The Way

Sometimes I get more than I aimed for. I realize that is a terrible way to start a blog post and to end a sentence, but it is very true. Sondra will always be the one that I out punted my coverage on. As a young teenager, I made a list of what I would look for in a wife and then I met Sondra in college. I looked at my list, wadded it up and threw it away. She was and continues to be more than I ever had dreamed of as a mate. Then God gave us two daughters. I have written much about each of them. Shelbi and Morgan are truly delightful, wonderful and far more than I ever dreamed gifts from God. Sondra and I made some mistakes along the way in rearing them but we intentionally purposed to help them love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind and soul. As they grew and matured and headed off to college, God brought a couple of young men into their lives. Mark grew up as an east Tennessee boy where I think they got indoor plumbing about the turn of the century. ;-) He and Shelbi...

If you know me at all, you know that I am a KC Royals fan. It really goes back a long time. Actually to about 1969. My dad took my brother and me to so many baseball games back in that old Memorial Stadium that had housed the minor league KC Blues, the KC Monarchs of the Negro League, the KC Athletics and the KC Royals. Starting in 1969, the Royals became that mainstay MLB team in KC. The Athletics headed off to Oakland in 1968 and promptly became contenders and a quick rival of the expansion Royals who kicked it off in KC in 1969. The Royals have been my team since then. About 45 years worth of my life. There have been some really good years through the mid-80s and then really lean years until the past couple of years. What this team did this year though is really just plain, old baseball fun. A bunch of young players with a couple of veteran pitchers, a somewhat semi-successful manager and a fan base that had little to cheer for so many years. But it was a great combination. A...

Many who read this know me pretty well. Others of you have a tendency to know me through conferences, projects, or some even through creeping on me and my happenings via Twitter or Facebook. Some times I write something rather pithy, or report on what has been happening in our family, work, or even some kind of fitness adventure I have embarked upon. There are times that I struggle with what to write, what I want to reveal or even to just ignore hoping that somehow I do not write something that would be offensive; too self revealing; or just plain stupid. The filter that I try to write through does include a lens that I hope will be informative and especially encouraging. I do not always hit that goal, but that is a desire of mine. This post is one designed to point out some of the struggles I contend with practically every day I am alive. At its' root, it is addiction or addictive behavior. At times I masquerade it well and at other times, I am blatantly out in the open with ...

I love being a part of the Royals family during the bad and the good times. Granted it has been painful since 1985 but I am a Royals fan. Always will be. I am having fun this season with them still in the hunt and this video of stealing home last night by Escobar was too good not to share. Go Royals! Your browser does not support iframes.

Finished up last weekend in California and a great time of learning and presenting at Equipped for Excellence in Riverside. I get so pumped and energized being around people who love: God, working with students, and life in general. We were together for about 6 hours of youth ministry training and I was tired, but man it was fun. I also got to spend some time with Mike and Nicole Lovato and their 9-month-old daughter, Addison. It was fun to reconnect with them. Mike serves as a youth ministry contract consultant for us at LifeWay . Addison was doing the all-fours move, but not quite crawling yet. I got in the floor with her, whispered in her ear how to put it all together and on Monday she made it real. I am taking credit for some of that. It has been a good week in the office. It is nice to get in around some of the FUGE team and listen and learn from them. With about 60,000 kids coming to camp this summer, it is pretty wickedly busy around here getting ready for all of them. This t...