“Paper or plastic?” The question barely registers. I look down at my nuts in a vice grip, and then back up at the pimply teen. “Plastic.” I pay and wait for the last few bags to be loaded into the cart. My balls are killing me. “Would you like help with that sir?” God...

                    We’re sixteen Republican debates into the election season. By November, we’ll have all whipped ourselves into a vitriolic froth and will have convinced ourselves that the very survival of the planet hinged on the result of the...

I was talking to a woman at Church on Sunday who has been through more than her share of hard times. She wears her life in the lines on her face and along the scars and blemishes on her fragile hands. Through it all, she’s held on to her faith in God. But the relationship has, at times, been strained...

I recently started a garden. I’ve been growing tomatoes, peppers, green beans and squash. Well, I’ve been trying to grow those things. I thought I should probably have some idea how to produce my own food just in case the manure continues to hit the fan here in the good ol’ U....

  Quickly now, name the first three things that come to your mind when you hear the name Ted Nugent. Wait – make that the first three things that come to your mind which you can say in polite company. Recently I saw a bumper sticker: “Nugent for President – God, Guns, and Rock ‘n’...

“I love them whores, they never judge you. What can you say when you’re a whore?” - Jane’s Addiction I’ve been thinking about whores, church and Jesus lately (not necessarily in that order). There’s a story in the Bible about a prostitute who just had to get some time...

A few months ago, I was in a room with fifty or so people from all over the country.  We were sharing stories about our experiences of God’s presence.  Our conversation was centered on this passage from the beginning of Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble…...

“I’m not going to be your friend any more!” My daughter, four, is rolling away from me, her platinum hair a tangled veil as she kicks her legs to fend off the pants I am trying to pull up her squirming legs. “I know you’re upset that you can’t play with your Legos anymore, but it’s time...

I didn’t realize, growing up, the cost of not having a relationship with my father. It’s only in recent years that the weight of the impact on my life has become evident to me. This new realization comes to me for many reasons. Becoming a dad is the obvious one, but in addition, it’s...

“The song I was writing is left undone. I don’t know why I spend my time writing songs I can’t believe, with words that tear and strain to rhyme. And so you see I have come to doubt all that I once held as true. I stand alone without beliefs. The only truth I know is you. And as I watch the...