: 2026 Reads: And the Dragons Do Come Raising a Transgender Kid in Rural America by Sim Butler 📚 A …
: 2026 Reads: Prairie Fires The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser 📚 Having …
: An amazing collapse by the Spurs. 76 points in the first half and only 30 in the second. Kudos to …
: This just in: #WNBA officiating is still hot garbage.
: 2026 Reads: The Violins of Saint-Jacques by Patrick Leigh Fermor 📚
: Ran the 10k this morning as a part of the Cedar Rapids Marathon Weekend. 21st overall, first in my …
: 2026 Reads: God’s Homecoming by N. T. Wright 📚 Wright’s prose is clear as ever, his theology fine, …
: The Cubs disaster continues… sports.apple.com/event/umc…
: 2026 Reads: A Systematic Theology of Love - God and Creation by Thomas Oord 📚
: The #Cubs are such a disaster. For two weeks the offense couldn’t manage to score. Tonight they …
: A Little More on Reconstruction In my last post I talked in a round-about way about reconstruction. My post garnered a few comments …
: I dream about something like this happening when I’m in the audience. So cool. …
: What a lovely morning for a run! I’m happy with those reverse splits, too. Dialing it in this week …
: Back in early April we were looking at our calendar and saying “we just have to make it through …
: 2026 Reads: Beyond the Empire by K. B. Wagers 📚 Books 2 and 3 could’ve used some significant …
: Reconstructing I’ve got some threads to weave together here, and I’m not sure as I start just how they’ll go, but …
: 2026 Reads: After the Crown by K. B. Wagers 📚 Not as strong as the first one but I still loved it.
: I never thought I’d feel sympathy for Rory Kinnear playing a British Prime Minister after his turn …
: My next post is gonna demonstrate that I’m waaaaay behind on some popular media, but stick with me …
: Andrew Peterson's Ragamuffin concert live recording - some thoughts Last time I was on an airplane I started playing the live recording of Andrew Peterson’s Rich …
: Cubs lose ignominiously to the Pirates 12-1, dropping their 10th game in a row. Oof.
: It’s a short work week, but it’s a travel work week. CID ✈️ DEN ✈️ SEA Let’s do this.
: Yesterday at church a friend who is an editor for Random House was talking about editing a new …
: Working to set up a new iPad for my MIL. Going from an 8-year-old iPad still running iPadOS 17 to a …
: So far this morning: assembled cinnamon rolls from last night’s dough left them to rise 5.5 mile run …
: One of these years I’ll become a good Episcopalian and get a decent red shirt to wear on Pentecost. …
: 2026 Reads: Howards End by E. M. Forster 📚
: 2026 Reads: Book of Lives A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood 📚 Marvelously written. Shouldn’t be …
: Just heard from our youngest daughter that she got her ACT score back: 36 composite. Holy cow.
: Absolutely monster game for Wembanyama. 41 points and 24 rebounds? Incredible.
: And it’s done! This is the third jazz album cover cross stitch I’ve completed. Really enjoyed doing …
: 2026 Reads: Behind the Throne by K. B. Wagers 📚 Unabashedly loved this one.
: Modern life: cruising at 36,000 feet above Montana, watching the NBA playoffs live on the seatback …
: A year from now it’ll be us with the cross-country move to the PNW. We will blessedly have a …
: In the past 10 days I have driven 2,000 miles, 1200 of which were in a large moving truck, attended …
: Originally planned the Rapid City -> Portland trip to move our daughter as a 3-day drive with the …
: Day 1 of the road trip to move our college grad to her new home. Rapid City, SD to Bozeman, MT. Not …
: 2026 Reads: Unseen Beings by Erik Jampa Andersson 📚
: Packing up the moving truck with the contents of my daughter’s apartment. Think we could’ve managed …
: At our daughter’s college grad today. Before the ceremony started they welcomed the 50-year alumni …
: 2026 Reads: When Women Were Dragons A Novel by Kelly Barnhill 📚
: And the Cubs walk off the Reds for the third night in a row. Amazing. #FlyTheW
: Had a very encouraging mutual ministry review tonight with our vestry, rector, and deacons. I have …
: Today felt like the calm before the storm. Tomorrow and Tuesday: busy busy. Then: 2 days of driving, …
: 2026 Reads: Accidental Pluralism America and the Religious Politics of English Expansion, 1497-1662 …
: 2026 Reads: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis 📚 Wasn’t too sure about this one but the last …
: Home after my week-long trip and seem to have picked up a cold. Was supposed to be at our vestry …
: Unbelievably, I have more leg room in this CRJ700 for the quick hop home than I did on an old …
: It’s been a good and busy week in Long Beach. And now it’s 4:45 Pacific and I’ve been up for almost …
: CID ✈️ PHX ✈️ LAX Getting an early start on the work week. Let’s do this.
: 2026 Reads: The Unmapping by Denise S. Robbins 📚 Interesting idea, bad execution.
: It is the perfect Iowa spring day: 70F, light breeze, sunshine. Started this morning with a 10k+ …
: It was way too late for this old guy to stay up for, but the highlights from the Cubs-Dodgers game …
: New from me: an updated book logging site to track my reading! The last few weeks I have been working on a fun little side project to redo my book logging website. …
: Well, the Cubs made it harder than they needed to, but showed good resilience. Walked it off in the …
: Stoked to wake up and see that the Dallas Stars took game three in 2OT, in a game that didn’t end …
: 2026 Reads: Breakneck by Dan Wang 📚
: Years of church music ministry come in handy: got to the high school for NHS induction ceremony and …
: Today in health insurance fun: the insurance company’s website has a 10x price difference for one of …
: After hearing enough chatter about the band Goose, I turned one of their albums on today, and I …
: The weather is just too nice… went out for my run over the lunch hour today. Ran my second mile in …
: My MIL is coming from NC to visit us here in Iowa for a month or so. I’ll be out of town for work at …
: Rewatching MAS*H and really struck this time by how much Alan Alda is doing his best Groucho Marx. …
: Yesterday after work the weather was nice to go for a run. I’ve been doing a lot of 3 and 4 mile …
: Leah Libresco Sargeant: "And Jesus, looking at him, loved him..." I’ve been talking about the idea of universal reconciliation at my church’s adult forum the past two …
: Well, Dallas is getting their butts handed to them by the Minnesota Wild here in Game 1. Not the …
: Went on a long run yesterday afternoon, stayed up too last last night, guess I shouldn’t be …
: But wait, what’s this? If I launch Chrome from the command line like so it won’t enforce a minimum …
: Now I start asking myself questions like “how hard would it be to vibe code an app that just opens a …
: I let Google Chrome update and now my Chrome web apps (deck.blue, Mastodon) have wider minimum …
: Bullet Points for Tuesday Lunchtime It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so hey, why not my favorite format for catching up? Last Sunday …
: 2026 Reads: Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss 📚
: Nice to see the Artemis mission end uneventfully. Pretty anticlimactic waiting for 90 minutes after …
: Ugh, Shota throws 6 no-hit innings, then Thielbar comes in and in the span of 4 pitches gives up 2 …
: #Wordle 1,756 3/6* ⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛ 🟩🟨🟨🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #YoungPups
: Took a close look at my calendar and realized I will be home for 5 days betwen April 26 and May 21. …
: 2026 Reads: Nightfaring by Megan Eaves-Egenes 📚 Thought provoking and lovely. Really enjoyed this …
: Sheesh, only two weeks into the regular season and the Cubs already have their top two starting …
: Amazing game by UCLA today. Suddenly I’m feeling not so bad about how they smacked Iowa around the …
: My new MacBook Neo showed up this afternoon. So far, I’m pretty impressed. Especially at the price …
: Cheering for Illinois tonight not so much because they’re in the Big Ten, but because Dan Hurley is …
: Hmmm so I have an M2 iPad Pro that I use every day, and the battery life is getting bad. Put ~$200 …
: So, Project Hail Mary was… mid. Couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be Interstellar or Guardians of …
: Well, our kid’s team didn’t place in the Top 12 in the state Mock Trial competition, but one of …
: The UConn Buzzer-Beater Was A Flawless Short Film Great little analysis of the excellent TV …
: In Des Moines today and tomorrow for the state high school Mock Trial contest. Youngest daughter’s …
: 2026 Reads: Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser 📚 Quite …
: Had a nice week of work travel which included my official installation as a Senior Technical Fellow …
: Back to the PNW for work this week! Blessedly the travel here was uneventful.
: How about those Hawkeyes! Thought they’re re gonna let it slip away but that Folgueiras kid had ice …
: That Nebraska - Vandy game is one of the best in recent memory. Amazing energy, a bonkers …
: 2026 Reads: Godric: A Novel by Frederick Buechner 📚
: This is a particularly mean subject line to send on a Saturday.
: 16 years ago, this girl turned 1 and her fearless, indomitable spirit was already evident. Today she …
: Spring in Iowa: went out for a run after work. Short sleeves & shorts, sweating like crazy. Having …
: Also: that was my first post sharing directly from Inkwell. Very convenient. I’ve been using Inkwell …
: Calvinism vs Arminianism: Anxiety Shifting Falling from Grace: Part 3, High-Handed Sin: Calvinism has never been immune from anxiety, given how …
: We are down to one teenager in the family! With today’s birthday, A19 will henceforth be known as …
: ”You better hold on to something” - a few thoughts on Train Dreams I’ve been trying to see all the Best Picture nominees before the Oscars go out, and tonight I caught …
: Working logistics to get us and our younger two kids and my MIL out to Rapid City for the oldest …
: Well, the Iowa women have had a great basketball season, but they are getting embarrassed by UCLA …
: I’ve now seen 4.5 of the Best Picture nominees: Sinners, Hamnet, OBAA, Bugonia, and started Marty …
: The latest episode of our church’s podcast was our best yet, I think: a conversation with our former …
: Big blessings: just heard from our oldest that she has accepted a job offer that will have her …
: 2026 Reads: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker 📚 Delightful.
: I know Apple has a history of ugly beta OSs, but this latest iPadOS 26.4 beta apparently broke the …
: Well, my Now Page was overdue for an update. Blew the dust off and freshened it up a bit.
: Taking some training at my new job that is very similar to courses I used to teach at my old job. …
: 2026 Reads: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers 📚 I unabashedly love Becky Chambers’ …
: Bullet Points for 3 weeks at a new job Today wraps up the third week of my new job at Boeing. After 26+ years at Collins, a new job is a …
: I see a lot of gushing over Ben Sasse’s latest interviews, and while I am sorry he’s dying, I have a …
: Monday it was 68F and I went for a nice run outside. Today: Yeah, it’s still an Iowa winter.
: Did somebody just hijack the Wall Street Journal’s feed? 🤔
: #Wordle 1,704 3/6* ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟩🟨⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #YoungPups I feel pretty good about that one.
: On the super-optimistic side of the AI discussion: Solve Everything. I haven’t gotten close to …
: Filled a gap in my Coen Brothers filmography tonight by finally getting to The Hudsucker Proxy. That …
: Thomas Talbott on the parallels between God's love for humans and a parent's love for a child I’m reading back through Thomas Talbott’s The Inescapable Love of God, and I love this bit of …
: #Wordle 1,697 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟩 🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Not bad.
: Didn’t realize how slow it was getting at my old job until I started a new job and for more than a …
: 2026 Reads: The Inescapable Love of God by Thomas Talbott 📚 Another re-read in prep for some talks …
: Gospel or Grift? One more quote from David W. Congdon’s Varieties of Christian Universalism, this one from Congdon …
: A great week in Seattle getting going as a new employee at Boeing. Also great to be headed to the …
: Barth: Christians as a living promise to the unbelieving world I’m re-reading David W. Congdon’s Varieties of Christian Universalism in preparation for doing some …
: In Seattle (well, Everett) to start my new job this morning. Aviation safety is a small world, …
: Cleaning out my last couple of desk drawers on my last day at this job. I’m excited about the new …
: 2026 Reads: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami 📚 Pretty heavy handed and a little too on the nose for …
: After a long dalliance with lazily streaming music, I’m working through cleaning up tags and …
: A little personal news: this week is my last week at Collins Aerospace after nearly 27 years here. …
: Asking the hard questions: not a crisis of faith, but rooted in faith Later this year I’ll be teaching for 3 weeks at our church’s adult forum on the topic of Christian …
: 2026 Reads: God After Einstein by John F. Haught 📚 Very disappointed with this one. Tedious and …
: Ah, here’s the January weather we’d been missing in Iowa. -3F, feels like -23F this morning. Couple …
: 2026 Reads: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd 📚
: Saw Chris Thile play tonight at The Englert in Iowa City. That guy is the real deal. Wowza.
: My favorite cover of Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees: The Normals Hard to believe this video is 25 years old at this point.
: The plan for today: Gym ✅ Work Record a podcast Dinner with my wife at a new (to us) restaurant Go …
: Last night: vestry. Tonight: library board!
: Love my AirPods Pro 3’s but this morning was the second time I’ve had them in the case overnight …
: For the Vestry meeting approving the annual budget and policy updates prior to the parish meeting, …
: Unbelievable second half between the Bears and Packers. What a comeback. There will be football at …
: 2026 Reads: Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence …
: 2026 Reads: Katabasis by R. F. Kuang 📚
: When "Christian Parenting" leaves families without the skills for actual relationships Just had one of those “wait, what did they say?” followed by quickly skipping back, re-listening to …
: [Link] Pushing an Anti-Trans Agenda is Telling On Yourself I appreciated this post from Todd at anarch.dev yesterday: Pushing an Anti-Trans Agenda is Telling …
: Our church launched a new podcast yesterday. Interesting to see some quick Day 1 statistics. As a …
: For Epiphany: Brian Zahnd's Meditation on the Magi I really appreciated Brian Zahnd’s meditation on the Magi this morning. Riffing off of T. S. Eliot’s …
: Congrats to UW-River Falls on winning the D3 football national championship! North Central had only …
: Steelers/Ravens looks like a good game, but this D3 championship game between UW-River Falls and …
: Headed to a funeral this morning for our long-time neighbor who died last week. A delightful man who …
: Back in the office this morning after two solid weeks off. The break was nice. Today is a quiet …
: Really nice win for the #Iowa women’s basketball team over a very good Nebraska squad. Love the post …
: My 2025 Reading in Review If you’d asked me about my year in reading, I would’ve said I didn’t feel like I’d read that many …
: 2025 Reads: And the Mighty Will Fall by K. B. Wagers 📚 I have enjoyed the NeoG series. An …
: 2025 Reads: Nightmare Obscura by Michelle Carr 📚 Fascinating stuff.
: Last night at this time it was mid-40s F outside and I had a nice walk with my kid. Tonight it’s 15F …
: 2025 Reads: The Bottom of the Harbor by Joseph Mitchell 📚 Beautiful essays capturing portraits of a …
: 2025 Reads: The Spirit of Hope by Byung-Chul Han 📚 There’s a lot to chew on here. Hope as an …
: 2025 Reads: The Alteration by Kingsley Amis 📚 Not really reading this on Christmas Eve night… just …
: So far today I have procured breakfast, hit the gym, read a book, eaten lunch, watched a Christmas …
: 2025 Reads: Dead Money by Jakob Kerr 📚 A very solid, twisty thriller. Recommended.
: 2025 Reads: On Repentance And Repair by Danya Ruttenberg 📚 Brief, clear, and profound.
: Listened back to a podcast discussion I was on and realized how frequently I’m using the word …
: Thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet for making me aware of this: a new Sixpence None the Richer Tiny Desk …
: I am a couple years behind on this one, but Sufjan Stevens’ instrumental album Reflections is my …
: Hit Guitar Center yesterday for a cable and they had a Nord Stage 4 out to demo. What a beautiful …
: Watched: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery 🍿 Even if I hadn’t already known that Rian Johnson …
: I got new AirPods Pro 3s last week. I love the amount of detail I’m hearing now in the music I …
: Love the new glasses, hate the 2-3 days of wearing them it takes to get my eyes and brain to adjust …
: New glasses! It’s been a few years.
: Back for one week in the office before two weeks off for holidays. Let’s do this.
: 2025 Reads: The Human Being by Walter Wink 📚
: The Nebraska women continue their dominance through the NCAA volleyball tournament. They just picked …
: Just managed to snag tickets to see Bob Dylan in March. I mean, the guy is old, but he’s Bob …
: It’s hard to get morning runs in when you’re on work travel, especially in the winter. Finally but …
: Well, Iowa - Iowa State was a heckuva women’s basketball game. Audi Crooks is a FORCE. Hawks kept it …
: In DC this week for work. Sounds cool, in reality is sitting in meetings all day for 3 days in a row …
: My old AppleTV HD (2015) is starting to feel very slow. Would be happy to replace it but the current …
: 2025 Reads: We Did Ok, Kid by Anthony Hopkins 📚 I’ve enjoyed Hopkins since seeing him in The Remains …
: Apparently there are vendors now that will make custom tropical shirt fabric prints; my department …
: My One Album a Day for yesterday—which I’m just catching up to this morning—is Blues Breakers with …
: 2025 Reads: The Door by Magda Szabo 📚 Stunning writing. Phew.
: This essay “Evangelicalism: A Love Story” is lovely writing. But the author works hard to redefine …
: This is not usually how wine gets discussed at the office... I attended a Town Hall meeting at work today where the president of our business and his staff …
: Today’s One Album A Day for me is Emperor Tomato Ketchup from Stereolab. There’s no way I would’ve …
: Easing back in to the office after a week out. Just three work weeks left this year… let’s do this.
: Last year we didn’t get snow until after Christmas. This year: on Thanksgiving weekend. I’m guessing …
: Had Jesus Never Lived… “Truth is, had Jesus never lived, we could not have invented him.” A remarkably persuasive thought …
: Well, the Nebraska football team may have gotten trounced by Iowa, but the Husker volleyball team …
: The Winter Storm Warning for tomorrow has been upgraded to 10-14” of wet, heavy snow. We’re prepared …
: 2025 Reads: Strike Three You’re Dead by R. D. Rosen 📚
: With just three of us here for Thanksgiving and not all big fans of turkey, we went out for Chinese …
: I got to talk at our evening service yesterday about how Jesus takes our conceptions of “what a king …
: 2025 Reads: Inverted World by Christopher Priest 📚
: Good grief, qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix and it’s… raining in Vegas? And Lewis Hamilton …
: After today, I only have 11 days left in the office this year. (I have a week of business travel in …
: 2025 Reads: Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith 📚
: Jersak: the immutability and impassability of God's love Just after posting yesterday and mentioning Thomas J. Oord in passing, Bradley Jersak’s “Cordial …
: Thanksgiving potluck at work today! Chicken Biryani isn’t an American Thanksgiving tradition but the …
: Zahnd: Believing in an interventionist God Brian Zahnd has a post today that I needed to hear: I Believe In An Interventionist God. In my …
: Familiar hymns, alternate tunes Yesterday in church we sang “My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less” as the recessional. But rather than …
: Another full Saturday judging speech & debate! Fun to see and hear some really excellent young …
: Our 96-year-old neighbor was admitted to the hospital last night and early (early!) this morning my …
: 2025 Reads: Brighton Rock by Graham Greene 📚
: I’m enjoying this 1001 Albums Generator. Each day it randomly selects one album from the classic …
: I was today years old when I realized the actual wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was only in 1975, a …
: My eBayed Shure SM7B showed up today. Looks legit still factory sealed but just has been sitting on …
: It’s been a long time since I was in the market for some IEMs. I have a set of Shure SE215s for 8 …
: Spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if a software update had completely hosed up my TCL RokuTV. …
: 2025 Reads: The Trees: A Novel by Percival Everett 📚
: I’ve spent a lifetime as an evangelical church musician, but this discussion of church music and …
: Planned to work remotely today but the VPN doesn’t want to let me login. This remote work might be …
: 2025 Reads: The Mercy of Gods by James S. A. Corey 📚
: This morning at church for All Saints we wrote names of departed beloved we wanted to remember. I …
: Against the Machine: Paul Kingsnorth’s dangerous, unjustified dream After hearing some online buzz about Paul Kingsnorth’s new book Against the Machine: On the Unmaking …
: Was really pulling for the Blue Jays but they just couldn’t get a hit when they needed one. Congrats …
: 2025 Reads: Against the Machine by Paul Kingsnorth 📚 Oh man, a lot of thoughts. Really disappointed …
: Well, cancelled my YouTubeTV subscription. Activated Hulu+LiveTV. A minor hassle needing to create a …
: Theology from love or terror? A couple dots I connected yesterday: while the explicit evangelical gospel message I grew up with …
: As of last night YouTubeTV pulled all Disney & ESPN content thanks to a contract dispute. I’ve used …
: Paul Kingsnorth’s book Against The Machine is the most thought-provoking thing I’ve read in a good …
: Richard Beck on loving Christianity (and really, loving certainty) more than loving Christ It’s been a while since I’ve linked a Richard Beck post, but man oh man does he nail it today with …
: Had good intentions of going to the gym this morning. Then I turned off my alarm and slept another …
: Doing squats at the gym is always deceptive for me. Never feel like I’ve pushed that hard at the …
: 18 innings? Phew, glad I didn’t try to stay up and watch the end of the game last night. Tired …
: Even better after a full day at speech and debate: my daughter took first place in the spontaneous …
: Spending the day in Des Moines at a high school speech and debate tournament. Judged a few of the …
: 2025 Reads: Holy Hurt by Hillary L. McBride, PhD 📚
: “When we set down what we had to believe in order to survive, what felt like our entire lives, …
: The effect of high-control environments on a child’s personal development Another quote from Holy Hurt that feels just a little too relevant: [I]n religious and family …
: Characteristics of Spiritual Control My therapist (himself an ordained minister) broadly sorts churches into two categories: churches …
: When you’re on a keto diet but your Indian co-workers host a Diwali potluck… keto can wait until …
: The scam of “Biblical Counseling” I knew I was skeptical of any usefulness of the “Biblical Counseling” that’s espoused by evangelical …
: I think maybe the cold front that came through overnight marks the actual start of the chilly part …
: 2025 Reads: Royal Gambit by Daniel O’Malley 📚 Enjoyed this one a lot.
: Well, Nebraska looks pretty bad tonight. Can’t make stops on defense, can’t protect the QB. …
: Just when I think I’m not that much of a nerd, I scroll through my podcast queue and decide that …
: 2025 Reads: Let Your Heartbreak Be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation by Adam Bucko 📚
: The best tech decision I've made in quite a while Back in June I decided to move my Emby media server off my Synology NAS and onto a dedicated box. …
: I haven’t really kept up with Sufjan Stevens in a long time, but this album of piano music …
: For the interested (or the truly bored), I gave a meditation on Luke 17:5-10 at church a couple …
: Started the morning with a 5.5-mile run in 53-degree weather. Still a little chilly after a shower …
: So does this mean that when Apple releases the rumored refresh of the AppleTV media player box, it’s …
: Watched: One Battle After Another 🍿 Caught up with this over the weekend. So timely. So well done.
: 2025 Reads: Peyton Place by Grace Metalious 📚
: Congrats to the Brewers on the series win. Good luck against those pesky Dodgers! Cubs’ bats went …
: Finally saw One Battle After Another this afternoon… such a timely film. Leo was great, Del Toro was …
: Started the day with a 4.5 mile run in 40F temps. Feeling it more now than I anticipated. Oof.
: Matthew Burdette: …the Christian must recover a relationship to time and to activity that is not …
: My media subscriptions, circa fall 2025 They say if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. Every time I review my media …
: A Meditation on the Mulberry Bush and the Mustard Seed (Luke 17) Update: Video link on YouTube I had the privilege last night to give the meditation during the …
: 2025 Reads: The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi 📚 Moves fast, not sure it fully holds …
: 2025 Reads: The Meaning of the Bible by Douglas A. Knight 📚
: Well, Nebraska’s offense didn’t look great for a lot of the game, but their special teams had …
: The #Cubs look exhausted early here. Boyd had nothing, Nico making an abnormal mistake. Take a deep …
: Bullpen made it a little too exciting in the ninth, but that’s a series win, and the #Cubs are on to …
: Wow: LDS church members create a GoFundMe to support the wife and medically-vulnerable son of the …
: I made it to the end of Middlemarch last night. It was… long. People who opine on such things say …
: 2025 Reads: Middlemarch by George Eliot 📚
: Ah, there’s fall finally coming. Just a couple weeks late.
: What a wonderful win for the #Cubs to start the wild card. Bullpen was magnificent, just enough …
: A few belated thoughts on Charlie Kirk It’s been not even three weeks yet since Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah. It’s been an …
: Back in the office today after a 4-day weekend trip. Let’s get to it!
: Taking a vacation day from work today - have a bunch to burn yet this year! Did a nice 5-mile run, …
: Now what? I am forty-eight years old. I have a successful career as an engineer, a happy marriage, three …
: Goodness, that’s my 68th book of the year and it’s not even the end of September. At this rate I …
: 2025 Reads: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 📚 My first time to read this. A classic for a reason. …
: After doing a more modern music-themed piece for my most recent cross-stitch, I’ve decided that …
: Aja Wilson may be the WNBA MVP again, but Kelsey Mitchell is showing the Aces how it’s done today. …
: 2025 Reads: The Hidden Universe by Alexandre Antonelli 📚
: Amazon Prime Video is such trash… they have Thursday Night Football and can’t even provide a decent …
: Last year I traveled to Ottawa for the FAA/EASA/TCCA/ANAC TSO Workshop. This year it’s being hosted …
: Cubs first four batters against the Pirates today: Walk Single Home Run Home Run Nice to see some …
: RIP Robert Redford. I know him best from The Sting, which is the one my folks would let us watch …
: Look, another nice book-logging app. I have a bit of a book-logging problem. I have logged every …
: Our priest did a 2-week adult forum series on “the end times”. He started week 1 by setting the tone …
: Took the wife’s cast iron business to a local small-town farmers market this afternoon. Complete …
: 2025 Reads: Quantum Cage by Davis Bunn 📚 The idea was semi-interesting. The writing was pedestrian. …
: 2025 Reads: Spin (Spin, #1) by 📚 Now this is what speculative sci-fi should be. Really enjoyed it.
: My reaction to yesterday’s product announcements: iPhone: just got a new one last year. A couple …
: Can’t figure out from the new iPhone pricing if they’re trying to push people to the new Air or the …
: Well, that was a treat: Ben Folds in concert tonight in Iowa City.
: #Nebraska thoroughly trouncing Akron tonight, currently 68-0 mid-fourth quarter. This is how a …
: Beyond Justification: Campbell and DePue with a lovely new read of Romans I don’t even remember where I found the recommendation for Douglas Campbell & Jon DePue’s book …
: 2025 Reads: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart 📚
: 22 years ago we bought our first house. Today we made the last payment to the mortgage company and …
: Really happy for Naomi Osaka with that win tonight. She looked more settled and comfortable than I …
: Seeded Apple Music station w/ Billy Bragg & Wilco’s “California Stars” and so far its given me: …
: 2025 Reads: Beyond Justification by Douglas A. Campbell 📚 Wow, just wow. Completely changes the …
: Last night my 21yo daughter, 10 hrs away at school, in her first apartment, asked for advice to help …
: Well that was a beautiful morning for a run. Maybe could’ve pushed my pace a little harder but I …
: Up earlier than usual on a Sunday - running the NewBo 10K an hour from now. You never know when you …
: Measuring my shed roof and headed to Lowe’s for roofing supplies. Roofing is one of those jobs I …
: 2025 Reads: Theory of Bastards by Audrey Schulman 📚 That was… something. Doesn’t neatly fix in one …
: Well, I’d give the #Huskers a B- grade at best. Lots of room for improvement on both sides of the …
: Well, I had previously been positive about the Castro podcast app’s functionality on my Apple Watch. …
: Just ran across a DayOne post from 9 years ago where one of my evangelical pastors was basically a …
: Lesson learned from Monday. 7 hours of Zoom calls today for work? Don’t even bother going to the …
: Finally took the plunge and put the iOS 26 public beta on my phone. (I’ve had it on my iPad for …
: Beautiful pseudo-fall day here in Iowa. Got to the office, realized my day was 8 hours of Zoom …
: A beautiful day, a new pair of shoes, and I think I finally figured out doing a Zone 2 run. That …
: 2025 Reads: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky 📚 Is it about the robot apocalypse? Yeah, sort of.
: 2025 Reads: Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism by Kathryn Tanner 📚
: Current status: creating a Kahoot quiz to use in an upcoming work team meeting. The topic: “Drug, …
: Didn’t run for the better part of two weeks thanks to some travel and excessive heat. Trying to ramp …
: Just had a conversation with a younger engineer who independently worked to solve a problem that I …
: Ok, Sunday can’t get here soon enough. #iawx
: Rookie move: volunteered to give the scripture meditation at church based on when my calendar was …
: I’ve been catching up on The Diplomat on Netflix the past couple weeks. Kari Russell is wonderful, …
: 2025 Reads: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Lepore, Jill 📚
: The lectionary readings were just some real bangers today When the Lectionary readings seem ever so timely… First up, from Jeremiah 23: I have heard what the …
: And just like that, the middle kid’s car is packed and they are headed back to college for year 2. …
: The emcee here at AI4 gives off big early-season Roman Roy vibes. It’s so awkward.
: I’m in Las Vegas this week attending the AI4 conference. First time in Vegas. And wild to see 8000 …
: Guess it was our turn for torrential rain this morning: 2.75” in the past two hours. Looks like it’s …
: I get that the Cubs are blowing out the Cardinals, but the Fox announcers are just insufferable and …
: Submitted a support email for Castro watch behavior, got an email back within 15 minutes …
: Last night I was all shiny about the Castro podcast app. This morning on my run I found one …
: I’m a longtime Overcast user, but I’m giving Castro a try I’m an avid podcast listener on the iOS platform. For the last umpteen years I’ve defaulted to using …
: Wow, so is Fastmail’s web interface hosed up this morning for everyone else, or is it just me? Read …
: Note to self: highlight that little note on the recipe that calls for a second rise. In other news, …
: What’s your preferred camera angle for Zoom meetings? I have traditionally kept mine head-on, but …
: Rarely do I see a new (to me, at least) meme that hits so close.
: OK, it’s a little (a lot?) programmer-nerdy, but I thought this post on speeding up JSON.stringify …
: 2025 Reads: Autonomous by Annalee Newitz 📚 Apparently read this one back in 2017 and had totally …
: A fresh perspective on Romans 8:28 In the journey of deconstructing my evangelical faith, it’s astonishing how many times a better …
: Dozing off during the sermon: a time-honored tradition. Dozing off during the sermon when you’re the …
: Kinda surreal seeing my old boss testifying at the NTSB hearing today for the DC crash …
: 2025 Reads: Introduction to Tantra by Thubten Yeshe 📚
: After a couple weeks of every morning being 70F+ at 5 AM, this morning it was a glorious 62F. What a …
: 2025 Reads: The Ghosts of Trappist by K. B. Wagers 📚
: Yesterday started with a 5k run and gym workout at 0530 and ended with umpiring 3 softball games in …
: A nice win for the Cubs tonight after a horrible night last night and a slow start hitting tonight. …
: And the Wordle streak dies at 541. That’s a BS word today.
: Guess a rest and gym week was what I needed to get my running legs back underneath me. (Also: it’s …
: 2025 Reads: Big Chief by Jon Hickey 📚
: I like listening to piano pieces I could never manage to play, but there’s something awe-inspiring …
: Cultivating Natural Community, or, Making Friends Outside of Church It’s been a couple weeks since I first read this piece but want to make sure I don’t forget it. …
: Both happening this week: RAGBRAI and the Oshkosh air show. When you work at an Iowa aerospace …
: Enjoyed a nice weekend in Nebraska visiting our oldest daughter who is working an internship there …
: 2025 Reads: Death at La Fenice (Commissario Brunetti Book 1) by Donna Leon 📚
: The modern question: if the technology failed to record your run, did you really do it? (Yes, yes I …
: Little Tuesday night excursion with the family to the local ice cream shop. An enjoyable hour!
: 2025 Reads: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 📚 Loved this one.
: Pete Crow-Armstrong with his second homer of the day to extend the Cubs’ lead in Minnesota. This …
: Initial impression of iPadOS 26 Dev Beta 3: big improvement. Feels a lot smoother on my M2 iPad Pro. …
: Proud dad moment: K16 took 3 AP classes last year (soph HS year) and took the AP tests for each of …
: A little music nerdery: 'God of our Fathers' and 'O Canada' This morning before church I was listening to the organist practice, and while I knew from reading …
: My daughter has Wimbledon on and with Andrei Rublev playing I am thinking we need more professional …
: 2025 Reads: The Death of Ayrton Senna by Richard Williams 📚
: 2025 Reads: Confessions of a Recovering Evangelical by Daniel Henderson 📚
: Fifth Season 5k This morning I got back to an event I haven’t participated in for several years: the Fifth Season …
: 2025 Reads: The Quiet American by Graham Greene 📚
: Hey, it's another book club (of sorts)... Spent 90 minutes tonight on a Zoom call with a (mostly) local “Christophany group” - a collection of …
: Dunno if it was the slightly cooler temps or eating a banana before heading out, but that was a …
: A little cooler this morning but was still dripping like a saturated sponge after a 4-mile run. But …
: 2025 Reads: Meet Me at the Crossroads by Megan Giddings 📚 Partly soft speculative sci-fi; mostly a …
: Currently reading: Far From The Tree by Andrew Solomon 📚 Wow, just read the first chapter of this …
: 2025 Reads: A Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy 📚
: Read a book I really appreciated, sent an email to the author thanking him. Got a really lovely …
: 2025 Reads: City of Nets by Otto Friedrich 📚 Not my favorite book of the year, but an interesting …
: Trying to assemble a good running playlist makes it clear that my music library has a whole lot of …
: 27 years today! Happy anniversary to my wife Becky (who manages to avoid the socials). Here’s to 27 …
: 74F, 90% humidity. 4.5 mile run. What a way to start the day! Normally I sit outside to cool off …
: Living life on the wild side: installing iPadOS 26 Developer Beta 2 on my M2 iPad Pro.
: So weird: the last two weeks using Firefox, my Fastmail tab loses connection with the Fastmail …
: Just back from a run. On the upside: only 70F out there. On the downside: 93% humidity. Not a day …
: 2025 Reads: The Transforming Fire of Divine Love by John H. Armstrong 📚 What a brilliant, lovely …
: Bullet Points for a (very warm) Monday Morning Hey, it’s Monday. Spent Sunday afternoon supporting my wife’s cast iron business at a local farmers …
: I know OKC had a tremendous regular season, but with the Halliburton injury it’s hard to feel like …
: Just hate to see Halliburton go down in Game 7. Pacers have the talent they could still win this, …
: Helping run a bingo night tonight in support of the pet care charity that my wife volunteers with. A …
: Dropped the 19-year-old off at the airport this morning. Their first time flying on their own, a …
: 2025 Reads: To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers 📚 Just inject all of Becky Chambers’s books …
: In the office by 5:15 this morning… teaching a class over Zoom starting at 6 AM. Whee!
: Switched up my running playlist last night, enjoyed the variety this morning. Turns out, though, …
: Whee, a 6-mile run to start the morning. I’m gonna be feeling that later.
: Taking a vacation day on a Friday: a very pleasant choice. Slept in, went for a run, street tacos …
: 2025 Reads: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚 Somehow I’ve never read this one before… a …
: Got a little Beelink PC to set up as a media server to offload my aging Synology. Left Windows 11 on …
: Second Tuesday night of the month… it’s library board meeting time! An hour a month commitment to be …
: Have hit the point where I have enough different things going at work that I’m gonna need to start …
: Wife and daughter are packing up to fly out to DC tomorrow for National History Day national …
: Last day of school for our last remaining high school kid! Hard to believe we only have two years …
: Chilling on the patio tonight. Can’t beat it.
: Update: neighbor had indeed had his phone on the charger. Turns out his breaker had popped and he …
: 95-year-old neighbor needs help because his Android phone won’t power on. Says it’s been charging. …
: We are slowly becoming the Elders I loved this thought from Wil Wheaton’s blog yesterday: A friend of mine observed that we are slowly …
: Four miles run and a lot of humidity this morning. Glad to have that behind me!
: Somehow I’ve become that guy who goes out and runs five miles before breakfast. At least today. …
: Watched the new Mission:Impossible movie and for the first 90 minutes found myself in a remake of …
: Sun is up early enough now to support morning runs. Felt good to get out! Kinda bonked the last …
: 2025 Reads: Lower than the Angels by Diarmaid MacCulloch 📚
: Well, Dallas looked a lot better in the first period tonight and they still end it down 1-0. Phooey.
: Back in the office today after a week of business travel and a long holiday weekend. Let’s see how …
: New crowd assessment: the Braves fans got here early, but the Nats fans showed up for the home team …
: If the cheers at those back-to-back homers are any indication, there are far more Braves fans than …
: Well, that was a heckuva comeback for the Dallas Stars. Now let’s see if they can carry that energy …
: Day 2 of industry committee meeting in DC this week. Great to get to hear from FAA and EASA leaders …
: In DC for work this week. Flight in went smoothly; got out for a 4-mile run mostly along the Mall; …
: Heckuva win for the Dallas Stars in OT on the PP. What an awful day for Mark Scheifele, who loses …
: Today: drove from Cedar Rapids to Lincoln. Loaded the college kid’s stuff in the car, drove back to …
: Biggest takeaway from my clean-shaven experiment is that my drink-from-a-bottle technique is sloppy. …
: Mapping out a running route or two for while I’m in DC next week. Love running there.
: Super nerdy and awesome: A Leap Year Check in Three Instructions. Dude shaves 75% off the average …
: “There is no cognitive dissonance when your entire worldview is built on confirmation bias …
: If humans hadn't sinned, would Christ have still come? I love this bit from Ilia Delio in The Not-Yet God, summarizing a thought from Franciscan theologian …
: 2025 Reads: Secrets Typed in Blood by Stephen Spotswood 📚
: On paper, a new album by Arcade Fire with production by Daniel Lanois should be like catnip for me. …
: Wow, Cubs walk it off, Stars beat Winnipeg… that’s a good sports night.
: While the hair on top of my head has undergone some changes, I’ve sported some sort of beard …
: Chris Arnade on American vs European values and "the good life" Highly recommend Chris Arnade’s latest Substack discussion of the legitimate difference in human …
: Mavs somehow get the #1 draft pick? Sounds like the commish is making it up to the Dallas fan base …
: My talks at Christ Episcopal Church Adult Forum, May 2025 The past two Sundays I had the opportunity to talk at my church’s Sunday morning Adult Forum. The …
: Also just kinda stunned that my video from last week is up over 100 views. Y’all need better ways to …
: Spoke again yesterday at the Adult Forum at my church. Last week was my story of Evangelical to …
: Excited for my oldest daughter who is this morning starting her summer internship with the Trane …
: Snuck in a quick run before taking my wife out for Mother’s Day lunch. Ran the first mile in 7:58… …
: Saw our high school’s production of Hadestown (which was FANTASTIC) the last two nights in a row. …
: 2025 Reads: The Cosmic Landscape by Leonard Susskind 📚 Well, that was delightful.
: I know it’s just the beginning of May, but the Cubs are 8 games over .500, have a 4 game lead in the …
: Amused that this line about the heavily male engineering school I went to always gets the best …
: I had the chance yesterday at my church’s Adult Forum to share my story of growing up fundamentalist …
: My daughter sent me her final project last night after she got a glowing email back from her prof. …
: Well, I wasn’t feeling great about that game when the Avs went up 2-0. But a hat trick from Rantanen …
: 2025 Reads: The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson 📚 Finished it, went to log it, discovered that I’d read …
: 2025 Reads: Playworld by Adam Ross 📚
: The past few years I had forgotten how much I enjoy getting out and running. After running a 5k last …
: You know, the record is going on 30 years old, but Caedmon’s Call’s self-titled record is still a …
: Led a workshop all day yesterday at work… day 2 of it today. It’s tiring, but it’s electric when you …
: State champ! Super proud of our youngest daughter, Katie, who earlier today won first place for National History …
: I mean, if you live in Story County, that’s a perfect license plate choice. Bravo.
: 2025 Reads: Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood 📚
: The 5k was chilly and hilly but came in second in my age group! (To be fair, it was a small race.) …
: Beautiful sunshine for the 5k this morning, but it’s gonna be chilly. (44F at the moment, _might _ …
: 2025 Reads: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe 📚 Absolutely brilliant, harrowing account of The …
: Almost to the end of April, the #Cubs have played the toughest schedule in the league so far and …
: This was the best concert experience of my life… and now they’re gonna remaster the live recording …
: Freedom from the compulsion to pretend: Mtr. Kelli Joyce on gender traditions and the fruit of the spirit Continuing from yesterday’s post, I want to excerpt one more wonderful section from the conversation …
: Nice things to start my day today: a long snap from my college kid about how awesome their yesterday …
: Mtr. Kelli Joyce on the Fruit of the Spirit and gender expression If you’ve got 45 minutes to listen to a couple Episcopal priests talk about Galatians, the Fruit of …
: Pushed my distance a bit this afternoon. Also, it’s sticky out there. Phew. #running
: Good god this is frustrating. Dallas Stars have an amazing regular season, now they’re ready to go …
: 2025 Reads: Eurotrash: A Novel by Christian Kracht 📚
: 2025 Reads: Mysticism by Simon Critchley 📚
: RIP Papa Frank. A life focused on ministry, a ministry focused on service to the poor and needy, the …
: Well, we can at least have confidence the Stars’ losing streak won’t go past 11 games. Question is …
: Living life dangerously and running the Ubuntu system upgrade on my VPS on a Friday night. One weird …
: A brief Good Friday reflection, from the vantage point of our troubled days. Good Friday is to stand …
: 2025 Reads: Bedeviled by Jimena Canales 📚
: It’s a cooking day for me: sugar cookie bars are done, gooey butter cake just came out, and there’s …
: 2025 Reads: The Framed Women of Ardemore House by Brandy Schillace 📚 A delightful little mystery.
: Starting out the long weekend right with a run. Not sure what was better about today, but I shaved …
: Had a weird hiccup with Tailscale yesterday that pushed me to get a couple installs upgraded and …
: Good lord, I don’t care if you’ve already got your playoff seed set, a 7-game losing streak is not …
: Looks like I picked the right time to turn off the Cubs game and go to sleep last night. Went to bed …
: 2025 Reads: Dead in the Frame by Stephen Spotswood 📚 Entertaining little noir mystery. I’ll go …
: Really concerned about the #Dallas #Stars at this point. They were competing for 1st seed in the …
: Poking around recordings of the Mozart Requiem and it amazes me how much variety of interpretation …
: Choir performance this weekend! With all the chaos in the world I’m gonna spend some time away from social media this week and …
: 2025 Reads: Where God Happens by Rowan Williams 📚 A lovely little collection of thoughts on …
: That’s an embarrassing and disastrous loss for the Dallas Stars who are in a real playoff race. Led …
: Sounds like the plot of a TV show pilot: US tourist boards wrong boat in London, accidentally …
: Daughter’s first high school tennis meet is this afternoon. Current conditions: 42F, 20 mph wind …
: Self-justification is the heavy burden because there is no end to carrying it Further on in Rowan Williams’ Where God Happens he recounts a saying attributed to the desert father …
: Something has happened that makes the entire process of self-justification irrelevant I’m reading Rowan Williams’ Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another, and this bit is …
: I know that expecting NBA officiating to be even-handed is a fool’s errand, but the calls in this …
: “To value one another is our greatest safety, and to indulge in fear and contempt is our gravest …
: A month from now I am presenting at the adult forum at my church about my journey from …
: 2025 Reads: Moscow X by David McCloskey 📚 Not as great as the first one in the series, but still a …
: Thankful for Friday after being out of town last weekend and a long work week this week. After work …
: The Beatitudes (Brian Zahnd Version) I’m not sure what social media Brian Zahnd is on these days, but he shared his own retelling of …
: Well, Google’s search results feel crappy enough today that I’m gonna break down and give Kagi a …
: I read this book to my kids dozens (hundreds?) of times when they were young but never considered it …
: ne cadant in obscurum I am singing in the Orchestra Iowa chorus for the spring performance of Mozart’s Requiem and we’re …
: Iowa High School Mock Trial state competition, Day 2: 100 high school students in black business …
: Sitting down for the first round of Iowa High School Mock Trial state competition. (Youngest kid is …
: Another year of baseball blackouts So, I’m a Cubs fan and want a streaming option to watch the Cubs games. As a baseball fan in the US, …
: Whee, it’s Opening Day and my Cubbies are already one game back in the standings. Curse that …
: Well, Raygun got this one out fast enough. Bravo! My idea for them was gonna be “Currently clean on …
: A very “I grew up evangelical but now I’m Episcopal” problem: I can never remember how to spell …
: Two hours of academic assembly at the high school this morning. Youngest daughter recognized for …
: Orchestra choir rehearsal yesterday afternoon means I’ve had Mozart’s Requiem in my head all day …
: 2025 Reads: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 📚 I’m only a decade behind on reading this one… phew, what …
: 2025 Reads: Polostan by Neal Stephenson 📚
: Watching the Arkansas/Kansas game. So far as I can tell, there’s one player named “Boogie Flan” and …
: Taking a couple days off work to enjoy Spring Break with the kids off school. Also today celebrating …
: Also: thanks to the MLB schedulers for ensuring the Cubs could get off to an 0-2 start with this …
: Thunderstorm woke me up at 5:30. Little bit of extra time for breakfast and coffee before work. Just …
: Opening Day 2025 I don’t remember when I became a baseball fan. I remember playing teeball when I was in elementary …
: Well, that was a fun meeting to kick off the day. Time for another cup of coffee.
: So nice of the internet to declare it’s a Pie Day just in time for my birthday! I’ve been closer to …
: On the upside, this conference room I’ve been sitting in all day has windows so I can see the …
: Gotta love some above normal weather.
: Hosting some visitors at work today through Thursday. Glad they are coming, needed visit, already …
: Spent the afternoon in our first rehearsal for singing Mozart’s Requiem with Orchestra Iowa in …
: 2025 Reads: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 📚 A beautiful, intimate story about love, loss, and …
: American culture: a 'negative world' for Christianity? A New York Times profile of Aaron Renn describes American culture as ’negative world’ for …
: Theming a scavenger hunt activity at work… my cultural point of referenced was Carmen Sandiego. My …
: Happy for a Friday at the end of a long week. Assuming this morning’s snow doesn’t snarl plans, our …
: 2025 Reads: Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr 📚 The first half: socio-political …
: Filling out a form to get an approval in a work tool. There’s a mandatory form field with only a …
: Stupid micro.blog question that I can’t seem to figure out: my individual long-form posts from the …
: Co-worker just sent a Teams chat: “I’ll be WTF today since school is cancelled”. Now there’s a …
: Spent the night cooking sausages and flipping pancakes for a Shrove Tuesday dinner at church …
: Wow, Kyrie Irving out for the year with a torn ACL. The Mavericks have pulled off what SpaceX calls …
: The danger of sharpening the self-will of nations through religion I’m slowly working through Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society and goodness his observations are …
: My unsolicited Oscars hot take: I’ve only seen 3 of the Best Picture noms, so I don’t have an …
: Yesterday we had our Bishop’s visitation to our church congregation. A long day but a good one. I …
: Started reading Reinhold Neibuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society tonight. Holy cow. That first …
: OK, Bracket.city. This is cool. How long until NYT buys it?
: I set up Homebridge on my Synology last night and got it integrated with my OpenGarage device. Lo …
: Bullet points for the day after a run Some thoughts after getting out for an outside run yesterday - the first time this year! I always …
: Got out for a run for the first time since last fall. Feels great to be in the fresh air again. Now …
: I'm all caught up... Well, after 171 hours of listening starting back in 2023, I am finally caught up with the podcast A …
: Routine thrown off this morning with a car in the shop. As I result I forgot to throw my iPad into …
: A week ago I upgraded from my old Apple Watch Series 8 to an Apple Watch Ultra 2. This is the watch …
: It's almost MacBook time... Almost four weeks ago I got approved to move to a MacBook Pro at work after years on a Dell laptop. …
: Decided I should take another run at some personal journaling. Three days in a row in DayOne isn’t a …
: 2025 Reads: Incompleteness by Rebecca Goldstein 📚 A very readable biography of a very brilliant, sad …
: I’ve been pretty quiet online this week. Long week at work, frigid temps outside, feel like I’m just …
: 2025 Reads: How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert 📚 Fine, for what it was. More a pamphlet …
: 2025 Reads: The World According to Physics by Jim Al-Khalili 📚 What a wonderful little book! As …
: 2025 Reads: The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut 📚 Phew, what a novel. Stunning stuff.
: A chilly 13F outside and this is the warmest it’s going to be until Friday…. Oof.
: Completely lost lock on Valentine’s Day until early yesterday. Snuck a little shopping in yesterday …
: Somehow at work I ended up with a 6:30 AM Zoom call and a 3 PM Zoom call today. On a Friday. Oof. …
: 2025 Reads: Tech Agnostic by Greg Epstein 📚 Not sure I buy his thesis, but it’s an interesting …
: Defenselessness is what makes love indestructible Fr. Matt Tebbe has a long Facebook post laying out how White Evangelicals in America have a …
: Well I didn’t really feel like 90 minutes of snow blowing tonight, but it beats the heck out of 90 …
: WFH today means I’m using my BeyerDynamic DT 990 Pro headphones for Zoom calls. I had forgotten how …
: A Winter Storm Warning for us in Iowa today. My work from home day starts with a 7:30 AM Zoom call …
: Second Tuesday night of the month, you know what that means… That’s right, it’s library board …
: Second Tuesday night of the month, you know what that means… That’s right, it’s library board …
: Coworker right now, still trying to get something to work: “I’ve been able to get to know a lot of …
: #protip: if you just tip your webcam down a little bit then it doesn’t look like you’re slouching in …
: Joyful and Unprofitable Pursuits We will not be saved by our money, our weapons, or our technological virtuosity; we might be rescued …
: Got my score to the Mozart Requiem marked up per the scan of the conductor’s copy that was provided. …
: The liturgy hits different when you are called to share the peace of the Lord and the body and blood …
: Trying my hand at cooking somethingng new today. My paternal great-grandma, as a German immigrant to …
: Synology started acting funny today. Turns out that if you install Netdata natively on the Synology, …
: Loving the new micro.blog Bayou theme from @Mtt. I dug in and learned enough Hugo to customize it a …
: On a call with our trade association reviewing the impact of the new US administration to our …
: Joys of working for a big corp: IT pushes a Firefox update. Constant tab crashing. Disable all the …
: Started the day doing some minor editing for the oldest daughter. She was nominated for an award in …
: 2025 Reads: Jesus and the Forces of Death by Matthew Thiessen 📚 Quite a good book, though if I never …
: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning Weekend update: K15 took 3rd place overall in the toughest division at the regional Academic …
: 2025 Reads: The Ground We Share by Robert Aitken 📚
: It’s So Much I looked at the calendar last Friday in weary disbelief. Trump has only been back in office for less …
: 2025 Reads: Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley 📚 Good stuff.
: 2025 Reads: Language for God in Patristic Tradition by Mark Sheridan 📚 Not as unreadable as the …
: Annual meeting at church today. I was elected to serve on the Vestry for the next 3 years. I love …
: After a week of fussing with it, I finally have my 94-year-old neighbor’s Android phone unlocked, …
: Reviewed my work calendar for this past week and realized that by the time I get done with today …
: 2025 Reads: Into the Unknown by Kelsey Johnson 📚 A delightful and thoughtful look into the …
: If John Calvin had a bumper sticker…
: An absolutely epic Australian Open women’s semifinal between Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek. 10-8 …
: My photo library backup strategy, circa 2025 We got our first digital camera in late 2003, when we knew we had our first kid on the way. Over the …
: So the forecast for this morning (-15F feels like -35F) hasn’t changed since yesterday. Would love …
: Guess it’s the day for the “how cold is it where you live?” contest. Here’s my entry. Thankfully the …
: Heckuva win for the Commanders. Fifth turnover for the Lions seems like a fitting way to end the …
: Phew, feels like it’s been a long week. I’m working to form a new team here at work, and it’s… hard …
: Review: The Widening of God's Mercy by Drs. Christopher and Richard Hays There was no small amount of buzz accompanying the announcement of The Widening of God’s Mercy’s …
: Curiosity → Attention → Love I’ve been letting that quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates rattle around in my head a bit the last 24 hours, …
: The great privilege of great power is an incuriosity about those who lack it. …I don’t really care much for hearing “both sides” or “opposing points of view,” so much as I care …
: 2025 Reads: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates 📚 Brilliant, beautiful writing. Coates lets us follow …
: “The moment we root our worth in castes and kingdoms, in ‘civilization’, we have accepted the …
: Finished Only Murders in the Building Season 4. Paul Rudd : OMITB :: Kenny : SouthPark?
: Tried out a podcast episode of The Rest is History. Quite entertaining. Then I look at the backlog: …
: On Jimmy Carter and Evangelical salvation anxiety Former president Jimmy Carter’s state funeral is today. Carter, perhaps one of the most famously …
: One of my favorite parts of having a book habit is then being able to share books with other people. …
: 2025 Reads: Blessed One by Cynthia L. Rigby 📚 An interesting little set of essays. The final one, on …
: Catching up on Only Murders In the Building, Season 4. The cameos are hilarious, and then Melissa …
: Some thoughts on my first EV experience: driving a Tesla Model Y for 3 weeks For the past 3 weeks I’ve been driving a Tesla Model Y with full self driving (FSD) enabled. It’s a …
: Started the workday with a 7:30 AM video call with India and it hasn’t slowed down yet. Welcome to …
: 2025 Reads: A Pale Light in the Black by K. B. Wagers 📚 It’s as if you crossed Becky Chambers with …
: Getting out of bed early on Saturday morning to prep these wasn’t so much fun, but in 30 minutes or …
: Family movie night: That Thing You Do! (Extended edition, which drags a little but has a lot more …
: Today my Christmas present for myself ( I spent Xmas gift $ on it) shows up: my first turntable. So …
: Back to work after a nice holiday break. The office is pretty quiet this morning… wonder how long …
: My 2024 Reading In Review Another year full of books! (Previous summaries: 2023,2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, …
: Gah, why is a decent Wordpress theme so hard to find? The theme store is full of freemium clones …
: Wordle 1,290 1/6 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Time to switch my starter word!
: Well, the Huskers looked like they might blow it at the end, but they held on for a nice win. #GBR
: One more Husker gameday for the season. Would be nice to go out on a high note. #GBR
: 2024 Reads: A Private and Public Faith by William Stringfellow 📚 Stringfellow’s prophetic words ring …
: A Christian is distinguished by his radical esteem for the Incarnation A Christian is not distinguished by his political views, or moral decisions, or habitual conduct, or …
: One minute your youngest child is a rambunctious preschooler making a mess baking cookies with dad; …
: 2024 Reads: Tripwire (Jack Reacher, #3) by Lee Child 📚 Ah, back when Jack Reacher books still had …
: Last weekend started my Christmas break - done with work until the new year. But the weekend was so …
: 2024 Reads: The Hours of the Universe by Ilia Delio 📚 A nice short summation of Delio’s earlier …
: Time for night #2 singing in the Orchestra Iowa Chorus holiday concert!
: 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 …
: Some customer ahead of me at the bakery bought a $250 gift card to be used on the next customers. I …
: 2024 Reads: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss 📚 I …
: Singing with the orchestra chorus this weekend for the holiday concerts. First rehearsal with the …
: High enough anxiety Earlier today a post came across Bluesky that stopped me short. Canadian author Ryan North put it …
: Oldest daughter got in from college last night, and now we have everyone at home for the next two …
: Iowa work potlucks are always tasty. Iowa work potlucks, when supplemented with the Indian …
: I mostly use Due for short-term reminders, but using it for long-term ones feels like magic somehow. …
: Stunning graces at church yesterday: the man whose wife died on Wednesday back in the pew after two …
: 2024 Reads: Shadow of Doubt by Brad Thor 📚 A good reminder why I rarely spend time with books like …
: The weather guys weren’t kidding about the ice! Thankful I could make the 10-hour trek to pick up a …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Catching up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and just got to the musical episode. It’s like they …
: Unpleasantly cold for an Iowa December this morning - currently 7F feels like -12F. But the office …
: A few thoughts on formation Sunday in an adult forum discussion at church we talked about how our theology is formed by prayer, …
: Chattering from his perch on high. #photography #nature
: 2024 Reads: Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America by Michael Harriot 📚 A wonderful, …
: Time to go Turkey Trot! It’s 24F here in in rural southwestern Wisconsin. Why did I sign up for this …
: Packing up the car this morning to visit my mom. First holiday season since my dad passed. Thankful …
: Marjorie May (Stepp) Hubbs Obituary Posting from the original to ensure I have a permanent copy. Marjorie May (Stepp) Hubbs, the …
: Remembering Marjorie (Stepp) Hubbs, 1930 - 2024 Last Friday my last living grandparent passed away. Marge Hubbs, my paternal grandmother, was 94. …
: Good to see the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team finally get a little respect, ranked at #22 in …
: Look, Max and Red Bull Racing had a phenomenal year this year. But every article that trumpets him …
: In the office this week for a couple of days before the Thanksgiving holiday. Have a feeling it’s …
: 2024 Reads: 2054 by Elliot Ackerman 📚 It wanted to be insightful and futurist, but ended up being …
: Installing OpenGarage Last week on a whim I ordered a little OpenGarage unit. OpenGarage is an open-source hardware and …
: 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 …
: 2024 Reads: Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman 📚 A detailed, compelling history of the Israeli …
: My unsolicited opinion this morning on AI, speaking as a computer scientist who has spent the last …
: A quick online interaction this morning reminded me of this Sony clock/radio I got as a kid probably …
: Business trips seem like fun, but the days get long… left the hotel at 7:30 to head to the workshop. …
: It’s Library Board meeting time! I’ve missed a few due to work travel… good to be back. Public …
: John Gruber: How It Went John Gruber wrote a really beautiful piece about his mother’s death, his father’s hope, and the …
: Well, it’s been a week. Haven’t said much here, mostly because I don’t really have my thoughts …
: "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. …
: 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 …
: Low key, work appropriate costume this year.
: Tonight’s movie: Death on the Nile (1978). Peter Ustinov sounding a lot like Prince John from …
: Life’s too short for uninteresting books Nick Hornby, writing over at Lithub, says something that I am finding increasingly true: as you get …
: Today the blog turns 20 Twenty years ago today, October 29, 2004, my friend Geof set me up a Wordpress install on his server …
: Had a really lovely time last night eating dinner at some new friends’ house. Sat around and talked …
: 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 …
: When I started my keto diet back in January, I still really wanted some kind of purchasable …
: 2024 Reads: Moonbound by Robin Sloan 📚 Well, this was delightful. Hints of Monk & Robot as well as …
: My daughter is soon to need her own car, and one option is to give her my RAV4 and find something …
: Visitor underneath our bird feeders tonight.
: Cleaning up cast iron cookware with SCIENCE! (Ok, it’s an electrolysis tank.)
: Just got an email from the library that I have a book available to pick up. I don’t remember putting …
: With all the mess going on with Wordpress these days, I’m happier than ever that I took the leap …
: Tony Bennett, men’s basketball coach at Virginia, reportedly retiring immediately, right before the …
: I made it through an audition and will be joining the Orchestra Iowa Chorus this year. In the spring …
: Ah, the typical library visit: return two books, borrow six more.
: 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 …
: 2024 Reads: Die Trying (Jack Reacher, #2) by Lee Child 📚 Back when Lee Child was writing really good …
: 2024 Reads: All Things Are Too Small by Becca Rothfeld 📚 Rothfeld dislikes the practice of …
: Recommended reading: Excavating AI I hadn’t run across this until today when Michal Wozniak shared it on Mastodon, but it’s an …
: Started the morning dropping my wife off at the airport; she’s headed to visit our oldest at college …
: This Lynx-Liberty game, y’all… 😳 Most entertaining basketball game I’ve seen in a long time.
: I see the WNBA just announced that next year their finals will be a best-of-7 instead of the current …
: Too many sports choices to watch tonight! Two MLB playoff games, Stars hockey opener, an NFL game… …
: A planned 5-day business trip last week rolled over into a family emergency which means I only just …
: 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 …
: This is my first trip traveling with my new personal MacBook Pro (after years of traveling with work …
: Wow, Verizon has been down for me all day. Thankful for wifi on airplanes and in airports to help my …
: 2024 Reads: Extinction by Douglas Preston 📚 Over and over, Preston has his characters saying “This …
: Nebraska in the second half looked like a different team. Relied on the run game and just pushed …
: Through one quarter, Nebraska looks like a team with great potential but no polish. False start …
: 2024 Reads: Airframe by Michael Crichton 📚 I’m sure I read this years ago, but it’s interesting to …
: 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 …
: My HS sophomore got the job shadow hookup that she wanted, which means that in a couple weeks she’s …
: Bryce Harper: Mentoring at 1B Here’s a really lovely story on The Athletic about Phillies 1B Bryce Harper and his gentle efforts …
: Flu and COVID shot clinic at work today. Couple of sore shoulders is far preferable to a bout with a …
: As a necessity of my job I am signed up for FAA email notifications when they update certain …
: So, if MLB had a promotion/relegation scheme like English football does, the White Sox and Marlins …
: I have played the piano and sung with it for most of my life. I’ve rarely ever sung in a choir, …
: 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 …
: 2024 Reads: Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde 📚 It’s rare that I read a novel that feels like nothing …
: What we need more of in popular music today: powerful and appealing ballads with ukulele …
: If Moses really signed this I think they should be asking more than $75.
: Finding it remarkably hard to decline an automatic upgrade on American Airlines. I just wanna keep …
: Eric Collins has play-by-play for the Iowa-Troy game on FS1 today and sounds like Gus Johnson on …
: Pretty sure this is the first time I’ve preordered a new iPhone on release day. 16 Pro 256 GB in …
: Made it to YOW plenty early for my flight home… turns out US Border Patrol doesn’t open until 0500. …
: I knew that the WNBA audience has grown substantially this year. I was still surprised to turn on …
: Summer has been for family trips and fun; fall is apparently now for work travel. 5 of the next 9 …
: 2024 Reads: An Autobiography by Mohandas K. Gandhi 📚 If one of the Desert Fathers had training as a …
: Look I know we’re only 6 quarters into the season, but this Nebraska football team looks WAY better …
: Sitting out on the drive with a fire going and the football game on. The kid is there in person. …
: PRd my 5k this morning! (27:55 still has lots of room for improvement!) Beautiful chilly morning for …
: There are days where work drives me bonkers; there are other days when I come away deeply …
: Nice cool morning to get out and run. 5k nice and steady. Running my first real race in several …
: Caitlin Clark with a garbage rebound at the end of the game to make it a triple-double. What a …
: As a first year WNBA follower, one of my big takeaways is that the league needs to upgrade their …
: 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 …
: Youngest daughter has her school permit and is driving herself to school for the first time this …
: Brisket turned out great! I’d give myself maybe a 8.5/10. Think I could’ve pulled it a little …
: 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 …
: Nervously doing my research as I prepare to smoke my first brisket on the pellet grill tomorrow. …
: I grew up in Nebraska, a huge Husker fan, and never made it to a football game. My kid is now a …
: Looks like I’m going to need to buy a new suit for some work events. Last one was 60 lbs ago and …
: Wow, Jannik Sinner, the 1 seed at the US Open, dropped his first set to unseeded Mackenzie McDonald, …
: I live in Iowa and work with a bunch of 30-something white guy engineers who ought to be in the MAGA …
: 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 …
: One more post for the morning: got a new professional headshot taken last Friday. I remember …
: First day of school today for our two college kids! A junior in Mechanical Engineering at South …
: 2024 Reads: Do We Not Bleed? by Daniel Taylor 📚
: Following up on my insurance post from a few days ago: just got our yearly renewal bill, and they …
: Moved kid #2 into the dorm yesterday for their first year at the University of Nebraska. The house …
: A little personal work news: last week I was approved here at Collins Aerospace as a Senior Tech …
: We’ve had the same insurance company for 20 years and been happy with them. But our local office has …
: 2024 Reads: Blue Moon by Lee Child 📚 Somehow Lee Child has turned Jack Reacher into a murderous …
: Feels like sort of a bittersweet weekend coming up - our middle kid’s last weekend at home before …
: Henri Nouwen: An alert and aware spiritual life Currently reading Henri Nouwen’s Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. What a …
: 2024 Reads: The Midnight Line by Lee Child 📚 Sometimes you just need a cheap, easy, entertaining …
: The view from the piano at Christ Church this morning…
: 2024 Reads: The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness by Mark Solms 📚 It’s …
: Hey hey, finished a 5k run below 30 minutes. Feels good to be getting a little bit of stamina back.
: 2024 Reads: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 📚 As my friend Amanda said, more a vibe than a story. …
: Jay Kuo calls Tim Walz The Ted Lasso Veep and that seems right on.
: You wouldn’t think a state governor talking for 30 minutes to a bunch of geographers about the …
: That’s a heckuva win for #TeamUSA women vs Germany in the Olympics soccer semi. Smith/Rodman/Swanson …
: My employer now has an option for me to request a MacBook as my daily driver instead of a Dell, but …
: Wow, what a cold front overnight. Yesterday: 93F and super sticky. This morning: 63F and misty, with …
: Umpiring rec league softball. Some nights it’s great fun, other nights they’re definitely not paying …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 2024 Reads: Space Oddities by Harry Cliff 📚 Maybe a little deep for the casual reader, but for me …
: 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 …
: Matt Tebbe on how supremacy systems work Father Matt Tebbe, on Facebook today, with a wonderfully clear explanation of how supremacy systems …
: Had planned to go for a run before work this morning, but a batch of thunderstorms dampened my …
: 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, …
: Ok, that #WNBA All-Star game was the best all-star game I can remember, any time, in any sport. Very …
: 2024 Reads: Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel by George Saunders 📚 Well, that was delightful.
: Lowe’s at 8:30 on a Saturday morning: a parade of middle-aged men whose purchases reveal their …
: Posting big long blog posts after 9 pm on Friday night, as one does. (If you ever needed proof I’m …
: 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 …
: Heavily feeling the “thank goodness it’s Friday” vibes this morning. Reviewed my calendar and …
: Caitlin Clark sets the #WNBA single-game assist record, has a double-double IN THE SECOND HALF ALONE …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: iOS 18 User Beta 1 is out! Now, the annual question: how long will I hold out before installing a …
: And yep, 45 minutes later it’s all done for us but a little more rain. We picked up 2” in a hurry, …
: Family party in the basement watching the storm coverage with a Tornado Warning in our county. Looks …
: I’m never sure when I clean the coffeemaker whether the coffee actually tastes better or whether …
: Sometimes being the responsible one at work means leading a big meeting; other times it means …
: The #Fever were up 31 early in the third quarter and are collapsing here in the 4th, allowing the …
: Caitlin Clark with 15 points and 9 assists at halftime for the #Fever leading the #Mercury. But for …
: More mess at The Village Church A small bombshell dropped in the Neo-Reformed evangelical world with today’s episode of the The …
: The best kind of meeting is a cancelled meeting, but the next best kind is a very short one.
: Yesterday was college orientation for our second kid. Six weeks from today we move them into …
: When we were at U of Nebraska yesterday for freshman orientation there was also apparently a big …
: 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 …
: In the past 4 weeks, we as a family have spent 13 days traveling together, spending every day …
: Just finished watching Fargo Season 5. I’m sitting here in awe. 9.5 episodes of wonderful thriller …
: Last day in the office before six days out. Let’s do this.
: 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 …
: Started in on a novel from the library. Had to put it down. Competently written dystopian thriller, …
: Ugh, this debate. On one side, a lying gasbag. On the other side, an old, tired man. I mean, I’ll …
: 2024 Reads: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell 📚 Not bad, but not nearly as good …
: After poking around a while finally realized that I can pay Tailscale to have it use Mullvad as an …
: Wordle 1,103 5/6 🟨🟨⬛🟨⬛ ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 So many options to guess. Gah.
: 26 years with my favorite person. Here’s to a whole bunch more!
: 2024 Reads: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 📚 What a beautiful story and exploration of life and meaning.
: Worth a watch: Thelma Thanks to a couple online recommendations (for sure Jeffrey Overstreet, I don’t remember who else), …
: Got all my approvals in line, which means I have a paper ready to be presented at DASC in October!
: One of the side-effects of losing a significant amount of weight is that I seem to be cold a lot …
: 2024 Reads: Wounded Pastors by Carol Howard Merritt 📚 Short and practical.. can see it being useful …
: After 28 months of an Iowa living experiment, we loaded my mother-in-law’s stuff into a trailer …
: 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 …
: 2024 Reads: The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes 📚 This went from middling espionage thriller to …
: A couple recommended newsletter reads Quick recommendations for a couple things I’ve read lately that are worth a few minutes of your …
: Yesterday I went through the final interview step for an internal role change that would be a …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
: Woke up this morning to a notification that the first leg of our afternoon flight home from New York …
: If the post-series handshake is the best thing about the #NHL playoffs, the Edmonton fans singing O …
: When in DC, and your kid has a college interest, you do the college tour. It’s hot, but let’s look …
: I don’t remember who recommended this one to me, but it hits the spot. Not half through yet and much …
: Oh, man, this bit from D. L. Mayfield today: “But one day my own children asked me to look at them… …
: 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 …
: 25 years! A milestone snuck up on me this weekend: as of June 1st I have been working at Collins Aerospace for …
: That being said, the post-series handshake line is the best thing in sports. #NHL
: That’s a brutal loss for Dallas. Outshot the Oilers 35-10 and lost the game 2-1. Phooey. #NHL
: Dallas #Stars have owned this game at even strength but haven’t managed to crack the goalie. …
: 2024 Reads: From the Maccabees to the Mishnah by Shaye J. D. Cohen 📚
: Well, the Dallas #Stars have lost the recipe. Disappointing. #nhl
: The reality gap So Trump was convicted of 34 felonies. This morning I have a distant cousin on Facebook last night …
: I have a big presentation / interview coming up in a few weeks and let me just say it’s amazing how …
: And the Cubs dive headlong into another mediocre season. Time to cancel my Marquee Network …
: Third time out running this spring after several years’ layoff. First time did my starter route with …
: With all the house guests gone this morning I had planned to go hit the gym. But it’s so nice out I …
: 2024 Reads: A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis 📚 A fine little primer on attachment, …
: After a full house yesterday for the grad party, it’s slowly emptying out. Three siblings left …
: Up at 0445 to put three pork butts on the smoker. It’s gonna be a fine day.
: Heading into a busy long weekend… spent most of today cleaning. Oldest daughter and her boyfriend …
: 2024 Reads: 3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan 📚 Kaplan writes the history of bop, free jazz, and …
: Quite a comeback by the Timberwolves. Denver just went cold in the third quarter and never …
: Things you didn’t know you needed until you heard them: a funk cover of Sandra McCracken’s We Will …
: Pentecost: the day you realize that the only red shirt that you own is a Nebraska Cornhuskers …
: Love hockey and the Stars but glad I didn’t stay up… 9 pm Central start time and game went to 2OT! …
: 2024 Reads: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 📚 Simple, interesting, beautiful expression of Buddhism.
: So, I love Kyle Hendricks, but it’s about time to DFA him, isn’t it? #cubs #mlb
: 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 …
: One more flight to get home. In theory if I had a rental car here from ORD I could be home sooner …
: 2024 Reads: The Future by Naomi Alderman 📚 Not subtle, but imaginative and entertaining. Worth a …
: Spent an hour with Apple tech support trying to figure out why my MacBook just refuses to show me …
: Quick jaunt to DC to start this week. CID ✈️ DCA direct!
: Haven’t run much in the last several years after injuring my knee running a half marathon. Having …
: Oh man, this bit in Naomi Alderman’s latest novel, the thoughts of a woman who left a religious …
: Current status: monitoring the video game room at the post-prom party. Watching the level of play, …
: 2024 Reads: NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman 📚 A moving and empathetic history of modern grappling …
: Headed into a busy weekend… high school tennis tonight for K15, prom tomorrow night for A18. I …
: 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 …
: A radicalizing NYPD-Columbia Education Sam Thielman goes hard in his most recent piece at Forever Wars titled “What Could Be More …
: May your garden always thrive: A beautiful little essay from Wil Wheaton.
: After a tense last 19 minutes: #DallasStars #NHL #StanleyCup
: 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 …
: 2024 Reads: The Light Within Darkness by David Jeffrey 📚 Blew through this one in a day to finish up …
: 2024 Reads: The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar 📚 A stunning little novella. …
: This Cubs/Brewers game this afternoon has all the hallmarks of a postseason clash. Two terrific …
: Just took a close look at my calendar and realized that between work travel, personal travel, and …
: Got travel booked last night for a family trip in June… National History Day nationals for K15 in …
: With all the crap going on in the world it seems trivial to still be cheered by sports, but dang it, …
: Jennifer Knapp: Kansas 25 I was an instant supporter of this album on Kickstarter and now I’m finally getting a chance to …
: A better late than never update: Katie took 2nd place in her division at National History Day state …
: Iowa National History Day state competition: with only 5 competitors in the senior individual …
: National History Day state competition in Des Moines today. Event center buzzing with teenagers who …
: A. R. Moxon: War or Nothing A. R. Moxon has a brilliant and brutal essay out today entitled “War or Nothing”, in which he …
: 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 …
: 2024 Reads: Sun Wolf by David C. Jeffrey 📚 I like this guy’s ideas, and the sort of grand scope of …
: Today’s challenge in adulting: paying attention at the tail end of a 3-day class when it’s getting …
: Gah, Cody Bellinger has a cracked rib. This is not the way I hoped to see Pete Crow-Armstrong in the …
: 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 …
: “Tom Cotton has never seen a left-wing protest he didn’t want crushed at gunpoint.”. Brutal and …
: Medieval Christians' perspective on climate change Well, this is a fascinating perspective: medievalist Dr. Eleanor Johnson writes on Literary Hub …
: Well, hard to see how this could start worse for the #Stars. Gave up a power play goal in the first …
: Great: the Dallas Stars are the #1 seed in the Western Conference. Not so great: their first round …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The Exvangelicals by Sarah McCammon I just finished up reading Sarah McCammon’s new book The Exvangelicals and I need to take the time …
: 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 …
: Reimagining Orthodoxy Dr. Chris Green shared part of an essay today on a theology of disagreement. There’s a ton of good …
: Did the Emerging Church Fail? Richard Beck has a series going right now in which he asserts that the Emerging Church movement …
: Donald Bruce "Don" Hubbs, 1949-2024 Donald Bruce “Don” Hubbs, 74, died Saturday at his home in rural Richland County after a nearly two …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: A short note on Travel Planning I have found myself, since returning home from Washington, DC in mid-December, without any travel on …
: My 2023 Reading in Review Another year full of books! (Previous summaries: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, …
: Chopin Being Mean I have hacked through the Chopin Ballades for years now. I started learning the first one in high …
: 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 …
: Migrating to Eleventy If you’re reading this post, you’re seeing the updated ChrisHubbs.com as generated by Eleventy, a …
: 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 …
: In Praise of Humble, Gentle Men This morning a headline came across my social media feed, with a link to a remarkable interview with …
: 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 …
: We have attended an Episcopal church now for a few months, enough times at least to get sucked into …
: A Hymn Aptly Chosen One of the fun things about attending a church in a new and unfamiliar tradition is that things that …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Playing the Jeremiah 17:9 Card “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?” – Jeremiah 17:9, …
: My own personal Philippians 3 If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Billionaire Hoarders and “Charity” I re-posted a meme to Facebook the other day which suggested that billionaires are “hoarders”, …
: Ten-Year Review Seeing as I’ve got 4 months before I need to do any international travel, and 10 months before my …
: 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 …
: Protect elders! Ban television! danah boyd has a fantastic piece out today about the current furor to ban teens from social media, …
: Hope springs eternal... It’s Opening Day for Major League Baseball, which is the one day of the year where I can be …
: Supernatural love, found within human love Christian Wiman, from his book My Bright Abyss: It is not some meditative communion with God that I …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: My 2022 Reading in Review Another year full of books! (Previous summaries: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, …
: Stanley Hauerwas on sin, character formation, and fear From Chapter 3 of Stanley Hauerwas’ book on Christian ethics The Peaceable Kingdom, this wonderful …
: Moving my Mastodon Instance to a New Server Continuing my adventures hosting IowaDon.org, a very small Mastodon instance. When I started hosting …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Carter Burwell: polymath film composer I was familiar with Carter Burwell’s name thanks to his score for the Coen brothers’ film True Grit, …
: Setting up a Mastodon instance on Linode With the Muskian shenanigans happening over at Twitter, I’ve been looking into Mastodon as an …
: Liège Waffles! On my work trip to Brussels last week I was introduced to the liège waffle, a type of waffle that is …
: Rich Mullins - gone 25 years Rich Mullins died on Sept 19, 1997 in a car accident. A songwriter, poet, and prophet, Rich spoke …
: Preparing to launch Eighteen years and seventeen days ago we brought our first child home for the first time. She was …
: 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 …
: On LGBTQIA+ Affirmation June 2022 was quite a month for me. It started with the death of a long-time friend. It ended with …
: Sympathy for Jesus It had been a long time since I’d listened to this song. Then it came across my playlist this …
: 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 …
: Geof F. Morris, 1978-2022 Geoffrey Franklin Morris, 43, of Madison, Alabama, died today at Vanderbilt Medical Center in …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Easter 2022 Christ is risen! Alleluia! This morning Becky and I attended church in person for the first time …
: Eerie Parallels Last night I started reading Dr. Susannah Heschel’s The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the …
: 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 …
: Keeping theology coupled with cosmology I was introduced to Dr. Ilia Delio a couple weeks ago on a podcast. Her thoughts about God, …
: Beck: Nationalism and the search for meaning Richard Beck, on his Substack today, on American nationalism resulting from the need for deep …
: 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 …
: The Teaching vs. The Teacher The last couple days I’ve been reading a book of theology by an author I was heretofore unfamiliar …
: Recommended Reading, September 2021 I have badly neglected recommending any reading so far this year. I have read plenty of books - …
: A 'Christian' nation without empathy twitter.com/jonrog1/s… In case the tweet gets deleted: an embedded tweet from John Rogers (@jonrog1) …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Teenage Vernacular Update, circa March 2021 “Yeet” is passé. “Ye” has entered the common vernacular as an affirmative response. “Pog”, “big …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Richard Beck: Political detox for evangelicals Richard Beck has a wonderful post up today, describing American evangelicalism as “addicted to …
: 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 …
: My current side project One of my favorite 2020 discoveries (which, ok, only came out in 2020, so I was on it from the …
: Psalm 126 1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. 2 Then our mouth was …
: 2020 Reading in Review Another year, another review of my annual reading. The mess that was 2020 definitely affected my …
: 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 …
: Richard Beck on finding Common Cause Richard Beck has a fantastic post out today reflecting on a passage from Barack Obama’s recent …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: "Get Freed" The other day I posted a belated review and recommendation of Lyz Lenz’s book God Land. Today I’d …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: September Suffice it to say I’m happy to have August 2020 in the rear view mirror. We have completed our house …
: Quiet Around 1:00 pm today, after 216 hours without power to the house and after logging 106 hours on the …
: Incessant It’s Sunday night. By tomorrow afternoon we’ll hit a week since the storm hit. No power yet. The …
: Fragile It’s the Friday after the Iowa derecho. What a week. After the devastation of the storm, the cleanup …
: Devastation Where to even start? Monday, August 10, somewhere around 12:30 PM, eastern Iowa got hit with a storm …
: Ten Years Note: I originally wrote this post in January 2019. 18 months later we made the decision to leave …
: 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 …
: Weekend project: bookshelves! One of the challenges a significant reading habit provides is where to keep all your books. While …
: July 4, 2020 America’s Independence Day seems a strange holiday to “celebrate” this year. Our country is in …
: 2020 Reading - First Half recommendations July 1st means that we’re halfway through 2020 already… what a year. I looked back and realized I …
: We keep living anyway The chorus of this tune has resonated in my head a lot this week. Theodosia writes me a letter every …
: Desperation How desperate am I for live sports? I’m watching NASCAR. And hard pressed to turn it off when they …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Kermit does Jazz? I’m playing keys for the church livestream this morning, which in the end results in me having a …
: Bullet Points for a Saturday Morning Since I started working from home 8 weeks ago, my morning routine has changed. No more gym, reading …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 10 Albums, 10 Days: The Suburbs I got tagged on Facebook to do this project – share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 10 Albums, 10 Days: Rach 2 I got tagged on Facebook to do this project - share ten albums that greatly influenced my taste in …
: Podcast Listening, Social Distancing Edition Back in the old days (say, before March 2020), my podcast listening tilted heavily toward current …
: 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 …
: Adam Young on Hope and Wrestling with God (2) Continuing from yesterday, more from Adam Young’s fantastic podcast The Place We Find Ourselves: …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Journalism I'm Supporting, January 2020 Good journalism is one of those things everybody wants to have available to benefit from, but fewer …
: Slow Reading After reading more than 80 books in 2019, there’s a part of me that is getting a little squirmy …
: 2019 Reading in Review The beginning of a new year means a quick look back first at last year’s reading in review. (Some …
: Happy New Year! This Strange Planet cartoon is as apt a sentiment for starting 2020 as I can think of today.
: Knives Out Took the family to see Rian Johnson’s latest film, Knives Out, this afternoon. I know Johnson is a …
: 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, …
: 2019 Reading, Compendium #5 A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon by …
: 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 …
: A High View of Scripture? About a year ago I started getting interested in historical criticism as it relates to the Bible. As …
: 2019 Reading, Compendium #4 Goodness, I’ve let this go a while without providing a list. Here we go… Anointed with Oil: How …
: 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; …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 2019 Reading, Compendium #3 A few added to my list… Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry …
: Richard Beck: Love in Post-Progressive Christianity Richard Beck has a series going on an approach he calls “post-progressive Christianity”. I’ve …
: 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 …
: 21 Years I guess this is the point at which we can say we’ve been married half our lives… Definitely the …
: 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 …
: 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: …
: 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 …
: DBH: Can we relax about "socialism"? David Bentley Hart reworks his Facebook post from last year (which I posted about at the time) into …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Today's the day! Can confirm this morning only a light jacket was necessary.
: 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…
: Opening Day 2019 It’s been a long winter. Heck, it’s been a long week. Which makes today a particularly happy one: …
: Current Earworm I’m accompanying a local friend who’s a high school senior when he sings for state contest in a …
: My latest fascination I’ve never been particularly a jewelry or fashion guy. I’ve worn a watch inconsistently over the …
: Strange Planet One of my favorite discoveries as of late has been the new webcomic Strange Planet. Apparently only …
: Democracy for Republicans There’s a really good essay by Jacob T. Levy (Professor of Political Theory at McGill University) …
: 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 …
: A passion for Jesus and for justice Justice is inherent in justification. This understanding of justification will have enormous effects …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: Fans with Bands I went down a little bit of a YouTube rat hole the other day watching a playlist full of videos …
: The Cross and the Lynching Tree Having read very few black theologians over my past couple decades of reading theology, it was far …
: Making the rounds... I’ve been playing music in church since high school and as a member of worship bands at least since …
: For All The Saints This great hymn was sung at the end of President George H. W. Bush’s funeral this morning. Written …
: Of disappointment and unexpected footwear A week ago I ordered some foam replacement earbud covers from Amazon. Friday the package showed up. …
: The Emperor and the Empty Tomb A fascinating and engaging essay from the LA Review of Books (HT: Matthew Loftus): When Wilhelm …
: Chaplain Mike: Exiting the Evangelical Wilderness Oh man, I really appreciated this summary from Chaplain Mike over at InternetMonk.com today. While …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Grammar nerdery + Bible reference? You bet I'll post this.
: 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 …
: Being Christians above all else Really good piece from Father Thomas McKenzie yesterday about living as a Christian in these divided …
: Social media exhausted me again Social media exhausted me again. If I’m more self-reflective I guess I have to say I exhausted …
: Three dimensions of salvation by allegiance I’m reading Matthew W. Bates’ Salvation By Allegiance Alone this week, in which he argues that the …
: Biblical intersectionality “Intersectionality” is a concept that has been a popular punching bag of many conservatives, …
: What are Evangelicals afraid of losing? Dr. Michael Horton has a wise piece on CT in response to President Trump’s comments to evangelical …
: Finished reading: 2018, part five My reading has apparently slowed down a bit this summer. Still, there’s been some good stuff …
: David Bentley Hart's case for socialism Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart takes a break from theology to talk briefly about his …
: Power corrupts. Including religious power. Former Christianity Today editor Katelyn Beaty has a great op-ed over on RNS making the case that …
: 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 …
: Welcome to America... David Bentley Hart with a prophetic critique of America in a recent NYT column (HT to Richard Beck …
: Zahnd: Christianity vs. Biblicism I attended the Water to Wine Gathering at Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, MO a couple weekends …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Albert Mohler, the SBC, and #MeToo I’ve been chewing on Dr. Albert Mohler’s post on The Humiliation of the Southern Baptist Convention …
: 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 …
: Finished reading: 2018, part three Books I’ve read the past couple months: Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen A fun little sci-fi …
: Positive politics: health care Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written something on positive politics. Let’s dive in to another …
: Bruenig: Dignity in work, dignity in rest Washington Post columnist Elizabeth Bruenig makes an important point today when she says that we …
: Fun with time signatures Because who doesn’t want to play an etude that switches between 7/8 and 4/4 every measure? (Philip …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Opening Day 2018 Some of my favorite words: Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Cubs started on the road but …
: Farewell, Facebook I just posted this to Facebook: So let’s review what we’ve learned about Facebook in the past couple …
: Is it the beard? I’ve written before about my Swedish Doppelganger - the botanist Carl Skottsberg in his younger …
: Found Tonight The Hamilton / Dear Evan Hanson mashup we didn’t know we needed until it came out… so good.
: 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 …
: Birthday week! Today at our house we enter Birthday Week: three of the five of our family members celebrate a …
: Geek dad status, part 2 Tonight I introduced my daughters to Weird Al, and now daughter #2 insists she needs to listen to …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Beck: A practical Lenten fasting routine Richard Beck describes one of his concerns with traditional Lenten fasting and his rationale for …
: These are the deep questions I ask myself... The other night we were playing “Name that Disney movie” while shuffling soundtracks on Spotify. The …
: 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 …
: Parkland How long must we continue to sacrifice children on the altar of the Second Amendment? As Christians, …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The Gospel Coalition has its #MeToo moment The pace of sexual abuse allegations and resignations / firings in the wake of the #MeToo movement …
: 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 …
: Beck: bored with his doubts The trouble with the incessant deconstruction at work within progressive Christianity is that, left …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Church graveyard at night Took this a couple years ago; still one of my favorites.
: 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 …
: Positive Politics: Education None of the topics I’ve teed up for my Positive Politics discussions are easy ones, but in the …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Really happy for Scott Frost Really happy for Scott Frost and impressed to see him take UCF to an undefeated season. Will be even …
: Unexpected benefits... Apparently one of the benefits of a social media fast is that my friends start texting me to say hi! …
: Jesus' Appeal to Human Emotion and Reason Some really fascinating thoughts from Richard Beck this morning on Jesus’ appeal to human emotion …
: A Social Media Fast The holidays aren’t typically a time we think of fasting… but it was time. I’ve been a perpetual …
: Some Thoughts on Thoughts and Prayers The familiarity of yesterday’s breaking news alerts almost muted the shock. Half a church dead, the …
: Finished reading: fiction! Two weeks, two business trips, it was time for light reading. Trolling the fiction shelves found me …
: Land of My Sojourn A Rich Mullins song as timely today as it was when it came out back in 1993. And the coal trucks …
: 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 …
: Over-reaction? This is a good word… When we call the lamentations of others Over-reaction without first pursuing …
: Finished reading, part the next A rundown of recent book completions: A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the …
: 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 …
: Liberty and Holiness In a Facebook discussion recently on a mildly contentious topic, a friend brought out a line of …
: Finished reading: several more It’s been a while since I’ve put a post together, but I haven’t stopped reading… recent books: …
: Book Blame, Volume 1 I write regularly about the books that I have finished reading. What I don’t often do is assign …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Finished reading: some history, some sci-fi, some theology The history: The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough An interesting read about …
: 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 …
: Yep, still reading... A few more books I’ve completed lately: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Nineteen Nineteen years ago today Becky and I were married. If I search back through the archives on this …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The extraordinary moment... Again from Marilynne Robinson’s The Givenness of Things, from a chapter titled “Proofs”, a paragraph …
: Sabbath is a way of life... More from Marilynne Robinson’s The Givenness of Things, from a chapter titled “Decline”: The Sabbath …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: James: Gotta Trust Somebody Samuel James made a couple excellent points yesterday about our intake of the newsmedia over at Mere …
: Rands: Assume they have something to teach you A brilliant post from Rands today that has broad applicability beyond managing in the tech industry. …
: Finished reading: more books Finished reading: Since I can’t seem to get individual posts written… The Silk Roads: A New History …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Jethani: Blessed Are The Disillusioned Skye Jethani articulates in a piece today a lot of the frustrations I have felt and heard in recent …
: Finished reading: several books If I posted these individually when I finished the books, I’d have more frequent posts on the blog …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Another view of 'love of neighbor' I was catching up on my backlog of On Being podcasts and came across a fascinating discussion with …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Finished reading: The Whistler by John Grisham Because sometimes you need some thoughtless entertainment. Even at that, Grisham is just coasting on …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Thanks, Obama. A little more than 8 years ago I did something I’d never done before, and voted for a Democrat for …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Books I Read in 2016 Another year, another book list. I think this year I can at least say that the unread book pile …
: Talking Complementarianism and Egalitarianism with Brent Thomas Brent Thomas is kicking the dust off his blog in the hopes of fostering some charitable discussions …
: Entirely resilient If outside it’s all gone mad In Christian ways or not Still is the world, this gorgeous world …
: This is my new favorite picture and I don't know why
: Recommended reading: The Three-Body Problem I’ve got a soft spot in my heart (and on my reading list) for science fiction. It probably started …
: #FlyTheW I’ve enjoyed baseball for as long as I can remember. I have fond memories of attending my first …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: Worship Night in America This showed up in my Twitter feed over the weekend: twitter.com/mattmaher… “Worship Night in …
: A couple recent podcast episodes worth recommending I listen regularly to a handful of podcasts, and irregularly to a couple handfuls more. This past …
: 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 …
: 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 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 …
: Worship Pastor as Tour Guide A couple weeks back I linked to a two hour panel video discussing The Worship Leader as Pastoral …
: The Beach Boys 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' with the vocals isolated... opulenthurricane-blog.tumblr.com/post/2129… Wow.
: Wise words “Practice doesn’t make perfect if you’re doing it wrong.” -- [Frank Sonnenberg]
: Finished reading: compendium 3 I’ve gotten really bad at blogging through all my reading, mostly because it drives me crazy when …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Brian Zahnd's Prayer School A month ago I had the opportunity to attend the Prayer School weekend taught by Brian Zahnd at Word …
: 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 …
: 5/4 day Today is May 4th, which has gained an online buzz as “Star Wars Day” - “May the Fourth be with you” …
: Bono and Eugene Peterson discuss the Psalms A million people have undoubtedly posted this already, but… wow. So good. Bono and Eugene Peterson …
: 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 …
: The discomfiting presence of a saint A couple friends shared this old compilation video of Fred Rogers appearing on the Charlie Rose …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: Christianity as cultural salt Scott Sauls, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, has a really good piece from earlier …
: Finished reading: a couple more I had three books going in parallel before finishing these two, which was making me twitchy. (Now …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: Zierman: Making Room for Others Well, now, this from Addie Zierman is lovely: Our hearts are made like pendulums, and when we swing …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Words matter O. Alan Noble has a really good piece over on the CT website about the importance of Christians …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Aigner: Reframing Worship Arguments I really appreciated this piece from Jonathan Aigner on Ponder Anew yesterday, wherein he suggests …
: Liftoff Episode 12: Geof makes the bigtime When the Relay podcast guys announced a show about space, my first thought was “sure, Stephen and …
: Music that evokes an emotional response From a Facebook group post today: Name a specific musical artist, for whatever reason, that is …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 love my daughter's embarrassed-but-pleased-with-herself smile Oh yeah.
: Fiet: Wheaton College and the Fear Machine Midwestern pastor (and Wheaton alum) April Fiet has some really good thoughts today about the …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: My 2015 Reading Year in Review 2015 was another enjoyable year of reading for me, and with books tracked as usual on Goodreads, …
: Finished reading: Saturn Run So here’s an idea: a sci-fi novel written by somebody who can actually write, with the physics and …
: 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 …
: Hamilton It’s been a while since I’ve had a record catch my attention and get stuck in my head like Hamilton …
: The Worship Industry is "Killing Worship"? Self-described post-evangelical (and Methodist worship pastor) Jonathan Aigner wrote on Patheos …
: 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 …
: Now this is good news! A proclamation of the Gospel that I love and seems timely: The joy of the gospel fills the hearts …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 17 Years Seventeen years ago, on a sweltering Friday night in Charlotte, NC, two youngsters stood before God …
: 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 …
: A little bit of a bozo My theme in any discussion over the past couple of years has usually come around to “well, yeah, …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: A Meal Shared Among Friends I’ve had the sacraments (especially the Eucharist) on my mind lately after reading James K. A. …
: Infrastructure and the Common Good Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker last week: What we have, uniquely in America, is a political class, …
: Formation of the Heart I’m working my way through Jamie Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom, and he is driving home the point that …
: Too much knowledge about the Bible a bad thing? In a recent update of Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal they interviewed Josh McDowell about, …
: 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 …
: Capon on Confession Confession is not a transaction, not a negotiation in order to secure forgiveness; it is the …
: Revisiting the evangelical worship experience A self-professed “child of the 1990s’ Christian subculture” recounts her experience revisiting that …
: Relax Richard Beck had a great little piece the other day about being relaxed. It challenged me. In …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The Spiritual Pep Rally Really good stuff on the Christian movie phenomenon, in the deliciously-titled “Do You Believe in …
: 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 …
: American Oligarchy The kerfuffle around Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act this week has been a mess of ugly …
: And the youngest turns 6... We’re finishing up Birthday Week at the Hubbs house by celebrating today as the youngest turns 6. KP …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Happy Birthday to the AG! (2015 edition) Our middle daughter, Addison, enters her last single-digit year today. Hard to believe that nine …
: 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 …
: Stopping ISIS twitter.com/RickWarre… Pastor Rick Warren’s tweet echoes a sentiment that I’ve been hearing a lot …
: A famous scene minus the dialogue OK, I’m just shamelessly reposting something Jason Kottke dug up, but it’s fascinating - somebody …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Jim Cantore, Minor Prophet In former days the weather gods spake to us through almanacks and prognosticating rodents, but in …
: 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 …
: Worship develops feelings for God, not vice versa twitter.com/PetersonD… This wonderful little bit of insight came across my Twitter feed this morning …
: Farewell, Episcopalians? There have been some strong reactions across the internet the past couple days to some remarks that …
: 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 …
: Worth checking out: Laghdú I would never have run across this album were it not for Jeffrey Overstreet tweeting about it …
: 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 …
: A Timely Word for Today The Fall is where the nation is… Americans have become so beleaguered by anxiety and fatigue, so …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: A Pearls Pun for Friday How awesome is this?
: Is the goal to win the argument? twitter.com/AJWTheolo… twitter.com/BrianZahn… These two tweets showed up on my timeline within 10 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Deliver Us I’ve felt a need for Advent far more keenly this year than I recall from previous years. Perhaps …
: The War of Christmas @pegobry with a great post about the subversive and challenging nature of Christ’s advent: Is there …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Winnie the Dude On the topic of my previous post, I had this Twitter interaction with Stephen Granade: …
: O Bother, Where Art Thou? You gotta love this: an artist created movie drawings based on movie title typos found on Reddit. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 10 years of blogging The first post on this blog was written on October 29, 2004, in typical new-blogger fashion noting …
: 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 …
: A few thoughts on Mark Driscoll's Resignation Mark Driscoll resigned today from the pastorate of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Driscoll has been …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: I'm still reading... So, what have I been up to reading-wise? I don’t know that any of you were actually asking …
: 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? …
: MPT: 20 Problems with Progressive Christianity Matthew Paul Turner says he’s a “progressive Christian”, but that he’s never really owned the label …
: Argument is offered to justify the felt judgment... I’ve finally been catching up with Richard Beck’s Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: 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, …
: Paul Tripp on the inadequacy of external accountability Pastor, author, and counselor Paul Tripp recently resigned from the Mars Hill Church (Seattle) Board …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The pile keeps shrinking... I’m slowly whittling down my bedside book pile, completing Darren Dochuk’s From Bible Belt to Sun …
: 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 …
: Kirk: The Missional Diagnostic Question “Missional” is a word that has been used so much in the evangelical church-planting movement over …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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.
: One down, 25 to go I finished up NT Wright’s Surprised by Scripture the other night. A nice short form of several of …
: 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 …
: Ragamuffin: Music inspired by the Movie I haven’t watched the Ragamuffin movie yet. Having known and loved Rich Mullins for the last 20+ …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Lewis, Tolkien, and True Myth There’s a good piece today from Fr. Stephen Freeman revisiting C. S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien’s …
: This is a useful word. For reference, my current pile:
: My Fourth of July: Ran the local 8k. Didn’t set any time records. At home: finished the laundry and cleaned the …
: Bullet Points for a Wednesday Morning Just a few random observations… Crazy softball game in our church league last night. We were behind …
: Mere Fidelity Podcast on NT Wright I’ve recently started listening to the Mere Fidelity podcast, a theological conversation between …
: O'Hare Overnight Liveblog American Airlines and a stalled warm front have conspired to have me sleeping overnight in the …
: They Took the Post Down As a follow-up to my last post: Leadership Journal last night took down the controversial post, …
: Take down that post? As if it had been too long since the last evangelical church sex abuse scandal, Leadership Journal …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Real Transformation happens when? In light of the whole Tullian Tchividjian / Gospel Coalition dust-up in recent days, Mark Galli has …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: I'm an uncle again! The congratulations are due to my brother Andrew and his wife Heather on the birth of their second …
: How can you not love this kid?
: 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 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 …
: One more Supreme Court amusement I have some other posts planned, but my buddy Geof pointed out something in a Supreme Court ruling …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: That's not me! OK, I’ve heard stories before about people having their email addresses added to unsavory mailing …
: Which artist had the impact? This interview with Rich Mullins’ producer Reed Arvin is months old now, but I thought of it again …
: 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 …
: Humility There are days I foolishly think I’m fairly well-read and have thought through good chunks of …
: 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 …
: We need more neighbors There’s been a lot of virtual ink spilled in the Christian blogosphere on the gay marriage topic the …
: Star Wars music on an amazing pipe organ OK, this is pretty great. Organist Jelani Eddington performs a suite from the Star Wars soundtrack …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The difference a decade makes On the left, my passport photo from 2004. On the right, my passport photo from last week.
: 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 – …
: My Swedish Doppelganger When my wife’s sister and her husband recently visited Chile, they found this picture in a museum …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: How can suburban churches minister to urban areas? Some challenging thoughts from Christina Cleveland today: If we truly saw ourselves as an …
: 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 …
: The Importance of Accountability Carl Trueman, writing today about Mark Driscoll’s problems, and our own: Mark Driscoll is one …
: OK, so I bailed on Octopress A few months back I tried a great blog migration - moving from Wordpress to Octopress, a Ruby-based …
: Practical Worship Leading Ideas Yesterday I wrote a response to a post wherein someone else argued that church praise bands, by …
: Do Praise Bands speak a Secret Language? Yesterday I ran across a recent post from Lutheran pastor Erik Parker provocatively titled “Praise …
: Happening This Weekend I was a bit excited back in November when I bought the tickets. And after living through a very long …
: 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, …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: Notes from the Creation Debate There was a well-publicized debate last night on this question: “is creation a viable model of …
: A Holistic Digital Person Yesterday morning I was tweeting from the beginning of an industry committee meeting I’m attending …
: Spike Jonze' 'Her' Tonight I went to the theater and saw *Her*, the recent movie from Spike Jonze. For those who might …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: There's truth here From today’s XKCD: (Hover text: ‘Automating’ comes from the roots ‘auto-’ meaning ‘self’, and …
: "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 …
: Ben Myers' Canon Fodder Australian theology professor Ben Myers (@FaithTheology) has been tweeting a fantastic series of …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: On Selling Books Yesterday I did something I’ve never done before: I took a stack of books and sold them at the local …
: 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 - …
: A little inspired art We were looking for a family movie tonight and Netflix recommended The Secret of Kells. I had only a …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Carols for Christmas (reprise) Last year I recorded some piano arrangements of familiar Christmas songs. I called it, originally …
: Correlation and Causation All the correlation / causation talk around Dave Ramsey this week brings this classic XKCD cartoon …
: Called to be faithful, not famous Wenatchee the Hatchet pointed me this morning to a devotional post written by Jeff Bettger, who up …
: Accepting truth, discarding error Yesterday I wrote about the need to be willing to accept truth (and discard error) from wherever we …
: Dave Ramsey, Sacred Cow Earlier this week I posted a link on my Facebook feed: “What Dave Ramsey Gets Wrong about Poverty” - …
: 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.
: The Joy of the Gospel Pope Francis published a new “Apostolic Exhortation” today titled “EVANGELII GAUDIUM”, which …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: About those doubts and questions From Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead: I’m not saying never doubt or …
: Many Happy Returns Just a quick note here today to say Happy Birthday to my dear mother. (I’ll call you later on today, …
: Cue the Vangelis soundtrack... One of the enjoyable things about going on business trips to various locations is the chance to get …
: 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 …
: A Calvinist at the Pearly Gates Trevin Wax today reviews Michael Bird’s new book Evangelical Theology. Outside of the book and …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: A story of two men Yesterday I attended a church in another town which I have infrequently visited before. …
: "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 …
: Losing something in the modernization This past Sunday our worship team learned and led a new (old) song - Chris Tomlin’s arrangement of …
: 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 …
: The proper format for a sermon A good insight here: …a genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation …
: 'Perfect' is just my pathetic attempt to hide Comedian Marc Maron has a fantastic recent podcast episode where he interviews jazz pianist Ben …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Recommended reading: Guilt Factories My brother-from-another-mother Daniel Deboer has a great post up about what he calls “Guilt …
: 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, …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: When church and convictions conflict - a personal follow-up Yesterday I recommended Ed Cyzewski’s post talking about when church and your personal convictions …
: When church and convictions conflict Ed Cyzewski put up a great post yesterday about diversity of churches and ministries and about using …
: Internet filtering and government 'protection' Internet filtering has been a hot topic in the news the past few days. In Britain, prime minister …
: Recommended Reading: The Journey of Ministry Recently I’ve been reading The Journey of Ministry: Insights from a Life of Practice by Fuller …
: In which I sing the praises of NewsBlur I realize that everyone reading this has already either made a decision on a Google Reader …
: It's Not a Long Leap In my last post I touched just briefly on the evangelical “modesty culture”, wherein the church …
: God has not given us a Spirit of Fear The evangelical blogosphere has been an interesting place lately. There have been voices talking …
: Four generations at play We had a bunch of family visit our home the past couple days, including my grandmother, my parents, …
: Is this Calvinism's Default Position? I’m sitting in a hotel room tonight enjoying a family weekend and catching up on twitter while …
: Tonight's chain of musical thoughts Playing this in the van while headed home: Led to playing this as soon as I got home: Led to this …
: 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, …
: Happily After All It’s Memorial Day here in the States, which means we’ve been enjoying a day together as a family. I …
: 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 …
: Happy Birthday to Becky! Today is my dear wife’s birthday. We’re probably getting to the point where she doesn’t appreciate …
: 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 …
: A Rich Mullins... movie? Matthew Johnson alerted me yesterday to the trailer that’s out for a movie about Rich Mullins. …
: 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 …
: Facing the truth about ourselves Andrew Peterson has a beautiful piece up at The Rabbit Room today. He reflects on his discomfort at …
: Telling the Tales of the Scarring War with Sin Songwriter and singer Jennifer Knapp answered questions over on Rachel Held Evans’ blog this week, …
: A year off the Internet Tech writer Paul Miller spent a year unplugged from the internet, and returns today to share his …
: 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 …
: Graffiti vs. real change Matt Chambers has a piece up today in light of this week’s ongoing arguments about gay marriage, and …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Happy birthday to KP! It’s March, which means the birthdays come fast and furious at the Hubbs house. Today the youngest …
: Happy Birthday to the AG Seven years ago today, in the dark of the early morning, Addison was born. This young lady is so …
: Richard Beck on Holiness and Hospitality …the pursuit of moral purity often undermines the life of welcome as “sinners” and the morally …
: Biblicism and the Reformed Evangelical magisterium One of the long-term hallmarks of the American evangelical church has been a congregational …
: On Book Reviewing and Control My friend Geof wrote a good post yesterday about really taking time to digest and consider a book …
: 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 …
: Amazon AutoRip and Pricing Models Last week Amazon introduced something called AutoRip. Basic premise: you buy a physical CD from …
: Be careful what you ask for... So, that guy who complained earlier this week that he was getting a little bored or stale playing …
: 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 …
: Going after the dove sellers The point being, while we know that Jesus was upset about economic exploitation going on in the …
: On Playing and Variety My primary instrument has always been (and likely always will be) keys of some sort. I started piano …
: Verizon Wireless woes Back around Thanksgiving my wife and I made the jump from US Cellular to Verizon, for the express …
: My 2012 reading Time for my annual roundup of what I read over the past year. While I’m often lousy at cataloging …
: Carols for Christmas For at least twenty years my mother has been requesting that I record some of my piano stylings. For …
: Advent... or not ‘Tis the season of Advent, or at least lots of church bloggers are telling me. A time of …
: Closely intertwined I think it may take the American evangelical church another decade or so to really realize how …
: My Favorite Elected Official The primary focus this election day is on the race for President, as well it should be. After I …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: India Trip, Days 3 and 4 Some thoughts from days 3 and 4 (Monday and Tuesday) of my India trip: Sitting around doing nothing, …
: 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 …
: In an alternate universe... Twitter was abuzz with #Hutchmoot tags yesterday after Andrew Peterson’s announcement of the special …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Single Payer I was stuck in a hotel last night watching Paul Ryan’s speech, and after he ripped on Obamacare, I …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Church and Community Yesterday on Twitter I had a bit of a conversation with some friends about the relationship of our …
: 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 …
: Standing Up (at my desk) I’ve been intrigued by the online discussion about standing desks for a while now. Heck, it’s clear …
: "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 …
: 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 …
: Some Android / iPhone follow-up So the same day I published my previous post on ditching my Android, a customer service guy from US …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: My daughter does awesome book recommendations Forget my book recommendations, folks: my seven-year-old daughter Laura has me beat. This summer’s …
: 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 …
: Antihistamine Money Years ago when my family first got a VCR and started renting movies, my dad made a beeline for all …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: N. T. Wright sings Monday night I had the privilege of meeting Bishop N. T. Wright and hearing him speak in Nashville, …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: Leonard the Lonely Astronaut My friend Andy Osenga has a new record available to purchase (download or physical CD) today over on …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Happy Birthday, Number Three! Our third daughter, KP, turns three today. So big, so fast. So blessed to have her.
: Happy Birthday, Addie G! Our delightful middle daughter turns 6 today. Happy birthday, little lady! You’re an amazing …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Second-guessing God Stringfellow is just full of good stuff. Still in Chapter Two of An Ethic for Christians an Other …
: Stringfellow on Revelation In the second chapter of William Stringfellow’s An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a …
: 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 …
: My 2011 Reading The end of the year means it’s time for a summary of my last year’s reading. Thankfully Goodreads …
: I didn't know you would be /you/ Karibeth Baumann has spent November blogging letters to her young son Atticus. She finishes up today …
: 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 …
: Thankful On this day set aside to be thankful, I want to review the events of the last six weeks, because …
: Thanks, G. My friend Geof has been writing a series of “letters” blog posts this month, addressed to family and …
: Are we overly focused on the cross? There’s a thought-provoking post by Bo Sanders up on Homebrewed Christianity today wherein he asks …
: The Axes of Evil: A Halloween Groaner [HT: Boing Boing]
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: On parenthood and life Tech blogger Jeff Atwood took a detour from his usual nerd programming yesterday to address a nearly …
: 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 …
: Trying Someplace New Went to The Flying Wienie for lunch today; my first time ever at this local Cedar Rapids …
: A long-delayed update So, that blogging every day thing didn’t last long, did it? A little bit of work craziness and life …
: Off the wagon So I had a Lipton diet green tea yesterday. The whole bottle had 30 mg of caffeine. From what I can …
: Decaffeinating Today marks the beginning of my second week without caffeine. I started out the month of August with …
: Hard, true words from @tallskinnykiwi Andrew Jones (aka “Tall Skinny Kiwi”), “itinerant social entrepreneur”, wandering missionary and …
: So I'm gonna do this... Finally biting the bullet and sending in this registration. 7 more weeks to prepare!
: The desire of every blogger Thanks to Mo Willems:
: Learning to run Running isn’t exactly a new topic on this blog. I first decided to lace up my shoes back in August …
: More about church efficiency and effectiveness I’ve been mulling over Skye Jethani’s question about efficiency and effectiveness after my brother …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Moving at the speed of love Richard Beck has a great piece today on interruptibility. Basically, interruptibility is a form of …
: 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 …
: The right kind of tolerance “Tolerance” is a much misunderstood word these days. I remember hearing a barn-burner of a chapel …
: Awesome morning music mix My music playlist is full of awesome this morning. (Thanks as usual to Geof for the playlist …
: Bad Christian Art There’s a great post over on Image Journal addressing the concerns of “bad christian art”. Author …
: 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 …
: Running again I started my dalliance with running nearly 4 years ago. I was looking for some motivation to get off …
: 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 …
: Good Things in April 2011 01 - Ran five miles in 49 minutes. Longest run ever for me. 02 - Beautiful day, lots of garden and …
: The Royal Wedding: This, Too, Shall Pass The interwebs have been going gaga for weeks now about the British royal wedding, and this morning …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Good things in March 2011 06 - dinner with the family at Casa las Glorias and the kids were all well-behaved! 07 - resolved to …
: 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 …
: Playing Games So I have this sudden inclination to find some new games to play as a family. I don’t have a long …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: Slowing Down I’ve read a lot of books the past few years. As my Goodreads account will attest, I’ve averaged a …
: Evaluating Restaurant Catch-Phrases We took the family to Texas Roadhouse this week for my birthday, and I was quickly annoyed by the …
: Sacred Unions, Sacred Passions Have you ever read a book that turned everything you had been taught about a subject upside down? …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Some resolutions In a week I’ll turn 34, and begin my 35th year of life. That seems momentous somehow. For this 35th …
: 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 …
: Homeschooling as "normal" When our oldest daughter turned 6 and we finally had to make a decision about school, we decided …
: 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 …
: Another take on 'Hipster Christianity' Back in August I linked to a piece by Brett McCracken wherein he decried what he sees as the …
: 15 Records I’m sure I got tagged on this meme somewhere along the way, and then my buddy Dan did it last week, …
: Found this little gem last night... …while cleaning off one of our bookshelves. Completely forgot I had it. Robert’s Rules of Order, …
: Also Bring Cold Water Responses from right-wingers and evangelical Christians to the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” have …
: The Perils of Hipster Christianity Brett McCracken’s column that appeared on the Wall Street Journal website yesterday really hit home …
: A day with family Today we had the chance to enjoy what is an increasingly rare occurrence: all four of my siblings …
: 12 years June 26, 1998, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, Becky and I made vows, exchanged rings, and …
: 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 …
: Another thought on church shopping and polarization Yesterday’s post on church shopping and cultural polarization reminded me of a question I’ve been …
: Church shopping and cultural polarization CNN.com has a blog post today exploring “How Church Shopping is Polarizing the Country”. Written by …
: So, I just invented a new word. Fidgetoid, n. an object with which one fidgets. A Google search reveals no substantive results, so …
: Well, we joined. After taking quite a bit of time to make our decision, Becky and I yesterday became members of …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: Doctrine good, stories bad? I have learned much over the past several years from brothers and sisters of the Reformed …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Partaking "in an unworthy manner" Brent Thomas posted yesterday on the question of “fencing the table” at communion, and while the …
: Going To Morrow My friend Dan’s greeting on Twitter this morning brought this song to mind - it’s a witty, punny …
: 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 …
: Offering right sacrifices In 2010 I’m undertaking the Bible reading plan put out by The Journey, and this morning’s reading …
: Tales from THE SNOWPOCALYPSE, Day 2 Morning timeline: 0530: alarm goes off 0532: check of the cancellations page via my iPod touch shows …
: It's the SNOWPOCALYPSE! Cower in your homes, everyone - IT’S THE SNOWPOCALYPSE! Vicious white stuff will attack from the …
: 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 …
: Orangeburg So, those sewer troubles we had last week? They came back. After snaking out the drains on Friday …
: Not exactly to plan Way I planned to spend Friday evening: reading a book and watching TV. Way I actually spent Friday …
: 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 …
: Joining up... or not That little announcement made its quarterly reappearance in the church bulletin last Sunday: “Times …
: 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 …
: Phrases that stick with you Most of what I remember from Rocky & Bullwinkle is cheesy puns (which are AWESOME, by the way), but …
: The Patient Notebook I keep a notebook at work for scribbling to-dos and other things I need to remember. I don’t go …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Taking Reproof Seriously Nearly a week ago I wrote a piece here wrestling with some concerns I’ve had about Sunday morning …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Bullet Points for a Friday #2 Slow-ish week turns into busy weekend. Lots of family in town, softball tournament, leading worship. …
: 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 …
: Fever° Version 1.01 This morning Shaun Inman pushed out (with notice via Twitter) version 1.01 of the Fever° feed …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 10 years Last Sunday we visited Noelridge Park Church for the morning service so Laura could participate in …
: Canadian Travels and Weird Internet Friends This week business took me on my second-ever cross-the-border trip, once again to Canada, though …
: Bullet Points for a Friday Morning #3 Monday road trip to Nashville was awesome. Saw some friends, made some new ones, saw a great …
: Moving beyond the "what" to the "why" Earlier this afternoon I posted this thought to Twitter: Scary Thing #1 as an engineer: people who …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The Waiting Game We’ve gotten to that point in Becky’s pregnancy now where it’s just a waiting game. The calendar is …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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… …
: The Church Search: A Conclusion of Sorts After Nick chided me last night about my infrequent blogging, and after Roger noted elsewhere that …
: 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 < …
: What's this place about, anyway? I’ve watched with interest the transformation of an internet acquaintance’s blog over the past …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Wedding bells, etc I’ve taken plenty of pictures the past few days, but the dial-up internet connection here at the …
: Christmas 2008 wrap-up Nothing like a holiday and a week off work to slow down the blog posting. We started our Christmas …
: My current songwriting struggle Songwriting, you ask? Yeah, if you missed it, I was invited to attend the Iowa Songwriter’s Guild …
: Just Us at Christmas In the 11 or 12 Christmases Becky and I have spent together, each has been celebrated with one set …
: More Ketchup! Our little Addison (age two and a half) caught a low-grade stomach bug earlier this week. She wasn’t …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Road trip time! Tomorrow morning I will get in the car and, rather than heading to work, I will embark on one of my …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Happiness is... another new pen. When we were in Minneapolis last weekend I happened upon one of those dangerous places for me to go …
: 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 …
: 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: …
: The Church Search, Week 5 This morning we got up off our behinds and visited the next church on our short list: Maranatha …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Post-Election Thoughts So much has been said by so many this morning that I don’t really have anything brilliant to add. …
: Culture Warrior or Disciple? The Internet Monk’s latest post deserves more than just a bullet in my overnight links. Michael …
: 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 …
: I will not fear On an internal discussion board at my workplace today, a co-worker (who is a Christian, though a bit …
: Election Eve It seems like this election cycle started a LONG time ago. We had our caucuses in Iowa back in …
: 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 …
: The Church Search, Week 4 Preview This week our plans have us heading to Maranatha Bible Church. We know the Maranatha pastor and …
: 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, …
: Gilbert & Sullivan & an embarassing admission During an online conversation with Lydia this morning I was chiding for her unfamiliarity with …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Observations from the weekend Your house doesn’t have to be amazingly clean to invite friends over. Even if it was amazingly clean …
: 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 for some piano music I switched over from my usual podcasts and indie rock this morning to give some iPod love to a genre …
: Short list got shorter Well, we talked about it some more last night and agreed that Cedar Valley Bible Church is off our …
: Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe Lydia asked for it, so here it is… Ingredients 2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained - I prefer …
: An end-times deal-breaker So yesterday afternoon I noted that the next church on our short list for visiting during the Church …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Living Life Together It is becoming more and more clear to me lately how we are created for community, and how much we …
: Who, Me? My brother Ryan has been working full-time as an Obama campaign volunteer for the past few weeks, …
: 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 …
: 4 years, 1001 posts Four years ago I started this thing called blogging, not, as they say, with a bang, but with …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The Church Search, Week 1 Preview Well, tomorrow morning we officially begin our look for a new church here in the Cedar Rapids area. …
: Listening Thoughts from multiple discussions over the last week: Most of the time, when people come to tell …
: Thinking through the presidential politics I’ve had an easy time deciding who to support for president for pretty much every election cycle …
: 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 …
: "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 …
: Take me out to the ballgame... It’s October 1st, which, among other things, means it’s time for the baseball playoffs. This has …
: Trying to describe Watership Down I finished reading Richard Adams’ Watership Down last night and, when adding it to my reading list, …
: 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 …
: Random question for the morning Is it egotistical to drink coffee from a mug that says “I (heart) my Music Minister” when, up until …
: Beginning the church search After making the decision to leave Imago Christi at the end of the month, we find ourselves in an …
: The Coffee Experiment, Day 5 After yesterday’s run-in with completely nasty office coffee, I decided I would try brewing some …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: 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 …
: Changes Coming Tonight after the service at Imago Christi, I read this brief letter to the congregation: It has …
: Watching our tone Over the past two weeks’ political conventions I have watched most of the major speeches and then …
: 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 …
: Book Review: Wild Goose Chase Wild Goose Chase, the latest book by pastor Mark Batterson of National Community Church in …
: Denver OK, so bad travel plans notwithstanding, I made it to Denver on-time on Monday evening. Tuesday was …
: its wisdom, who can measure? Work necessitates that tomorrow I travel from Cedar Rapids to Denver to attend three days of FAA …
: Beautiful quote from a friend today …after I declared I was socially stunted because of my intense dislike for calling people that I …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: Bullet points for a Monday Morning #3 A week without a blog update + lack of creativity = desperate measures. Hence, the bullet points. …
: 100 Books Being the voracious reader that I am, I was happy to steal this from Kari and Roger. The story is …
: Book Review: The Healing Choice This week’s book review, thanks to a free copy from WaterBrook Press, is The Healing Choice and its …
: Happy birthday Laura (2008 edition)! Our oldest daughter Laura turns 4 today. So far she’s celebrated the morning with a bowl of Rice …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Washington Vacation 2008: The Beach After arriving late on Monday and having vehicle difficulty, we took the new minivan out to the …
: An apology of sorts I had really intended to keep the blog up-to-date while on this vacation - after all, during the …
: The Flat Tire A couple of pics of our minivan’s flat tire the other night. Less dramatic because the guys already …
: In Seattle Day 1 of our vacation finally brings us to Seattle. Our flights were only delayed a little - we …
: Packing for the trip With the expense of airline travel these days, we thought we might consider a method of …
: T-minus 7d It’s starting to hit home that one week from now we will be on an airplane, with the kiddos, headed …
: Ten Ten years ago today, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, friends and family gathered as Becky …
: Counting down the days... Once today is complete I will have only 6 more working days until vacation… and oh my, am I ever …
: 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 …
: 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… …
: Slowly regaining normalcy Father’s Day 2008 wasn’t quite what any of us had been planning, but it’s still gone pretty well. …
: A short Friday night update What a beautiful day today was. Sunshine, cool temps… such a nice change from the weeks of rain. …
: Sucking it up No time to post pictures but if you visit any online news site you’ll undoubtedly be able to see the …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Bunk beds It’s been a couple of weeks now but there was great excitement among the little girls in our house …
: 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 …
: Montreal So today was the day I finally ventured outside the good ‘ol US of A; traveling to Montreal, Quebec …
: Muppet Imitations Apparently this is something that goes by generations, too. I’ve done Kermit (among others) for a …
: Tuesday morning this'n'that I have a couple other posts floating around in my head, but need to gather some thoughts (and …
: 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 …
: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning #2 It was an amazingly beautiful weekend. Fortunately the beautiful weather is sticking around for …
: Softball 2008! Last night was the start to our church league softball season. For most of the day it looked like we …
: ...with some frosting... One of the things that just fascinates me is observing the girls’ learning - not just what they …
: 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 …
: It's spring... finally! Signs that spring is finally here: Warmer weather, finally. high temps in the 70’s for the majority …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Feed Demon Issues... Hello Google Reader? An original user of Google Reader, some months ago when NewsGator decided to make its products free …
: Four There’s been a running joke at our house for some time now that goes something like this: Becky: …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Christians and Sin in the Movies There’s been a good discussion going on over at The Rabbit Room regarding how Christians should deal …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Easter Thoughts I had the opportunity to do the Easter “program” (if you want to call it that) twice this year: once …
: 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 …
: Happy Birthday, Addison Grace! Two years ago today, about this time early in the morning, I was making phone calls to my parents …
: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun This morning Laura and Addie and a few of their friends participated in a little fashion show for a …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Another post from Augusta Yesterday was Day 2 of the RTCA committee meeting here in Augusta. (Why am I posting a day behind, …
: No, I don't play golf... This week has brought me to Augusta, GA for the quarterly SC-213 meeting. The inevitable first …
: 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 …
: Another Half a Foot Rest easy, friends, I’m not growing some fractional appendage. But I am pretty much tired of winter. …
: An equation of insanity So back in my Caedmon’s concert post, Daniel commented that he found the length of that road trip to …
: I'm it. Having been tagged by Jeff for the latest interweb meme to filter around to these parts, I suppose I …
: Putting on the miles The lengths I will go to hear a concert? Well, this weekend the length was 300 miles, each way. …
: Comparing Services This past weekend I had the pleasure of leading music both at Imago Christi on Saturday night and at …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: The importance of training others “…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will …
: Putting my talents to some profit Pretty much ever since my brother Andrew and his fiancee Heather set a date for the wedding this …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Wait, it's Monday? Weekends are going to look a little bit different now that we’re having church on Saturday night. …
: Bullet points for a Wednesday Just realized I never gave you all any feedback on the first service at Imago Christi. It went …
: Creating the routine The biggest adjustment this week in preparing for the Saturday night service is starting to think of …
: D-Day Timeline Saturday was the big day - first service at Imago Christi! A timeline of the day: 7:30 am: Wake up …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Becoming a Caring Church Alex Strauch provides some practical guidance for becoming a church that truly cares for people …
: Songs for the Inaugural Service Imago Christi’s inaugural service is just over a week away - January 5, 2008. As I noted previously, …
: Home after Christmas What a great Christmas, and now how good to be home. We spent several days at my parents’ place in …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Wrapping things up Today is my last work day for the year. Thanks to a day of vacation tomorrow and a generous holiday …
: Building a worship team One of my big initial tasks for Imago Christi is to figure out the worship team situation. Music is …
: Contentment I was reading Psalm 131 this morning and was struck by the picture of contentment painted in its …
: 'Tis the season to be jolly and joyous... Christmas shopping is complete. The Christmas program is over. We’ve received a bunch of Christmas …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: The travails of travel Dear Delta Airlines, I can’t decide whether to be mad with you or not. I was definitely not pleased …
: 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 …
: Coming in Boldly Last Wednesday night we left the girls at church (Laura for AWANA, Addie to play in the nursery) and …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Ideas for Effective Ministry - Introduction Last week Richard (my pastor for the past 8 years who is also leading our church plant effort) asked …
: I've been found out. OK, rarely will I write a full post to recommend someone else’s post, but the latest from …
: 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 …
: Making the switch After running the numbers and looking at likely use scenarios over the upcoming year or two, we …
: Halloween at Work No costumes ‘round our building today, but we’re having an event that appears to be proving popular …
: David Wilcox at CSPS Last night Becky and I experienced a couple of firsts: 1) going to a concert at CSPS in downtown …
: Bullet points for a Monday #2 [As always, I am grateful to Daniel for this very useful format.] Addie didn’t sleep well last …
: No Excuses I hit the scale last Saturday after a fairly physically strenuous day of outdoor work (OK, strenuous …
: Most any update is better than none... Bullet points for the weekend: Church plant plans are moving right along. Looking like the start …
: 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 …
: Oklahoma City Business has brought me this week to Oklahoma City, square in the middle of the Sooner state. I’ve …
: Bullet Points for a Monday Morning Had a productive weekend; got the lawn mowed, some concrete patching done, led music at church. …
: 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. …
: Should this really be our fight? “Clergy fight same sex marriage”. This headline stared out at me from this morning’s copy of the …
: $1.05 I have a usual stop on my way to work in the mornings: the Road Ranger convenience store at the …
: Odds and Ends Sep 2007 First off, sorry to any of you who tried to leave comments yesterday. Something with the way the …
: Changes in the works I presented this letter to the elder board at Noelridge last Thursday: To the Elders at Noelridge: …
: Happiness is... a new pen. Back in February I bought my first-ever fountain pen. I knew nothing about them, but had always …
: An update of sorts It’s been slow around these parts lately, which likely just means that life has been pretty busy. …
: 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, …
: Well, I asked. Becky and the girls stopped by my workplace for a few minutes this morning to drop off some lunch …
: Caedmon's Call - Overdressed Well at least half of you who read this blog are already listening to this album, but I should still …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: New Specs I got my most recent pair of glasses about 6 years ago. Now, I don’t wear them all that often; my …
: Seattle It’s 8 AM in Seattle and this hotel restaurant is a pretty comfortable place to sit and write. The …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: A real post - sort of So most of the recent posts here have been just links to other stuff. Sorry about that. Have been …
: New Orleans Impressions Got back from last week’s trip to New Orleans early on Friday morning. This was my first time in New …
: Bullet Points for a Friday [Once again, thanks to dan for creating a good format to rip off.] Laura turns three today! Happy …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Drying out It’s been a bit of a wet week here in eastern Iowa. We had storms starting Monday night through …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: It's a trap! Last week I bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi from a vending machine. I opened it up, and woohoo! The …
: Evaluating alternative iPod management software Yesterday SimpleHelp.net posted 10 Alternatives to iTunes for managing your iPod. (They have since …
: A little bit sore Yesterday morning I was awake early so I went to the gym and hit the treadmill and the weight …
: It's Monday again already?!? Well, it was a busy weekend. The whole family showed up Friday night for one last get together …
: 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 …
: What day is it again? Having a day off from work in the middle of the week has totally thrown me off. Yesterday seemed …
: Ah, Home Becky and I arrived back home late in the evening Saturday. Travel was uneventful, though we did …
: Blue Man! Last night Becky and I went to see Blue Man Group over at Universal Orlando. BMG is one of those …
: Nine Years Hard to believe it’s been that long already. Nine years ago tonight, on a hot, sticky night in …
: Orlando Made it with no serious travel glitches to Orlando about 7:30 pm local time. Gotta say this - that …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: Satisfaction Well if I’m gonna gripe when I think things have gone wrongly, it is only right that I applaud when …
: Not again! UPS dutifully delivered my second refurbished iPod this afternoon. The battery was pretty well dead, …
: iPod today? Got an automated UPS phone call a few minutes ago saying that my iPod would be delivered today, and …
: Bullet Points for Friday Still no iPod. I’m hoping for today, but I’m just about tired of hoping. Did an insurance review …
: 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 …
: I just want my iPod back... After BestBuy’s impressive performance in getting me my first refurbished iPod, it has now been 12 …
: Good Qualities for a... We were sitting in a conference room at work the other day and there was a large pad that someone …
: Back online So just as I was about to get really frustrated with Qwest, UPS showed up with their “welcome …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Fun with Family We had the whole clan over this weekend - well, almost the whole clan. Ryan came in from Chicago, …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Heading home from DC Having been in DC since Monday night, I’m good and ready to be heading home. Our meetings have been …
: ...leaving on a jet plane... I’m headed out of town today; assuming that Northwest Airlines does their thing, I will be in …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Devil's Lake Camping Trip Yes, as promised, we went camping last weekend up at Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin. My …
: Camping! When I was a kid, we went camping as a family all the time. I think some of my siblings enjoyed the …
: 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. …
: A much-needed improvement... I’ve been using Google Reader for some time now as my feed reader, and one of the more frustrating …
: Flying it! Part of the goofiness with my job is that by the time we get these announcements, I’ve been done …
: Softball 2007 One of my very first posts on my blog was about softball; hard to believe that’s been two years ago. …
: Good Motivation I just filled out the entry forms for two 5K races in upcoming months: the Marion Arts Festival 5K …
: Random Thought #2 I’m sitting on my PC waiting for the Microsoft Visual C++ .NET development suite to install. And on …
: At Becky's request... more pictures! No, this place isn’t turning into a photoblog. But when you have a new toy… :-)
: 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 …
: New toy coming... Thanks to some unexpected cash influx, I was able to purchase this earlier this week: It’s a Nikon …
: Sunday Sermon This morning I had the privilege to preach at the Noelridge Sunday morning services. My text was …
: Stuff Life has been crazy this week, keeping me from writing much in the way of a thoughtful post about …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: Name That Tune [Meme fearlessly stolen from CJ]. Step 1: Put your ipod on random. Step 2: Post the first line from …
: A real post This place has been full of links lately and very short on actual posts. Partly that’s been due to …
: A Resolution As I updated my 2007 reading list yesterday, I became convicted about how many novels of dubious …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Billboards from God On my way home from work every day I pass a billboard that frustrates me. It’s a simple message, …
: 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 …
: Party Time This weekend my parents and brothers will all be coming to visit. (My sister is in Panama doing …
: In Praise of Good Customer Service I’ve complained enough about bad customer service here on the blog (see: the OfficeMax debacle of a …
: Thoughts on Washington DC Last week I traveled for business to Washington, DC. While my original plans left me little time for …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Visiting Uncle Sam This week is time for my first business trip in a while, and yesterday found me heading out of Cedar …
: Finally done Last night I used a jigsaw to cut two small notches, pulled the garage door opener up about another …
: Making progress Yesterday morning we got a guy out to fix the garage door, so it now goes up and down like it …
: 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 …
: I think I pulled something... So last night I had the chance to do some practice on the pipe organ at Central Park Presbyterian …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Pick Chris's Reading List: Velvet Elvis Finally I complete another entry on my reader-suggested reading list: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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. …
: Goodbye, Krispy Kreme Sometime while we were gone on our Christmas vacation, our local Krispy Kreme closed down. It opened …
: Word of the day: anent Never heard this one before; just saw it used in a blog post here. anent –preposition 1. in regard …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: The Penguin, and New Friends Thursday was get-ready-to-head-home day. We picked up a cartop carrier that Ernie had salvaged for …
: Post-Christmas Mayhem The day after Christmas found us trying to sleep off all that food we ate the day before. :-) We …
: 35 years and counting... This post is only a day belated, but let me wish my parents a very happy 35th anniversary! Don and …
: Christmas! Christmas morning dawned and we packed up four adults, two small children, and lots of presents and …
: Christmas Eve Sunday morning of our trip brought us to Calvary Church in Charlotte for the Sunday morning service. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Nashville Day 2 of our Christmas trip landed us in Nashville. Becky’s brother Bob and his wife Holly and …
: 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 …
: Packing Up and Heading Out The long-awaited Christmas break is finally here! Tonight we’re loading the van, and tomorrow …
: Thoughts on Consumerism Found this wonderful little article from Will Willimon entitled “Resisting the Clutches of …
: Google Reader adds "sort by oldest" Finally! This was my biggest gripe with Google Reader up until now; the only chronological sort …
: 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 …
: The Usual? “The usual?” That’s the question that was posed to me this morning. Now, it was just at the local …
: 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 …
: Swearing on the Koran My mother-in-law asked the other day what I thought about this recent news story. In brief: Newly …
: An AP Concert Weekend Last Friday Becky and I headed out to Omaha, NE to see Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God …
: Something to think about... “I’ve noticed that when God wants me to follow Him in a particular direction, He usually doesn’t get …
: 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 …
: Early in the Morning The past two mornings Laura has decided there was a need to wake up about ten minutes to five; both …
: Building Up Endurance So how was your Thanksgiving? We spent the weekend in Wisconsin with my family at my parents’ place. …
: A Time for Giving Thanks With Thanksgiving being tomorrow, I thought I’d list a few things I’m thankful for. I encourage you …
: Random Thought During a conversation with Becky while driving somewhere the other night, discussing someone: Me: …
: One last time... This Sunday will be my last Sunday to lead worship at Noelridge for a while. It has been a while …
: 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 …
: Plans Change Well, that Happy Meal hasn’t materialized in Laura’s future yet. Becky got sick with a nasty fever …
: Adventures in Fatherhood Tomorrow morning Becky will be taking off for Chicago to spend a weekend with her friend Juanita who …
: 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 …
: Dr. John Stackhouse on Christians' Political Concerns Dr. John Stackhouse of Regent College in Vancouver, BC, is in Cedar Rapids this weekend speaking. …
: 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 …
: Seasons Yard work isn’t my favorite task; it’s one of those things that gets done because it needs to be …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Gotta run... I got out for a run yesterday afternoon - probably the first time in 2 weeks that I’ve run. It feels …
: The Interweb is Fun! So yesterday after church I posted a recording of Andrew and me singing a song in church. Talking to …
: Goodbye FeedLounge, Hello, Google Reader! I’ve been using FeedLounge for several months now (ever since they came out of beta!) as my online …
: Gracious Words In reply to the “controversy” of John Piper’s comments regarding Mark Driscoll at the DG2006 …
: DG2006: The Audio is Up One of the things the DG folks do right: all the audio from the Desiring God 2006 National …
: 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 …
: Desiring God 2006 National Conference I got home about 2:30 this morning from two days in Minneapolis at the Desiring God 06 National …
: Things are changing I made this announcement after both services at Noelridge today. I didn’t read from a script, so …
: Spartan Fund Run 5K Last Saturday I ran in my first-ever 5K, the Solon High School Spartan Fund Run. They had a few …
: Don't know much about... anything! Last night I took the opportunity to visit Conversation Cafe, a discussion group at a local …
: 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 …
: Last training run Well, my last training run before the Solon 5K on Saturday. I woke up before my alarm this morning …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Park Concert coming up... This coming Sunday night my brothers Aaron and Andrew and I will be doing a concert for my church. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Sunset There’s something about sunsets that make me nostalgic. I’m not sure what it is about them, but give …
: 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; …
: Sonic is coming! Back in Texas, Sonic was a favorite fast food place of ours. Who can top the Route 44 Cherry …
: 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 …
: More running It hasn’t been a real productive week for me as far as running goes; three mornings this week we we …
: It's time for a break... I was reading back through some of my old blog posts this morning, tagging them appropriately, (100 …
: '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, …
: 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 …
: Feeling Squeezed Yesterday I was sitting at my desk working away when suddenly, bzzt! and one of my monitors went …
: This is why I wear a belt The main button on my (nearly-new) khakis just came off. Fortunately, there’s still that little …
: geek alert The title is just a warning that some of your eyes might glaze over whilst reading this post. Others …
: My first training run I have a 5K course mapped out through our neighborhood, so I gave it my first try at that distance …
: I'm back home... Got home from Seattle about midnight last night. Oh so much fun. Our plane was late leaving Seattle, …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Everybody loves a party! Yesterday was Laura’s second birthday. So, we invited a bunch of friends over to celebrate. …
: 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 …
: Random Thoughts on Classical Music For those of you brave enough to read past the title, congratulations! Now instead of me talking …
: A fun weekend... It was busy busy busy, but it was fun. My brother Andrew is now officially a resident of Cedar …
: 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 …
: Bits and Pieces I wait far too long between blog posts, and then I find myself searching for interesting things to …
: Traveling Adventures Tuesday through Thursday of this week took my on my first trip ever to Seattle, WA. Several of us …
: I had that dream again... Yeah, that dream. The one where Andy Osenga and some other unidentified people are holed up with me …
: 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! …
: I love used CDs Last night, FYE at Coral Ridge Mall. Hem’s Rabbit Songs. Used. Price: $4.99. But wait, there’s 20% …
: 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 …
: 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: Impressions This is the first time I’ve ever visited Atlanta. I’ve driven through a few times, but that doesn’t …
: 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 …
: Well whaddaya know? CID has free wireless internet in the terminal. My flight was delayed by about 15 minutes, but now I …
: 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. …
: road tripping In a bout of insanity, I have decided to take two days off work and drive to Nashville for Andy …
: 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 …
: It's Monday already... That’s actually not a bad thing, just a statement of fact. Had a nice weekend; installed a screen …
: 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 …
: Happy Birthday, Becky! Only the best birthday wishes to my beautiful wife who turns 29 today. She is a faithful partner, …
: Enough DaVinci, already! I’ve heard just about enough about The DaVinci Code by now. First, the hoopla over the best-selling …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Follow-up on the technology saga Yesterday my PDA totally locked up, just froze with the backlight on and nothing on screen. Finally …
: 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 …
: A slide projector... and a bedsheet! [Kudos to Roger for playing along with the Veggie Tales reference.] A follow-up on yesterday’s …
: Stereophonic Multimedia Event No, not the blog. My entertainment center, usually. But last weekend for some reason the LCD display …
: Mitt Happens I met Mitt Romney yesterday. Well, if you can consider shaking his hand and saying hello “meeting” …
: 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) …
: BookJournal: Xenocide I haven’t been a fan of everything Orson Scott Card has ever written (sorry, Keith), but my love for …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: going to see Caedmon's... Thanks to Andrew Osenga’s timely posting of more tour dates, I found that Caedmon’s Call will be …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: play time Yesterday, as the culmination of a lot of research by Becky, we went out and purchased a backyard …
: Springtime! This week has finally brought spring-like weather to our little piece of Iowa. Temps will be in the …
: youth time OK, so my ankle is a little bit sore this morning. I wonder if it has something to do with playing …
: The Joy of Friends and Fellowship Yesterday was the annual Eggstreme Easter Egg Hunt out at the Berberich’s home in Stone City. This …
: opening day It’s opening day for major league baseball, and what a way to start: the Cubs scored 5 runs in the …
: They're back... Got a phone call from Mom and a text message from Rebecca letting me know that they (and Ryan and …
: New Music I placed an order today for some music that I’ve dreamed about playing for a long time: Claude …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: short on sleep but full of joy... Yesterday welcomed our little girl Addison Grace into the world. It was a quick labor and delivery; …
: 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 …
: starting out hectic Well, no baby yet. But that still doesn’t mean my Monday has calmed down much. :-) We did a bunch of …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: it's Monday... …and I haven’t posted since last Wednesday, which means I’m a real slacker. I fall into this basic …
: 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 …
: Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century This is a must-read article by …
: Loose ends Just to tie up a few loose ends from previous posts: The evening at the coffeehouse went well. I …
: 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 …
: coffeehouse time Tomorrow night I’m providing two hours of musical entertainment at my favorite coffeeshop. I’ll …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: home again, home again... I got back last night about 10:30 from another quick trip to Wichita, this time for DER Orientation. …
: ain't it just like Mediacom... It’s not unusual, in my experience, to receive calendars as gifts around Christmas-time from …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: a good weekend to be off Yesterday was my first Sunday of just taking a break from leading the worship team. David Green did …
: 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 …
: finally up and running It’s taken too long, but noelridge.org is finally up and running with real pictures of our people …
: 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 …
: BookJournal: Fortunes of War Fortunes of War is a recent title from Stephen Coonts. It is in many respects a standard military …
: FeedLounge! The long-awaited FeedLounge finally opened for public signups yesterday. For those of you not …
: iTunes meme Geof did this, and it looked like fun. Open iTunes to answer the following: Total number of tracks: …
: US Cellular outage in Eastern Iowa I woke up this morning to find that I had very limited, analog cellular service. US Cellular has …
: too many rebates I’ve probably sent in more rebate forms in the last two months than I had in my entire previous 28 …
: 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 …
: making things Occasionally when I walk through our building here at work to get to the cafeteria, I walk past some …
: getting things done No, Geof, I haven’t read the book, and this isn’t about the book. However, it has been nice lately …
: 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 …
: worship team follow-up So we did two services this morning after the great WT practice on Wednesday, and the services went …
: 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 …
: baby names OK, so Becky is due with kiddo #2 the first week of March. We’ve talked baby names a little bit, but …
: BookJournal: No Uncertain Terms Well I just about have this one finished up so I’ll write about it now. William Safire, in addition …
: well, it's official I got the letter from the FAA today that officially notifies me that I will be a DER candidate …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: BookJournal: PowerSat Powersat is one of the latest titles by long-time sci-fi author Ben Bova. Bova is a prolific author. …
: 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 …
: Upgrade complete I’ve just finished upgrading all of the thehubbs.net blogs to Wordpress 2.0. It all seemed to go …
: Christmas time is here... OK, so Christmas was actually two days ago. Now the family has all left for their respective homes …
: 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 …
: Just for the record... …the new snowblower kicks butt. I probably looked like an idiot using a 5.5 hp 2-stage snowblower to …
: 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 …
: lots of travel, 30 minute interview Monday afternoon found me traveling to Wichita, KS, for my DER interview with the FAA. The wisdom …
: weekend update It’s been feeling like Christmas the last couple of weeks, what with the sub-zero temps and the foot …
: Andy Gullahorn Geof Morris once referred to him as “Andy ‘It’s really sad that the only thing that the only song of …
: 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 …
: So much to say... So Saturday night was the Behold the Lamb concert in Cedar Rapids. As you know if you read my …
: ok, so I'm a little bit excited... Tomorrow the Andrew Peterson Behold the Lamb Christmas tour is hitting Cedar Rapids! I couldn’t …
: I got accepted. Well, so I still haven’t received the official “you’re invited for an interview” letter from the …
: Things aren't right I’ve been reading several different books recently, and a discussion with Becky last night brought a …
: the blessings of a holiday This holiday weekend we have left Iowa and headed to Wisconsin to visit my family. Thanksgiving with …
: I've moved... If you are reading this post, you’re reading it from my new web address: www.thehubbs.net/chris/. …
: I got accepted... I think... I got a letter from the FAA today inviting me to the DER seminar down in Wichita in January. …
: it's basketball time... My first basketball league of the season starts tonight. I’m really looking forward to it. I know my …
: 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 …
: Ender's Game I am a voracious reader of fiction. I read a good bit of non-fiction, too, but fictional thrillers …
: feeling young Last night we had a neighborhood potluck dinner, organized by our next-door neighbors. It was a bit …
: "A Separate Peace" Peggy Noonan writes a somber column today. An excerpt: I think there is an unspoken subtext in our …
: 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 …
: priorities of time I wrestled in an earlier post with issues of time and busyness. I’m still wrestling with it. I think …
: 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’ …
: it's a Monday... …and stuff is a bit crazy here at work. Fortunately for me, I’m taking vacation this afternoon to …
: OLN Hockey Blackout Yesterday night I sat down in front of the TV, looking forward to watching a hockey game. The Dallas …
: 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 …
: Happy Birthday sis! My little sister Rebecca (the youngest of us 5 kids) turns 18 today! Wow. Now I feel old. :-) Happy …
: Noelridge Park Church So, after months of planning, debating, and voting, we finally have a new name for our church. …
: 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 …
: I'm full! I was remembering those Taco Bell ads the other day - the ones where a guy eats a burrito or …
: 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 …
: Serendipity ser·en·dip·i·ty n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties 1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. …
: The Present Future, and associated thoughts I just finished reading The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. He …
: The church name is changing! After months of prayer, planning, and discussion, we took a congregational vote last night of intent …
: fun with guitars So yesterday I took my guitar in to see about getting the pickup fixed. Let me back up. I have a …
: 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 …
: my blog is boring Becky was bored the other day and reading over some blogs (something she doesn’t do very often), and …
: 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 …
: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 26 I received my OfficeMax gift card yesterday in the mail. It was accompanied by a cheesy little …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 23 Still nothin'. On another warranty replacement topic, I remembered this morning that the Countryman …
: 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 …
: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 22 Date I started the process: August 6. Days since I called to start the process: 22. Days since I …
: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 19 Almost three weeks now and still nothin’. Geof suggests I should skip the Tungsten and go for a …
: Worship Team changes... We had our first worship team practice using individual microphones last night. Currently, we just …
: Odds and Ends Just miscellaneous stuff from my life today. I got my DSL modem hooked up last night so the Casa de …
: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 18 Nothing to report again today. Still waiting.
: OfficeMax Replacement Watch, Day 16 Nothing to report. I have meetings all morning this morning and would love to have the PDA for …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Come On! Feel The Illinoise! There have been a ton of reviews of Sufjan Stevens’ new album, [Illinois], floating around lately. I …
: 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 …
: OfficeMax MaxAssurance Replacement Watch, Day 10 My prepaid mailing label came in the mail yesterday, so last night after softball I went to get …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: the great escape act I haven’t written many (any?) posts on my first year’s worth of experience as a parent… not sure …
: DER Conference, Day 3 Today was the third and final day of the conference here in Norfolk. The conference itself was …
: DER Conference, Day 2 Another day in Norfolk, more of the conference. Fun fun. Today was “breakout sessions”, which means …
: DER Conference, Day 1 Today was the first day of the DER software conference (excuse me, the official title is the “FY2005 …
: On the road... I’m writing tonight from a hotel room in Norfolk, VA… I’m here to attend the 2005 FAA Software DER …
: 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 …
: 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, …
: 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 …
: a busy week... This upcoming week is gonna be a hum-dinger. Tonight is softball, first umping, then playing. …
: occasional down time Don’t be surprised if you see occasional downtime on my blog here over the next several days; the …
: 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 …
: Sahara Last night we had a babysitter available and so we went to the cheap seats theater in town and …
: 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 …
: A little less wise Thursday morning I had the delightful experience of having 4 wisdom teeth removed. It’s the first …
: Cakeboy? Who the heck is Cakeboy? In a comment sometime back, Amber asked about the whole House of Cakeboy title. While I may rename …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: new horizons in wife appreciation Becky went to a women’s retreat this weekend. She left Friday afternoon and didn’t get back until …
: boredom This has definitely been one of those boring weeks, especially as far as work is concerned. As I …
: The process of the Christian life... Was reading today and found this wonderful quote from Martin Luther describing the process of the …
: What's in a name? We’re holding some church leadership strategy meetings this summer, and one of the big topics is the …
: Mr. Murphy works on Sundays Mr. Murphy and his dang-blasted law were working busily yesterday. It was certainly one of those …
: random Saturday thoughts So, it’ 8:30 on Saturday morning and I’m sitting here in the dining room watching Laura finish her …
: 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 …
: ...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 …
: Musical Baton And so today the musical baton was passed to me by Jeff Holland. It seems like a fun idea, but it …
: Moody Review: Gary Haugen Gary Haugen spoke to us last Tuesday afternoon at the pastor’s conference at Moody. Gary is the …
: Home! I got home early this morning… 1:45 AM. It’s sure good to be home. Everything’s pretty much the same …
: Moody Conference, Day 4 It’s Thursday afternoon and the conference is winding down. There’s only one general session left, …
: Moody Observations, Day 2 Amber liked my attempt at a descriptive writing post yesterday so I thought I’d give it another go. …
: Moody Conference Day 2 It’s 1:10 PM and I’m skipping a general session to sit and write. Richard described this conference …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Happy Birthday Andrew! Today is my brother Andrew’s 19th birthday. A big happy birthday to you, bro, with hopes for many …
: here goes nothin' Yesterday afternoon my manager walked in and asked me if I’d like to become a software lead for an …
: she's graduated! This weekend was my sister Rebecca’s high school graduation. She’s the youngest of us 5 kids, and …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: a busy month... Well that personality thing was kinda boring, wasn’t it? You, reader, deserve a real, human-written …
: making music, family style OK, I’m excited. I just finished talking to my brother Andrew. He is almost 19, has been playing on …
: "energy dependence" Another day, another NRO column to comment on. Today it’s Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren arguing …
: softball starts tonight! Our first softball game of the season is tonight. I’m soooo much looking forward to it. It’ll be …
: zzzzzzzzz..... OK, so it’s Friday afternoon, and I’m bored. I’ve hit the end of the task list for work today, and …
: The war by? on? Christians in America... Stanley Kurtz has an excellent (if a bit long) column today discussing the current edition of …
: bleary eyed I know I owe everybody a blog post (it’s been a couple days… time to keep writing) but it’s been …
: sticking to our guns Ned Rice has a great column today on NRO where he makes a strong argument that the folks whining …
: 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 …
: well, no projects this weekend... So the weather intervened this weekend and I didn’t do any outside projects… apparently a high of 50 …
: projects Springtime has finally arrived in Iowa, and that means that the weekends become project time. That …
: softball..... finally! We had our first softball practice of the season last night. It was a beautiful night to be out, and …
: 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 …
: nowadays the world is lit by lightning Peggy Noonan (one of my long-time favorite columnists, and a devout Roman Catholic) has a column …
: softball... I starting reading some of the other rmfo blogs and found David’s post on softball. I’m quite …
: 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 …
: Thanks Geof! Well it’s better than the old “hello world” message… :-) Thanks to GFM for setting me up with this …
: 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 …
: elder = older? I’ve had several conversations lately regarding the qualifications for being an elder in the church, …
: 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 …
: another year older... Has it really been 3 weeks since I’ve posted? Good grief! No wonder nobody reads my blog… Well, …
: Are online friends weird? I spend quite a bit of time hanging out at the online message board called “The Rumor Forum”. It is …
: Foolish? “God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and He …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: network downtime... This morning we are experiencing one of those fun office moments known as “network downtime”. Nobody …
: another week, another concert... After thinking things couldn’t get better from last week’s Caedmon’s Call concert, last Friay I took …
: an excellent concert... Went with my brother Ryan to a Caedmon’s Call concert Friday night at Judson College in Elgin, IL. …
: it's over.... To quote John Derbyshire, YEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAA! The election is over. Kerry conceded without putting …
: Death by Advertising... Well it’s the day before the national elections and living in Iowa that means we’re finally near the …
: My second post... Seems like I should have something profound for the first blog entries, and I can’t think of …
: 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.