Nathan Hayes was putting gas in his truck that day when he noticed a smear on his windshield and decided to clean it off. While he went to find a squeegee, another man jumped in his running truck and took off. Nathan ran after the truck and grabbed on, fighting the driver for several seconds as he was drug along the road. He was finally pushed off, rolling into a ditch, and the driver crashed the truck into a tree. Nathan crawled over to his truck as the injured driver ran aw

A college friend was killed Monday, says Facebook, but my brain can’t process this. I read about the accident and think it can’t be. Death is unprocessable. Unfathomable. It slams down like thick darkness, and paralysis holds firm. I'm stopped; stuck; stunned. My college friend lived far; I hadn’t seen him recently, but we were part of the same close knit community during those crucial years that shaped me. It was a sudden ripping of his life from here, swiped behind the thin

This is an article I wrote for a church planting newsletter. Wanted to share with you all to give you a peek into our world as church planters... We church planter’s wives are an interesting breed, aren’t we? First of all, what other profession identifies the wife by her husband’s job? You never hear, “I’m the doctor’s wife. I’m the graphic designer’s wife, or I’m the UPS driver’s wife.” And if we did, we’d have no idea why that mattered. But introduce yourself as “the pastor

I’m currently into animated movies, not by choice. The tiny human at home loves them. A favorite is Despicable Me. Even the title tells you this guy’s a loser. Gru is grumpy and mean and pops balloons of little kids and laughs. He’s selfish and doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings. What a jerk! Except not really. Because secretly I’m sitting there thinking, “I sure wish I could act like that on days I feel like it.” So guess what? I kind of really love him. I also can be grum