m …

May 15, 2024: One more flight to get home. In theory if I had a rental car here from ORD I could be home sooner than this flight will get me home. But that would …

May 13, 2024: 2024 Reads: The Future by Naomi Alderman 📚 Not subtle, but imaginative and entertaining. Worth a read. Four stars.

May 13, 2024: Spent an hour with Apple tech support trying to figure out why my MacBook just refuses to show me the Hilton Honors captive portal screen so I can …

May 13, 2024: Quick jaunt to DC to start this week. CID ✈️ DCA direct!

May 12, 2024: Haven’t run much in the last several years after injuring my knee running a half marathon. Having lost a bunch of weight this spring, it’s time to try …

May 12, 2024: Oh man, this bit in Naomi Alderman’s latest novel, the thoughts of a woman who left a religious cult. I know these feelings. #exvangelical

May 11, 2024: Current status: monitoring the video game room at the post-prom party. Watching the level of play, pretty sure I could beat most of these kids at …

May 11, 2024: 2024 Reads: NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman 📚 A moving and empathetic history of modern grappling with neurodiversity.

May 10, 2024: Headed into a busy weekend… high school tennis tonight for K15, prom tomorrow night for A18. I volunteered to be a post-prom party door monitor from …

May 9, 2024: Because I need more piano music... Because I’m a sucker for trying out new piano music that I’ll probably never be good enough to play (or at least to play well), I just …

May 7, 2024: A radicalizing NYPD-Columbia Education Sam Thielman goes hard in his most recent piece at Forever Wars titled “What Could Be More Radicalizing Than An NYPD-Columbia Education?” Eric Adams, …

May 5, 2024: May your garden always thrive: A beautiful little essay from Wil Wheaton.

May 5, 2024: After a tense last 19 minutes: #DallasStars #NHL #StanleyCup

May 5, 2024: I may have become the stereotypical liberal exvangelical. On a beautiful Sunday morning, I slept in (until 8). Kicked off the coffeemaker to brew my locally-roasted beans. Played Wordle. (Got it in 4.) Read …

May 4, 2024: 2024 Reads: The Light Within Darkness by David Jeffrey 📚 Blew through this one in a day to finish up the trilogy. Really enjoyed this one.

May 3, 2024: 2024 Reads: The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar 📚 A stunning little novella. Spare, keen, and gripping.

May 3, 2024: This Cubs/Brewers game this afternoon has all the hallmarks of a postseason clash. Two terrific starting pitching performances, good defense, …

May 3, 2024: Just took a close look at my calendar and realized that between work travel, personal travel, and holidays, I will only be in the office for 25 of the …

May 3, 2024: Got travel booked last night for a family trip in June… National History Day nationals for K15 in DC, followed by a weekend in NYC. First real …

May 2, 2024: With all the crap going on in the world it seems trivial to still be cheered by sports, but dang it, the Cubs won 1-0 last night, and the Stars have …

May 1, 2024: Jennifer Knapp: Kansas 25 I was an instant supporter of this album on Kickstarter and now I’m finally getting a chance to listen to it: Jennifer Knapp’s Kansas 25. …

Apr 29, 2024: A better late than never update: Katie took 2nd place in her division at National History Day state competition, which qualifies her to go to the …

Apr 29, 2024: Iowa National History Day state competition: with only 5 competitors in the senior individual presentation division, they aren’t doing a final round; …

Apr 29, 2024: National History Day state competition in Des Moines today. Event center buzzing with teenagers who have spent months researching, writing, and …

Apr 28, 2024: A. R. Moxon: War or Nothing A. R. Moxon has a brilliant and brutal essay out today entitled “War or Nothing”, in which he describes a theme beginning in 2001 with the US’s …

Apr 27, 2024: Finished reading: Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson I wasn’t sure what to expect from Robinson writing on Genesis, but I enjoy her writing enough it was definitely something I was going to read. …

Apr 25, 2024: 2024 Reads: Sun Wolf by David C. Jeffrey 📚 I like this guy’s ideas, and the sort of grand scope of his universe. His story just needs a better writer …

Apr 25, 2024: Today’s challenge in adulting: paying attention at the tail end of a 3-day class when it’s getting pretty slow. It’s been a good …

Apr 25, 2024: Mandatory post.

Apr 24, 2024: Gah, Cody Bellinger has a cracked rib. This is not the way I hoped to see Pete Crow-Armstrong in the bigs this season. #Cubs #MLB

Apr 24, 2024: I'm not claiming any special prescience, but... I was cleaning up old blog posts here and found this that I wrote back in 2012: I think it may take the American evangelical church another decade or …

Apr 24, 2024: “Tom Cotton has never seen a left-wing protest he didn’t want crushed at gunpoint.”. Brutal and accurate assessment from Adam Serwer. …

Apr 23, 2024: Medieval Christians' perspective on climate change Well, this is a fascinating perspective: medievalist Dr. Eleanor Johnson writes on Literary Hub about medieval Christians' view on climate change: …

Apr 22, 2024: Well, hard to see how this could start worse for the #Stars. Gave up a power play goal in the first 2 minutes, got a goal overturned on an offside …

Apr 22, 2024: Great: the Dallas Stars are the #1 seed in the Western Conference. Not so great: their first round matchup is against Las Vegas, who they failed to …

Apr 22, 2024: Moving my blog to micro.blog So on a whim I reactivated my micro.blog site and threw 1275 markdown files at it - the entire contents of 20 years of blogging, first on Wordpress, …

Apr 16, 2024: Bullet Points for a York Tuesday I’m visiting the UK for work this week - my first visit ever. A few thoughts: Having a public transit system that seems to work: awesome. I …

Apr 12, 2024: Pictures at an Exhibition for Guitar I got to know Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition when I was in high school and my piano teacher assigned me The Gnome. I never got it …

Mar 24, 2024: The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon I just finished up reading Sarah McCammon’s new book The Exvangelicals and I need to take the time to recommend it here. McCammon, a 40-something NPR …

Mar 20, 2024: Bringing joy to people IS bringing glory to God Crisanne Werner has a lovely essay up on Substack today about her changing understanding of how the experience of music, and specifically playing …

Mar 19, 2024: Reimagining Orthodoxy Dr. Chris Green shared part of an essay today on a theology of disagreement. There’s a ton of good stuff in it. For example, early on: Truth be …

Mar 11, 2024: Did the Emerging Church Fail? Richard Beck has a series going right now in which he asserts that the Emerging Church movement failed. I’m usually pretty aligned with Beck but …

Feb 24, 2024: Donald Bruce "Don" Hubbs, 1949-2024 Donald Bruce “Don” Hubbs, 74, died Saturday at his home in rural Richland County after a nearly two year battle with brain cancer. Don was born …

Jan 16, 2024: The State of my Task Management, 2024 As a new year begins and I settle into a new-ish position at work, it has been time to again rethink my task management strategy. Let’s set out the …

Jan 7, 2024: Recommended Reading: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory by Tim Alberta My first completed book of the year is one I can wholeheartedly recommend: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory by Tim Alberta. Subtitled …

Jan 4, 2024: A short note on Travel Planning I have found myself, since returning home from Washington, DC in mid-December, without any travel on my calendar. Normally I travel a half-dozen times …

Jan 3, 2024: My 2023 Reading in Review Another year full of books! (Previous summaries: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, …

Dec 7, 2023: Chopin Being Mean I have hacked through the Chopin Ballades for years now. I started learning the first one in high school, and in adulthood I played through #3 and #4 …

Dec 4, 2023: Reviewing Two Decades of My Thoughts A big chunk of effort in migrating the blog was going through each post to review and clean up content. On the technical side, I started by using a …

Dec 1, 2023: Migrating to Eleventy If you’re reading this post, you’re seeing the updated ChrisHubbs.com as generated by Eleventy, a static site generator. After being on …

Nov 6, 2023: Closing down iowadon.org A year ago I set up my own Mastodon server at iowadon.org. Elon Musk had just bought Twitter and was quite obviously going to ruin it, Bluesky was …

Oct 4, 2023: In Praise of Humble, Gentle Men This morning a headline came across my social media feed, with a link to a remarkable interview with actor Sir Patrick Stewart, best known for playing …

Sep 25, 2023: You get the feeling from reading them that we might be loved This old concert recording of Rich Mullins at a Wheaton College chapel service in 1997 is an internet classic, but listening through it again today I …

Sep 6, 2023: We have attended an Episcopal church now for a few months, enough times at least to get sucked into volunteering for small roles on a Sunday morning. …

Aug 13, 2023: A Hymn Aptly Chosen One of the fun things about attending a church in a new and unfamiliar tradition is that things that may be common, old hat, or even tiredly …

Aug 10, 2023: An Appliance Installation in Four Lowe’s Trips Setting: a local homeowner has an old dishwasher that is dying. A new dishwasher was delivered and is sitting in the garage, waiting to be installed. …

Jul 18, 2023: Christianity no longer has an Effective Cosmology Some 18 months ago I was just getting acquainted with Dr. Ilia Delio’s writing, and shared a brief paragraph about getting our theology better aligned …

Jul 4, 2023: Playing the Jeremiah 17:9 Card “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” – Jeremiah 17:9, NKJV I had someone play the …

Jun 26, 2023: My own personal Philippians 3 If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the …

Jun 14, 2023: Fast Car, or, why I'm crying at my desk this morning “You’ve got a fast car, I want a ticket to anywhere…” If you’ve been a pop music fan at some point in the last 35 …

Jun 8, 2023: A Tale of Two TV Ministers I’ve been thinking tonight about two ministers who spent a lot of the 20th century on TV, and the difference in reactions from the public when they …

May 30, 2023: Billionaire Hoarders and “Charity” I re-posted a meme to Facebook the other day which suggested that billionaires are “hoarders”, likening them to a “human dragon sleeping on their …

May 8, 2023: Ten-Year Review Seeing as I’ve got 4 months before I need to do any international travel, and 10 months before my passport expires, it’s time to get it …

May 7, 2023: Catching up with myself In the past two weeks I’ve logged 13,000 miles in airplanes, 1500 miles in the car, and spent 9 nights out of 13 across four hotels and an …

Apr 9, 2023: Protect elders! Ban television! danah boyd has a fantastic piece out today about the current furor to ban teens from social media, saying basically that (a) it’s complicated, …

Mar 29, 2023: Hope springs eternal... It’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball, which is the one day of the year where I can be guaranteed that the Cubs are at least tied for first …

Feb 23, 2023: Supernatural love, found within human love Christian Wiman, from his book My Bright Abyss: It is not some meditative communion with God that I crave. What one wants during extreme crisis is …

Feb 20, 2023: A little poetry for Monday night I’ve done a lot of reading so far this year. Tonight I started My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer by Christian Wiman. I’m not too far in …

Feb 13, 2023: Chris E. W. Green on the Beatitudes and Power I’m still only in chapter 2 of Sanctifying Interpretation, but this is too good to not share. Green takes a look at the Beatitudes and how Jesus …

Feb 12, 2023: Chris E. W. Green on Christians as a temple for the sake of the world Following up from yesterday’s post, here’s Chris Green again from chapter 2 of Sanctifying Interpretation. In understanding our Christian vocation, …

Feb 11, 2023: Chris E. W. Green on Vocation I’m just digging in to Chris E. W. Green’s Sanctifying Interpretation, and while it’s a book I picked up because it was going to address Scriptural …

Jan 23, 2023: On leaving Twitter, embracing Mastodon, and recommending Ivory I joined Twitter back before it was a social media juggernaut. I don’t remember how many years ago that was, but I blogged about it back at …

Jan 17, 2023: New on ChrisHubbs.com: The Bookshelf I’ve tracked my reading in one way or another here on this site and then using Goodreads since 2007 or so. At some point Goodreads got bought by …

Jan 2, 2023: My 2022 Reading in Review Another year full of books! (Previous summaries: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007… …

Dec 30, 2022: Stanley Hauerwas on sin, character formation, and fear From Chapter 3 of Stanley Hauerwas’ book on Christian ethics The Peaceable Kingdom, this wonderful insight into how we can think about sin as …

Dec 20, 2022: Moving my Mastodon Instance to a New Server Continuing my adventures hosting IowaDon.org, a very small Mastodon instance. When I started hosting IowaDon.org back in early November, I set it up …

Nov 22, 2022: Podcast Recommendation: A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs For a long time my podcast listening has been almost exclusively nerdy tech podcasts mixed up with nerdy theology podcasts, with an occasional news or …

Nov 19, 2022: Hosting a Mastodon instance: moving asset storage to S3 I’ve had my Mastodon instance (iowadon.org) up and running for about a week and a half now. It’s not grown very large - 10 users or so …

Nov 14, 2022: Carter Burwell: polymath film composer I was familiar with Carter Burwell’s name thanks to his score for the Coen brothers' film True Grit, but I wasn’t aware of the full scope …

Nov 10, 2022: Setting up a Mastodon instance on Linode With the Muskian shenanigans happening over at Twitter, I’ve been looking into Mastodon as an alternative social media site. It’s an interesting …

Nov 5, 2022: Liège Waffles! On my work trip to Brussels last week I was introduced to the liège waffle, a type of waffle that is denser and sweeter than the common “Belgian …

Sep 19, 2022: Rich Mullins - gone 25 years Rich Mullins died on Sept 19, 1997 in a car accident. A songwriter, poet, and prophet, Rich spoke with a voice that had grabbed my heart as a …

Aug 15, 2022: Preparing to launch Eighteen years and seventeen days ago we brought our first child home for the first time. She was just a tiny newborn joining two new, naïve parents …

Jul 8, 2022: Capon’s Wager on God’s Love I have on occasion paraphrased something Fr. Robert Capon wrote about God’s love as ”if God is a bastard, we’re all in trouble”. I went digging for …

Jul 7, 2022: On LGBTQIA+ Affirmation June 2022 was quite a month for me. It started with the death of a long-time friend. It ended with my being on a phone call with my father while he …

Jun 26, 2022: Sympathy for Jesus It had been a long time since I’d listened to this song. Then it came across my playlist this morning. Don Chaffer of Waterdeep in some strange alter …

Jun 9, 2022: Quick Thoughts after watching Top Gun: Maverick Mild spoilers ensue. This is basically the most 1980’s war film you could make in the 2020s. All the sunsets and American flags. Owes plenty to Star …

Jun 4, 2022: Geof F. Morris, 1978-2022 Geoffrey Franklin Morris, 43, of Madison, Alabama, died today at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. He is survived by his wife Danielle, his …

May 19, 2022: Waiting for the Lightning For a guy who loves music, I’ve never been the guy who finds and falls in love with an artist on their first album. From my youth I have tended to …

Apr 29, 2022: Essential Jams: ”Fugace” from Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio So much to love about this. I wanted to find a recording that wasn’t the canonical Bolling/Rampal version… this one is pretty great. I love the way …

Apr 17, 2022: Easter 2022 Christ is risen! Alleluia! This morning Becky and I attended church in person for the first time since COVID struck. It’s been more than two years. It …

Feb 19, 2022: Eerie Parallels Last night I started reading Dr. Susannah Heschel’s The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. Having not gotten any …

Jan 1, 2022: My 2021 Reading in Review With 2022 well underway (for the past 10 hours or so) it’s time to review my reading in 2021. As usual, my entire reading log for last year is over on …

Nov 25, 2021: Keeping theology coupled with cosmology I was introduced to Dr. Ilia Delio a couple weeks ago on a podcast. Her thoughts about God, evolution, and the quantum realm fascinated me such that I …

Nov 18, 2021: Beck: Nationalism and the search for meaning Richard Beck, on his Substack today, on American nationalism resulting from the need for deep meaning: …for most of human history, we achieved …

Nov 17, 2021: Fascinating: 5th Century Byzantine Basilica honoring Female Ministers found in Israel Reported at Haaretz.com on Monday: The Holy Mother Sophronia. Theodosia the deaconess. Gregoria the deaconess. These are some of the women lovingly …

Sep 19, 2021: The Teaching vs. The Teacher The last couple days I’ve been reading a book of theology by an author I was heretofore unfamiliar with. I know and trust a couple of the guys who …

Sep 9, 2021: Recommended Reading, September 2021 I have badly neglected recommending any reading so far this year. I have read plenty of books - looks like 54 at the moment - but it’s …

Jul 28, 2021: A 'Christian' nation without empathy twitter.com/jonrog1/s… In case the tweet gets deleted: an embedded tweet from John Rogers (@jonrog1) saying: “People mocking 1/6 cops' …

Apr 22, 2021: Richard Beck: hermeneutical self-awareness and a neurotic spiritual nightmare Richard Beck is on a roll this week with a short series on reading the Bible. In Part #1 yesterday he states premise #1: “Interpreting is …

Apr 4, 2021: An Easter 2021 Meditation This last year has felt a lot like death. We’ve had a pandemic sweep the world, and in this country had our leaders fail to lead, instead spreading …

Mar 28, 2021: Teenage Vernacular Update, circa March 2021 “Yeet” is passé. “Ye” has entered the common vernacular as an affirmative response. “Pog”, “big pog”, and “poggers” (expressions of happiness or …

Mar 3, 2021: Recent reading: Queer Theology by Linn Marie Tonstad The past couple months I’ve been participating in a reading group hosted by Matt Tebbe. (Matt leads an Anglican church plant in the Indianapolis …

Feb 17, 2021: Thoughts upon Rush Limbaugh's passing Rush Limbaugh passed away today at age 70. I spent countless hours listening to his radio show as a pre-teen, teenager, and into early adulthood, …

Feb 11, 2021: Richard Beck: Political detox for evangelicals Richard Beck has a wonderful post up today, describing American evangelicalism as “addicted to politics”, with a need to detox. He lists …

Feb 3, 2021: Love hopes all things, but I’m still hitting the ‘Unfriend’ button Over the past month or two I have been making a renewed effort to engage in good faith political discussions my Facebook friends. I had been hoping …

Feb 2, 2021: My current side project One of my favorite 2020 discoveries (which, ok, only came out in 2020, so I was on it from the beginning) is the Young Adult Movie Ministry Podcast. A …

Jan 5, 2021: Psalm 126 1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of …

Jan 2, 2021: 2020 Reading in Review Another year, another review of my annual reading. The mess that was 2020 definitely affected my reading - there were a couple months in there where I …

Dec 9, 2020: Bullet Points, Special Edition: Unpopular Opinions I’m feeling particularly crusty today. In the spirit of efficiency, I expect I can write a bunch of bullets here such that everyone can find something …

Nov 25, 2020: Richard Beck on finding Common Cause Richard Beck has a fantastic post out today reflecting on a passage from Barack Obama’s recent memoir and how materialism affects our ability to find …

Nov 16, 2020: Recommended Reading: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez How could the vast majority of white evangelicals support Donald Trump in 2016 and again in 2020? To understand it as Dr. Kristin Kolbes Du Mez tells …

Oct 13, 2020: Michael F. Bird on Social Justice as Christian Love Don’t buy into the lie that all social justice is driven by Marxist ideology. It is not! It is what the prophets commanded, what Jesus expects of his …

Oct 8, 2020: By the Waters of Babylon - Joey Weisenberg I don’t remember who shared this on Twitter the other day, but I listened to it once and it’s been stuck in my head ever since. Joey …

Sep 21, 2020: First Day of School, 2020 It’s hard for me to express how big a deal today is for my household. Back in January we first floated the idea with an unmotivated daughter …

Sep 14, 2020: "Get Freed" The other day I posted a belated review and recommendation of Lyz Lenz’s book God Land. Today I’d like to tell the story of why this review was …

Sep 13, 2020: To drag knowledge of reality over the threshold of consciousness is an exhausting task... Rebecca West, from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, describing her experience observing a worshipper at an Orthodox Easter service: One can shout at the …

Sep 7, 2020: God Land by Lyz Lenz — A Belated Review It’s been a year since Lyz Lenz’s book God Land came out. I wrote a review on Goodreads at the time but for various reasons didn’t publish it here. …

Sep 2, 2020: 2020 Reading - July/August Roundup I guess I don’t need to wait until the end of the year to do another summary… August suffered for reading much (thanks, derecho), but …

Sep 1, 2020: September Suffice it to say I’m happy to have August 2020 in the rear view mirror. We have completed our house repairs after the derecho. Having a brother in …

Aug 19, 2020: Quiet Around 1:00 pm today, after 216 hours without power to the house and after logging 106 hours on the generator, power has been restored and the …

Aug 16, 2020: Incessant It’s Sunday night. By tomorrow afternoon we’ll hit a week since the storm hit. No power yet. The power crew was relaxing a pole on a main line two …

Aug 14, 2020: Fragile It’s the Friday after the Iowa derecho. What a week. After the devastation of the storm, the cleanup began. Monday night I had friends here to get the …

Aug 12, 2020: Devastation Where to even start? Monday, August 10, somewhere around 12:30 PM, eastern Iowa got hit with a storm like no one had ever seen before. Technically …

Aug 6, 2020: Ten Years Note: I originally wrote this post in January 2019. 18 months later we made the decision to leave this church. It feels like now it’s time to …

Aug 1, 2020: Walter Wink on nationalism and the myth of redemptive violence Walter Wink, writing in 1992 in Engaging the Powers, with paragraphs just as relevant today: The myth of redemptive violence thus uses the …

Jul 14, 2020: Weekend project: bookshelves! One of the challenges a significant reading habit provides is where to keep all your books. While nearly all my fiction and a portion of my …

Jul 4, 2020: July 4, 2020 America’s Independence Day seems a strange holiday to “celebrate” this year. Our country is in turmoil with racial protests in cities both large and …

Jul 1, 2020: 2020 Reading - First Half recommendations July 1st means that we’re halfway through 2020 already… what a year. I looked back and realized I haven’t posted any reading …

May 31, 2020: We keep living anyway The chorus of this tune has resonated in my head a lot this week. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: …

May 24, 2020: Desperation How desperate am I for live sports? I’m watching NASCAR. And hard pressed to turn it off when they went into a rain delay. As Groucho Marx toasted the …

May 12, 2020: Kermit does Jazz: there's video. The other day I mentioned goofing around with the idea of Kermit the Frog singing a jazz version of Rainbow Connection. Turns out, our church tech guy …

May 11, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Also-Rans Culling my list down to 10 albums was a challenge. Here are a few also-rans that just didn’t quite make the cut: The Morning - Andrew Osenga …

May 10, 2020: Kermit does Jazz? I’m playing keys for the church livestream this morning, which in the end results in me having a bunch of time to mess around with a keyboard between …

May 9, 2020: Bullet Points for a Saturday Morning Since I started working from home 8 weeks ago, my morning routine has changed. No more gym, reading and writing in the morning instead. Also, …

May 8, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: A Liturgy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band Maybe this one should’ve been first on my list, but I decided to leave the best for last. Rich Mullins was a formative artist - perhaps the …

May 7, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Rachmaninov’s Vespers (All Night Vigil) I’ve really been wrestling with what album to post for day #9. But I’m gonna go with one that chronologically belongs back near the beginning of this …

May 6, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Bride of the Noisemakers I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

May 5, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: The Suburbs I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

May 4, 2020: Recommended daily reading: Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American In these turbulent days the news can quickly become overwhelming, and the social media noise can quickly drown out the worthwhile signal. One bit of …

May 4, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Silly Songs with Larry I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

May 3, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Behold the Lamb of God I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

May 2, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Long Line of Leavers I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

May 1, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: When Harry Met Sally I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

Apr 30, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Go West Young Man I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

Apr 29, 2020: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Rach 2 I got tagged on Facebook to do this project - share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. …

Apr 22, 2020: Podcast Listening, Social Distancing Edition Back in the old days (say, before March 2020), my podcast listening tilted heavily toward current events. For my own mental well-being, that isn’t a …

Apr 8, 2020: The poor you will always have with you? I just finished up listening to Finding Fred, a short-series podcast about Fred Rogers. Podcast host Carvell Wallace does a really good job of …

Mar 6, 2020: Adam Young on Hope and Wrestling with God (2) Continuing from yesterday, more from Adam Young’s fantastic podcast The Place We Find Ourselves: Ultimately all disappointment carries with it …

Mar 5, 2020: Adam Young on Hope and Wrestling with God (1) A friend recently pointed me to Adam Young’s podcast The Place We Find Ourselves. As a licensed social worker who has certifications in …

Feb 4, 2020: An Iowan's thoughts the morning after the 2020 Caucus Last night I and thousands of Iowans like me participated in the Democratic Party caucus. After three chaotic years of a Trump presidency and more …

Jan 20, 2020: Journalism I'm Supporting, January 2020 Good journalism is one of those things everybody wants to have available to benefit from, but fewer are interested in paying for. I’m hardly a …

Jan 13, 2020: Slow Reading After reading more than 80 books in 2019, there’s a part of me that is getting a little squirmy knowing that it’s two weeks into January …

Jan 1, 2020: 2019 Reading in Review The beginning of a new year means a quick look back first at last year’s reading in review. (Some people put these lists out at the end of the …

Jan 1, 2020: Happy New Year! This Strange Planet cartoon is as apt a sentiment for starting 2020 as I can think of today.

Dec 1, 2019: Knives Out Took the family to see Rian Johnson’s latest film, Knives Out, this afternoon. I know Johnson is a big-name filmmaker at this point - writing and …

Nov 24, 2019: Frozen II: A Very 2019 Movie It’s been just long enough since the original Frozen came out, and my girls have aged just enough, that we didn’t end up at the theater on opening …

Nov 19, 2019: 2019 Reading, Compendium #5 A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon by Craig D. Allert See my prior review here. A Short …

Oct 7, 2019: In The Shelter: Naming the Gadarene Demoniac I’m currently reading Pádraig Ó Tuama’s wonderful In the Shelter: Finding a Home In the World. His reading of this bit of the story about …

Sep 21, 2019: A High View of Scripture? About a year ago I started getting interested in historical criticism as it relates to the Bible. As I explored and read several books, I kept …

Sep 19, 2019: 2019 Reading, Compendium #4 Goodness, I’ve let this go a while without providing a list. Here we go… Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern …

Sep 18, 2019: A justice not to be feared but to be longed for Here is my servant, whom I uphold my chosen, in whom my soul delights I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He …

Sep 9, 2019: Family Movie Night: Chain Reaction (1996) With a kid under the weather after some dental work, it was a good night for a family movie. The library provided the convenient loan of a nostalgia …

Sep 9, 2019: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning #6 Because it’s been a while… Lots of topics have rattled around in my head… none have congealed enough for a real post. Oh well. We …

Jul 11, 2019: 2019 Reading, Compendium #3 A few added to my list… Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman Somehow …

Jul 9, 2019: Richard Beck: Love in Post-Progressive Christianity Richard Beck has a series going on an approach he calls “post-progressive Christianity”. I’ve appreciated it a lot as he works to …

Jul 2, 2019: Time to weed out some candidates I’ve spent a few hours now sitting down with my 13-year-old daughter to watch the two nights of Democratic debates. (Yay for a kid who is interested …

Jun 26, 2019: 21 Years I guess this is the point at which we can say we’ve been married half our lives… Definitely the better half of mine.

Jun 1, 2019: Why *wouldn’t* you want to be an egalitarian? In reply to a tweet thread the other day, I posed a question that’s been on my mind lately: Update 2023: Twitter account is gone, but the tweet said …

May 30, 2019: 2019 Reading, Compendium #2 Trying to not get my book lists get so backed up this time. Here’s what I’ve been reading recently: Golden State by Ben H. Winters This …

May 14, 2019: These Democrats Should Run for Senate instead of President in 2020 With today’s announcement by Montana governor Steve Bullock that he is throwing his hat in the ring for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, …

May 2, 2019: DBH: Can we relax about "socialism"? David Bentley Hart reworks his Facebook post from last year (which I posted about at the time) into a New York Times opinion piece. It’s still …

Apr 26, 2019: Finished reading, an early 2019 compendium Maybe I’ll start posting these every time again… but for now I’ve got a long-ish list of books I’ve finished already this …

Apr 25, 2019: Richard Beck: In defense of heretics I really appreciated this from Richard Beck today: People don’t just wake up one day to suddenly and brazenly espouse a heresy. In my …

Apr 25, 2019: Today's the day! Can confirm this morning only a light jacket was necessary.

Apr 1, 2019: I know nothing about this movie other than what’s in this trailer... But I would buy a ticket right this minute if I could. youtu.be/bs5ZOcU6B…

Mar 28, 2019: Opening Day 2019 It’s been a long winter. Heck, it’s been a long week. Which makes today a particularly happy one: it’s opening day for Major League …

Mar 27, 2019: Current Earworm I’m accompanying a local friend who’s a high school senior when he sings for state contest in a couple weeks. I have now had this song …

Mar 25, 2019: My latest fascination I’ve never been particularly a jewelry or fashion guy. I’ve worn a watch inconsistently over the years, usually a cheap digital for …

Mar 21, 2019: Strange Planet One of my favorite discoveries as of late has been the new webcomic Strange Planet. Apparently only published via Instagram, artist Nathan W. Pyle …

Mar 20, 2019: Democracy for Republicans There’s a really good essay by Jacob T. Levy (Professor of Political Theory at McGill University) over at the Niskanen Center today in which he …

Feb 13, 2019: What systemic repentance might look like for the Evangelical church There are a few big stories rattling around the American evangelical church community lately that I see as being related. I’m not sure that …

Feb 9, 2019: A passion for Jesus and for justice Justice is inherent in justification. This understanding of justification will have enormous effects on the church’s understanding of mission. …

Jan 15, 2019: My 2018 Reading in Review Time for a quick recap of my 2018 reading. I’ve done several reading posts through the year so this can just be a summary. Thanks to Goodreads I …

Jan 3, 2019: Painful but true words about gifting If you are entrusted with a certain gift, most of the people around you won’t be similarly gifted. They won’t be able to see as clearly because God …

Dec 19, 2018: Fans with Bands I went down a little bit of a YouTube rat hole the other day watching a playlist full of videos where musician fans of big artists get pulled up on …

Dec 18, 2018: The Cross and the Lynching Tree Having read very few black theologians over my past couple decades of reading theology, it was far past time for me to get to the late Dr. James H. …

Dec 10, 2018: Making the rounds... I’ve been playing music in church since high school and as a member of worship bands at least since college, and have played most all the …

Dec 5, 2018: For All The Saints This great hymn was sung at the end of President George H. W. Bush’s funeral this morning. Written by Anglican priest William Walsham How in …

Nov 25, 2018: Of disappointment and unexpected footwear A week ago I ordered some foam replacement earbud covers from Amazon. Friday the package showed up. It did not contain foam replacement earbud covers. …

Nov 21, 2018: The Emperor and the Empty Tomb A fascinating and engaging essay from the LA Review of Books (HT: Matthew Loftus): When Wilhelm Froehner died in 1925, at the house on the Rue …

Nov 16, 2018: Chaplain Mike: Exiting the Evangelical Wilderness Oh man, I really appreciated this summary from Chaplain Mike over at InternetMonk.com today. While my path isn’t exactly the same as his has …

Nov 10, 2018: A night with Bruce Hornsby’s brain Last Friday night my wife and I had the opportunity to go hear Bruce Hornsby play a solo show at the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids. Hornsby is an …

Nov 9, 2018: A good word from Jonathan Martin From a recent sermon on his Son of a Preacher Man podcast: The fake good news only sounds like good news to me and my tribe. The fake good news only …

Oct 25, 2018: Grammar nerdery + Bible reference? You bet I'll post this.

Oct 11, 2018: You are always more ready to hear than we are to pray... Wow, Proper 22 from the BCP this week: Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we …

Oct 10, 2018: Being Christians above all else Really good piece from Father Thomas McKenzie yesterday about living as a Christian in these divided American times. This bit is worth it alone: Have …

Oct 9, 2018: Social media exhausted me again Social media exhausted me again. If I’m more self-reflective I guess I have to say I exhausted myself on social media again. Back a year ago in …

Oct 6, 2018: Three dimensions of salvation by allegiance I’m reading Matthew W. Bates' Salvation By Allegiance Alone this week, in which he argues that the word the Apostle Paul uses that is usually …

Sep 7, 2018: Biblical intersectionality “Intersectionality” is a concept that has been a popular punching bag of many conservatives, including evangelical Christian ones, in the …

Sep 7, 2018: What are Evangelicals afraid of losing? Dr. Michael Horton has a wise piece on CT in response to President Trump’s comments to evangelical leaders that they are “one election …

Sep 6, 2018: Finished reading: 2018, part five My reading has apparently slowed down a bit this summer. Still, there’s been some good stuff recently: Well, first an intro to the first two …

Sep 3, 2018: David Bentley Hart's case for socialism Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart takes a break from theology to talk briefly about his political views; he is, he reveals, a member of the …

Aug 13, 2018: Power corrupts. Including religious power. Former Christianity Today editor Katelyn Beaty has a great op-ed over on RNS making the case that the #ChurchToo scandal isn’t as much a case of …

Jul 25, 2018: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Morning, German Edition I’m on work travel this week, visiting Cologne, Germany. It’s my second visit to Cologne, which is a lovely European city. Random …

Jul 24, 2018: Welcome to America... David Bentley Hart with a prophetic critique of America in a recent NYT column (HT to Richard Beck for pointing it out): “America — with its …

Jul 13, 2018: Zahnd: Christianity vs. Biblicism I attended the Water to Wine Gathering at Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, MO a couple weekends ago. WOLC’s pastor Brian Zahnd included in one …

Jul 10, 2018: Finished reading: 2018, part four What I’ve read the past month or so: Head On by John Scalzi A sequel in Scalzi’s series from the near future where some humans are …

Jul 5, 2018: The Greatest Show pointing to the greatest story Whatever you want to say about The Greatest Showman, it’s not subtle. I know I’m late to the party discussing this movie musical. Hugh …

Jun 6, 2018: Christ has made our hearts glad... and is waiting for our politics to catch up Matthew Lee Anderson has published over on Medium a transcription of a great little talk he gave recently at the Evangelical Theological Society. …

May 30, 2018: Albert Mohler, the SBC, and #MeToo I’ve been chewing on Dr. Albert Mohler’s post on The Humiliation of the Southern Baptist Convention for the past several days. If …

May 24, 2018: Utterly stuck in my head We’re doing this one at church this weekend, and this Village Church version of Lion and the Lamb is now permanently stuck in my head. …

May 21, 2018: Finished reading: 2018, part three Books I’ve read the past couple months: Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen A fun little sci-fi story I discovered on the library shelf. A sort …

May 18, 2018: Positive politics: health care Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written something on positive politics. Let’s dive in to another completely non-controversial …

Apr 26, 2018: Bruenig: Dignity in work, dignity in rest Washington Post columnist Elizabeth Bruenig makes an important point today when she says that we should consider not only the dignity and virtue of …

Apr 13, 2018: Fun with time signatures Because who doesn’t want to play an etude that switches between 7/8 and 4/4 every measure? (Philip Glass, Etude #2. Book of Glass’s etudes …

Apr 5, 2018: It's a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps This little two-minute snippet of interview from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. summarizes an explanation of racist systems and a case for systemic …

Apr 3, 2018: What will happen with the children of post-evangelicals? Richard Beck has an insightful piece up on a topic that’s had me thinking. While he’s a decade older and from a different denominational …

Mar 29, 2018: Opening Day 2018 Some of my favorite words: Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Cubs started on the road but started the season right with a win!

Mar 27, 2018: Farewell, Facebook I just posted this to Facebook: So let’s review what we’ve learned about Facebook in the past couple of weeks: They allowed an app to …

Mar 26, 2018: Is it the beard? I’ve written before about my Swedish Doppelganger - the botanist Carl Skottsberg in his younger years, at least according to my sister-in-law. …

Mar 19, 2018: Found Tonight The Hamilton / Dear Evan Hanson mashup we didn’t know we needed until it came out… so good. .embed-container { position: relative; …

Mar 19, 2018: Finished reading: 2018, part two Books I’ve read over the past month or so: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles An utterly charming novel about a Russian nobleman confined to …

Mar 13, 2018: Birthday week! Today at our house we enter Birthday Week: three of the five of our family members celebrate a birthday between now and next Tuesday. Today it’s …

Mar 1, 2018: Geek dad status, part 2 Tonight I introduced my daughters to Weird Al, and now daughter #2 insists she needs to listen to all his music. Now she’s not gonna fully get …

Feb 28, 2018: Geek dad status: unlocked. (Oh let's be honest, this is nothing new...) Last night I showed my oldest (13-year-old) daughter the first 5 minutes of Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, resulting in sustained laughter, …

Feb 22, 2018: I tried YouTube TV - here's what I found YouTubeTV is the latest entry into the streaming TV field. I’ve been an early adopter here; I signed up for Sling on day one (ESPN streaming? …

Feb 21, 2018: Beck: A practical Lenten fasting routine Richard Beck describes one of his concerns with traditional Lenten fasting and his rationale for working within it: I have a rule of thumb I like to …

Feb 20, 2018: These are the deep questions I ask myself... The other night we were playing “Name that Disney movie” while shuffling soundtracks on Spotify. The question I have rattling around in my …

Feb 19, 2018: Liss: Some questions for those who say the solution is to arm teachers Casey Liss, whose wife is a teacher, writes up a list of 35 practical questions that we’d need to have good answers to before we went the route …

Feb 15, 2018: Parkland How long must we continue to sacrifice children on the altar of the Second Amendment? As Christians, being “pro-life” must extend beyond …

Feb 14, 2018: Bullet points for a Wednesday morning: travel edition It’s grey outside and I’m on business travel all week. Bring on the bullet points! I’m ready to be done with this head cold. Bleh. …

Feb 6, 2018: Finished reading: where has 2018 gone already? I start each year with the intent of writing up Finished Reading posts on a book-by-book basis. Then I find myself in the first week of February and …

Feb 1, 2018: The Gospel Coalition has its #MeToo moment The pace of sexual abuse allegations and resignations / firings in the wake of the #MeToo movement has been stunning. Since early October when Harvey …

Jan 23, 2018: Positive Politics: Religious Liberty It’s been too long since I’ve written in this series. So let’s tackle something that I’m sure isn’t controversial at all …

Jan 19, 2018: Beck: bored with his doubts The trouble with the incessant deconstruction at work within progressive Christianity is that, left unchecked, all it tends to produce are agnostic …

Jan 4, 2018: My 2017 reading in review Just a quick post to summarize my reading and a few favorites this year. I read a total of 71 books in 2017, which I’ll split up into fiction, …

Dec 31, 2017: Finished reading: 2017 year-end edition I’ve gotten seriously slack at listing all the books I’ve been reading. Consider this my year-end catch-up post. (Not to be confused with my …

Dec 30, 2017: Some thoughts on my social media fast Back in November I decided it was time for a social media break. Facebook and Twitter were turning into frustrations that caused me more to feel …

Dec 16, 2017: Church graveyard at night Took this a couple years ago; still one of my favorites.

Dec 15, 2017: Positive Politics: Internet and Technology Policy Well I’m not ready to jump into one of the big ugly topics yet, so maybe this one will be a little easier. (Maybe.) Let’s talk about the …

Dec 11, 2017: Positive Politics: Education None of the topics I’ve teed up for my Positive Politics discussions are easy ones, but in the interests of easing into things I’ll try to …

Dec 8, 2017: Andrew Sullivan on the Gay Wedding Cake Case I miss Andrew Sullivan. I’m glad the guy detached a bit - the pace of his daily blogging was incredible, no surprise it wasn’t sustainable …

Dec 7, 2017: Positive politics: a little bit of foundation Before I start in on specific political topics, I want to lay out some foundation that will lie under the specifics. First, I’m a Christian, so …

Dec 6, 2017: Thinking in more positive terms about political issues From time to time over the past year when I’ve been tempted to write political rage posts, it has seemed to me that even though they’d be …

Dec 2, 2017: Really happy for Scott Frost Really happy for Scott Frost and impressed to see him take UCF to an undefeated season. Will be even happier to see him on the sideline in Lincoln …

Nov 29, 2017: Unexpected benefits... Apparently one of the benefits of a social media fast is that my friends start texting me to say hi! It’s been a nice surprise…

Nov 29, 2017: Jesus' Appeal to Human Emotion and Reason Some really fascinating thoughts from Richard Beck this morning on Jesus' appeal to human emotion and reasoning as a part of His teaching: Jesus also …

Nov 28, 2017: A Social Media Fast The holidays aren’t typically a time we think of fasting… but it was time. I’ve been a perpetual user of social media for just …

Nov 6, 2017: Some Thoughts on Thoughts and Prayers The familiarity of yesterday’s breaking news alerts almost muted the shock. Half a church dead, the other half wounded. I’m old enough to …

Nov 1, 2017: Finished reading: fiction! Two weeks, two business trips, it was time for light reading. Trolling the fiction shelves found me these: Price of Duty by Dale Brown Dale Brown has …

Oct 12, 2017: Land of My Sojourn A Rich Mullins song as timely today as it was when it came out back in 1993. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; …

Oct 11, 2017: A healthier approach to a mid-life crisis... Andrew Osenga started a new podcast earlier this year called The Pivot. Episode 3 is his discussion with musician, producer, and composer Don Chaffer. …

Oct 10, 2017: Over-reaction? This is a good word… When we call the lamentations of others Over-reaction without first pursuing knowledge as to what ails them; we expose …

Oct 9, 2017: Finished reading, part the next A rundown of recent book completions: A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story by Diana Butler Bass Bass is clearly …

Sep 27, 2017: Andrew Peterson and Friends: The Ragamuffin Album, Live at the Ryman Last Sunday night I had the privilege of attending an Andrew Peterson-organized and -led concert honoring the legacy of Rich Mullins at the Ryman …

Aug 30, 2017: Liberty and Holiness In a Facebook discussion recently on a mildly contentious topic, a friend brought out a line of argument that has me ruminating. Here’s what he …

Aug 28, 2017: Finished reading: several more It’s been a while since I’ve put a post together, but I haven’t stopped reading… recent books: Movies are Prayers: How Films …

Aug 27, 2017: Book Blame, Volume 1 I write regularly about the books that I have finished reading. What I don’t often do is assign blame credit to those who (often unknowingly) …

Aug 7, 2017: A little random follow-up Nearly a year ago I wrote a post dismayed about a church looking for a part-time Director of Music with almost unbelievable qualifications. Just to …

Jul 31, 2017: David Bentley Hart, from The Doors of the Sea A lovely passage from the conclusion of The Doors of the Sea, wherein David Bentley Hart addresses the how can a good God allow suffering? question: …

Jul 30, 2017: Finished reading: some history, some sci-fi, some theology The history: The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough An interesting read about Paris - astonishingly vibrant in the mid-1800s - …

Jul 29, 2017: Happiness as Human Flourishing: Matthieu Ricard on On Being I’ve read Christian authors from time to time who seem to be flirting with Buddhism - I guess I’m thinking primarily of Thomas Merton and …

Jul 19, 2017: Yep, still reading... A few more books I’ve completed lately: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson Stevenson tells the stories of many …

Jul 14, 2017: Bullet points for a Friday morning, July 2017 Hey, it’s Friday. The weather is really too nice to be sitting in the office all day today. I might have to do something about that. My oldest …

Jun 26, 2017: Finished reading: a few more... Summertime seems to make it hard to get through too many, but here are a few more books that I’ve finished over the past few weeks… …

Jun 26, 2017: Nineteen Nineteen years ago today Becky and I were married. If I search back through the archives on this blog I’m sure I’d find that I have used …

Jun 22, 2017: Finished Reading: People to Be Loved by Preston Sprinkle I’ve honestly been avoiding books on the topic of Christian views on homosexuality because I’ve become so familiar and fatigued with the …

Jun 22, 2017: 15-year-old Chris would be in disbelief File this under “things that would’ve stunned the 15-year-old Chris”. As a teenager, the evangelical Christian culture we were in …

Jun 12, 2017: The extraordinary moment... Again from Marilynne Robinson’s The Givenness of Things, from a chapter titled “Proofs”, a paragraph (which I am splitting up for …

Jun 10, 2017: Sabbath is a way of life... More from Marilynne Robinson’s The Givenness of Things, from a chapter titled “Decline”: The Sabbath has a way of doing just what …

Jun 9, 2017: Marilynne Robinson on Cultural Pessimism I’ve been a fan of Marilynne Robinson’s for a while now, though perhaps even more for her volumes of essays than for her award-winning …

May 31, 2017: Finished Reading: The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova Grabbed this one off the library shelf on a whim. I read Kostova’s The Historian a few years back and remember enjoying it, and I was ready for …

May 19, 2017: James: Gotta Trust Somebody Samuel James made a couple excellent points yesterday about our intake of the newsmedia over at Mere Orthodoxy. The problem for all of us is simple: …

May 9, 2017: Rands: Assume they have something to teach you A brilliant post from Rands today that has broad applicability beyond managing in the tech industry. When stuck with “marginal” meetings …

May 1, 2017: Finished reading: more books Finished reading: Since I can’t seem to get individual posts written… The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan A …

Apr 17, 2017: Matthew 6, a modern paraphrase Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. …

Apr 12, 2017: An open letter of apology to my wife, to be reused as necessary Dear Becky, Tomorrow the postman will drop off an Amazon package in the mailbox. Yes, it’s another book. Yes, I know the last one I ordered just …

Apr 12, 2017: Fr. Boules George: A Message to Those Who Kill Us The priest at one of the Coptic Orthodox churches that was bombed on Palm Sunday responding to the bombings with a message to their killers. If your …

Apr 11, 2017: Finished reading: The Madame Curie Complex by Julie Des Jardins Picked this one up from the library on a whim. The Madame Curie Complex is a relatively short volume covering the history of a dozen or so women …

Apr 11, 2017: Stop Trying to be a Man - Start Trying to be a Good Man Brad Williams with a fantastic piece on Christ and Pop Culture today, saying things that desperately need to be said: Culture tells us that certain …

Apr 6, 2017: Finished reading: Faithful Presence by David Fitch I’ve kept up with David Fitch for a while now via his blog and twitter. Fitch is a professor of theology at Northern Seminary in suburban …

Apr 4, 2017: Jethani: Blessed Are The Disillusioned Skye Jethani articulates in a piece today a lot of the frustrations I have felt and heard in recent months. Just a sample: The tribe of the …

Apr 3, 2017: Finished reading: several books If I posted these individually when I finished the books, I’d have more frequent posts on the blog here… oh well. Before the Fall by Noah …

Mar 30, 2017: We are from the future, embodying that in the here and now One of my favorites, Brian Zahnd, talked recently on the Makers and Mystics podcast. I love this little bit of what he had to say about the church …

Mar 29, 2017: Finished Reading: The Day the Revolution Began by N. T. Wright When the good Bishop N. T. Wright has a new book out it’s an automatic purchase for me at this point. And Wright does not disappoint with The …

Mar 19, 2017: NTW on 'a central part of the Christian vocation' [F]ollowers of Jesus have no choice. A central part of our vocation is, prayerfully and thoughtfully, to remind people with power, both official …

Mar 15, 2017: Finished reading: a quick compendium Because I’ve been lazy and not keeping up: The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies - and What They Have Done to Us by David Thomson An extensive …

Mar 1, 2017: Another view of 'love of neighbor' I was catching up on my backlog of On Being podcasts and came across a fascinating discussion with writer Alain de Botton. de Botton is an atheist, …

Feb 14, 2017: Finished reading: Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller Another random library selection, and a nice change of pace from history and theology. In Now, Cal Berkeley professor Richard Muller sets out to …

Feb 13, 2017: Finished reading: Instrumental: A memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music by James Rhodes I’ll confess I’d never heard of James Rhodes prior to picking this book up at the library. Turns out he’s about my age, and a …

Feb 12, 2017: Finished reading: A Wretched and Precarious Situation by David Welky Found this one on the New Books shelf at the library and figured hey, why not? Welky tells here the story of a handful of Arctic explorers who …

Feb 8, 2017: Bullet points for a Wednesday afternoon I’m glad I signed up for the 0530 kickboxing class, but it’d really help if I’d go to bed earlier at night. Short sleep + workouts = …

Feb 6, 2017: Finished reading: The Whistler by John Grisham Because sometimes you need some thoughtless entertainment. Even at that, Grisham is just coasting on his reputation at this point. Meh. -- The …

Jan 31, 2017: Finished Reading: Reclaiming Hope by Michael Wear The buzz on this one had been going around Twitter for a while, so I was glad to pick up a copy and read. Michael Wear is a young guy who, not even …

Jan 23, 2017: Finished reading: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn History, it is often said, is written by the winners. Zinn, though, undertakes to tell a history of America from the perspective of the losers, the …

Jan 21, 2017: Where you get your news matters As I sit and write today we are in day two of Donald Trump’s presidency. Across the United States and around the world, hundreds of thousands of …

Jan 16, 2017: Finished reading: Introduction to the Old Testament by J. Alberto Soggin John Halton’s review set me on this one, and I had much the same response to it that he did. Soggin’s work looks at the Old Testament from …

Jan 13, 2017: The most moving video I've seen in quite a while... President Obama awards VP Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his 40 years of public service. Biden has no idea the award is …

Jan 12, 2017: Finished reading: How to Survive a Shipwreck by Jonathan Martin Read this one on a business trip this week. Having nothing to do with actual nautical survival skills, this book is Martin’s personal …

Jan 10, 2017: Thanks, Obama. A little more than 8 years ago I did something I’d never done before, and voted for a Democrat for president. For a born-and-raised Republican, …

Jan 7, 2017: Finished reading: Broken Trust by W.E.B. Griffin I got sucked into Griffin’s Badge of Honor series years ago. This is book #13, and the hero is still only 27 years old, and opens the story …

Jan 7, 2017: Finished reading: Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Found this on the library shelf and was a challenging read to start the year. Is Kendi making an effort to be super-even-handed? Nope. But he has …

Jan 3, 2017: Books I Read in 2016 Another year, another book list. I think this year I can at least say that the unread book pile gathering dust by my bed is a little smaller than it …

Jan 2, 2017: Talking Complementarianism and Egalitarianism with Brent Thomas Brent Thomas is kicking the dust off his blog in the hopes of fostering some charitable discussions on contentious topics. He starts out with a doozy: …

Nov 25, 2016: Entirely resilient If outside it’s all gone mad In Christian ways or not Still is the world, this gorgeous world Entirely resilient -- stanza attributed to …

Nov 22, 2016: This is my new favorite picture and I don't know why

Nov 11, 2016: Recommended reading: The I’ve got a soft spot in my heart (and on my reading list) for science fiction. It probably started when I was reading Michael Crichton as a …

Nov 7, 2016: #FlyTheW I’ve enjoyed baseball for as long as I can remember. I have fond memories of attending my first baseball game (the Omaha Royals) when I was …

Oct 4, 2016: Bullet Points for a Tuesday Afternoon After traveling two out of the last three weeks for work, it’s good to be home. It’s been really fun having football season start up this …

Sep 27, 2016: A Little Plastic Surgery for the Body of Christ As a musician and long-term volunteer worship leader, I have plenty of opinions when it comes to church music. So this morning when I came across a …

Aug 17, 2016: Puttting the work into music in church I made an observation on Twitter yesterday that I want to flesh out a little more. [twitter is gone, sorry. best guess as to what I was going on about …

Aug 15, 2016: Worship Night in America This showed up in my Twitter feed over the weekend: twitter.com/mattmaher… “Worship Night in America”. To quote my friend Chrissy: …

Jul 13, 2016: A couple recent podcast episodes worth recommending I listen regularly to a handful of podcasts, and irregularly to a couple handfuls more. This past week I’ve run across a couple episodes that I …

Jul 11, 2016: Finished reading: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson I haven’t been posting on every book I’ve read, but wow, this was a good one. The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson is a history of …

Jul 5, 2016: Finished reading: compendium 4 I’ve hit a bit of a slowdown in my reading as the summer got busy, but have still made some progress on the book pile… Porcelain: A …

Jun 15, 2016: On Watching the Tonys for the First Time Last Sunday night I sat down with my family and watched the Tony Awards ceremony. (The Tonys are given out yearly to award the best in musical and …

Jun 3, 2016: Worship Pastor as Tour Guide A couple weeks back I linked to a two hour panel video discussing The Worship Leader as Pastoral Musician. I’ve finally gotten all the way …

May 27, 2016: The Beach Boys 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' with the vocals isolated... opulenthurricane-blog.tumblr.com/post/2129… Wow.

May 24, 2016: Wise words “Practice doesn’t make perfect if you’re doing it wrong.” -- [Frank Sonnenberg]

May 24, 2016: Finished reading: compendium 3 I’ve gotten really bad at blogging through all my reading, mostly because it drives me crazy when all I have on this blog is post after post of …

May 23, 2016: The worship leader as pastoral musician Zac Hicks shared this video last week - it’s a two-hour long panel discussion at Calvin College on the topic of “The Worship Leader as …

May 13, 2016: Reading Revelation Responsibly by Michael J. Gorman We’ve been in a sermon series on Revelation at church, so when a couple recommendations for Reading Revelation Responsibly came across Twitter, …

May 6, 2016: Thoughts on Brian Zahnd and Word of Life Church As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Prayer School I wanted to spend a little bit of time discussing Pastor Brian and Word of Life Church …

May 5, 2016: Brian Zahnd's Prayer School A month ago I had the opportunity to attend the Prayer School weekend taught by Brian Zahnd at Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, MO. I’ve …

May 4, 2016: Hamilton's King George reacts to Donald Trump Serenity Caldwell planted the idea in my mind… twitter.com/settern/s… And I couldn’t stop until I got something written down. So …

May 4, 2016: 5/4 day Today is May 4th, which has gained an online buzz as “Star Wars Day” - “May the Fourth be with you” and all that. (My friend …

Apr 27, 2016: Bono and Eugene Peterson discuss the Psalms A million people have undoubtedly posted this already, but… wow. So good. Bono and Eugene Peterson sit down at Peterson’s kitchen table …

Apr 18, 2016: Finished reading: Compendium 2 Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer I’ve been a fan of Sawyer’s stuff to this point, and this one wasn’t bad… but not great …

Apr 15, 2016: The discomfiting presence of a saint A couple friends shared this old compilation video of Fred Rogers appearing on the Charlie Rose interview show, and while my memories of watching Mr. …

Mar 30, 2016: Finished reading: Partners in Christ: A Conservative Case for Egalitarianism by John G. Stackhouse Jr. I put this one on my Amazon wishlist after reading a few posts on Scot McKnight’s blog about it. Shortly thereafter my Mom bought it for me for …

Mar 21, 2016: Finished reading: The Christian Tradition, Vol 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) by Jaroslav Pelikan I picked up The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) (Volume 2) from an …

Mar 17, 2016: Christianity as cultural salt Scott Sauls, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, has a really good piece from earlier this week titled “No More Moral-Majority …

Mar 16, 2016: Finished reading: a couple more I had three books going in parallel before finishing these two, which was making me twitchy. (Now I’m back to one at a time. Ahhhhh.) The Bone …

Mar 8, 2016: Finished reading: The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis I picked The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis off the library shelf on a whim. Well, more accurately, I picked up the second book in this series on a whim, …

Feb 26, 2016: Finished reading: a compendium I’ve been finishing books faster than I’ve been able to blog about them… so here’s a catch-up post. Command and Control: …

Feb 25, 2016: Zierman: Making Room for Others Well, now, this from Addie Zierman is lovely: Our hearts are made like pendulums, and when we swing away from one thing, we tend to end up on the far …

Feb 18, 2016: A little window on the past My wife indulged her philately habit and purchased a big box of old stamps at a garage sale some months back. Along with the stamps in the old …

Feb 17, 2016: Finished reading: The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord I picked this one off the New Books shelf at the library and was intrigued enough to borrow it. The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord is a …

Feb 10, 2016: Finished reading: Sisters In Law by Linda Hirshman I’ve been interested in the Supreme Court ever since high school, so when I saw this one on the library shelf, I didn’t hesitate in …

Feb 8, 2016: Finished reading: Dylan Goes Electric! by Elijah Wald I’ll be honest here: I’ve never been a big Bob Dylan fan. I like a few of his songs, but have somehow never managed to get into him as an …

Feb 8, 2016: Brian Zahnd on Silence and avoiding angry noise Brian Zahnd, from a January 29, 2016 message titled “Silence”: The church is not a special interest group that has to make its demands …

Feb 4, 2016: Words matter O. Alan Noble has a really good piece over on the CT website about the importance of Christians being careful about the truth, especially when it …

Feb 4, 2016: Finished reading: Accidental Saints by Nadia Bolz-Weber This one was kinda hidden in those photos I posted yesterday. But after wading through Heim I was ready for a shorter, easy read, and Accidental …

Feb 3, 2016: Finished reading: Saved From Sacrifice by S. Mark Heim I don’t remember when this book came onto my radar, but it was already on my Amazon wishlist when my friend Daniel’s recommendation pushed …

Jan 31, 2016: By resurrection Jesus is cleared of the scapegoat charges against him... By resurrection Jesus is cleared of the scapegoat charges against him. But the resurrection also acquits those who scapegoated him. While they …

Jan 27, 2016: Aigner: Reframing Worship Arguments I really appreciated this piece from Jonathan Aigner on Ponder Anew yesterday, wherein he suggests reframing so many of the discussions we have around …

Jan 19, 2016: Liftoff Episode 12: Geof makes the bigtime When the Relay podcast guys announced a show about space, my first thought was “sure, Stephen and Jason are great, but they need Geof as a third …

Jan 19, 2016: Music that evokes an emotional response From a Facebook group post today: Name a specific musical artist, for whatever reason, that is always able to draw a visceral emotional response from …

Jan 14, 2016: Finished reading: The Type B Manager by Victor Lipman Being a recently new manager at work, and having a definite Type B personality, I saw The Type B Manager on the shelf and thought, hey, why not? Now, …

Jan 14, 2016: Finished reading: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr I didn’t get as much read on this business trip as I’d thought I might - French schedules have you eating dinner late with little time …

Jan 12, 2016: I should've remembered this from last time... This post serves simply as a reminder to myself that when a European immigration officer asks where I came from and then asks “by?” he …

Jan 8, 2016: I love my daughter's embarrassed-but-pleased-with-herself smile Oh yeah.

Jan 8, 2016: Fiet: Wheaton College and the Fear Machine Midwestern pastor (and Wheaton alum) April Fiet has some really good thoughts today about the Wheaton College brouhaha around professor Larycia …

Jan 8, 2016: Finished reading: How to Watch a Movie by David Thomson I picked up David Thomson’s How to Watch a Movie on a whim from my local library shelf knowing nothing about it or Thomson. You can’t …

Jan 6, 2016: Meador: on Intervarsity and Black Lives Matter Jake Meador over at Mere O has a really good piece today on the white evangelical response to the messages at Urbana last month, and more generally to …

Jan 6, 2016: Finished reading: Hackers by Steven Levy I hadn’t heard of this one prior to listening to an Incomparable podcast episode last year - for the life of me I can’t figure out which …

Jan 2, 2016: My 2015 Reading Year in Review 2015 was another enjoyable year of reading for me, and with books tracked as usual on Goodreads, here’s a short summary: Total books read: 62. …

Jan 1, 2016: Finished reading: Saturn Run So here’s an idea: a sci-fi novel written by somebody who can actually write, with the physics and science worked out by a real nerd sidekick. …

Dec 24, 2015: Richard Causton, George Szirtes - The Flight For the past hour or so on this Christmas Eve morning we’ve been listening to the Nine Lessons and Carols service live on the BBC from Kings …

Nov 13, 2015: Hamilton It’s been a while since I’ve had a record catch my attention and get stuck in my head like Hamilton has over the past couple of weeks. If …

Oct 21, 2015: The Worship Industry is "Killing Worship"? Self-described post-evangelical (and Methodist worship pastor) Jonathan Aigner wrote on Patheos recently on “8 Reasons the Worship Industry Is …

Oct 7, 2015: Beck: Let Us Be the Heart Of the Church Rather Than the Amygdala A really good reminder from Richard Beck today: …it struck me how emotionally reactive we are to social media, our feelings getting jerked …

Sep 27, 2015: Now this is good news! A proclamation of the Gospel that I love and seems timely: The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who …

Aug 14, 2015: The first shoreline of the invisible world There’s a beautiful bit in the On Being episode that was published earlier this week, from a 2008 interview that host Krista Tippett held with …

Aug 14, 2015: Some months I need to clone myself, or, Chris gets work done, Orphan Black-style So yeah, it’s one of those months. I need a clone. Or two. Or five.So yeah, it’s one of those months. I need a clone. Or two. Or five. …

Jul 27, 2015: Happy Birthday, Laura! (2015 edition) How am I old enough to have an 11-year-old? It doesn’t seem I’ve gotten that much older… and yet this young lady grows in stature, …

Jun 26, 2015: 17 Years Seventeen years ago, on a sweltering Friday night in Charlotte, NC, two youngsters stood before God and a few hundred friends and family and made …

Jun 20, 2015: A little early-morning band action I play with a band called Standing Before Giants off and on. (I don’t show up on the official band info, but they pull me in for gigs on a …

Jun 18, 2015: A little bit of a bozo My theme in any discussion over the past couple of years has usually come around to “well, yeah, but… it’s complicated.” So …

Jun 16, 2015: That old, old impulse to tweak and re-write As a worship leader I confess I grumble from time to time about the current propensity of our songwriters to appropriate and revise classic hymns in …

Jun 1, 2015: May I go through the day calling on you A beautiful prayer, credited only as an “Ethiopian Prayer”, from today’s noon-time reading in Phyllis Tickle’s The Divine …

May 27, 2015: A Meal Shared Among Friends I’ve had the sacraments (especially the Eucharist) on my mind lately after reading James K. A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom, and then …

May 20, 2015: Infrastructure and the Common Good Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker last week: What we have, uniquely in America, is a political class, and an entire political party, devoted to the idea …

May 18, 2015: Formation of the Heart I’m working my way through Jamie Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom, and he is driving home the point that it’s not just our minds that …

May 12, 2015: Too much knowledge about the Bible a bad thing? In a recent update of Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal they interviewed Josh McDowell about, among other things, current trends on the …

May 4, 2015: The Benedict Option (i.e. Christian Cultural Withdrawal) Rod Dreher has been championing an idea he calls The Benedict Option - as he describes it, “a limited, strategic withdrawal of Christians from …

Apr 23, 2015: Capon on Confession Confession is not a transaction, not a negotiation in order to secure forgiveness; it is the after-the-last-gasp of a corpse that finally can afford …

Apr 15, 2015: Revisiting the evangelical worship experience A self-professed “child of the 1990s’ Christian subculture” recounts her experience revisiting that culture after many years away from it: …

Apr 14, 2015: Relax Richard Beck had a great little piece the other day about being relaxed. It challenged me. In yesterday’s post I included the word …

Apr 13, 2015: Popular Movies I've seen over the past 15 years Marco Arment recently posted about how few popular movies he’s seen, and proves it by listing out seen/not-seen: In an effort to accelerate …

Apr 13, 2015: Have Safire write up a speech I gotta say, this XKCD from last week cracked me up, if only mostly for the alt text (which I’ve posted below the image here). “Mr. …

Apr 12, 2015: The Spiritual Pep Rally Really good stuff on the Christian movie phenomenon, in the deliciously-titled “Do You Believe in Confirmation Bias?” I do remain concerned, however, …

Apr 10, 2015: Some fun for Friday I had about five things turn up in my RSS reading today that I want to blog before long. But it’s Friday, which merits things entertaining and …

Apr 2, 2015: American Oligarchy The kerfuffle around Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act this week has been a mess of ugly rhetoric and heat generated without creating …

Mar 20, 2015: And the youngest turns 6... We’re finishing up Birthday Week at the Hubbs house by celebrating today as the youngest turns 6. KP is a pistol - always moving fast to keep up …

Mar 20, 2015: The best sports weekend of the year It’s the best sports weekend of the year: the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. So many games, so many great stories, …

Mar 19, 2015: Matt Maher: Glory Bound I’m not a big listener of CCM and Praise & Worship music, but Matt Maher’s stuff has been growing on me lately. He has a new record …

Mar 18, 2015: Not to deal with sin, but to save... Grace is a difficult pill to swallow. A dangerous doctrine. The fact that the evangelical church has bought into that thought hit me between the eyes …

Mar 13, 2015: Happy Birthday to the AG! (2015 edition) Our middle daughter, Addison, enters her last single-digit year today. Hard to believe that nine years have flown by so quickly! This young lady is a …

Mar 3, 2015: Can you name 5 ways the church differs from America? There’s a challenging riff from pastor Brian Zahnd over on Missio Alliance today. How, he asks, does the church differ from America? The …

Feb 26, 2015: Stopping ISIS twitter.com/RickWarre… Pastor Rick Warren’s tweet echoes a sentiment that I’ve been hearing a lot lately around evangelical …

Feb 25, 2015: A famous scene minus the dialogue OK, I’m just shamelessly reposting something Jason Kottke dug up, but it’s fascinating - somebody took the courtroom scene from A Few Good …

Feb 20, 2015: Worth reading: an interview with Wendell Berry Wendell Berry is an author many folks have never heard of, but boy, once you get into the right circles, you never hear the end of him. And while I …

Feb 20, 2015: HDHomeRun Extend noisy fan: fix it via OVERKILL! A few months back I replaced my old (still working) HdHomeRun networked tuner with a newer model (recently rebranded the “HDHomeRun …

Feb 1, 2015: Jim Cantore, Minor Prophet In former days the weather gods spake to us through almanacks and prognosticating rodents, but in these latter days they speak to us through …

Jan 28, 2015: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Morning, 2015 edition I’m in Florida for a work trip this week. It’s been a good time so far. Doesn’t hurt when the view out your conference room window …

Jan 24, 2015: Worship develops feelings for God, not vice versa twitter.com/PetersonD… This wonderful little bit of insight came across my Twitter feed this morning and I’ve been chewing on it all day. …

Jan 15, 2015: Farewell, Episcopalians? There have been some strong reactions across the internet the past couple days to some remarks that Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president …

Jan 13, 2015: Don't Ask, Don't Tell Songwriting Yesterday my worship pastor sent out a lead sheet and MP3 for a new song we’re going to learn and sing this coming weekend at church, and …

Jan 12, 2015: Worth checking out: Laghdú I would never have run across this album were it not for Jeffrey Overstreet tweeting about it yesterday. (Thanks, Jeff!) Laghdú is a new album of …

Jan 7, 2015: It feels like a new era... We got my first computer when I was 7. My dad was writing a book, so bought a little PC with two 5.25" floppy drives and a monochrome monitor. …

Jan 4, 2015: A Timely Word for Today The Fall is where the nation is… Americans have become so beleaguered by anxiety and fatigue, so bemused and intimidated, so beset by a sense of …

Jan 1, 2015: My 2014 reading in review Well, with 2014 in the books it’s time for my annual little review of my reading. This was a busy reading year for me - 74 books equals the most …

Dec 22, 2014: St. Thomas More's Prayer for Good Humor I ran across this fantastic prayer this morning in a story about Pope Francis. (Reportedly the Pope prays this prayer daily.) It’s beautiful, …

Dec 19, 2014: A Pearls Pun for Friday How awesome is this?

Dec 18, 2014: Is the goal to win the argument? twitter.com/AJWTheolo… twitter.com/BrianZahn… These two tweets showed up on my timeline within 10 minutes of each other this morning. …

Dec 18, 2014: Some serious time travel going on here I’ll confess - I did almost all my Christmas shopping via Amazon this year. Amazon is usually bang on with shipping, but they clearly get bogged …

Dec 17, 2014: A little piano music for the season A couple years ago I recorded a little album of solo piano Christmas music. Here’s one of my favorite tracks from it: .embed-container { …

Dec 15, 2014: Deliver Us I’ve felt a need for Advent far more keenly this year than I recall from previous years. Perhaps it’s the tumult of the times - with …

Dec 3, 2014: The War of Christmas @pegobry with a great post about the subversive and challenging nature of Christ’s advent: Is there a war on Christmas? No, there’s no war on …

Nov 10, 2014: I'm not really an opera guy but this is still amazing: Amazing control, making the ridiculously high notes seem really easy, and putting such personality into the role… brilliant stuff. …

Nov 7, 2014: Resonating strongly with me this morning: Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: ‘Give me leave to do my utmost!’ -- Karen Blixen, writing as …

Nov 6, 2014: Winnie the Dude On the topic of my previous post, I had this Twitter interaction with Stephen Granade: twitter.com/cjhubbs/s… twitter.com/cjhubbs/s… But …

Nov 6, 2014: O Bother, Where Art Thou? You gotta love this: an artist created movie drawings based on movie title typos found on Reddit. This one is titled “O Bother, Where Art …

Nov 6, 2014: Living the Bachelor's Life My wife and kids have been gone for the past two days. They planned a trip to visit Grandma for dates where I had planned to be on a business trip. …

Oct 29, 2014: Yeah, I only gave Augustine''s "Confessions" 4 stars I went on a quick business trip this week which gave me several hours of airplane time to do some reading. I finished up both Confessions by St. …

Oct 28, 2014: 10 years of blogging The first post on this blog was written on October 29, 2004, in typical new-blogger fashion noting that I had a new blog. Over the past 10 years …

Oct 26, 2014: Ruiz: First Church of Authenticity and Trends Miguel Ruiz, over at Internet Monk, has this gem: If you can indulge me a moment of satire, what if the impression we sought to give our communities …

Oct 15, 2014: A few thoughts on Mark Driscoll's Resignation Mark Driscoll resigned today from the pastorate of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Driscoll has been embattled in several controversies over the past …

Oct 9, 2014: Sure, *my* story is complex, but yours? This article over on CT is so much more than its title - “What not to say to a Dad of 4”. The nut graf: This is one of our our greatest …

Oct 8, 2014: Paul counting his privilege as rubbish - Alistair Roberts' take on Philippians 3 There’s an interesting piece from Alistair Roberts over on Political Theology today. Roberts thinks through Philippians 3:4-14 and has a …

Oct 3, 2014: My musical find for the week: Ólafur Arnalds I started an Arvo Pärt station on Pandora earlier this week and one of the artists that kept coming up was someone by the name of Ólafur Arnalds. …

Sep 24, 2014: Assorted recommended reading I haven’t had a lot of original thoughts to share in long-form here on the blog lately, but I can pass along some links that are good …

Sep 18, 2014: I'm still reading... So, what have I been up to reading-wise? I don’t know that any of you were actually asking yourselves that, but I’m going to answer …

Sep 12, 2014: Fun for Friday: Star Wars without the Music How awkward would the final scene of Star Wars Episode IV be without John Williams' awesome score? Pretty awkward, as it turns out. .embed-container { …

Sep 10, 2014: MPT: 20 Problems with Progressive Christianity Matthew Paul Turner says he’s a “progressive Christian”, but that he’s never really owned the label because he’s not …

Sep 8, 2014: Argument is offered to justify the felt judgment... I’ve finally been catching up with Richard Beck’s Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality and I’m finding it …

Sep 2, 2014: Wherein I rag on Aaron Sorkin, do a little bit of my own research, and brag on my completely awesome friends. Last night I briefly moaned on Facebook about a small inconsistency that bugged me whilst watching The West Wing Season 4 Episode 18 (“Angel …

Aug 25, 2014: A couple more knocked off the list I had a business trip last week which gave me extra reading time, so… two more knocked off the list. First, Merton: A Biography by Monica …

Aug 20, 2014: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Afternoon: San Diego Edition I’m on business travel this week to San Diego and with so many thoughts rattling around in my head, bullet points might be as good as it gets …

Aug 12, 2014: Paul Tripp on the inadequacy of external accountability Pastor, author, and counselor Paul Tripp recently resigned from the Mars Hill Church (Seattle) Board of Advisors & Accountability. There was a lot …

Aug 11, 2014: Looking back at my thoughts on the Acts 29 Leadership Change My post from March 2012 about Matt Chandler taking over the reins of Acts 29 has seen some renewed activity this past week with the news that Acts 29 …

Aug 11, 2014: Do what he puts before you. Strive to do it well. Pass on what you learned. That’s it. Over on CT, Ed Stetzer is starting a blog series titled “Act Like Men”. (First article: “What It Means To Fight”). This has …

Aug 11, 2014: The pile keeps shrinking... I’m slowly whittling down my bedside book pile, completing Darren Dochuk’s From Bible Belt to Sun Belt: Plain-Folk Religion, Grassroots …

Aug 5, 2014: Using HDHomeRun Plus to record H.264 video with Windows Media Center Yeah, this is a nerdy post. I’m not expecting it’s of huge interest for my usual readers but might be helpful to others searching for more …

Aug 4, 2014: Kirk: The Missional Diagnostic Question “Missional” is a word that has been used so much in the evangelical church-planting movement over the past decade that it’s almost …

Jul 31, 2014: Technology upgrades and how they snowball, home video edition Last week we used some Amazon rewards points and a couple of gifts and upgraded our bedroom TV and bought a Roku. Our old solution, using a monitor …

Jul 29, 2014: Krista Tippett on listening to those of other faiths The guys over on Nomad Podcast recently interviewed Krista Tippett, a Christian who hosts a public radio interview program called On Being. I’ve …

Jul 28, 2014: OK, I love Tim Keller for lots of reasons but this one takes the cake From an #askTK session on Twitter today: Perfect answer. Love it.

Jul 27, 2014: One down, 25 to go I finished up NT Wright’s Surprised by Scripture the other night. A nice short form of several of his arguments, some will be very familiar to …

Jul 24, 2014: Music to Work By: Rostropovich and Britten play Schubert A good bit of my day-to-day work involves reading and reviewing large documents and sets of engineering data. To help that work along, I often listen …

Jul 22, 2014: Ragamuffin: Music inspired by the Movie I haven’t watched the Ragamuffin movie yet. Having known and loved Rich Mullins for the last 20+ years exclusively based on his music, I’m …

Jul 21, 2014: No More Buying Until I Do Some Reading …that’s the promise I’m making myself. The book pile next to my bed is just too high, and I keep accumulating without making much …

Jul 13, 2014: Random thoughts while watching The West Wing tonight Tonight we watched “Dead Irish Writers”, from the middle of season three. A couple of thoughts: I finally realized that the actor playing …

Jul 8, 2014: Lewis, Tolkien, and True Myth There’s a good piece today from Fr. Stephen Freeman revisiting C. S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien’s exploration of myth - not myth in the popular …

Jul 5, 2014: This is a useful word. For reference, my current pile:

Jul 4, 2014: My Fourth of July: Ran the local 8k. Didn’t set any time records. At home: finished the laundry and cleaned the bathroom. Mowed the lawn Finished tearing out the …

Jun 25, 2014: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Morning Just a few random observations… Crazy softball game in our church league last night. We were behind 3-0 most of the night, then with two outs …

Jun 24, 2014: Mere Fidelity Podcast on NT Wright I’ve recently started listening to the Mere Fidelity podcast, a theological conversation between Americans Derek Rishmawy and Matthew Lee …

Jun 19, 2014: O'Hare Overnight Liveblog American Airlines and a stalled warm front have conspired to have me sleeping overnight in the Chicago O’Hare airport to catch a flight home …

Jun 14, 2014: They Took the Post Down As a follow-up to my last post: Leadership Journal last night took down the controversial post, replacing it with this note: A note from the editors …

Jun 13, 2014: Take down that post? As if it had been too long since the last evangelical church sex abuse scandal, Leadership Journal (an imprint of Christianity Today) posted a long …

Jun 11, 2014: Some thoughts on the recent EFCA doctrinal survey I was fascinated to last week stumble upon the results of a 2013 doctrinal survey of more than 1000 credentialed Evangelical Free Church of America …

Jun 5, 2014: I never think I'm volunteering for too much stuff... …and then it all piles up at once and gets really busy. Help friends move? Absolutely, I’d love to. Substitute worship lead while the …

Jun 3, 2014: NT Wright on the intersection of the Bible, ethics, and doctrine In a recent interview by Jonathan Merritt on Religion News Service, Anglican bishop NT Wright had this to say about the Bible and how we work out …

May 30, 2014: Gentleness and Respect for all - addressing 'the transgender issue' But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. …

May 29, 2014: Real Transformation happens when? In light of the whole Tullian Tchividjian / Gospel Coalition dust-up in recent days, Mark Galli has an interesting piece at Christianity Today online …

May 15, 2014: Bullet Points for a Thursday - French edition! It’s Thursday at nearly 7 pm and I’m on the next-to-last day of a quick business trip to France. This is my first visit to France, so my …

May 14, 2014: That's not me! - an update... Last month I wrote That’s not me!, in which I lamented an Atlanta-based person using my Gmail address in contact forms and various online …

May 7, 2014: An app idea especially for Cubs fans As a Cubs fan I set up my Yahoo sports iPhone app at the beginning of the season to pop up an alert with the final score at the end of each game. My …

May 5, 2014: OK, this is pretty cool I know this has been all over the internet already, but I’m going to post it here anyway. It’s a video of a group called Árstíðir singing …

May 3, 2014: I'm an uncle again! The congratulations are due to my brother Andrew and his wife Heather on the birth of their second child, and first son, Isaiah David Hubbs. Isaiah …

May 1, 2014: How can you not love this kid?

May 1, 2014: Bullet Points for a Thursday Because hey, I haven’t done one of these on a Thursday for a while. It’s been kinda quiet at work this week. Certainly that won’t …

Apr 30, 2014: This Time I Can Stay - reflections on the music of a friend I want to take a little time today to tell you about a guy I know named Andy. (He’s got a weird Dutch last name, so for the purposes of this …

Apr 29, 2014: One more Supreme Court amusement I have some other posts planned, but my buddy Geof pointed out something in a Supreme Court ruling today that made me chuckle. In Environmental …

Apr 23, 2014: A Serious Argument over a Traffic Stop, or, Why I Love Reading Supreme Court Decisions One of my secret guilty pleasures (and here you get to plumb the depths of my weird mind) is reading Supreme Court opinions. (I enjoy listening to …

Apr 21, 2014: Goerend: This Session Should Have Been A Blog Post Russ Goerend is a teacher, relative of a friend, and self-admitted sneaky reader of this blog. He sent me a nice email the other day to introduce …

Apr 16, 2014: Why I'm Leaving the Evangelical Theology blog wars I’ve had my adventures growing up in the church. In 35 years of church attendance I’ve been a part of a C&MA church, a fundie …

Apr 15, 2014: That's not me! OK, I’ve heard stories before about people having their email addresses added to unsavory mailing lists by pranking friends or malicious …

Apr 14, 2014: Which artist had the impact? This interview with Rich Mullins' producer Reed Arvin is months old now, but I thought of it again the other day and wanted to share one revelation in …

Apr 8, 2014: A Startling Bit of Insight I’ve owned an iPhone for 18 months now, but haven’t had a PIN in place to lock the device until yesterday. I’m gaining the ability …

Apr 6, 2014: Humility There are days I foolishly think I’m fairly well-read and have thought through good chunks of doctrine and theology; and then there are the days …

Apr 5, 2014: In which I gripe about my home media center travails You regular readers (all three of you) know that this blog bounces back and forth between theology and nerd stuff with frightening regularity. This is …

Apr 3, 2014: We need more neighbors There’s been a lot of virtual ink spilled in the Christian blogosphere on the gay marriage topic the past couple of weeks after the World Vision …

Mar 30, 2014: Star Wars music on an amazing pipe organ OK, this is pretty great. Organist Jelani Eddington performs a suite from the Star Wars soundtrack on a massive pipe organ. The organ was built by …

Mar 25, 2014: Bullet Points for a Tuesday Evening Because hey, I like this format. Just when you think spring was here, we get snow. The ground and roads were covered this morning. Ick. At least …

Mar 24, 2014: On Being Allowed to Grow Up There’s a fascinating article on The Atlantic site that’s been making the rounds recently, and it’s well worth a read. Author Hanna …

Mar 24, 2014: The difference a decade makes On the left, my passport photo from 2004. On the right, my passport photo from last week.

Mar 21, 2014: Not everything that calls itself a church is really a church. My friend Randy posted a nice little bit of self-observation today that resonates with me: Q – Randy, are you a heretic or something? What is wrong …

Mar 20, 2014: My Swedish Doppelganger When my wife’s sister and her husband recently visited Chile, they found this picture in a museum somewhere and sent it to my wife, noting that …

Mar 19, 2014: To be a Christian is to believe that all political ideologies are suspect. Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry nails it: To be a Christian is to believe that all political ideologies are suspect. And wrong. It doesn’t mean that …

Mar 19, 2014: A couple thoughts about Christian celebrity There’s been a lot of talk about Christian celebrity the past several days, but Richard Beck hits on something important this morning by making …

Mar 18, 2014: How can suburban churches minister to urban areas? Some challenging thoughts from Christina Cleveland today: If we truly saw ourselves as an interdependent body with a shared Head, resources, blood, …

Mar 17, 2014: Bullet Points for a Monday #5 Because, hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these. Did my first three-service weekend on worship team the last two days. I …

Mar 14, 2014: The Importance of Accountability Carl Trueman, writing today about Mark Driscoll’s problems, and our own: Mark Driscoll is one person, a uniquely talented individual. Yet he is …

Mar 14, 2014: OK, so I bailed on Octopress A few months back I tried a great blog migration - moving from Wordpress to Octopress, a Ruby-based static site generator. Octopress had the virtue of …

Mar 12, 2014: Practical Worship Leading Ideas Yesterday I wrote a response to a post wherein someone else argued that church praise bands, by virtue of the type of music they play, speak a special …

Mar 11, 2014: Do Praise Bands speak a Secret Language? Yesterday I ran across a recent post from Lutheran pastor Erik Parker provocatively titled “Praise Bands are the new Medieval Priests”. In …

Mar 6, 2014: Happening This Weekend I was a bit excited back in November when I bought the tickets. And after living through a very long winter (which we hope is almost over), I’m …

Feb 26, 2014: The Healing of the Open Road Maybe it’s just a reaction to still being in the tail end of 3 months of a cold winter back home, but give me a trip to Phoenix this week, a …

Feb 24, 2014: The Lost World of Genesis One Last week I finally got the chance to read The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton. Dr. Walton is a …

Feb 14, 2014: A Valentine's Eve Win Last night my wife and I went to see Jim Brickman in concert at the Paramount here in Cedar Rapids. This is the second time we’ve seen this …

Feb 7, 2014: In Appreciation of Both Sides of the Creation Debate One of the beautiful things about being slow to respond to the internet topic du jour is that sometimes other people come along and say what you want …

Feb 5, 2014: Notes from the Creation Debate There was a well-publicized debate last night on this question: “is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern scientific …

Jan 30, 2014: A Holistic Digital Person Yesterday morning I was tweeting from the beginning of an industry committee meeting I’m attending this week in Florida. I was griping a little …

Jan 29, 2014: Spike Jonze' 'Her' Tonight I went to the theater and saw *Her*, the recent movie from Spike Jonze. For those who might not be familiar with the film, here’s the …

Jan 21, 2014: Where Are The Christian Daddy Blogs? I had a passing thought in the midst of a blog post a few weeks ago that I want to explore a little more on its own. While writing about my podcast …

Jan 21, 2014: The Unruly Beginning of the Muppets I’m currently reading a biography of Jim Henson, creator of all my beloved Muppets. I’m learning all sorts of stuff I didn’t know, …

Jan 20, 2014: There's truth here From today’s XKCD: (Hover text: ‘Automating’ comes from the roots ‘auto-’ meaning ‘self’, and …

Jan 17, 2014: "I am utterly unworthy to offer any critique of these mysteries" I love this confession from Catholic blogger Andrew Sullivan today: If by doctrine, you mean the core tenets of the Creed I recite at Mass by …

Jan 16, 2014: Ben Myers' Canon Fodder Australian theology professor Ben Myers (@FaithTheology) has been tweeting a fantastic series of 140-character commentaries on each book of the Bible, …

Jan 15, 2014: A Cheap Pun for your Wednesday Growing up in the church as I did, and appreciating wordplay and humor, I’m of course familiar with most of the Bible-related puns that float …

Jan 6, 2014: My Podcast Listening circa January 2014 At the moment I’m subscribed to 14 podcasts. I do all my podcast listening on my phone - mostly in the car or (during the summer months) while …

Jan 3, 2014: On Selling Books Yesterday I did something I’ve never done before: I took a stack of books and sold them at the local used book store. This was a major step for …

Jan 2, 2014: Books I read in 2013 Here’s my one year-end post: a little summary of what I read this year. I’m not gonna list ‘em all - you can go check out the list …

Dec 26, 2013: A little inspired art We were looking for a family movie tonight and Netflix recommended The Secret of Kells. I had only a vague familiarity with the movie, but the reviews …

Dec 18, 2013: The last word on Mark Driscoll for a while I can’t imagine anybody saying things much better than Jared Wilson did today over on The Gospel Coalition. Bits and pieces: There are lots of …

Dec 11, 2013: Fitch on Driscoll: why doesn't he just repent? Professor and pastor David Fitch has some powerful words on the Driscoll plagiarism topic today, and more broadly on celebrity leadership in …

Dec 9, 2013: Follow-up thoughts on Mark Driscoll, Plagiarism, and Power I’ll start the blog post with a disclaimer, because heck, why not? Disclaimer: I’m not for a second going to claim that I have anything …

Dec 6, 2013: Carols for Christmas (reprise) Last year I recorded some piano arrangements of familiar Christmas songs. I called it, originally enough, Carols for Christmas. As I explained it last …

Dec 6, 2013: Correlation and Causation All the correlation / causation talk around Dave Ramsey this week brings this classic XKCD cartoon to mind. Happy Friday!

Dec 5, 2013: Called to be faithful, not famous Wenatchee the Hatchet pointed me this morning to a devotional post written by Jeff Bettger, who up until recently was Arts Pastor at Mars Hill Church …

Dec 2, 2013: Accepting truth, discarding error Yesterday I wrote about the need to be willing to accept truth (and discard error) from wherever we find it, not just when it’s from our …

Dec 1, 2013: Dave Ramsey, Sacred Cow Earlier this week I posted a link on my Facebook feed: “What Dave Ramsey Gets Wrong about Poverty” - an opinion column by Rachel Held …

Nov 27, 2013: A Pakistani cover of Brubeck's Take Five OK, this is likely the most unique cover you’ve ever heard of Take Five. Very cool. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: …

Nov 26, 2013: The Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis published a new “Apostolic Exhortation” today titled “EVANGELII GAUDIUM”, which translated means “The Joy …

Nov 25, 2013: Jim Belcher, "In Search of Deep Faith" I first became acquainted with author Jim Belcher back in 2009 when I read Deep Church. It appears I didn’t review it here on the blog, but my …

Nov 25, 2013: The command to love my neighbour as myself still retains its claim upon me I don’t always find myself warmed by the writings of Charles Spurgeon, but my friend Michael Terry sent me this bit yesterday, to which I can …

Nov 19, 2013: Today I did something I've never done before... I bought two tickets to a big rock-and-roll show. I’ve been an Arcade Fire fan for a few years now, but have never seen them in person. This …

Nov 11, 2013: About those doubts and questions From Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead: I’m not saying never doubt or question. The Lord gave you a mind so that …

Nov 7, 2013: Many Happy Returns Just a quick note here today to say Happy Birthday to my dear mother. (I’ll call you later on today, Mom!) Remembering her long annoyance on …

Nov 6, 2013: Cue the Vangelis soundtrack... One of the enjoyable things about going on business trips to various locations is the chance to get to do some running in locations I don’t …

Nov 6, 2013: The proper evangelical attitude toward sinful behavior outside the church Here’s one for ya this morning: The proper evangelical attitude toward sinful behavior outside the church should be one of wise resignation and …

Nov 1, 2013: A Calvinist at the Pearly Gates Trevin Wax today reviews Michael Bird’s new book Evangelical Theology. Outside of the book and review, this humorous aside from Bird’s …

Oct 31, 2013: Some thoughts on the FAA's decision to allow use of phones/tablets on airplanes from gate to gate The FAA announced today that it is directing airlines to enact policy that will allow passengers to use their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, …

Oct 28, 2013: Something to lighten the mood... It’s been fun as my daughter Laura gets older (almost 9 and a half!) seeing her start to use things like instant messaging to great effect. A …

Oct 28, 2013: A story of two men Yesterday I attended a church in another town which I have infrequently visited before. Circumstances allowed me to help lead music as a part of their …

Oct 22, 2013: "To be astonishing seems to be the mark of God’s great acts..." I’m sure I heard the name Marilynne Robinson several years ago when her novel Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize. She does live just down the road in …

Oct 21, 2013: Losing something in the modernization This past Sunday our worship team learned and led a new (old) song - Chris Tomlin’s arrangement of (and new chorus for) the old hymn Crown Him …

Oct 17, 2013: I Rest in the Grace of the World When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie …

Sep 19, 2013: The proper format for a sermon A good insight here: …a genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation. There is nothing more …

Sep 5, 2013: 'Perfect' is just my pathetic attempt to hide Comedian Marc Maron has a fantastic recent podcast episode where he interviews jazz pianist Ben Sidran. In the midst of a long, fascinating discussion …

Aug 30, 2013: One more fun musical post for the weekend Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye together on stage having far more fun than any two people should be allowed to have. How can you not enjoy this? …

Aug 30, 2013: Bluegrass and Bach: Something Relaxing for the Weekend It’s Friday headed in to a holiday weekend and I’m tired of writing about serious topics, so it’s time to share this video - a …

Aug 28, 2013: Recommended reading: Guilt Factories My brother-from-another-mother Daniel Deboer has a great post up about what he calls “Guilt Factories” that’s worth reading. A …

Aug 23, 2013: A few thoughts on the "yuck factor" discussion In case you’re not already caught up: the discussion started with Thabiti Anyabwile’s post on TGC, “The Importance of Your Gag …

Aug 21, 2013: Steve Martin & Kermit the Frog play 'Dueling Banjos' There is no way I could not post this. (That being said, whoever voiced Kermit at the end of the video is a pale imitation of the original.) …

Aug 19, 2013: Does your church have room for me? What if I don’t have 100% agreement with your doctrinal statement, but still want to be a part of your church? Does your church have room for …

Aug 9, 2013: When church and convictions conflict - a personal follow-up Yesterday I recommended Ed Cyzewski’s post talking about when church and your personal convictions come into conflict. Today I’d like to …

Aug 8, 2013: When church and convictions conflict Ed Cyzewski put up a great post yesterday about diversity of churches and ministries and about using your unique giftings to serve God. He tells a …

Jul 26, 2013: Internet filtering and government 'protection' Internet filtering has been a hot topic in the news the past few days. In Britain, prime minister David Cameron has proposed that all British internet …

Jul 15, 2013: Recommended Reading: The Journey of Ministry Recently I’ve been reading The Journey of Ministry: Insights from a Life of Practice by Fuller seminary professor Dr. Eddie Gibbs. (Thanks go to …

Jul 12, 2013: In which I sing the praises of NewsBlur I realize that everyone reading this has already either made a decision on a Google Reader replacement, or just had their eyes glaze over when I said …

Jun 19, 2013: It's Not a Long Leap In my last post I touched just briefly on the evangelical “modesty culture”, wherein the church burdens women by telling them that they …

Jun 17, 2013: God has not given us a Spirit of Fear The evangelical blogosphere has been an interesting place lately. There have been voices talking about the abuse lawsuit against Sovereign Grace …

Jun 12, 2013: Four generations at play We had a bunch of family visit our home the past couple days, including my grandmother, my parents, and two siblings. Such fun to have so many of us …

Jun 7, 2013: Is this Calvinism's Default Position? I’m sitting in a hotel room tonight enjoying a family weekend and catching up on twitter while trying to get the kids to go to sleep, and in …

May 31, 2013: Tonight's chain of musical thoughts Playing this in the van while headed home: .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: …

May 29, 2013: The Power of the Pen I like writing by hand, and I love the feel of writing with a good pen. In my experience, though, good pens are hard to find. Several years ago I …

May 27, 2013: Happily After All It’s Memorial Day here in the States, which means we’ve been enjoying a day together as a family. I enjoy days when I get to spend time …

May 25, 2013: Where are the voices? Boz Tchividjian has strong words on the SGM mess. Boz Tchividjian (grandson of Billy Graham, law professor at Liberty University, and former state prosecutor in Florida) weighs in on the SGM abuse …

May 25, 2013: Happy Birthday to Becky! Today is my dear wife’s birthday. We’re probably getting to the point where she doesn’t appreciate me listing her age any more, but …

May 24, 2013: T4G and TGC break their silence on Mahaney One of the great frustrations of those trying to bring the allegations of rampant child abuse and cover-up in Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) …

May 23, 2013: A Rich Mullins... movie? Matthew Johnson alerted me yesterday to the trailer that’s out for a movie about Rich Mullins. Before I comment, here’s the trailer: …

May 22, 2013: A plea to John Piper on the use of social media There’s been a lot of blogospheric noise today around a tweet that Pastor John Piper made yesterday in the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado. …

May 8, 2013: Facing the truth about ourselves Andrew Peterson has a beautiful piece up at The Rabbit Room today. He reflects on his discomfort at answering personal questions on a doctor’s …

May 2, 2013: Telling the Tales of the Scarring War with Sin Songwriter and singer Jennifer Knapp answered questions over on Rachel Held Evans' blog this week, and in the midst of it all she offered up a …

May 1, 2013: A year off the Internet Tech writer Paul Miller spent a year unplugged from the internet, and returns today to share his insights. Paul reports that while the first few …

Apr 22, 2013: New-to-me Music Monday We made a family trip to the library yesterday, and as usual I came home with a pile of books and media beyond what I am ever to get through in the …

Mar 28, 2013: Graffiti vs. real change Matt Chambers has a piece up today in light of this week’s ongoing arguments about gay marriage, and this paragraph jumped right off the screen: …

Mar 27, 2013: Celebration is a craft I need to learn Sarah Clarkson has a beautiful post over on The Rabbit Room today about, as she says, “the grave importance” of celebrations, and how they …

Mar 20, 2013: Vatican City is not what you think it is... There’s a fascinating post up on the Strange Maps blog this morning about Vatican City and the Holy See. Vatican City, it seems, is not exactly …

Mar 20, 2013: Happy birthday to KP! It’s March, which means the birthdays come fast and furious at the Hubbs house. Today the youngest member of our household isn’t quite so …

Mar 13, 2013: Happy Birthday to the AG Seven years ago today, in the dark of the early morning, Addison was born. This young lady is so special… a free spirit in a house full of …

Feb 19, 2013: Richard Beck on Holiness and Hospitality …the pursuit of moral purity often undermines the life of welcome as “sinners” and the morally “unclean” tend to be …

Feb 12, 2013: Biblicism and the Reformed Evangelical magisterium One of the long-term hallmarks of the American evangelical church has been a congregational independence free from strong denominational ties. Sure, …

Jan 23, 2013: On Book Reviewing and Control My friend Geof wrote a good post yesterday about really taking time to digest and consider a book before publishing a review. He appreciates his …

Jan 16, 2013: A follow-up on our Verizon woes A couple weeks ago I wrote about my frustrations with Verizon’s service when it came to the issues my wife was having with her new iPhone. At …

Jan 14, 2013: Amazon AutoRip and Pricing Models Last week Amazon introduced something called AutoRip. Basic premise: you buy a physical CD from Amazon, and if it’s AutoRip eligible, Amazon …

Jan 12, 2013: Be careful what you ask for... So, that guy who complained earlier this week that he was getting a little bored or stale playing keys? Well, he went to worship band practice this …

Jan 9, 2013: My running record for this year... …I think it’s gonna by Battle Born by The Killers. Forget the violent sounding name. The album is chock full of easygoing rock that …

Jan 9, 2013: Going after the dove sellers The point being, while we know that Jesus was upset about economic exploitation going on in the temple, his focus on the dove sellers sharpens the …

Jan 7, 2013: On Playing and Variety My primary instrument has always been (and likely always will be) keys of some sort. I started piano lessons when I was 7. I started playing for …

Jan 2, 2013: Verizon Wireless woes Back around Thanksgiving my wife and I made the jump from US Cellular to Verizon, for the express purpose of getting iPhones. And I’ve gotta …

Dec 31, 2012: My 2012 reading Time for my annual roundup of what I read over the past year. While I’m often lousy at cataloging things, this list is easy enough thanks to …

Dec 17, 2012: Carols for Christmas For at least twenty years my mother has been requesting that I record some of my piano stylings. For one reason and another I’ve never gotten to …

Dec 13, 2012: Advent... or not ‘Tis the season of Advent, or at least lots of church bloggers are telling me. A time of anticipation, longing, and waiting. Even evangelical …

Nov 30, 2012: Closely intertwined I think it may take the American evangelical church another decade or so to really realize how closely intertwined they are with the Republican party, …

Nov 6, 2012: My Favorite Elected Official The primary focus this election day is on the race for President, as well it should be. After I leave work I’ll head over to my precinct to cast …

Oct 10, 2012: My India Trip, Days 7 and 8 OK, I’ve been back for almost two weeks now, I should finish up reporting on my India trip. At a minimum, I should describe my trip back home. …

Oct 1, 2012: Home entertainment setup with a HTPC I’ll get to a summary post or two about my India trip in upcoming days, but today I’d rather go on about my frustration with my auxiliary …

Sep 27, 2012: India Trip, days 5 and 6 I think it’s a fair guess that I’ve never spent 4 days talking non-stop for 8 hours each day before. My throat is feeling the effects of …

Sep 25, 2012: India Trip, Days 3 and 4 Some thoughts from days 3 and 4 (Monday and Tuesday) of my India trip: Sitting around doing nothing, by yourself, in an unfamiliar place is a lonely …

Sep 23, 2012: My trip to India, Day 1/2 I’m in Hyderabad, India this week for work. (I’ll be teaching a training class all week for the employees of our Indian office.) Rather …

Sep 19, 2012: In an alternate universe... Twitter was abuzz with #Hutchmoot tags yesterday after Andrew Peterson’s announcement of the special guest for this year’s Nashville faith …

Sep 17, 2012: Standing Desk Update It’s been a little over a month since I began using a standing desk at work. So how’s it going after a month? Pretty well, actually. Some …

Sep 3, 2012: Andrew Peterson - Light for the Lost Boy Andrew Peterson’s new record, Light for the Lost Boy, came out last week, but a business trip and a busy weekend conspired against me. So, my …

Aug 30, 2012: Single Payer I was stuck in a hotel last night watching Paul Ryan’s speech, and after he ripped on Obamacare, I had to comment on twitter: …

Aug 29, 2012: Three careers I could've pursued but didn't I’m sitting in a hotel room in Florida tonight, bored and needing blogging inspiration. So I hit up twitter. Two minutes later my buddy Geof …

Aug 23, 2012: I just wanna be Andy Gullahorn I’ve gone through a lot of wanna-be stages in my life as a musician. My mother listened with horror while as a teenager I tried to imitate …

Aug 21, 2012: Church and Community Yesterday on Twitter I had a bit of a conversation with some friends about the relationship of our churches and the related need for community. (Randy …

Aug 17, 2012: One of the dangers of a standing desk... …is that when I’ve got my headphones on and I’m grooving to some music, I’m not just in danger of air drumming, but now …

Aug 16, 2012: Standing Up (at my desk) I’ve been intrigued by the online discussion about standing desks for a while now. Heck, it’s clear enough to anybody willing to think …

Aug 15, 2012: "When I Was A Child I Read Books" by Marilynne Robinson I’ve gotten to the point where, unless I’m looking for a specific book, I don’t even visit the main stacks of the library any more. …

Aug 15, 2012: The sure sign that I'm not blogging enough... …is that I start blogging about blogging, and I start thinking more about how I’m going to modify my blog layout/structure/etc than what …

Aug 9, 2012: Some Android / iPhone follow-up So the same day I published my previous post on ditching my Android, a customer service guy from US Cellular named Tom pinged me on Twitter and asked …

Jul 27, 2012: Why I'm ditching my Android and getting an iPhone 19 months ago I purchased my first smartphone - well, two of them, one for me and one for my wife. At the time, I already owned two iPod Touches and …

Jul 26, 2012: Chicken and Friends and Eternity We were at Chick-fil-A a couple of weeks ago for Cow Appreciation day when we ran into some friends we hadn’t seen in a while. Well, friends …

Jul 2, 2012: My daughter does awesome book recommendations Forget my book recommendations, folks: my seven-year-old daughter Laura has me beat. This summer’s Barnes and Noble kids' reading program asks …

Jul 1, 2012: L'audace, or, he killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day I don’t often stop to read obituaries any more - lack of a newspaper subscription puts a crimp in that - but there was one this past week that …

Jun 21, 2012: Antihistamine Money Years ago when my family first got a VCR and started renting movies, my dad made a beeline for all of the Rocky and Bullwinkle titles he could find. …

Jun 18, 2012: The Anxious Christian - Rhett Smith Sorry for turning this into a book review blog of sorts. One of these days I’m going to get to some more serious posting. For now, though, …

May 25, 2012: The Road Trip that Changed the World - Mark Sayers Australian pastor and author Mark Sayers put out a request for reviews of his new book, The Road Trip that Changed the World a few weeks ago, and …

May 9, 2012: N. T. Wright sings Monday night I had the privilege of meeting Bishop N. T. Wright and hearing him speak in Nashville, TN. I’ve written about it for 800 words over …

May 8, 2012: What I wrote to 16,000 people This email went out on The Listserve this afternoon. There’s good news, and then there’s GOOD NEWS. It’s good news when an …

May 5, 2012: What would you say to 16,000 people? A few weeks ago I heard about a little online project called The Listserve. Email mailing lists are one of the older forms of internet communication; …

Apr 17, 2012: Leonard the Lonely Astronaut My friend Andy Osenga has a new record available to purchase (download or physical CD) today over on the Rabbit Room store. Leonard the Lonely …

Mar 28, 2012: Some thoughts on Matt Chandler's move to lead Acts 29 So, it’s official: Matt Chandler will be taking over as president of the Acts 29 church planting network, moving the A29 headquarters from …

Mar 22, 2012: 15 Reasons to Show Grace A couple of days ago I posted a link to Rachel Held Evans' “15 Reasons I Left Church” on my Facebook wall, along with this comment: While …

Mar 20, 2012: Happy Birthday, Number Three! Our third daughter, KP, turns three today. So big, so fast. So blessed to have her.

Mar 13, 2012: Happy Birthday, Addie G! Our delightful middle daughter turns 6 today. Happy birthday, little lady! You’re an amazing blessing to your mom and me.

Feb 28, 2012: The people of God are like... a political advance team After recently finishing N. T. Wright’s Simply Jesus, I’ve been thinking again on Wright’s view of the church’s work as …

Jan 9, 2012: Bullet Points for a Monday #4 I haven’t done one of these in a while, but was reminded just how much fun they are. So, without further ado… I just got invited to join …

Jan 9, 2012: Second-guessing God Stringfellow is just full of good stuff. Still in Chapter Two of An Ethic for Christians an Other Aliens in a Strange Land, he says this about trying …

Jan 9, 2012: Stringfellow on Revelation In the second chapter of William Stringfellow’s An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land, he continues to contrast the two …

Jan 4, 2012: William Stringfellow: "An Ethic for Christians & Other Aliens In A Strange Land Among the many Christmas gifts I received this year, I was quite pleased to get a book which had been sitting on my Amazon wishlist for several …

Jan 1, 2012: My 2011 Reading The end of the year means it’s time for a summary of my last year’s reading. Thankfully Goodreads keeps it easy for me to track things; I …

Nov 30, 2011: I didn't know you would be /you/ Karibeth Baumann has spent November blogging letters to her young son Atticus. She finishes up today with a beautiful summary that captures something …

Nov 28, 2011: Last night I convinced myself... Last night I convinced myself that I wanted to hit the gym this morning. I packed my bag so I could just go from the gym to work, and then psyched …

Nov 24, 2011: Thankful On this day set aside to be thankful, I want to review the events of the last six weeks, because they give me so much to be thankful for. Some of you …

Nov 21, 2011: Thanks, G. My friend Geof has been writing a series of “letters” blog posts this month, addressed to family and friends. I’ll admit to idly …

Nov 15, 2011: Are we overly focused on the cross? There’s a thought-provoking post by Bo Sanders up on Homebrewed Christianity today wherein he asks what might be to many a startling question: …

Oct 31, 2011: The Axes of Evil: A Halloween Groaner [HT: Boing Boing]

Oct 28, 2011: My brain is full: a quick clarification I realize after writing these last couple of posts that they may make me sound like I’m deeply unhappy or unsatisfied with my current church. …

Oct 28, 2011: My brain is full, part 2 Yesterday’s post wandered a bit in talking about the relevance of God’s Word even as it is found in the daily readings and prayers of the …

Oct 27, 2011: My brain is full; it is my soul that needs fed. BHT patron and Twitter friend John H posted earlier today about the “Flash evensong” he participated in last night in front of St. …

Oct 26, 2011: Jesus as the great "I Got You" Far down in the comments on an excellent post on cross-gender friendships (which is worth reading in its' own right) is this paragraph by commenter …

Oct 25, 2011: On parenthood and life Tech blogger Jeff Atwood took a detour from his usual nerd programming yesterday to address a nearly universal topic: parenthood. He expresses …

Oct 24, 2011: Robert Esher Hubbs III, 1939 - 2011 My wife’s father [Yes, that’s right - Becky’s maiden name was Hubbs, my last name is Hubbs. It’s unusual, and we’ve …

Oct 20, 2011: Trying Someplace New Went to The Flying Wienie for lunch today; my first time ever at this local Cedar Rapids institution. It was amazingly tasty. It won’t be …

Sep 23, 2011: A long-delayed update So, that blogging every day thing didn’t last long, did it? A little bit of work craziness and life busyness and all of a sudden it’s been …

Aug 17, 2011: Off the wagon So I had a Lipton diet green tea yesterday. The whole bottle had 30 mg of caffeine. From what I can tell, that’s less than half as much caffeine …

Aug 8, 2011: Decaffeinating Today marks the beginning of my second week without caffeine. I started out the month of August with a few rather stringent goals: drink nothing but …

Aug 4, 2011: Hard, true words from @tallskinnykiwi Andrew Jones (aka “Tall Skinny Kiwi”), “itinerant social entrepreneur”, wandering missionary and prolific blogger, has a hard …

Jul 16, 2011: So I'm gonna do this... Finally biting the bullet and sending in this registration. 7 more weeks to prepare!

Jul 7, 2011: The desire of every blogger Thanks to Mo Willems:

Jul 7, 2011: Learning to run Running isn’t exactly a new topic on this blog. I first decided to lace up my shoes back in August of 2006 and ran my first 5k in September of …

Jul 6, 2011: More about church efficiency and effectiveness I’ve been mulling over Skye Jethani’s question about efficiency and effectiveness after my brother Andrew prodded me with some comments. …

Jun 30, 2011: Who decided that efficiency and effectiveness were the highest values for ministry? There’s an excellent post from Skye Jethani today which hits close to home for me in a number of ways. First off, he’s taking a lesson …

Jun 29, 2011: Seeing the people instead of the system I’m still catching up a bit, but I definitely want to recommend this piece by Richard Beck wherein he examines how bureaucratic structures in …

Jun 28, 2011: A Rant about a Church Sign There is a Baptist church in our town that I drive by on my way to church at least a couple of times a week. For the past couple of weeks …

Jun 21, 2011: Moving at the speed of love Richard Beck has a great piece today on interruptibility. Basically, interruptibility is a form of welcome and hospitality. It is a way of making …

Jun 17, 2011: My 5K Playlist for Hog Wild Days It’s been a while since I’ve reworked my 5K playlist. This latest incarnation may be a little heavy on Arcade Fire, but I’ve been …

Jun 17, 2011: The right kind of tolerance “Tolerance” is a much misunderstood word these days. I remember hearing a barn-burner of a chapel message back in college from Josh …

Jun 6, 2011: Awesome morning music mix My music playlist is full of awesome this morning. (Thanks as usual to Geof for the playlist algorithms.) Here’s the proof: “Just As I …

Jun 5, 2011: Bad Christian Art There’s a great post over on Image Journal addressing the concerns of “bad christian art”. Author Tony Woodlief is clearly fed up …

May 19, 2011: A great response to Bill Keller's social media hand-wringing A wonderful response to NYT editor Bill Keller’s hand-wringing post on social media was written today by Mimi Johnson as a guest post on her …

May 9, 2011: Running again I started my dalliance with running nearly 4 years ago. I was looking for some motivation to get off the couch and lose some weight, and figured that …

May 4, 2011: Love your enemy: within a divided self It’s been at least a week since John H. linked this James Alison essay on Twitter, so it’s high time that I passed it along with my …

May 1, 2011: Good Things in April 2011 01 - Ran five miles in 49 minutes. Longest run ever for me. 02 - Beautiful day, lots of garden and yard work 03 - Top-notch message from Pastor Keith …

Apr 29, 2011: The Royal Wedding: This, Too, Shall Pass The interwebs have been going gaga for weeks now about the British royal wedding, and this morning Twitter and Facebook are bursting with comments as …

Apr 21, 2011: Some thoughts on the proposed new mission statement for Stonebridge A couple of weeks ago Becky and I attended a Friday night meeting at church where the church leadership discussed their notional new mission statement …

Apr 5, 2011: Sometimes it takes me some time This seems to be the story of my music-listening life: catching up with albums years after they are released, and only eventually having them resonate …

Apr 1, 2011: Good things in March 2011 06 - dinner with the family at Casa las Glorias and the kids were all well-behaved! 07 - resolved to start keeping this list 08 - pancakes. lots of …

Mar 29, 2011: A first look at Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player Amazon is offering two new services this morning: Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player. Time to take a quick look at what they’re …

Mar 28, 2011: Playing Games So I have this sudden inclination to find some new games to play as a family. I don’t have a long history as a gamer or anything; I played a …

Mar 22, 2011: Introverts in the Church I’ve been doing a slow-and-steady re-read of Adam McHugh’s Introverts in the Church, and words don’t well express how much I …

Mar 20, 2011: Christ Liveth In Me As lives the flower within the seed, As in the cone the tree, So, praise the God of truth and grace, His Spirit dwelleth in me. Christ liveth in me, …

Mar 17, 2011: Slowing Down I’ve read a lot of books the past few years. As my Goodreads account will attest, I’ve averaged a book every 5 - 6 days for the past four …

Mar 16, 2011: Evaluating Restaurant Catch-Phrases We took the family to Texas Roadhouse this week for my birthday, and I was quickly annoyed by the overblown descriptions that the restaurant …

Mar 15, 2011: Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions Have you ever read a book that turned everything you had been taught about a subject upside down? That’s where I feel I’m at on the topic …

Mar 15, 2011: The hazards of church music... …aren’t necessarily what you think. My left ankle and leg has been very sore for the last two days. Why? Because I had an hour of music …

Mar 9, 2011: Books in my reading queue My reading queue has been backed up for a while now, and I’ll admit that I only make things worse by buying books and regularly hitting the …

Mar 8, 2011: Rain, Rain, Go Away I know, if you ask me, that we’ve only gotten water in our basement due to rain twice, and those times were both before we installed a sump pump …

Mar 8, 2011: Whom then shall I fear? I could tell you exactly the point I was going to choke up even the day before. I had been hanging out at worship team practice, saw that this song …

Mar 7, 2011: Some resolutions In a week I’ll turn 34, and begin my 35th year of life. That seems momentous somehow. For this 35th year, it’s time to do a couple of …

Jan 23, 2011: A Good Customer Service story featuring U. S. Cellular I’ve used this space in the past to gripe about bad service, so when truly good service comes my way, it seems prudent to write it up here, too. …

Dec 17, 2010: Homeschooling as "normal" When our oldest daughter turned 6 and we finally had to make a decision about school, we decided we’d try our hand at homeschooling. She was …

Nov 18, 2010: Imagining a different narrator for a favorite song A couple of nights ago I had the classic Veggie Tales' Silly Song Dance of the Cucumber pop into my head. (Don’t even bother asking why.) And …

Oct 6, 2010: Another take on 'Hipster Christianity' Back in August I linked to a piece by Brett McCracken wherein he decried what he sees as the evangelical temptation to “be cool” at the …

Sep 28, 2010: 15 Records I’m sure I got tagged on this meme somewhere along the way, and then my buddy Dan did it last week, so I figured it’d be an interesting …

Aug 25, 2010: Found this little gem last night... …while cleaning off one of our bookshelves. Completely forgot I had it. Robert’s Rules of Order, published in 1907. The signature on the …

Aug 22, 2010: Also Bring Cold Water Responses from right-wingers and evangelical Christians to the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” have been spread broadly throughout the …

Aug 14, 2010: The Perils of Hipster Christianity Brett McCracken’s column that appeared on the Wall Street Journal website yesterday really hit home for me. McCracken, 27, outlines the …

Aug 4, 2010: A day with family Today we had the chance to enjoy what is an increasingly rare occurrence: all four of my siblings and my parents were here in Hiawatha to visit, …

Jun 26, 2010: 12 years June 26, 1998, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I made vows, exchanged rings, and began our life together. Twelve years, three kids …

Jun 15, 2010: Learning to spell a new word, or, how do you spell 'blerg'? It’s fascinating to see how a new word evolves, especially in the case where a word is introduced not via written text, but rather via audible …

May 26, 2010: Another thought on church shopping and polarization Yesterday’s post on church shopping and cultural polarization reminded me of a question I’ve been cogitating on for the past week or two. …

May 25, 2010: Church shopping and cultural polarization CNN.com has a blog post today exploring “How Church Shopping is Polarizing the Country”. Written by law professors Naomi Cahn (George …

May 8, 2010: So, I just invented a new word. Fidgetoid, n. an object with which one fidgets. A Google search reveals no substantive results, so I’m gonna call this a new one. It came up …

May 3, 2010: Well, we joined. After taking quite a bit of time to make our decision, Becky and I yesterday became members of Stonebridge Church (EFCA). For a while we were …

Apr 13, 2010: Staying Organized: What Tools should I Use? Some weeks at work are calm, with just a few meetings and only one or two things to keep track of. Then there are weeks like this week, when the …

Mar 27, 2010: The freedom to chill the heck out Just found a link to a great thought that Jared Wilson posted back in January. Given that it’s only a paragraph, and it’s a good one, …

Mar 10, 2010: Doctrine good, stories bad? I have learned much over the past several years from brothers and sisters of the Reformed theological persuasion. I love and respect them deeply. But …

Mar 8, 2010: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning #5 We have high temperatures in the 50’s forecast for this week. Incredibly thankful for spring to be making an appearance. Stayed up too late …

Mar 2, 2010: Another interesting thing about the Canadian anthem A follow-on to yesterday’s post about the superiority of ‘O Canada’: I was not surprised to read that there are official lyrics in …

Mar 1, 2010: On the superiority of the Canadian national anthem Watching the winter Olympics over the past two weeks, I caught at least a few of the medal ceremonies, including at least a couple (including the one …

Jan 28, 2010: I am now spoiled to commercial air travel forever Yesterday I traveled with five coworkers from Cedar Rapids, IA to Wichita, KS, to participate in our quarterly update meeting with the FAA. Normally, …

Jan 22, 2010: Sometimes knowing too much is a bad thing Last night Becky and I sat down to watch the second episode ( titled “Rewind”) of the Fox show Human Target. The first episode was fun in …

Jan 15, 2010: Partaking "in an unworthy manner" Brent Thomas posted yesterday on the question of “fencing the table” at communion, and while the comment thread on his post has gone down …

Jan 13, 2010: Going To Morrow My friend Dan’s greeting on Twitter this morning brought this song to mind - it’s a witty, punny little two minutes that’s …

Jan 5, 2010: Now Playing: Brian Eno <em>Ambient 1: Music for Airports</em> Time to start something new around here - from time to time I’ll highlight a record that I’ve been playing. I’ll start with a rather …

Jan 5, 2010: Offering right sacrifices In 2010 I’m undertaking the Bible reading plan put out by The Journey, and this morning’s reading hit an interesting combination of …

Dec 9, 2009: Tales from THE SNOWPOCALYPSE, Day 2 Morning timeline: 0530: alarm goes off 0532: check of the cancellations page via my iPod touch shows work status as “2 hour delay” 0615: …

Dec 8, 2009: It's the SNOWPOCALYPSE! Cower in your homes, everyone - IT’S THE SNOWPOCALYPSE! Vicious white stuff will attack from the sky. Invisible freezing pneumatic forces will …

Dec 7, 2009: Bullet points for a Monday #3 There is a more substantive post or two in here, I promise. But for now - bullet points. Sewer pipe was replaced, all the pipes are now flowing …

Nov 14, 2009: Orangeburg So, those sewer troubles we had last week? They came back. After snaking out the drains on Friday night, by Monday night they were clogged again. Not …

Nov 6, 2009: Not exactly to plan Way I planned to spend Friday evening: reading a book and watching TV. Way I actually spent Friday evening: feverish trip to Home Depot (20 minutes …

Oct 28, 2009: What Would Jesus Want Us To Think about Healthcare Reform? a Quick Response What would Jesus want us to think about health care reform? That’s the question that Justin Taylor proffers at his blog, courtesy of Brad Green, …

Oct 21, 2009: Joining up... or not That little announcement made its quarterly reappearance in the church bulletin last Sunday: “Times are available for those wishing to become …

Oct 15, 2009: Catalyst Compassion "Moment": Amazing or Exploitive? My internet friend Bryan Allain posted a video on his blog this morning of a moment that happened at the recent Catalyst conference in Atlanta. …

Sep 30, 2009: Phrases that stick with you Most of what I remember from Rocky & Bullwinkle is cheesy puns (which are AWESOME, by the way), but there is one phrase that has stuck in my …

Sep 29, 2009: The Patient Notebook I keep a notebook at work for scribbling to-dos and other things I need to remember. I don’t go through notebooks very quickly - my short-term …

Sep 28, 2009: Bullet points for a Monday Morning #4 Blog posting has been a bit slow lately since I typically post during breaks at work and my blog has mysteriously become inaccessible from work. IT …

Sep 22, 2009: The "Left Behind" influence on the Religious Right It’s been a common observation over the past several years that one of the practical results of a “Left Behind”, dispensational view …

Aug 28, 2009: I suppose there was a time I thought staying up all night was cool... …but right now isn’t it. After getting, by Becky’s measurement, 11 inches of rain in the past 48 hours, our basement once again …

Aug 27, 2009: Getting rid of the Dish: the Philosophical Post So a couple of weeks ago I talked about the nerd side of getting rid of the dish. I’m still playing around with the configuration some, but I …

Aug 25, 2009: Not being able to do it all Kevin DeYoung just nails it in a post today. Titled “On Mission, Changing the World, and Not Being Able to Do It All”, DeYoung challenges …

Aug 15, 2009: Taking Reproof Seriously Nearly a week ago I wrote a piece here wrestling with some concerns I’ve had about Sunday morning worship. That post went past with relatively …

Aug 14, 2009: Getting rid of the Dish: The Nerd Post So we’re getting rid of our Dish. We’ve had cable or satellite TV pretty much ever since we moved into town seven years ago, but now …

Aug 9, 2009: Taking Worship Seriously OK, so it’s entirely possible that at the ripe age of 32 I’ve just become an old curmudgeon, but in the past few weeks I’ve had a …

Aug 4, 2009: Adventures in Home Ownership, Part 17 As my Twitter stream revealed over the weekend, it turned out to be a busy weekend, but not quite in the ways we had anticipated. Becky has been …

Jul 24, 2009: Bullet Points for a Friday #2 Slow-ish week turns into busy weekend. Lots of family in town, softball tournament, leading worship. Fun, but busy. Oh, the occasion for all the …

Jun 22, 2009: A Rant on Amazon's Super Saver Shipping Mostly to save my Tweeps from a half-dozen tweets venting my frustration. I ordered a HDHomeRun networked tuner and a chunk of ethernet cable from …

Jun 22, 2009: Fever° Version 1.01 This morning Shaun Inman pushed out (with notice via Twitter) version 1.01 of the Fever° feed reader. First of all, major kudos to Shaun for the …

Jun 19, 2009: Shaun Inman's "Fever" a day later I’ve had a Fever install up and running for 24 hours now, and I’ve gotta compliment Shaun for working through the emailed bug reports - he …

Jun 17, 2009: A first look at Shaun Inman's "Fever" Twitter and the blogs have been abuzz today over Shaun Inman’s newest creation, called Fever. Some of you may be familiar with Shaun’s …

Jun 17, 2009: There are no chapter titles I think it really hit me when I saw the dirt bike. I hadn’t seen that dirt bike in years, but I remembered the story behind it. It had been …

May 28, 2009: Fox News, knee-jerk reactions, and out-of-context statements If my previous posts in which I declared my support for Obama and for civilly-recognized gay marriage weren’t enough to convince my church …

May 22, 2009: 10 years Last Sunday we visited Noelridge Park Church for the morning service so Laura could participate in the AWANA recognition Sunday. (She’s been a …

May 15, 2009: Canadian Travels and Weird Internet Friends This week business took me on my second-ever cross-the-border trip, once again to Canada, though this time to a part of Canada (Toronto) that felt …

May 1, 2009: Bullet Points for a Friday Morning #3 Monday road trip to Nashville was awesome. Saw some friends, made some new ones, saw a great concert. (Geof recorded it and you can download MP3s.) …

Apr 17, 2009: Moving beyond the "what" to the "why" Earlier this afternoon I posted this thought to Twitter: Scary Thing #1 as an engineer: people who just want the magic words rather than wanting to …

Apr 15, 2009: News to make my day cheerier It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks, but this does make the day cheerier: I just firmed up plans to road trip to Nashville on April 27 (less …

Apr 10, 2009: More busy than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest That’s the way my friend Steve used to describe it, and this week has been one of those weeks. Half my calendar at work has been meetings; each …

Mar 23, 2009: Home again, home again... (new baby edition) As a friend noted the other day, it’s a bit of a weird feeling to know that you’re driving only two to the hospital, but when you come …

Mar 20, 2009: It's a girl! Katherine (Katie) Paige Hubbs born March 20, 2009 at 11:22 am 7 lbs, 13.5 oz 20.5" long. Everybody is doing great. More photos on Flickr.

Mar 17, 2009: Who says you have to spend a lot? Back in college, Dr. Batts suggested a cheap date: a trip to Walmart. His rationale? First, go through the food side of the store and eat the free …

Mar 16, 2009: The Waiting Game We’ve gotten to that point in Becky’s pregnancy now where it’s just a waiting game. The calendar is clear; the in-laws are here (and …

Mar 5, 2009: A dilemma of sorts Last week I accepted a position in a new group here at work. It’s a group I’ve worked with for several years, and I knew I wanted to work …

Mar 3, 2009: Book Review: <em>The Echo Within</em> by Robert Benson There is a particular class of inspirational book these days that you can identify on the shelf without even looking at the content. First is the …

Feb 24, 2009: Bullet points for a Tuesday Morning #2 Laziness, and no big topics to contemplate. Put those two together and you end up with my blog as of late. Sorry folks. So, a make-up post of sorts. …

Feb 18, 2009: Book I Read: <em>The Weapon</em> by David Poyer Normally I’d write up a whole 250-word review for a book I finished, but The Weapon by David Poyer just doesn’t inspire that sort of …

Feb 12, 2009: Adventures with Hot Water, or, Providential Timing Once Again Last night after Wednesday night church, as we were just about to settle down for the night, Becky called out to me from downstairs. It wasn’t …

Feb 11, 2009: Book Review: <em>The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music</em> by Ben Ratliff Normally when we think about musicians and “their music”, we think about the music that they write, perform, and record. But author Ben …

Feb 11, 2009: Book Review: <em>Ender In Exile</em> by Orson Scott Card I’ve been a big fan of Orson Scott Card’s Ender series since I read it a few years ago. Ender’s Game is just brilliant storytelling, …

Feb 9, 2009: There might be something to this Facebook thing... Yesterday afternoon we went over to a friend’s house for her belated 30th birthday party. It was a good time - the carrot cake was tasty; there …

Feb 4, 2009: Book Review: <em>The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British</em> by Sarah Lyall Every culture has its quirks, but to really notice them and appreciate them you need to be able to look from the perspective of an outsider. When you …

Jan 27, 2009: Book Review: <em>Jesus and the Victory of God</em> by N. T. Wright I should say this up front: the idea that I’m going to be able to intelligently “review” Wright’s massive Jesus and the …

Jan 25, 2009: Book Review: <em>The Philosopher's Apprentice</em> by James Morrow I picked up The Philosopher’s Apprentice on a whim from the library. And what a whim. The flyleaf gave a thumbnail description of a philosophy …

Jan 23, 2009: Bullet Points for a Friday Morning #2 I’ve been neglecting this blog for the past few weeks, so it’s time for an update of sorts. So… bullet points! We’re in the …

Jan 21, 2009: The Church Search: A Conclusion of Sorts After Nick chided me last night about my infrequent blogging, and after Roger noted elsewhere that he’d never really heard any conclusions from …

Jan 20, 2009: How do I know when to...? Andy Osenga nailed it on his blog today by answering the question “how do know when I’m ready to < insert thing here >?”. In …

Jan 15, 2009: Brrrrrrrrrr.....

Jan 13, 2009: What's this place about, anyway? I’ve watched with interest the transformation of an internet acquaintance’s blog over the past several months. In past years his blog has …

Jan 11, 2009: Book Review: <em>The King of Sting</em> by Craig Glazer and Sal Manna Sometimes, real life is even better than the stories. The King of Sting details the adventures of its author, Craig Glazer, as a twenty-something …

Jan 10, 2009: Book Review: <em>Ring</em> by Stephen Baxter I was browsing the sci-fi section in the local library and came across an old paperback with a familiar name on the spine: Stephen Baxter. I’m …

Jan 5, 2009: 2008: A Year of Reading in Review This the only year-end post I’ll write; just a summary of my book reading list from 2008. Some quick details: Total Books Read: 78. This is down …

Jan 3, 2009: Wedding bells, etc I’ve taken plenty of pictures the past few days, but the dial-up internet connection here at the folks' house isn’t up to uploading them, …

Dec 29, 2008: Christmas 2008 wrap-up Nothing like a holiday and a week off work to slow down the blog posting. We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, attending the service …

Dec 23, 2008: My current songwriting struggle Songwriting, you ask? Yeah, if you missed it, I was invited to attend the Iowa Songwriter’s Guild meeting last month and they planted the bug …

Dec 20, 2008: Just Us at Christmas In the 11 or 12 Christmases Becky and I have spent together, each has been celebrated with one set of parents or the other; most of them with my …

Dec 19, 2008: More Ketchup! Our little Addison (age two and a half) caught a low-grade stomach bug earlier this week. She wasn’t notably ill or uncomfortable, just sleeping …

Dec 10, 2008: A fun evening, a late night, and musical kinship I’ll work through that title backwards. How do you know when you have some musical kinship with someone else? How about when they pull out that …

Dec 8, 2008: Sometimes Things Don't Turn Out Like You Expect When Andy Osenga’s The Morning came out two and a half years ago (to much fanfare on this blog) I would not have predicted that New Beginning …

Dec 5, 2008: Everybody's Working for the Weekend Yes, we have a weekend coming up. Unfortunately, we’ll be heading into the weekend with a house full of sickies - Becky, both girls, and I are …

Dec 3, 2008: A College Football Playoff Proposal OK, so can we just agree that the BCS really stinks, and there must be a better way to do college football playoffs? Every year there’s whining …

Dec 1, 2008: Road trip time! Tomorrow morning I will get in the car and, rather than heading to work, I will embark on one of my signature crazy-man concert road trips. Previous …

Nov 25, 2008: How do you select/appoint elders? When we visited Maranatha on Sunday, one of the inserts in their bulletin was a full page giving the testimonies of each of their elder candidates. …

Nov 24, 2008: The Church Search, Week 7 There was no post for week 6 last week since we were out of town for the weekend. So now we come to week 7. Yesterday we visited Maranatha Bible …

Nov 21, 2008: What to do about "gay marriage", part 2 Becky observed last night that my post yesterday on gay marriage was rather wordy and not as simple as she would’ve liked. So, I’m taking …

Nov 20, 2008: Recognizing the civil-religious disconnect, or, "what to do about 'gay marriage'" I’ve been working through the whole ‘gay marriage’ issue in my head for a while now, driven in good part by the discussion over on …

Nov 19, 2008: Do you want to play with me? Children have ways of saying things that just cut you to the quick. They don’t realize it, but you hear the words, and, whammo, they’ve …

Nov 17, 2008: Happiness is... another new pen. When we were in Minneapolis last weekend I happened upon one of those dangerous places for me to go in: a pen shop. Let me back up a bit. I have …

Nov 17, 2008: A weird iPod Genius playlist bug Discovered this one last night: when I tapped the Genius icon to create a Genius playlist out of the currently-playing song, the playlist it created …

Nov 13, 2008: Bullet Points for a Thursday Morning #2 It’s been a crazy week so I’m reduced to one of these play-by-play lists. Sorry. Note to self: eating at Texas Roadhouse only two hours …

Nov 9, 2008: The Church Search, Week 5 This morning we got up off our behinds and visited the next church on our short list: Maranatha Bible Church. Maranatha has been around for nearly 30 …

Nov 7, 2008: Happy Birthday, Mom (2008 edition)! It’s my mother’s birthday today, and out of respect for her (a respect that I wasn’t prone to show in my younger years, but …

Nov 5, 2008: Good friends say things like this Good friends aren’t afraid to say hard things. Last night I had a friend tell me: “Hey, Chris, this church search blog thing is cool, but …

Nov 5, 2008: Post-Election Thoughts So much has been said by so many this morning that I don’t really have anything brilliant to add. Still, I’ll consolidate a few thoughts …

Nov 4, 2008: Culture Warrior or Disciple? The Internet Monk’s latest post deserves more than just a bullet in my overnight links. Michael Spencer describes “Bob”, a man he …

Nov 4, 2008: Election 2008: I voted Reports of long lines at many polling places had me wondering if I would be in for a wait to vote this morning. But, at least at my polling place at …

Nov 4, 2008: I will not fear On an internal discussion board at my workplace today, a co-worker (who is a Christian, though a bit of the far-right cynical type) posted this: Full …

Nov 3, 2008: Election Eve It seems like this election cycle started a LONG time ago. We had our caucuses in Iowa back in January, and even at that point it seemed like the …

Nov 3, 2008: The Church Search, Week 4 We had plans to go to church on Sunday. And the best of intentions. But even though we were all up quite early thanks to the time change, the cold and …

Oct 31, 2008: The Church Search, Week 4 Preview This week our plans have us heading to Maranatha Bible Church. We know the Maranatha pastor and youth pastor and their families - good folks all …

Oct 30, 2008: Book Review: <em>How Would Jesus Vote?</em> by D. James Kennedy Have you heard that there’s an election coming up soon? So has WaterBrook Publishing, apparently, because they timed this blog review giveaway …

Oct 29, 2008: Gilbert & Sullivan & an embarassing admission During an online conversation with Lydia this morning I was chiding for her unfamiliarity with Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Three Little …

Oct 28, 2008: They are soon gone, and we fly away It always seems to be the bitter, cold, rainy days. Yesterday morning I took my familiar perch behind the piano at Noelridge as an aging group of …

Oct 27, 2008: Yet another reason I love my brother... Lately I’ve had a quote from Chuck (a rather fun TV show on NBC Mondays) set as my IM status message. (Oh, it’s also at the top of my blog …

Oct 27, 2008: Observations from the weekend Your house doesn’t have to be amazingly clean to invite friends over. Even if it was amazingly clean when the night starts, it won’t be …

Oct 26, 2008: The Church Search, Week 3 After deciding early in the week that Cedar Valley Bible was off our short list, we spent a lot of time talking about where we might go next. We know …

Oct 23, 2008: Time for some piano music I switched over from my usual podcasts and indie rock this morning to give some iPod love to a genre I’ve ignored far too much as of late: …

Oct 22, 2008: Short list got shorter Well, we talked about it some more last night and agreed that Cedar Valley Bible Church is off our short list for the reasons I discussed earlier. So …

Oct 20, 2008: Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe Lydia asked for it, so here it is… Ingredients 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained - I prefer to boil a couple of chicken breasts and …

Oct 20, 2008: An end-times deal-breaker So yesterday afternoon I noted that the next church on our short list for visiting during the Church Search was probably Cedar Valley Bible Church. I …

Oct 19, 2008: The Church Search, Week 2 Week 2 of the Church Search took us back to Stonebridge Church for the second week in a row. (We kinda figure it’ll take at least a few weeks at …

Oct 18, 2008: The Coffee Experiment, Day 30 or so I have just about finished up the bag of Starbucks dark roast that we had here at home, what to get next? Well, I came home from work yesterday to …

Oct 17, 2008: Living Life Together It is becoming more and more clear to me lately how we are created for community, and how much we need that community to live our lives. When we …

Oct 15, 2008: Who, Me? My brother Ryan has been working full-time as an Obama campaign volunteer for the past few weeks, and likely will until the election. He wrote this …

Oct 15, 2008: Matthew Paul Turner's <em>Churched</em>: A Review Next up for review, courtesy of WaterBrook Press, is Churched: One Kid’s Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess by Matthew Paul Turner. Turner …

Oct 15, 2008: 4 years, 1001 posts Four years ago I started this thing called blogging, not, as they say, with a bang, but with something more akin to a whimper. Since then the blog has …

Oct 13, 2008: Rainsoft of NE Iowa: A follow-up A few weeks ago I wrote about a bad experience we had with an in-home sales call from Rainsoft of NE Iowa. I wrote the rant, emailed it to every …

Oct 13, 2008: The Church Search, Week 1 Yesterday morning we did something we haven’t done in a couple of months now: set our alarm on a Sunday morning, got up, and got to a morning …

Oct 11, 2008: The Church Search, Week 1 Preview Well, tomorrow morning we officially begin our look for a new church here in the Cedar Rapids area. We’re starting at a church called …

Oct 9, 2008: Listening Thoughts from multiple discussions over the last week: Most of the time, when people come to tell you that they’re frustrated or upset with you …

Oct 3, 2008: Thinking through the presidential politics I’ve had an easy time deciding who to support for president for pretty much every election cycle since I turned 18. This year, though, the …

Oct 2, 2008: And tell them we are men Douglas Wilson posted this quote, and it’s too good to not pass along. I wish you well. May your table be graced with lovely women and good …

Oct 2, 2008: "I trust that age doth not wither nor custom stale my infinite variety." I sent an email this morning which sent me thinking about a familiar quote, which in turn sent me thinking about one of my favorite sets of stories: …

Oct 1, 2008: Take me out to the ballgame... It’s October 1st, which, among other things, means it’s time for the baseball playoffs. This has long been a favorite time of year for me. …

Sep 30, 2008: Trying to describe Watership Down I finished reading Richard Adams' Watership Down last night and, when adding it to my reading list, found it rather difficult to describe. Figuring …

Sep 30, 2008: The Coffee Experiment, Day 12 Wow, it’s been a week since I’ve posted an update on The Coffee Experiment. I think it’s really time to stop calling it an …

Sep 29, 2008: Random question for the morning Is it egotistical to drink coffee from a mug that says “I (heart) my Music Minister” when, up until last week or so, I was the music …

Sep 26, 2008: Beginning the church search After making the decision to leave Imago Christi at the end of the month, we find ourselves in an unfamiliar position: starting the church search. My …

Sep 23, 2008: The Coffee Experiment, Day 5 After yesterday’s run-in with completely nasty office coffee, I decided I would try brewing some better coffee up at home. While Jason and …

Sep 22, 2008: Scot McKnight's "The Blue Parakeet" - a review When Zondervan offered up free early copies of Dr. Scot McKnight’s The Blue Parakeet for bloggers to review, I knew I wanted to get in on the …

Sep 22, 2008: The Coffee Experiment, Day 4 I’m not sure whether to call this Day 4 or Day 6 of The Coffee Experiment. Do I count the weekend where I didn’t drink coffee? I guess …

Sep 18, 2008: The Coffee Experiment, Day 2 For 31 years I have professed to very much dislike coffee. If in need of caffeine to keep me going, I will resort to a diet pop of some sort, or, in …

Sep 15, 2008: Why I dislike salespeople - or at least their tactics Update: I received a response from Rainsoft of NE Iowa that very much helped to resolve the situation. Click here to read about it. Last week while …

Sep 13, 2008: Changes Coming Tonight after the service at Imago Christi, I read this brief letter to the congregation: It has been a blessing to be at Imago Christi this year, to …

Sep 5, 2008: Watching our tone Over the past two weeks' political conventions I have watched most of the major speeches and then headed to my computer to check Twitter, the blogs, …

Sep 3, 2008: How much experience have presidential and VP candidates had? A warning to my casual readers: this post is going to get more than a wee bit nerdy, and probably a bit political, too. OK, with that out of the way, …

Aug 28, 2008: Book Review: Wild Goose Chase Wild Goose Chase, the latest book by pastor Mark Batterson of National Community Church in Washington, DC, sets out its' premise in the introduction: …

Aug 20, 2008: Denver OK, so bad travel plans notwithstanding, I made it to Denver on-time on Monday evening. Tuesday was spent in an all-day FAA DER Recurrent General …

Aug 17, 2008: its wisdom, who can measure? Work necessitates that tomorrow I travel from Cedar Rapids to Denver to attend three days of FAA training. On the face of it, that doesn’t sound …

Aug 14, 2008: Beautiful quote from a friend today …after I declared I was socially stunted because of my intense dislike for calling people that I don’t know on the phone : “Social …

Aug 14, 2008: Finding the right Saturday-night service time One of our challenges at Imago has been figuring out the right time to hold our Saturday night service. Pick a time to early, and folks find it hard …

Aug 12, 2008: Wrestling with ideas about church membership One of the things we’ve been wrestling with as elders at Imago is the concept of church membership. Now, we all agree that membership is …

Aug 11, 2008: Bullet points for a Monday Morning #3 A week without a blog update + lack of creativity = desperate measures. Hence, the bullet points. This past weekend felt far more like autumn than …

Aug 4, 2008: 100 Books Being the voracious reader that I am, I was happy to steal this from Kari and Roger. The story is that apparently the National Endowment for the Arts …

Aug 3, 2008: Book Review: The Healing Choice This week’s book review, thanks to a free copy from WaterBrook Press, is The Healing Choice and its associated Guidebook, written by Brenda …

Jul 27, 2008: Happy birthday Laura (2008 edition)! Our oldest daughter Laura turns 4 today. So far she’s celebrated the morning with a bowl of Rice Krispies and a new Veggie Tales DVD. …

Jul 22, 2008: Washington Vacation 2008: The Wedding After the beach we took a couple of days to travel up from Long Beach to Leavenworth. The stop in Yakima wasn’t really anything to write home …

Jul 21, 2008: A call for plot creativity, or, Why is it always the Christians? This weekend I finished up reading Rules of Deception, the latest novel by Christopher Reich. I have read all of Reich’s novels and quite enjoy …

Jul 16, 2008: C. S. Lewis on Consistency in the Worship Service Pastor Richard gave me this wonderful (if a bit long) quote from C. S. Lewis regarding consistency in the worship service: I think our business as …

Jul 13, 2008: Washington Vacation 2008: The Beach After arriving late on Monday and having vehicle difficulty, we took the new minivan out to the Washington coast to spend a couple of days at the …

Jul 13, 2008: An apology of sorts I had really intended to keep the blog up-to-date while on this vacation - after all, during the vacation I have even more to write about than I would …

Jul 9, 2008: The Flat Tire A couple of pics of our minivan’s flat tire the other night. Less dramatic because the guys already had the van jacked up. The thing was totally …

Jul 7, 2008: In Seattle Day 1 of our vacation finally brings us to Seattle. Our flights were only delayed a little - we arrived at SEA maybe 30 minutes after our scheduled …

Jul 6, 2008: Packing for the trip With the expense of airline travel these days, we thought we might consider a method of cost-reduction for this trip. Laura demonstrates the proper …

Jun 30, 2008: T-minus 7d It’s starting to hit home that one week from now we will be on an airplane, with the kiddos, headed for our Washington vacation and …

Jun 26, 2008: Ten Ten years ago today, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, friends and family gathered as Becky and I exchanged our vows and became husband and …

Jun 25, 2008: Counting down the days... Once today is complete I will have only 6 more working days until vacation… and oh my, am I ever looking forward to it. My brother Andrew is …

Jun 19, 2008: Top Ten Movies Well, I haven’t done a meme in a while, and Jeff tagged me for this one, so I’ll give it a go. The rules of the “game” are simple: 1. list …

Jun 18, 2008: I tried Opera for a day No, Dad, regardless of the title, I’m not talking about Wagner or Puccini or that kind of opera… sorry. But with Firefox 3 coming out …

Jun 15, 2008: Slowly regaining normalcy Father’s Day 2008 wasn’t quite what any of us had been planning, but it’s still gone pretty well. After finishing a tasty breakfast …

Jun 13, 2008: A short Friday night update What a beautiful day today was. Sunshine, cool temps… such a nice change from the weeks of rain. We’re even forecast to get several more …

Jun 13, 2008: Yeah, that's our downtown.

Jun 13, 2008: Sucking it up No time to post pictures but if you visit any online news site you’ll undoubtedly be able to see the pictures of Cedar Rapids, IA. When the …

Jun 11, 2008: And it rained all day... It’s been a weird year for weather here in Iowa. We started with the snowiest winter on record. Once that melted, we had an unusually cool …

Jun 2, 2008: The passing of another weekend I had three things on my to-do list for the weekend as of last Friday afternoon. And though I kept busy all weekend, those three things are still on …

May 28, 2008: Bunk beds It’s been a couple of weeks now but there was great excitement among the little girls in our house because we bought a nice set of bunk beds at …

May 22, 2008: Bullet Points from Montreal I’ve been in Montreal since Monday night, and it’s my first trip here, and for that matter, my first trip out of the country. I …

May 19, 2008: Montreal So today was the day I finally ventured outside the good ‘ol US of A; traveling to Montreal, Quebec for the next round of SC-213 meetings. No …

May 16, 2008: Muppet Imitations Apparently this is something that goes by generations, too. I’ve done Kermit (among others) for a long time… (including on …

May 13, 2008: Tuesday morning this'n'that I have a couple other posts floating around in my head, but need to gather some thoughts (and pictures) before writing them. So… a little …

May 7, 2008: Starting a new tradition (or, a good excuse for ice cream) Some weeks ago Becky and I were enjoying a date night with a stop at our local Coldstone ice cream shop when we overheard some college students …

May 5, 2008: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning #2 It was an amazingly beautiful weekend. Fortunately the beautiful weather is sticking around for today so we can play softball. Oh, and I’m going …

Apr 29, 2008: Softball 2008! Last night was the start to our church league softball season. For most of the day it looked like we might not even play a game; the weather was quite …

Apr 28, 2008: ...with some frosting... One of the things that just fascinates me is observing the girls' learning - not just what they learn but how they learn. Sure, I’m a nerd, but …

Apr 25, 2008: Another adventure in new music So I’m rather a new-music junkie. Granted, it’s gotta be in a genre I’m interested in, but hook me up with a new artist and …

Apr 22, 2008: It's spring... finally! Signs that spring is finally here: Warmer weather, finally. high temps in the 70’s for the majority of this week. Woohoo! The grill has been …

Apr 17, 2008: I feel like such a homebody For a family that didn’t travel a whole lot when I was growing up, we have certainly made up for it in the past half-dozen years: Ryan spent a …

Apr 15, 2008: Bullet Points for a Tuesday Morning FINALLY with some warmer weather here in Iowa. Softball is supposed to start in two weeks and it’s been too cold to get out to practice. …

Apr 8, 2008: Feed Demon Issues... Hello Google Reader? An original user of Google Reader, some months ago when NewsGator decided to make its products free I decided to switch over and give them a try. …

Apr 8, 2008: Four There’s been a running joke at our house for some time now that goes something like this: Becky: “Who wants some ice cream?” (It …

Apr 5, 2008: The Strange Story of Easter: Surprised by Hope, Chapter 4 Having noted in chapter three that something happened to cause the early Christians' belief in resurrection to be vastly different from their former …

Apr 4, 2008: Early Christian Hope in Its Historical Setting: Surprised by Hope, Chapter 3 Let’s start at the very beginning, says a familiar song from a classic musical, it’s a very good place to start.. And start at the …

Apr 3, 2008: Christians and Sin in the Movies There’s been a good discussion going on over at The Rabbit Room regarding how Christians should deal with profanity and other sin portrayed in …

Apr 1, 2008: Puzzled About Paradise? Surprised by Hope, Chapter 2 In Chapter 2 of Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright examines the wide sweep of confusing views that the Church has commonly held about death over the past …

Mar 30, 2008: Wrestling with Tom: Surprised by Hope, Chapter 1 So it’s been far too long since I posted my original review of Surprised by Hope, the latest book from N. T. Wright. As you may recall from that …

Mar 25, 2008: Easter Thoughts I had the opportunity to do the Easter “program” (if you want to call it that) twice this year: once in a slightly-odd (celebrating Easter …

Mar 18, 2008: On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness Read to the end of the blog post - I’m giving away a copy of the book! Just when you think you’re familiar with a guy’s …

Mar 13, 2008: Happy Birthday, Addison Grace! Two years ago today, about this time early in the morning, I was making phone calls to my parents and Becky’s parents to let them know they had …

Mar 11, 2008: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun This morning Laura and Addie and a few of their friends participated in a little fashion show for a Christian women’s group. They got to pick …

Mar 11, 2008: Happy Birthday to me... a little early/late Yeah, so my birthday isn’t until Friday, but finalized plans yesterday to be able to not just attend the Andrew Peterson concert here in Cedar …

Mar 6, 2008: Wrestling with Tom: An American Evangelical's coming-to-grips with N. T. Wright's Surprised By Hope Few writers have gained the attention of, and made waves in, the Christian blogosphere in recent memory in quite the way that N. T. Wright has. (The …

Mar 6, 2008: Another post from Augusta Yesterday was Day 2 of the RTCA committee meeting here in Augusta. (Why am I posting a day behind, you ask? Because there’s free wi-fi in the …

Mar 5, 2008: No, I don't play golf... This week has brought me to Augusta, GA for the quarterly SC-213 meeting. The inevitable first question/comment I’ve gotten from friends when I …

Feb 25, 2008: Tim Keller's The Reason For God - a review Tim Keller has been a favorite speaker of mine for some time now. As pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, he reaches thousands …

Feb 18, 2008: Another Half a Foot Rest easy, friends, I’m not growing some fractional appendage. But I am pretty much tired of winter. Whatever the steps are in dealing with …

Feb 11, 2008: An equation of insanity So back in my Caedmon’s concert post, Daniel commented that he found the length of that road trip to see a concert “insane”. Being …

Feb 11, 2008: I'm it. Having been tagged by Jeff for the latest interweb meme to filter around to these parts, I suppose I should play along. The Rules: (1) Link to the …

Feb 11, 2008: Putting on the miles The lengths I will go to hear a concert? Well, this weekend the length was 300 miles, each way. Lincoln, Nebraska ends up being, with short stops, …

Feb 4, 2008: Comparing Services This past weekend I had the pleasure of leading music both at Imago Christi on Saturday night and at Noelridge on Sunday morning. It was the first …

Jan 31, 2008: Bullet points for a Thursday Morning Playing basketball three times a week is good for your game and your weight, but sure does make you sore. Hard to believe it’s almost February …

Jan 28, 2008: In belated praise of Once It took me a while to get around to it, but last night Becky and I finally sat down to watch Once. I had a hard time finding it at the video store - I …

Jan 28, 2008: The importance of training others “…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” …

Jan 24, 2008: Putting my talents to some profit Pretty much ever since my brother Andrew and his fiancee Heather set a date for the wedding this summer Becky has been in full-on planning mode for …

Jan 21, 2008: Rich Mullins' A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band If there was ever a “perfect” album to come out of the (largely mediocre) world of CCM, Rich Mullins' A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a …

Jan 17, 2008: A study in personalities, or, Mom was right My mom has mentioned more than once how she enjoys seeing our girls' personalities as they get bigger and start to really develop. She sees Laura as …

Jan 14, 2008: Wait, it's Monday? Weekends are going to look a little bit different now that we’re having church on Saturday night. Something to get used to. This weekend was …

Jan 9, 2008: Bullet points for a Wednesday Just realized I never gave you all any feedback on the first service at Imago Christi. It went pretty well - had 60 in attendance. Music was OK, …

Jan 8, 2008: Creating the routine The biggest adjustment this week in preparing for the Saturday night service is starting to think of it as a weekly routine. We’ve done other …

Jan 7, 2008: D-Day Timeline Saturday was the big day - first service at Imago Christi! A timeline of the day: 7:30 am: Wake up after sleeping in. Feels good. Making mental lists …

Jan 5, 2008: It's a big day We’ve been working towards this for over a year now, and tonight it comes to pass: the first service at our downtown Cedar Rapids church plant, …

Jan 2, 2008: 2007 in Books: Chris's Reading in Review One year ago I decided that my blog was the must useful place to keep my reading list, and that proved to be a good choice. I’ve tried keeping …

Dec 27, 2007: Becoming a Caring Church Alex Strauch provides some practical guidance for becoming a church that truly cares for people (from the Summer 2007 edition of Emmaus Bible …

Dec 27, 2007: Songs for the Inaugural Service Imago Christi’s inaugural service is just over a week away - January 5, 2008. As I noted previously, it’s a bit of a challenge to pick the …

Dec 27, 2007: Home after Christmas What a great Christmas, and now how good to be home. We spent several days at my parents' place in Wisconsin, though for the first day or so they …

Dec 26, 2007: Details to remember for your first worship service Yes, the title is overly-long Google linkbait. But one thing I have been astonished with is just how many details there are that need remembered to …

Dec 20, 2007: Selecting music for an inaugural service We’re going to have our first worship team practice for Imago tonight, which means I need to have music selected for our first service. …

Dec 20, 2007: Wrapping things up Today is my last work day for the year. Thanks to a day of vacation tomorrow and a generous holiday schedule from my employer, I will be able to enjoy …

Dec 18, 2007: Building a worship team One of my big initial tasks for Imago Christi is to figure out the worship team situation. Music is going to be an important part of our church …

Dec 17, 2007: Contentment I was reading Psalm 131 this morning and was struck by the picture of contentment painted in its three short verses: O LORD, my heart is not lifted …

Dec 17, 2007: 'Tis the season to be jolly and joyous... Christmas shopping is complete. The Christmas program is over. We’ve received a bunch of Christmas cards already. We still haven’t gotten …

Dec 14, 2007: Christmas shopping complete in record time Usually I’m the guy who is out shopping on December 23rd, if not December 24th, to finish up all my Christmas shopping. But not this year! …

Dec 12, 2007: If I were from England, I'd be unhappy Becky and I were wandering the toy shelves at our local Target store recently, finishing up some Christmas shopping for the girls. On one shelf I saw …

Dec 7, 2007: Bullet Points for a Friday Morning I’ve stuck you, my blog readers, with far too many links this week and not enough other stuff. Now, that being said, they are all good links. …

Nov 27, 2007: The travails of travel Dear Delta Airlines, I can’t decide whether to be mad with you or not. I was definitely not pleased with a 2.5 hour delay in Cedar Rapids and a …

Nov 26, 2007: On the road again... So it’s been a nice weekend. Ryan decided at the last minute to come visit for the holiday, so we’ve enjoyed his company over the long …

Nov 19, 2007: Coming in Boldly Last Wednesday night we left the girls at church (Laura for AWANA, Addie to play in the nursery) and ran a few errands, then arrived back a few …

Nov 16, 2007: Ideas for Effective Ministry, Part 2: Active Oversight I was going to make this part 3, but this all really ties together too much, so let’s just talk about it now. What about oversight? Too often I …

Nov 15, 2007: Ideas for Effective Ministry, Part 1: Don't Overload the Workers This seems like such a no-brainer that it shouldn’t even need to be mentioned, but based on my experience, it does. Sundays aren’t even …

Nov 14, 2007: Ideas for Effective Ministry - Introduction Last week Richard (my pastor for the past 8 years who is also leading our church plant effort) asked me this question: What do we need to do to have …

Nov 12, 2007: I've been found out. OK, rarely will I write a full post to recommend someone else’s post, but the latest from software-manager-par-excellance Rands is just too good …

Nov 9, 2007: I love the smell of comment spam in the mornings... and other thoughts for Friday Yep, 105 comments held in moderation. All of ‘em spam. I guess I should tighten up Spam Karma 2 a little bit. But still, not hard to …

Nov 6, 2007: Making the switch After running the numbers and looking at likely use scenarios over the upcoming year or two, we finally decided to switch our cell phone service from …

Oct 31, 2007: Halloween at Work No costumes ‘round our building today, but we’re having an event that appears to be proving popular enough that it should be continued in …

Oct 30, 2007: David Wilcox at CSPS Last night Becky and I experienced a couple of firsts: 1) going to a concert at CSPS in downtown Cedar Rapids, and 2) hearing David Wilcox perform. …

Oct 29, 2007: Bullet points for a Monday #2 [As always, I am grateful to Daniel for this very useful format.] Addie didn’t sleep well last night. She’s getting a tight-ish cough, …

Oct 24, 2007: No Excuses I hit the scale last Saturday after a fairly physically strenuous day of outdoor work (OK, strenuous for me at least), a time when usually the scale …

Oct 19, 2007: Most any update is better than none... Bullet points for the weekend: Church plant plans are moving right along. Looking like the start date might be the beginning of the year. Tonight …

Oct 10, 2007: Convergence: Death of a PDA, Expiration of a Cell Contract I’ve carried a PDA pretty much everywhere with me for the past several years; I think I’ve been through three different Palm models. My …

Oct 10, 2007: Oklahoma City Business has brought me this week to Oklahoma City, square in the middle of the Sooner state. I’ve been to the Tulsa area many times (my …

Oct 8, 2007: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning Had a productive weekend; got the lawn mowed, some concrete patching done, led music at church. Miserable weekend as a sports fan: Cubs played …

Sep 30, 2007: The Doctor says: Don't Blink I haven’t enjoyed a single episode of TV quite so much in a while. I’m a couple weeks behind on Dr. Who, but finally watched the episode …

Sep 28, 2007: Should this really be our fight? “Clergy fight same sex marriage”. This headline stared out at me from this morning’s copy of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The …

Sep 27, 2007: $1.05 I have a usual stop on my way to work in the mornings: the Road Ranger convenience store at the corner of Blair’s Ferry and I-380. I have an old …

Sep 26, 2007: Odds and Ends Sep 2007 First off, sorry to any of you who tried to leave comments yesterday. Something with the way the upgraded theme interacts with the spam catcher is …

Sep 24, 2007: Changes in the works I presented this letter to the elder board at Noelridge last Thursday: To the Elders at Noelridge: It has been my privilege to serve the body at …

Sep 18, 2007: Happiness is... a new pen. Back in February I bought my first-ever fountain pen. I knew nothing about them, but had always thought they would be cool, so when I encountered a …

Sep 16, 2007: An update of sorts It’s been slow around these parts lately, which likely just means that life has been pretty busy. Even online there have been a bunch of other …

Sep 4, 2007: It's not Monday, it just feels like it. The joys of having a Monday holiday: a 4-day work week, and a Tuesday that feels like Monday. Oh, and a Tuesday jammed full of meetings since they …

Aug 30, 2007: Well, I asked. Becky and the girls stopped by my workplace for a few minutes this morning to drop off some lunch for me. As I sat in the van with them chatting for a …

Aug 29, 2007: Caedmon's Call - Overdressed Well at least half of you who read this blog are already listening to this album, but I should still note that Caedmon’s Call released their …

Aug 27, 2007: Bullet Points for a Monday How can it have been a week since I last posted? Well, it has been busy. So in the spirit of “short updates are better than none”, here we …

Aug 20, 2007: How can it be so hard to leave town? Instead of sitting here writing this blog post, I should be on a Boeing 757 just taking off from Minneapolis en route to Seattle. But you’re …

Aug 17, 2007: New Specs I got my most recent pair of glasses about 6 years ago. Now, I don’t wear them all that often; my Focus Night and Day 30-day contact lenses have …

Aug 13, 2007: Seattle It’s 8 AM in Seattle and this hotel restaurant is a pretty comfortable place to sit and write. The in-room web access doesn’t seem to be …

Aug 12, 2007: Headed Out, West Coast Edition I’m sitting in the airport terminal at Cedar Rapids as the plane that is supposed to take me to Chicago is unloading its prior passengers. From …

Aug 9, 2007: New Orleans: Music and all that Jazz One of the things that was high on my list of things to do while in New Orleans a few weeks ago was to find someplace with live music. New Orleans is …

Aug 7, 2007: A real post - sort of So most of the recent posts here have been just links to other stuff. Sorry about that. Have been doing lots of reading lately, not so much writing. …

Jul 30, 2007: New Orleans Impressions Got back from last week’s trip to New Orleans early on Friday morning. This was my first time in New Orleans, so it was interesting to see an …

Jul 27, 2007: Bullet Points for a Friday [Once again, thanks to dan for creating a good format to rip off.] Laura turns three today! Happy birthday to my little sweetheart. New Orleans was …

Jul 24, 2007: New Orleans: FAA SW DER Conference Today through Thursday is the 2007 edition of the FAA’s SW/CEH DER Conference. You can follow the link if you really want to know more about it; …

Jul 20, 2007: Bullet Points on a Friday We had three neighbors over for supper last night. It was quite a good time. And the pork loin that Becky did in the broiler was delicious. The trip …

Jul 19, 2007: Drying out It’s been a bit of a wet week here in eastern Iowa. We had storms starting Monday night through Tuesday, then again Wednesday morning and …

Jul 18, 2007: It happened again. Yep. Four in a row now. What are the odds? Dang, I had to ask that. Now I’m gonna have to calculate them. Probability of a winner is 1 in 8. So …

Jul 16, 2007: The Challenges and Blessings of Hospitality Last week Becky and I had a discussion about, well, a bunch of things, but the one thing that came out of it was an agreement that we needed to be …

Jul 12, 2007: It's a trap! Last week I bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi from a vending machine. I opened it up, and woohoo! The cap was a winner - buy one 20 oz bottle, get one …

Jul 10, 2007: Evaluating alternative iPod management software Yesterday SimpleHelp.net posted 10 Alternatives to iTunes for managing your iPod. (They have since been dugg and their website is down. Bummer. You …

Jul 10, 2007: A little bit sore Yesterday morning I was awake early so I went to the gym and hit the treadmill and the weight machines. I have been doing at least a bit of running, …

Jul 9, 2007: It's Monday again already?!? Well, it was a busy weekend. The whole family showed up Friday night for one last get together before we head our separate ways this fall. The result …

Jul 5, 2007: Somebody's leaving tracts in the bathroom again... This morning’s visit to the bathroom here at work revealed that someone has again been leaving tracts on top of the toilet paper holder in the …

Jul 5, 2007: What day is it again? Having a day off from work in the middle of the week has totally thrown me off. Yesterday seemed like Saturday all day, which meant that I kept going …

Jul 2, 2007: Ah, Home Becky and I arrived back home late in the evening Saturday. Travel was uneventful, though we did have a long-ish layover (4.5 hours) in Minneapolis. …

Jun 28, 2007: Blue Man! Last night Becky and I went to see Blue Man Group over at Universal Orlando. BMG is one of those acts that’s very hard to describe to folks who …

Jun 26, 2007: Nine Years Hard to believe it’s been that long already. Nine years ago tonight, on a hot, sticky night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I exchanged our vows and …

Jun 24, 2007: Orlando Made it with no serious travel glitches to Orlando about 7:30 pm local time. Gotta say this - that iPod with video capability is pretty great. I …

Jun 22, 2007: Ready for a break Today is my last day in the office for a week or so, and I am definitely ready for the break. A synopsis of next week’s events: Sunday - flying …

Jun 19, 2007: Notes on a Tuesday Morning I’m getting ready to go sit in an all-day meeting with some customers that are in town. Not real exciting, but should be some good discussion. …

Jun 18, 2007: Sheesh, It's Monday already?!? So for it being a weekend, it was a busy one. A synopsis: Saturday: Ran a 5k in the morning. Finished in 31:33. It was stinkin' hot outside. Sat and …

Jun 16, 2007: Satisfaction Well if I’m gonna gripe when I think things have gone wrongly, it is only right that I applaud when I feel that justice has been done. :-) I …

Jun 15, 2007: Not again! UPS dutifully delivered my second refurbished iPod this afternoon. The battery was pretty well dead, so I hooked it up to the wall charger for a few …

Jun 15, 2007: iPod today? Got an automated UPS phone call a few minutes ago saying that my iPod would be delivered today, and giving me the tracking number. Good thing it went …

Jun 15, 2007: Bullet Points for Friday Still no iPod. I’m hoping for today, but I’m just about tired of hoping. Did an insurance review with our agent yesterday. It’s …

Jun 12, 2007: The trip to Best Buy, or, why you should think when you design a computer system. So, as planned, tonight I went to Best Buy to find out what was up with my iPod replacement. Long story short, I took my original one in for repair, …

Jun 12, 2007: I just want my iPod back... After BestBuy’s impressive performance in getting me my first refurbished iPod, it has now been 12 days since I was promised my next refurbished …

Jun 7, 2007: Good Qualities for a... We were sitting in a conference room at work the other day and there was a large pad that someone had written on in a previous meeting. I don’t …

Jun 7, 2007: Back online So just as I was about to get really frustrated with Qwest, UPS showed up with their “welcome letter” and login details about 5 PM …

Jun 5, 2007: Playing the Waiting Game I hate waiting. I really do. I’m impatient. It’s not a quality I’m proud of; it’s a fault that needs corrected. (“Lord, …

Jun 4, 2007: Bullet Points from the Weekend We got 3 tons of sand dumped on our driveway Friday afternoon; my back is now sore from moving two of those tons back to the girls' sandbox in the …

May 31, 2007: iPod Replacement: A for Effort, D for Results My refurbished iPod showed up via UPS late yesterday afternoon. I have to give Best Buy full marks for sending a quick replacement; they said 3 - 5 …

May 30, 2007: Taking the Plunge to Dish It’s been a couple of months since I did the math and realized that Mediacom was no longer a good deal for our household. Let’s review. …

May 28, 2007: Fun with Family We had the whole clan over this weekend - well, almost the whole clan. Ryan came in from Chicago, Aaron and the folks from Wisconsin, Andrew from his …

May 28, 2007: iPod: the continuing saga Took my iPod with the bad battery and service plan back to Best Buy today. They have to send it in for service, and gave me the option of either …

May 26, 2007: iPod Blues I’ve had my 3G 20GB iPod for two and a half years now, so it’s no surprise that the battery was about due to go. Well, it pretty well …

May 24, 2007: Heading home from DC Having been in DC since Monday night, I’m good and ready to be heading home. Our meetings have been useful but are winding down, and my flight …

May 21, 2007: ...leaving on a jet plane... I’m headed out of town today; assuming that Northwest Airlines does their thing, I will be in Washington, DC by mid-evening. I’ll be …

May 18, 2007: Chapter 11: In which Chris hears a familiar song in the unlikliest of places. Last night was a date night for Becky and me. We dropped the girls off with some friends for a couple of hours and headed to Casa Las Glorias for the …

May 17, 2007: A Post In Which Chris Elaborates On Two Unrelated Songs I’ve had two songs running pretty much on repeat today. This happens to me on frequent occasion; I get stuck on some song and I will just loop …

May 14, 2007: Devil's Lake Camping Trip Yes, as promised, we went camping last weekend up at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. My brother Andrew pretty much organized the whole …

May 10, 2007: Camping! When I was a kid, we went camping as a family all the time. I think some of my siblings enjoyed the out-of-doors more than I did, but still, it was a …

May 7, 2007: 24 Hours of the Hubbs: A Celebration of the Mundane When I decided to do 24 hours of Flickr, I wasn’t really sure what my Saturday would entail. Nonetheless, I gave it a go. As Saturdays go, it …

May 2, 2007: A much-needed improvement... I’ve been using Google Reader for some time now as my feed reader, and one of the more frustrating things has been its really bad email feature. …

May 2, 2007: Flying it! Part of the goofiness with my job is that by the time we get these announcements, I’ve been done with the software for months. Still, it’s …

May 1, 2007: Softball 2007 One of my very first posts on my blog was about softball; hard to believe that’s been two years ago. But yesterday night we started up the …

Apr 27, 2007: Good Motivation I just filled out the entry forms for two 5K races in upcoming months: the Marion Arts Festival 5K (May 19) and the Hog Wild Days …

Apr 26, 2007: Random Thought #2 I’m sitting on my PC waiting for the Microsoft Visual C++ .NET development suite to install. And on one of the little information boxes that it …

Apr 23, 2007: At Becky's request... more pictures! No, this place isn’t turning into a photoblog. But when you have a new toy… :-)

Apr 20, 2007: A time to read... A month ago today I resolved I was going to put down my endless string of library books and spend a month just reading the Bible. Today is the end of …

Apr 18, 2007: New toy coming... Thanks to some unexpected cash influx, I was able to purchase this earlier this week: It’s a Nikon D70s, a quite nice Digital SLR camera. Only 6 …

Apr 15, 2007: Sunday Sermon This morning I had the privilege to preach at the Noelridge Sunday morning services. My text was Exodus 18, entitled “A Father-In-Law’s …

Apr 12, 2007: Stuff Life has been crazy this week, keeping me from writing much in the way of a thoughtful post about anything. I will inadequately attempt to make up for …

Apr 5, 2007: Back home... at least for a day Got home last night from a quick business trip to Salt Lake City. I haven’t been to SLC since a family trip many years ago. It’s a …

Apr 2, 2007: Entering the Whirlwind I feel like I’ve been in it for a few days already, but I know there’s still more to come this week. Friday afternoon I drove four hours …

Mar 28, 2007: Name That Tune [Meme fearlessly stolen from CJ]. Step 1: Put your ipod on random. Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how …

Mar 28, 2007: A real post This place has been full of links lately and very short on actual posts. Partly that’s been due to some network difficulties, partly …

Mar 20, 2007: A Resolution As I updated my 2007 reading list yesterday, I became convicted about how many novels of dubious quality I’ve read (23 books in 75 days!) and …

Mar 19, 2007: Which comes first: committment or vision? In the midst of a church meeting last night discussing our church’s future plans, a question came up that I imagine we will be wrestling with in …

Mar 18, 2007: Paradise Pens Customer Service: Top Notch Just thought I’d follow up on my post from last week about my experience with Paradise Pens. On Tuesday, five days (and only three business …

Mar 16, 2007: Billboards from God On my way home from work every day I pass a billboard that frustrates me. It’s a simple message, white text on a black background. It’s …

Mar 12, 2007: A good time was had by all... This weekend we had very nearly my whole family over to visit. My sister is still in Panama, but otherwise, my parents and all my brothers came in on …

Mar 9, 2007: Party Time This weekend my parents and brothers will all be coming to visit. (My sister is in Panama doing missions stuff.) The occasion: the first of what will, …

Mar 8, 2007: In Praise of Good Customer Service I’ve complained enough about bad customer service here on the blog (see: the OfficeMax debacle of a couple years ago) that I want to make sure I …

Mar 8, 2007: Thoughts on Washington DC Last week I traveled for business to Washington, DC. While my original plans left me little time for sight-seeing, I still managed to take a long …

Mar 5, 2007: Getting back on track It’s been a disorienting past ten days or so; last weekend (10 days ago) we had the big storm, which meant church was canceled, which always …

Mar 2, 2007: Off to the market to buy a fat pig... …home again, home again, jiggety jig. I always seem to forget the beginning of that rhyme, but I quote the end of it often enough. I made it …

Feb 27, 2007: Visiting Uncle Sam This week is time for my first business trip in a while, and yesterday found me heading out of Cedar Rapids for Washington, DC. While here I’ll …

Feb 20, 2007: Finally done Last night I used a jigsaw to cut two small notches, pulled the garage door opener up about another inch, reconnected everything, and it worked! So, 9 …

Feb 14, 2007: Making progress Yesterday morning we got a guy out to fix the garage door, so it now goes up and down like it should. So last night I spent most of the evening trying …

Feb 10, 2007: I fought the door, and the door won Today was lining up to be a fairly unadventurous Saturday. I had a church basketball game in the morning - we got beat by a team who must’ve …

Feb 9, 2007: I think I pulled something... So last night I had the chance to do some practice on the pipe organ at Central Park Presbyterian Church in preparation for the talent show coming up …

Feb 7, 2007: Odds and Ends Feb 2007 I’m sure I’ve used that title before, but oh well. Seems like this place has been filled up with book reviews lately and not much else. …

Feb 4, 2007: Pick Chris's Reading List: Hell's Best Kept Secret My dad loaned me Hell’s Best Kept Secret by Ray Comfort back at Thanksgiving, and sadly it had set by my night table since then, still waiting …

Jan 29, 2007: Pick Chris's Reading List: Velvet Elvis Finally I complete another entry on my reader-suggested reading list: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. Thanks Heather for the recommendation! I’m …

Jan 26, 2007: You'd think I'd learn... I stopped at the library yesterday afternoon to pick up a book I had reserved. (Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell, yes, Heather, I’m finally getting …

Jan 25, 2007: I skipped the State of the Union I understand from reading the news that President Bush gave the State of the Union address back on Tuesday night. I skipped it. I actually even …

Jan 12, 2007: Random Thoughts on... Classical Music, Second Edition Classical music has had a big influence in my life. My parents are both lovers of classical music. (Probably my dad more than my mom, but I’m …

Jan 9, 2007: Goodbye, Krispy Kreme Sometime while we were gone on our Christmas vacation, our local Krispy Kreme closed down. It opened back in 2000, is only two blocks from our house, …

Jan 8, 2007: Word of the day: anent Never heard this one before; just saw it used in a blog post here. anent –preposition 1. in regard to; about; concerning. 2. British. beside; in line …

Jan 5, 2007: Pick Chris's Reading List: Taliesin (Book 1 of the Pendragon Cycle) On to a book recommended by Nate Downey: Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead, which is book one of five books in Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle. I read …

Jan 1, 2007: The Great New Year's Eve Flood of Aught-Six Let me tell the tale of the Great New Year’s Eve Flood of Aught-Six. You won’t hear it from anyone else. As most calamities begin, so …

Dec 29, 2006: Heading Home So I’m finally caught up with my trip posts. It’s 10:20 PM and we’re in a hotel room in Dayton, Ohio. We traveled from Waxhaw this …

Dec 29, 2006: The Penguin, and New Friends Thursday was get-ready-to-head-home day. We picked up a cartop carrier that Ernie had salvaged for us. It is in excellent shape, and with all the …

Dec 27, 2006: Post-Christmas Mayhem The day after Christmas found us trying to sleep off all that food we ate the day before. :-) We enjoyed leftovers for breakfast and lunch, again ate …

Dec 27, 2006: 35 years and counting... This post is only a day belated, but let me wish my parents a very happy 35th anniversary! Don and Marj Hubbs were married on December 26, 1971. 35 …

Dec 27, 2006: Christmas! Christmas morning dawned and we packed up four adults, two small children, and lots of presents and luggage into the folks' Suburban and headed up to …

Dec 25, 2006: Christmas Eve Sunday morning of our trip brought us to Calvary Church in Charlotte for the Sunday morning service. It is Becky’s folks' church, and she …

Dec 24, 2006: Never buy a Unicorn when it's Sleeping. Day 4 of our trip (Saturday the 23rd) was a nice day to catch up. After sleeping in, we had a late breakfast with Becky’s folks. Or, I should …

Dec 23, 2006: Back on the Road Day 3 was another travel day; Nashville, TN to Waxhaw, NC. It doesn’t look that long on the map, but it winds through the mountains a good bit, …

Dec 23, 2006: Nashville Day 2 of our Christmas trip landed us in Nashville. Becky’s brother Bob and his wife Holly and daughter Taylor live just south of town. Holly …

Dec 21, 2006: The road goes ever on and on... At least it sure feels that way. Day 1 of our little Christmas adventure turned out to be a bit more adventurous than we had hoped. I had the van all …

Dec 19, 2006: Packing Up and Heading Out The long-awaited Christmas break is finally here! Tonight we’re loading the van, and tomorrow morning we head out bright and early for our …

Dec 19, 2006: Thoughts on Consumerism Found this wonderful little article from Will Willimon entitled “Resisting the Clutches of Consumerism”. A good read, especially this time …

Dec 15, 2006: Google Reader adds "sort by oldest" Finally! This was my biggest gripe with Google Reader up until now; the only chronological sort option was newest-to-oldest. But I don’t want to …

Dec 14, 2006: Pick Chris's Reading List: The Russian Debutante's Handbook It’s taken me far too long, but I have finally completed the second book on my user-suggested reading list: The Russian Debutante’s …

Dec 13, 2006: The Usual? “The usual?” That’s the question that was posed to me this morning. Now, it was just at the local Quik Trip store that’s on …

Dec 11, 2006: An Update It’s been far too long since I’ve written much here on the blog; it’s been a busy week or two. While not a full remedy, a brief …

Dec 4, 2006: Swearing on the Koran My mother-in-law asked the other day what I thought about this recent news story. In brief: Newly elected to the House of Representatives, Minnesota …

Dec 4, 2006: An AP Concert Weekend Last Friday Becky and I headed out to Omaha, NE to see Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God tour. (OK, so it was officially in Elkorn, NE, …

Nov 30, 2006: Something to think about... “I’ve noticed that when God wants me to follow Him in a particular direction, He usually doesn’t get me to do it by sending people to scream at …

Nov 30, 2006: Pick Chris's Reading List: And Then There Were None I’ve completed the first book off of my user-suggested reading list: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Thanks to Heather for the …

Nov 28, 2006: Early in the Morning The past two mornings Laura has decided there was a need to wake up about ten minutes to five; both times she had lost her pacifier and couldn’t …

Nov 27, 2006: Building Up Endurance So how was your Thanksgiving? We spent the weekend in Wisconsin with my family at my parents' place. It was the first time we’ve had everybody …

Nov 22, 2006: A Time for Giving Thanks With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I thought I’d list a few things I’m thankful for. I encourage you to think about it and make your own …

Nov 16, 2006: Random Thought During a conversation with Becky while driving somewhere the other night, discussing someone: Me: “He is… unique.” Becky: …

Nov 16, 2006: One last time... This Sunday will be my last Sunday to lead worship at Noelridge for a while. It has been a while since I made the official announcement, and I think …

Nov 14, 2006: Pick Chris's Reading List Those of you who know me know that I am a voracious reader. (Those of you who don’t know me just found out.) Every night for many years I have …

Nov 11, 2006: Plans Change Well, that Happy Meal hasn’t materialized in Laura’s future yet. Becky got sick with a nasty fever and such on Thursday, so she had to …

Nov 9, 2006: Adventures in Fatherhood Tomorrow morning Becky will be taking off for Chicago to spend a weekend with her friend Juanita who is up here visiting to celebrate her …

Nov 7, 2006: Get out and vote! Yep, it’s election day. I can’t say I’m too excited about any of the slate of candidates I have to vote for here in Iowa; some of …

Nov 2, 2006: Dr. John Stackhouse on Christians' Political Concerns Dr. John Stackhouse of Regent College in Vancouver, BC, is in Cedar Rapids this weekend speaking. He’ll be at Coe College tonight, First …

Oct 31, 2006: Tuesday Riff on CCM So I don’t listen to Christian radio any more, but Becky had it on in the van over the weekend, and on Sunday morning when I started the van to …

Oct 24, 2006: Seasons Yard work isn’t my favorite task; it’s one of those things that gets done because it needs to be done, not because I really want to do it. …

Oct 17, 2006: Best-laid plans... don't always work out. Last night I was headed to bed at a relatively early hour, and as I prepared to go to sleep I decided I’d get up and run this morning. I …

Oct 13, 2006: Thank goodness for the weekend! It’s managed to be a busy week, but now the weekend is upon us. Finally! This afternoon Becky and I are headed to the MAC to play some …

Oct 11, 2006: Gotta run... I got out for a run yesterday afternoon - probably the first time in 2 weeks that I’ve run. It feels good to be a little bit sore this morning. …

Oct 9, 2006: The Interweb is Fun! So yesterday after church I posted a recording of Andrew and me singing a song in church. Talking to Andrew later in the afternoon, apparently shortly …

Oct 6, 2006: Goodbye FeedLounge, Hello, Google Reader! I’ve been using FeedLounge for several months now (ever since they came out of beta!) as my online feed reader. It has, without a doubt, the …

Oct 4, 2006: Gracious Words In reply to the “controversy” of John Piper’s comments regarding Mark Driscoll at the DG2006 conference, Driscoll has graciously …

Oct 3, 2006: DG2006: The Audio is Up One of the things the DG folks do right: all the audio from the Desiring God 2006 National Conference is available, online, for free, today. …

Oct 1, 2006: DG2006: Piper rebukes Driscoll's "cleverness" I am sad that this is the moment that most sticks in my mind from the Desiring God 2006 National Conference, but it’s still rankling me, so …

Oct 1, 2006: Desiring God 2006 National Conference I got home about 2:30 this morning from two days in Minneapolis at the Desiring God 06 National Conference. Richard and I got up there Friday …

Sep 24, 2006: Things are changing I made this announcement after both services at Noelridge today. I didn’t read from a script, so this isn’t verbatim, but is the gist of …

Sep 21, 2006: Spartan Fund Run 5K Last Saturday I ran in my first-ever 5K, the Solon High School Spartan Fund Run. They had a few hundred folks show up, many to do the half-mile and …

Sep 19, 2006: Don't know much about... anything! Last night I took the opportunity to visit Conversation Cafe, a discussion group at a local coffeehouse that is led by my pastor. The guest speaker …

Sep 18, 2006: This 'n' that This weekend wasn’t too busy, but I wasn’t on the computer, so no blog updates. Rebecca and I ran in the Solon Fund Run 5K on Saturday and …

Sep 14, 2006: Last training run Well, my last training run before the Solon 5K on Saturday. I woke up before my alarm this morning (no small feat when the alarm is set for 5:10 am!) …

Sep 13, 2006: It's Wednesday, but Saturday's coming I told myself that I should run a good three times this week in preparation for the Solon 5K on Saturday. After all, I didn’t get much running …

Sep 5, 2006: Your update for the week It’s gonna be a slow week here on my blog. I’m in town today, but tomorrow we’re leaving town for a few days of much-needed …

Aug 28, 2006: Park Concert coming up... This coming Sunday night my brothers Aaron and Andrew and I will be doing a concert for my church. Noelridge has annually had a church potluck in the …

Aug 24, 2006: Today's lesson: Air Conditioner drain lines I may be reasonably intelligent, but sometimes I miss the obvious. I have known since we bought our house that there is tubing running from the …

Aug 22, 2006: All sorts of wacky stuff Or at least what counts for wacky in my world. I realize my life is pretty calm compared to some of the rest of you. I ran 2 miles this morning. And …

Aug 21, 2006: Sunset There’s something about sunsets that make me nostalgic. I’m not sure what it is about them, but give me the chance to look to the horizon …

Aug 21, 2006: Running I’m going to make a real effort to do a bunch of running this week. I’ve been too much of a slacker; I need to crank it up. I ran 5K this …

Aug 17, 2006: Sonic is coming! Back in Texas, Sonic was a favorite fast food place of ours. Who can top the Route 44 Cherry Limeade? When we moved to Iowa, we had to kick the habit; …

Aug 15, 2006: Odds and Ends August 2006 Odd: 13, the number of runs we had last night in our softball game. Also the number of runs our opponents had. After 7 innings it was just too dark to …

Aug 12, 2006: More running It hasn’t been a real productive week for me as far as running goes; three mornings this week we we had rain come through between 5 and 7 am, …

Aug 10, 2006: It's time for a break... I was reading back through some of my old blog posts this morning, tagging them appropriately, (100 down, 300 still to go…) when I found this …

Aug 10, 2006: 'Cause we're all praying for the ice to break... This song has been rattling around in my head for the past day or two. It’s beautiful, intense, personal stuff, made all the moreso by the …

Aug 9, 2006: The new monitor's here! A trusty IT guy came by this morning to deliver a new Dell 19" LCD monitor. He was also good enough to haul away the old 21" CRT behemoth. …

Aug 8, 2006: Feeling Squeezed Yesterday I was sitting at my desk working away when suddenly, bzzt! and one of my monitors went dark. I have been using two monitors for the past …

Aug 7, 2006: This is why I wear a belt The main button on my (nearly-new) khakis just came off. Fortunately, there’s still that little inside button. If I had no belt, I’d be …

Aug 7, 2006: geek alert The title is just a warning that some of your eyes might glaze over whilst reading this post. Others of you will find it interesting. Still others of …

Aug 6, 2006: My first training run I have a 5K course mapped out through our neighborhood, so I gave it my first try at that distance on Friday. It was early afternoon, probably 85 …

Aug 4, 2006: I'm back home... Got home from Seattle about midnight last night. Oh so much fun. Our plane was late leaving Seattle, but fortunately we had a good tail wind or we …

Aug 1, 2006: Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go... Well, it’s off to Seattle, actually, in about 30 minutes. Headed up there again for work, catching the little yucky turboprop from CID to MSP …

Jul 31, 2006: Taking the Plunge This weekend I signed up for a 5K run. I’ve never done something like this before. I’ve not been a big runner in past years, but with 30 …

Jul 28, 2006: Everybody loves a party! Yesterday was Laura’s second birthday. So, we invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate. Actually, this was her second birthday party this …

Jul 27, 2006: Happy Birthday Laura! She’s too young to read this, but still, I can’t believe that my little girl turns 2 today! It seems like just yesterday we were bringing …

Jul 26, 2006: Random Thoughts on Classical Music For those of you brave enough to read past the title, congratulations! Now instead of me talking about music by people my age, you get to hear me talk …

Jul 24, 2006: A fun weekend... It was busy busy busy, but it was fun. My brother Andrew is now officially a resident of Cedar Rapids. He’ll be down here at least for the fall, …

Jul 20, 2006: Random Thoughts on Church Attire OK, so Dan put me up to this. Pick a topic, and just start writing. So this topic came to mind. How did it come to mind, you ask? Well, I was thinking …

Jul 20, 2006: Bits and Pieces I wait far too long between blog posts, and then I find myself searching for interesting things to write about. I guess my life, if not boring, is at …

Jul 15, 2006: Traveling Adventures Tuesday through Thursday of this week took my on my first trip ever to Seattle, WA. Several of us from work were headed out to talk to the big …

Jul 15, 2006: I had that dream again... Yeah, that dream. The one where Andy Osenga and some other unidentified people are holed up with me in a house (not my house, dunno what house it is) …

Jul 10, 2006: What A Difference the Shoes Make I bought a new pair of Asics running shoes over the weekend and wow, what a difference they make! Beside the fact that they don’t tear up my …

Jul 7, 2006: I love used CDs Last night, FYE at Coral Ridge Mall. Hem’s Rabbit Songs. Used. Price: $4.99. But wait, there’s 20% off on all used CDs today. Final price …

Jul 6, 2006: Chance Meetings with Friends It has been a nice morning thus far. I got up at my usual early hour, got motivated enough to go run (woohoo! it feels good.) and then decided …

Jul 3, 2006: Holiday and Vacation It’s now been 10 days since I’ve actually set foot in my office. Last week was the conference to Atlanta, and then I took Friday off. Now …

Jun 28, 2006: Atlanta: Impressions This is the first time I’ve ever visited Atlanta. I’ve driven through a few times, but that doesn’t count. I’ve driven around the north end of Atlanta …

Jun 28, 2006: Road Trip: Andy O CD Release Show After hearing the announcement that “much rock will be had”, I decided if I could make it work in my schedule, I’d head on a road …

Jun 26, 2006: Well whaddaya know? CID has free wireless internet in the terminal. My flight was delayed by about 15 minutes, but now I guess it’s about time to board. I wonder if …

Jun 15, 2006: Today's Lesson: Motor Mounts Yesterday I had an unhappy occurrance. I had stopped at Quik Trip to get some gas on my way to work. When I got back in the car and turned the key: …

Jun 13, 2006: road tripping In a bout of insanity, I have decided to take two days off work and drive to Nashville for Andy Osenga’s CD release concert. I don’t know …

Jun 9, 2006: I'm sore... but I think it feels good. Having been disgusted with my lack of exercise for a while, and having been challenged by my wife’s initiative to start swimming on a regular …

Jun 5, 2006: It's Monday already... That’s actually not a bad thing, just a statement of fact. Had a nice weekend; installed a screen door on the side entrance to our house. It …

May 30, 2006: weekend, where did you go? Well it’s long past time for a weekend update. Becky’s folks have been here for just over a week now (since May 20th) and we’ve been …

May 25, 2006: Happy Birthday, Becky! Only the best birthday wishes to my beautiful wife who turns 29 today. She is a faithful partner, dear friend, and loving mother to our girls. I am …

May 19, 2006: Enough DaVinci, already! I’ve heard just about enough about The DaVinci Code by now. First, the hoopla over the best-selling novel. Then, the adulation from the press …

May 17, 2006: Softball as it was meant to be Monday night was our second church softball game of the year, and it was beautiful. We were afraid the rain was going to keep us from playing, but it …

May 15, 2006: How far do we go to be "relevant"? That’s the question that the InternetMonk asks in a column over the weekend. His summary: The Gospel is relevant. Our methods can’t be …

May 12, 2006: Follow-up on the technology saga Yesterday my PDA totally locked up, just froze with the backlight on and nothing on screen. Finally last night the battery gave out. But apparently …

May 11, 2006: it's not my week for technology On the heels of my stereo receiver biting the dust, tonight I pulled my Palm Tungsten E2 out of my pocket to schedule a lunch meeting, and it came up …

May 11, 2006: A slide projector... and a bedsheet! [Kudos to Roger for playing along with the Veggie Tales reference.] A follow-up on yesterday’s adventures with the stereo receiver. I hit my …

May 10, 2006: Stereophonic Multimedia Event No, not the blog. My entertainment center, usually. But last weekend for some reason the LCD display of my Onkyo HTS-650 reciever bit the dust. The …

May 9, 2006: Mitt Happens I met Mitt Romney yesterday. Well, if you can consider shaking his hand and saying hello “meeting” him. Mr. Romney is the governor of …

May 4, 2006: The Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends Dick Staub on the Staublog (which needs to move to some software that supports RSS in an awful way) today notes a phrase that caught my ear: People …

May 2, 2006: BookJournal: Xenocide I haven’t been a fan of everything Orson Scott Card has ever written (sorry, Keith), but my love for Ender’s Game and even greater …

May 2, 2006: more odds and ends for May 2006 Wow, so it’s been far too long since I posted. What’s been happening? Last weekend Mom and Dad and Reba came down to visit. We had a good …

Apr 28, 2006: Andrew Osenga - The Morning Only 18 more days until release. If you’re a fan of Andy Osenga’s already, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about; if …

Apr 25, 2006: It's Monday again... No, wait, it’s Tuesday. It just feels like Monday. It was very very hard to get out of bed this morning. It was cool and there was rain …

Apr 23, 2006: Caedmon's Call, Dubuque, IA, 4/23/06 Last night I had the opportunity to see Caedmon’s Call play in concert at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, IA. It was a great time. The night …

Apr 21, 2006: going to see Caedmon's... Thanks to Andrew Osenga’s timely posting of more tour dates, I found that Caedmon’s Call will be playing in Dubuque, IA - only an hour …

Apr 19, 2006: a time of refreshing I hadn’t realized how burned-out I was getting. When I step back and look at it now, it should’ve been obvious. I’ve been leading …

Apr 17, 2006: another week Give me a three-day weekend, and do I post any? Nooooo. But it was a very nice weekend. I had all of Friday off from work. Friday morning I woke up …

Apr 12, 2006: play time Yesterday, as the culmination of a lot of research by Becky, we went out and purchased a backyard play set for Laura. It was on sale at …

Apr 11, 2006: Springtime! This week has finally brought spring-like weather to our little piece of Iowa. Temps will be in the 70’s all week. I love it. Springtime also …

Apr 10, 2006: youth time OK, so my ankle is a little bit sore this morning. I wonder if it has something to do with playing soccer barefoot in the church basement with the …

Apr 9, 2006: The Joy of Friends and Fellowship Yesterday was the annual Eggstreme Easter Egg Hunt out at the Berberich’s home in Stone City. This is I think the fifth year that we’ve …

Apr 3, 2006: opening day It’s opening day for major league baseball, and what a way to start: the Cubs scored 5 runs in the top of the first inning. Welcome back, …

Mar 30, 2006: They're back... Got a phone call from Mom and a text message from Rebecca letting me know that they (and Ryan and Dad) are back safely from their trip to Panama. …

Mar 23, 2006: New Music I placed an order today for some music that I’ve dreamed about playing for a long time: Claude Bolling’s Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano …

Mar 22, 2006: they're leaving... but they're coming back. By late this evening I’ll be the only member of my immediate family still present in North America. My folks, sister, and brother are heading …

Mar 20, 2006: odds and ends March 2006 The server has been down for the last few days, so I haven’t been able to update. But now it’s back and running, so here goes. Actually, …

Mar 14, 2006: the web sites can wait It’s Tuesday afternoon, and I’m sitting on the couch in a darkened hospital room. There’s a little bit of hazy sunlight filtering …

Mar 14, 2006: short on sleep but full of joy... Yesterday welcomed our little girl Addison Grace into the world. It was a quick labor and delivery; we were at the hospital for a whole 45 minutes or …

Mar 7, 2006: a new addition No, it’s not the baby. But today we did end up purchasing a nice used minivan. It’s a 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan, has about 70000 miles on …

Mar 6, 2006: starting out hectic Well, no baby yet. But that still doesn’t mean my Monday has calmed down much. :-) We did a bunch of minivan shopping this weekend, and have …

Mar 2, 2006: so nice to be busy again... Things had been a little bit slow at work for the past couple of weeks; I was winding up one project and in a holding pattern waiting for some …

Feb 28, 2006: Welcome to Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key! House of Cakeboy had about run its course, so after reflection the new blog title, as you can obviously see above, is “Way Over Yonder in the …

Feb 28, 2006: I still feel the same... a follow-up. In a previous post, I wrestled with the ideas of being 10 years removed from my teens, but still feeling many of the same feelings that I did back in …

Feb 27, 2006: time for a facelift Well, I at least switched up graphics and a bit of the color scheme. It’ll do for now. I’m thinking of renaming the House of Cakeboy …

Feb 22, 2006: too much new music? I didn’t think it would ever be possible, but at the moment, I feel like I have too much new music to handle. Within the past week, I have …

Feb 21, 2006: In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing In The Company of Angels: The World Will Sing is the soon-to-be-released latest album from my favorite musical group, Caedmon’s Call. It’s …

Feb 20, 2006: it's Monday... …and I haven’t posted since last Wednesday, which means I’m a real slacker. I fall into this basic pattern of blogging where I show …

Feb 16, 2006: it's snowing! And it’s about time. We haven’t had any snow since December 16th… that’s a full two months. But this morning it started about …

Feb 15, 2006: Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century This is a must-read article by Michael Crichton. His basic premise: we can make …

Feb 14, 2006: Loose ends Just to tie up a few loose ends from previous posts: The evening at the coffeehouse went well. I ended up doing a little more instrumental and a …

Feb 10, 2006: An evil brain teaser Geof posted this over on the Rumor Forum and it’s been so much fun I thought I’d share it with everybody. (Geof promises his solution …

Feb 9, 2006: coffeehouse time Tomorrow night I’m providing two hours of musical entertainment at my favorite coffeeshop. I’ll admit to being a little bit nervous, but I …

Feb 8, 2006: 10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment Erik Lokkesmoe has a good article on Townhall.com where he lists 10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment. It’s worthwhile …

Feb 6, 2006: reasonable theological concern, or overly picky? I was thinking through some songs that we haven’t sung for a while in church, and this issue came to mind, so I thought I’d share it here. …

Feb 2, 2006: home again, home again... I got back last night about 10:30 from another quick trip to Wichita, this time for DER Orientation. I can now officially function as a DER Candidate, …

Jan 31, 2006: ain't it just like Mediacom... It’s not unusual, in my experience, to receive calendars as gifts around Christmas-time from companies you do business with. We always get a …

Jan 30, 2006: odds and ends January 2006 I’ve been a bit haphazard in my posting habits lately, so I’ll just dump a bunch of stuff in here in lieu of a real post. I’ve been …

Jan 26, 2006: I still feel the same... I thought I’d feel different by now. I remember sitting in a recliner in the living room of a quiet house after the boys I was babysitting had …

Jan 25, 2006: and it comes around to me... "4 things" I’ve kinda been waiting for this one… Thanks Stephanie for tagging me! Four jobs I’ve had roofer during a hot Texas summer Waiter at …

Jan 24, 2006: You Probably Shouldn’t Lead Worship Anymore If… - purgatorio It’s a bit image-intensive, but it’s a hilarious post that worship leaders and really all church music types will enjoy. Click the link! …

Jan 23, 2006: a good weekend to be off Yesterday was my first Sunday of just taking a break from leading the worship team. David Green did a very respectable job in my absence. The Lord …

Jan 20, 2006: the next album I'll have to buy Andy Osenga notes today that Ben Shive is going to release his own album. No word yet on when this will happen (Andy intimates maybe sometime this …

Jan 19, 2006: finally up and running It’s taken too long, but noelridge.org is finally up and running with real pictures of our people and a color scheme that’s much more …

Jan 18, 2006: being productive Last night Becky was gone to a baby shower at the church, and so after I put Laura to bed around 7 I had a couple of hours to myself. As tempting as …

Jan 17, 2006: BookJournal: Fortunes of War Fortunes of War is a recent title from Stephen Coonts. It is in many respects a standard military adventure novel, but it is based on an interesting …

Jan 17, 2006: FeedLounge! The long-awaited FeedLounge finally opened for public signups yesterday. For those of you not familiar, FeedLounge is a web-based RSS aggregator/feed …

Jan 16, 2006: iTunes meme Geof did this, and it looked like fun. Open iTunes to answer the following: Total number of tracks: 4,336. Sort by song title: First Song: ” ‘Round …

Jan 16, 2006: US Cellular outage in Eastern Iowa I woke up this morning to find that I had very limited, analog cellular service. US Cellular has usually been reliable, so I was a bit suprised. I …

Jan 16, 2006: too many rebates I’ve probably sent in more rebate forms in the last two months than I had in my entire previous 28 years of life. It’s starting to drive …

Jan 16, 2006: Weekend update Jan 2006 Well I’ve been a slacker lately as far as meaningful posts go… don’t know how this one will rate. We had a nice weekend. Stayed …

Jan 11, 2006: making things Occasionally when I walk through our building here at work to get to the cafeteria, I walk past some work areas where we have people making things. …

Jan 11, 2006: getting things done No, Geof, I haven’t read the book, and this isn’t about the book. However, it has been nice lately to get some things done. I’ve had …

Jan 9, 2006: BookJournal: Stranger in a Strange Land I was on the prowl for some sci-fi to read last time I was at the library. They are courteous enough to have the sci-fi genre split out into its own …

Jan 8, 2006: worship team follow-up So we did two services this morning after the great WT practice on Wednesday, and the services went really well, too. Nice to be back in the groove. I …

Jan 6, 2006: worship team stuff We had our first WT practice in about a month on Wednesday night. It was good to get back to it. I don’t know what was up on Wednesday, whether …

Jan 4, 2006: baby names OK, so Becky is due with kiddo #2 the first week of March. We’ve talked baby names a little bit, but really haven’t gotten anywhere. We …

Jan 4, 2006: BookJournal: No Uncertain Terms Well I just about have this one finished up so I’ll write about it now. William Safire, in addition to having been for many years the …

Jan 4, 2006: well, it's official I got the letter from the FAA today that officially notifies me that I will be a DER candidate pursuant to my attendance at an orientation seminar in …

Jan 3, 2006: back into the swing of things Today I’m back at work after 11 days of holiday. I was just about ready to come back… I can only spend so much time away from routines …

Jan 2, 2006: the obligatory new year's post I’m already a day late on this - it’s January 2nd, not the first. I’ll probably come up a (metaphorical) dollar short, too… …

Jan 2, 2006: BookJournal: PowerSat Powersat is one of the latest titles by long-time sci-fi author Ben Bova. Bova is a prolific author. His numerous tomes are full of futuristic …

Dec 28, 2005: Upgrading the Tivo Hard Drive OK, so when we bought our 40-hour Tivo, it was small-ish for storage space, but it worked. Now that we’ve got subscriptions going for kids …

Dec 28, 2005: Upgrade complete I’ve just finished upgrading all of the thehubbs.net blogs to Wordpress 2.0. It all seemed to go smoothly. Now we just have to use it for a …

Dec 27, 2005: Christmas time is here... OK, so Christmas was actually two days ago. Now the family has all left for their respective homes and our house is quiet. It was a very nice …

Dec 16, 2005: Christmas shopping... check. My today didn’t go as planned. But that’s OK - it’s turned out just fine anyhow. Becky showed up on IM at 7:30 this morning (waaaay …

Dec 16, 2005: Just for the record... …the new snowblower kicks butt. I probably looked like an idiot using a 5.5 hp 2-stage snowblower to remove an inch of light snow from my …

Dec 15, 2005: Ben Shive, Harmony, and the Blood of Jesus All the recent posts about the AP Christmas concert at the Ryman last weekend reminded me of one little amusing thing that I had heretofore failed to …

Dec 14, 2005: lots of travel, 30 minute interview Monday afternoon found me traveling to Wichita, KS, for my DER interview with the FAA. The wisdom that is American Airlines decided that the best way …

Dec 11, 2005: weekend update It’s been feeling like Christmas the last couple of weeks, what with the sub-zero temps and the foot of snow we’ve gotten over the last 10 …

Dec 7, 2005: Andy Gullahorn Geof Morris once referred to him as “Andy ‘It’s really sad that the only thing that the only song of mine that the .net knows is …

Dec 7, 2005: I met the Queen of Iowa I met the Queen of Iowa, She was dying on a couch in the suburbs. And of all the things she was dying of, She was more alive than the others… …

Dec 5, 2005: So much to say... So Saturday night was the Behold the Lamb concert in Cedar Rapids. As you know if you read my previous post, I was the runner for the day. And what a …

Dec 2, 2005: ok, so I'm a little bit excited... Tomorrow the Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb Christmas tour is hitting Cedar Rapids! I couldn’t believe it when I first heard about it months …

Nov 30, 2005: I got accepted. Well, so I still haven’t received the official “you’re invited for an interview” letter from the FAA. However, I got a phone …

Nov 29, 2005: Things aren't right I’ve been reading several different books recently, and a discussion with Becky last night brought a bunch of them together in a way that helped …

Nov 25, 2005: the blessings of a holiday This holiday weekend we have left Iowa and headed to Wisconsin to visit my family. Thanksgiving with family is a great time; we have all of our …

Nov 19, 2005: I've moved... If you are reading this post, you’re reading it from my new web address: www.thehubbs.net/chris/. This is the beginning of an effort to pull all …

Nov 16, 2005: I got accepted... I think... I got a letter from the FAA today inviting me to the DER seminar down in Wichita in January. Strangely enough, I still haven’t received a letter …

Nov 14, 2005: it's basketball time... My first basketball league of the season starts tonight. I’m really looking forward to it. I know my shooting touch will be rusty; I …

Nov 12, 2005: It's cold and grey outside... …and I had been planning on doing yard work. I did a little bit this morning (ran the mower on the front yard and filled up five and a half …

Nov 11, 2005: Ender's Game I am a voracious reader of fiction. I read a good bit of non-fiction, too, but fictional thrillers and sci-fi are my chance to escape for a while, so …

Oct 31, 2005: feeling young Last night we had a neighborhood potluck dinner, organized by our next-door neighbors. It was a bit chilly outside, but fun to go to something like …

Oct 27, 2005: "A Separate Peace" Peggy Noonan writes a somber column today. An excerpt: I think there is an unspoken subtext in our national political culture right now. In fact I …

Oct 24, 2005: and he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again... Last week Becky and I were able to leave Laura with my folks and take a couple days of vacation up to Door County, Wisconsin. We’d never been …

Oct 19, 2005: priorities of time I wrestled in an earlier post with issues of time and busyness. I’m still wrestling with it. I think I’m making progress this time… …

Oct 18, 2005: So I call you my country, and I'll be lonely for my home And the coal trucks come a-runnin' With their bellies full of coal And their big wheels a-hummin' Down this road that lies open like the soul of a …

Oct 17, 2005: it's a Monday... …and stuff is a bit crazy here at work. Fortunately for me, I’m taking vacation this afternoon to help a friend move, and then Wednesday …

Oct 12, 2005: OLN Hockey Blackout Yesterday night I sat down in front of the TV, looking forward to watching a hockey game. The Dallas Stars were playing the Phoenix Coyotes, and …

Oct 10, 2005: more odds and ends I’m getting a cold. I’d forgotten how much I hate colds. You can’t breathe, and your throat feels nasty. I’m thinking I might …

Oct 5, 2005: Happy Birthday sis! My little sister Rebecca (the youngest of us 5 kids) turns 18 today! Wow. Now I feel old. :-) Happy Birthday, sis, and don’t go out and do …

Oct 4, 2005: Noelridge Park Church So, after months of planning, debating, and voting, we finally have a new name for our church. Formerly Noelridge Baptist Church, we are now Noelridge …

Oct 3, 2005: The first time I've ever played a concert with somebody riding a cow in the background... Last Saturday afternoon I got to see Andrew Peterson and Andy Osenga in concert at “Cornfest” in Clermont, IA. Clermont is a little bitty …

Sep 29, 2005: I'm full! I was remembering those Taco Bell ads the other day - the ones where a guy eats a burrito or something, and then comes out and reports in the glorious …

Sep 28, 2005: a general arrrrrgh... and then woohoo! I’ll come up with a more thoughtful post one of these days, I promise. But for now, more boring information! :-) I’ve been trying to get …

Sep 22, 2005: Serendipity ser·en·dip·i·ty n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties 1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. 2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries. 3. …

Sep 20, 2005: The Present Future, and associated thoughts I just finished reading The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. He is a SBC pastor who uses this book to challenge …

Sep 19, 2005: The church name is changing! After months of prayer, planning, and discussion, we took a congregational vote last night of intent to change the church name. The question …

Sep 15, 2005: fun with guitars So yesterday I took my guitar in to see about getting the pickup fixed. Let me back up. I have a Takamine Acoustic/Electric that my folks got for me …

Sep 15, 2005: in another life, I would like to be... I keep a little running list of things I’d like to do if I had another life to live. Not that I’m complaining about my life now - …

Sep 12, 2005: my blog is boring Becky was bored the other day and reading over some blogs (something she doesn’t do very often), and after about an hour she informed my that my …

Sep 6, 2005: feel the beat of a distant thunder... I have a confession to make. I had been avoiding purchasing Andrew Peterson’s latest album. I don’t know exactly why; I think I had …

Sep 2, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 26 I received my OfficeMax gift card yesterday in the mail. It was accompanied by a cheesy little letter telling me how sorry they were that my PDA …

Sep 1, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 25 Still counting. Maybe I’ll get my gift card before the holiday weekend… but that may be too much to hope for. I sent an inquiry last week …

Aug 31, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 24 Today I missed my first event due to not having a PDA to beep at me… I was supposed to meet a friend for breakfast at 6:30 and I totally spaced …

Aug 30, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 23 Still nothin'. On another warranty replacement topic, I remembered this morning that the Countryman E6 microphone that broke on me has been in for …

Aug 29, 2005: The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers On my last visit to the local library, I found a slim volume on the “new books” shelf: The Simple Faith Of Mister Rogers, by Amy …

Aug 29, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 22 Date I started the process: August 6. Days since I called to start the process: 22. Days since I sent the dead PDA in: 11. Assuming a 4-day USPS trip …

Aug 26, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 19 Almost three weeks now and still nothin'. Geof suggests I should skip the Tungsten and go for a Treo. I suppose that’s an option, although if …

Aug 25, 2005: Worship Team changes... We had our first worship team practice using individual microphones last night. Currently, we just have one condenser mic on each side of the stage …

Aug 25, 2005: Odds and Ends Just miscellaneous stuff from my life today. I got my DSL modem hooked up last night so the Casa de Cakeboy is now surfing the web at high speed and …

Aug 25, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 18 Nothing to report again today. Still waiting.

Aug 23, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 16 Nothing to report. I have meetings all morning this morning and would love to have the PDA for note-taking and boredom-reduction. Oh well… On …

Aug 22, 2005: not all that amusing: a review of Chris Rice's new CD I pre-ordered Chris Rice’s new album, amusing, back a couple of months ago when it was advertised by eb+flo. This is Chris’s first album …

Aug 22, 2005: My CD wish list OK, I’ll admit it: I have a CD-buying habit. It’s not as destructive or expensive as many other habits I could have, but it still drives …

Aug 22, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 15 Yes, it’s been over two weeks now since I first took my dead PDA in to get it replaced. If their estimates hold up, sometime around Labor Day I …

Aug 19, 2005: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 12 No events to report today. It is starting to drive me crazy not having my PDA. I didn’t realize how much I rely on it for calendar and …

Aug 18, 2005: Come On! Feel The Illinoise! There have been a ton of reviews of Sufjan Stevens' new album, [Illinois], floating around lately. I hadn’t heard any of his music, and after …

Aug 17, 2005: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 11 Sent the package off yesterday afternoon… it’s headed to Dallas. I’m guessing the good ol' US Postal Service should have it there …

Aug 16, 2005: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 10 My prepaid mailing label came in the mail yesterday, so last night after softball I went to get everything boxed up. Needing to send along a copy of …

Aug 15, 2005: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 9 (part 2) My dear wife informs me that the mailing label came today. You can bet I’ll be shipping that puppy out tomorrow; don’t want to be the …

Aug 15, 2005: the sweet relief of work completed Last week was killer. I had soooo much to do. I’ve talked about this already so I won’t go on and on again. It all went really well. The …

Aug 15, 2005: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 9 Note from Chris: I’m not usually this bitter… but I’m taking no small pleasure in the fact that this blog is the first Google hit …

Aug 12, 2005: a busy weekend I haven’t posted much this week… it’s been just a bit on the busy side. There’s been plenty to do at work, which means little …

Aug 6, 2005: I bet I'll be missing some meetings... My Palm Pilot died yesterday. OK, so they don’t call it a Palm Pilot anymore; mine is actually the Palm Tungsten E. It has served me faithfully …

Aug 6, 2005: the great escape act I haven’t written many (any?) posts on my first year’s worth of experience as a parent… not sure why. But there was one little …

Jul 28, 2005: DER Conference, Day 3 Today was the third and final day of the conference here in Norfolk. The conference itself was uneventful; heard a few presentations on the committees …

Jul 27, 2005: DER Conference, Day 2 Another day in Norfolk, more of the conference. Fun fun. Today was “breakout sessions”, which means they had 4 different sessions going at …

Jul 26, 2005: DER Conference, Day 1 Today was the first day of the DER software conference (excuse me, the official title is the “FY2005 Software/Complex Electronic Hardware …

Jul 25, 2005: On the road... I’m writing tonight from a hotel room in Norfolk, VA… I’m here to attend the 2005 FAA Software DER conference. I’m not …

Jul 21, 2005: wait, don't work on it yet... It never fails. I start working on a not-approved-yet-but-probably-OK change request today, and after about an hour of code modification the …

Jul 21, 2005: Randall Goodgame, where have you been all my life? Tuesday I found a bootleg concert recording of Randall Goodgame opening for Caedmon’s Call in Minot, ND. I’d never heard his music before; …

Jul 20, 2005: nothing is constant except change It has been one of those summers at church. We had a leadership meeting last night (to review: I am the worship leader and an elder apprentice) where …

Jul 18, 2005: a busy week... This upcoming week is gonna be a hum-dinger. Tonight is softball, first umping, then playing. Tuesday night is a church leadership meeting. Wednesday …

Jul 14, 2005: occasional down time Don’t be surprised if you see occasional downtime on my blog here over the next several days; the server on which it runs has been under attack …

Jul 11, 2005: The day I became Fred's hero I don’t know what triggered this memory today… but I might as well tell the story while I’m thinking about it. I was in my third …

Jul 8, 2005: Sahara Last night we had a babysitter available and so we went to the cheap seats theater in town and watched Sahara. It is loosely based on the novel of the …

Jul 5, 2005: A nice weekend Normally I don’t do a lot of “here’s what I did with my weekend”-type posts, but it was a nice weekend, so since I need to …

Jun 25, 2005: A little less wise Thursday morning I had the delightful experience of having 4 wisdom teeth removed. It’s the first real dental work I’ve ever had to have …

Jun 21, 2005: Cakeboy? Who the heck is Cakeboy? In a comment sometime back, Amber asked about the whole House of Cakeboy title. While I may rename this blog at some time in the future, it’s …

Jun 17, 2005: Time to start studying I have set upon a new endeavor at work: I am applying to become a DER. A brief explanation is in order, since probably none of my readers are familiar …

Jun 13, 2005: I should have my geek status revoked As I noted in my post to Mr. Murphy a week or so ago, I’ve been having problems with the new projector at church. I talked to the tech support …

Jun 13, 2005: new horizons in wife appreciation Becky went to a women’s retreat this weekend. She left Friday afternoon and didn’t get back until Saturday night. It was my first real …

Jun 10, 2005: boredom This has definitely been one of those boring weeks, especially as far as work is concerned. As I wrote about before, I have been assigned to be the …

Jun 9, 2005: The process of the Christian life... Was reading today and found this wonderful quote from Martin Luther describing the process of the Christian life. It challenges and encourages …

Jun 9, 2005: What's in a name? We’re holding some church leadership strategy meetings this summer, and one of the big topics is the proposal that we change the name of our …

Jun 6, 2005: Mr. Murphy works on Sundays Mr. Murphy and his dang-blasted law were working busily yesterday. It was certainly one of those mornings. It started off innocently enough, just …

Jun 4, 2005: random Saturday thoughts So, it' 8:30 on Saturday morning and I’m sitting here in the dining room watching Laura finish her breakfast. Her normal schedule is 16 oz of …

Jun 2, 2005: are you trying to teach me something? Within the last 7 days I’ve heard three separate sermons from the same passage. This doesn’t happen all the time. Well, for starters, …

Jun 2, 2005: ...and the streak is at 6 You gotta love the Chicago Cubs. They brought a guy up from Triple-A to start last night’s game against the Dodgers, and he gets a win in his …

Jun 1, 2005: Musical Baton And so today the musical baton was passed to me by Jeff Holland. It seems like a fun idea, but it will be agonizing to have to make some of these …

May 31, 2005: Moody Review: Gary Haugen Gary Haugen spoke to us last Tuesday afternoon at the pastor’s conference at Moody. Gary is the president of the International Justice Mission, …

May 27, 2005: Home! I got home early this morning… 1:45 AM. It’s sure good to be home. Everything’s pretty much the same as when I left, but the grass …

May 27, 2005: Moody Conference, Day 4 It’s Thursday afternoon and the conference is winding down. There’s only one general session left, and while there is anticipation to hear …

May 24, 2005: Moody Observations, Day 2 Amber liked my attempt at a descriptive writing post yesterday so I thought I’d give it another go. Just more observations from the Moody …

May 24, 2005: Moody Conference Day 2 It’s 1:10 PM and I’m skipping a general session to sit and write. Richard described this conference as “trying to get a drink of …

May 23, 2005: Moody Conference Day 1 Monday, May 23rd 3:30 PM Richard picked me up at the house at 8:20 or so this morning. Said goodbye to Becky, Laura, and Becky’s parents and …

May 20, 2005: longest... day... ever... Wow, the day is getting long and it’s not even 1030 yet. I’m in a wrap-up mode at work; I’m taking vacation next week, and when I …

May 19, 2005: Happy Birthday Andrew! Today is my brother Andrew’s 19th birthday. A big happy birthday to you, bro, with hopes for many more happy ones!

May 18, 2005: here goes nothin' Yesterday afternoon my manager walked in and asked me if I’d like to become a software lead for an upcoming project. It’s a move up, of …

May 16, 2005: she's graduated! This weekend was my sister Rebecca’s high school graduation. She’s the youngest of us 5 kids, and the only girl, which means she’s …

May 16, 2005: Music, family style... for real. Well, the long-awaited Sunday finally got here and I got to play keyboards in the worship team at my family’s church with my brother Andrew …

May 12, 2005: Call me Mr. Fix-it No, this isn’t a home-improvement post… It’s more of a dealing-with-being-a-man-and-an-engineer post. :-) One of the things …

May 11, 2005: I've been replaced by a machine! At least for Sunday, that is… I was unable to wrangle up a musician for the Sunday service, so my next option is to record my piano-playing on …

May 10, 2005: I need a musician... …any musician. One of the downsides of being the music leader at a small church is that it’s hard to find a replacement when you’re …

May 9, 2005: a busy month... Well that personality thing was kinda boring, wasn’t it? You, reader, deserve a real, human-written post, and I am now here to give it to you. …

May 4, 2005: making music, family style OK, I’m excited. I just finished talking to my brother Andrew. He is almost 19, has been playing on the worship team at his church (Richland …

May 4, 2005: "energy dependence" Another day, another NRO column to comment on. Today it’s Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren arguing on the “myths” of energy …

May 2, 2005: softball starts tonight! Our first softball game of the season is tonight. I’m soooo much looking forward to it. It’ll be nasty conditions for playing - probably …

Apr 29, 2005: zzzzzzzzz..... OK, so it’s Friday afternoon, and I’m bored. I’ve hit the end of the task list for work today, and nobody else has updated their …

Apr 28, 2005: The war by? on? Christians in America... Stanley Kurtz has an excellent (if a bit long) column today discussing the current edition of Harper’s Magazine - cover story: “The …

Apr 27, 2005: bleary eyed I know I owe everybody a blog post (it’s been a couple days… time to keep writing) but it’s been pretty slow around here lately. My …

Apr 25, 2005: sticking to our guns Ned Rice has a great column today on NRO where he makes a strong argument that the folks whining about the lack of liberalism in the new pope should …

Apr 25, 2005: slowly getting more out of touch... I have this “movies I’ve watched recently” link section on the side of the blog. I intended to list movies that I saw in the theater …

Apr 25, 2005: well, no projects this weekend... So the weather intervened this weekend and I didn’t do any outside projects… apparently a high of 50 with the wind 25 mph from the north …

Apr 22, 2005: projects Springtime has finally arrived in Iowa, and that means that the weekends become project time. That also means that it’s time for my annual …

Apr 19, 2005: softball..... finally! We had our first softball practice of the season last night. It was a beautiful night to be out, and fun to put the glove back on and play some catch. …

Apr 18, 2005: preaching on short notice... It had been planned for about a month that I would fill the pulpit at my church on April 24th. Then about a week ago I got asked if I could switch to …

Apr 14, 2005: nowadays the world is lit by lightning Peggy Noonan (one of my long-time favorite columnists, and a devout Roman Catholic) has a column today on OpinionJournal in which she crafts a tale of …

Apr 13, 2005: softball... I starting reading some of the other rmfo blogs and found David’s post on softball. I’m quite jealous that his season has already started; …

Apr 11, 2005: it's a blog... I’ve made the switch today from my old blogger.com blog to my new rmfo-blogs.com blog. Don’t get too confused; this blog hasn’t …

Apr 11, 2005: Thanks Geof! Well it’s better than the old “hello world” message… :-) Thanks to GFM for setting me up with this blog. Now I’ve got …

Apr 6, 2005: the joys of web design... I’ve been on a web page design kick lately. First it was with my church’s web page. The updates I made to it never hit the web; you can …

Mar 29, 2005: elder = older? I’ve had several conversations lately regarding the qualifications for being an elder in the church, specifically in regard to how much a …

Mar 23, 2005: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places... A book by this title was given to my by my pastor last week; we are “kindred readers” with an affinity for Eugene Peterson’s …

Mar 15, 2005: another year older... Has it really been 3 weeks since I’ve posted? Good grief! No wonder nobody reads my blog… Well, we’ll make this a general …

Feb 19, 2005: Are online friends weird? I spend quite a bit of time hanging out at the online message board called “The Rumor Forum”. It is a group of people who are loosely …

Jan 27, 2005: Foolish? “God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and He has not been disappointed.” This …

Jan 17, 2005: Old music... great memories So I got an iPod for Christmas… and of course the next task is ripping all of my CDs to mp3s so I can put them on the iPod. That was a task in …

Jan 14, 2005: OK, so I'm not posting often enough... Or so my sister tells me. Of course, she’s 17, a senior in highschool, and has the time to keep up her blog. But the least I can do is actually …

Dec 7, 2004: getting older... It’s a weird thing to get older; and then in a way it’s the most natural thing we ever do, since we’re all doing it all the time. …

Nov 22, 2004: network downtime... This morning we are experiencing one of those fun office moments known as “network downtime”. Nobody can get logged in and even if you can …

Nov 15, 2004: another week, another concert... After thinking things couldn’t get better from last week’s Caedmon’s Call concert, last Friay I took my wife to see Derek Webb at …

Nov 8, 2004: an excellent concert... Went with my brother Ryan to a Caedmon’s Call concert Friday night at Judson College in Elgin, IL. It was my first time seeing Caedmon’s …

Nov 3, 2004: it's over.... To quote John Derbyshire, YEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAA! The election is over. Kerry conceded without putting up a big fight. No big lawsuits. No big charges …

Nov 1, 2004: Death by Advertising... Well it’s the day before the national elections and living in Iowa that means we’re finally near the end of interminable political …

Oct 29, 2004: My second post... Seems like I should have something profound for the first blog entries, and I can’t think of anything. Oh well, I guess I can just jump right in …

Oct 29, 2004: This is my first post... Well the blog is here and now I have to actually maintain it. We’ll give it a try, though.