As a person who often deals with anxiety, as well as a sometimes unhealthy introspection on my own failings, it is helpful coming across an article like this from ACBC (Association of Certified Biblical Counselors) Wanting to simply share an article today, I asked a friend of mine to help in the search. In response this was one of their suggestions. But in reading it I'm glad they did. I do hope that this is something that you'll find helpful; if not for yourself, for someon

Not my photo. Disruptions in life come in a lot of different shapes and sizes, such as a road block or traffic. Of course we're probably more concerned with the ones that happen in our lives. Well it's time again for the clocks to fall back. I find the time changes to be challenging to be honest. Just feels weird that we mess with time like that. It's a bit of a disruption you could say. And we don't like disruption, do we? Recently, and if you've followed the blog at all you

It's been a minute since I have been able to take part in helping our with our youth at church. But it's something I enjoy being able to do when able. Sometimes though, it can feel (really any service) like you're just going through the motions. The old question can linger in our minds: "does what I'm doing really matter?" Well to kick our knees out from under us on the front end, God doesn't NEED any of us. Jesus said that if His disciples went quiet, that the stones would c

The early morning light begins to shine across the sky, as a new day begins in Shenandoah National Park. The breeze kept it quite chilly. But, it was a nice morning nonetheless. I can hardly believe that I've now written 50 blog posts. Really it's not a ton but 50 seems like a good memorial, a good number to recognize. But what to say about 50? I'm not sure to be honest. So I think what I will do is point out a few of my personal favorite posts up to this point. Maybe that's

I really do want this website to be of help to people. My thought for tonight is one that I hope is really practical, and that is to share with you some resources I have used in regards to my Bible study and preparation for different teaching opportunities in the past. When I desire to do a deeper study I tend to use study Bibles, commentary, and other resources and so I will share some of those with you below. I tend to start with just the Scriptures themselves, and for that

Stony Man mountain stands majestically in the distance, second only to Hawksbill in height in Shenandoah National Park. The warm sunset light bathes the landscape with a reddish glow as clouds cross the sky. Moments like these last for such a short while. Before you know it, the light is gone and the land sits in silent darkness awaiting the coming dawn. As I sit here in the doctor's office it's hard not to have a mixture of emotions. This isn't the time or place to go into a

Pride goes before a fall. It's such a true statement, but hard to swallow when it's yourself that it applies to. Yesterday I decided to search for a waterfall well off of trail in a certain location. Where, I will decline to say exactly, for various reasons. I knew there was a vague forecast of rain, but I didn't check the details. The exact path to the falls? I figured I knew enough to be able to plot my own course. I have a GPS app, so I should be good, right? In other word

Montana feels like it was months ago and yet it was just a little over 2 weeks. It's weird how that works. Anticipate something for a long time, it comes, and it's gone before you know it, and then the memory of it so quickly goes. It's kind of like Christmas as a kid. But it's time to start going through some of the many photos and memories from Montana. One of the first evenings out there, we had driven around for quite a while looking for spots to photograph. But the fall

Notation after the fact: Below is a post that I intentionally wrote a little while back, but didn't share. The point was to bring an idea of looking ahead. I hope that comes through as you read this. Mostly that it points you ahead to the future hope we have in Christ. Will it be the final article in this series? I had one other idea that I have yet to write so we will see. I made a couple minor edits for posting now. Also, no photo for this one, though there is no real need

There's always a concern in writing a blog that one can get too personal, and in fact sound a bit on the whiny side. I really hope that that hasn't been the case for me recently, nor with this post. I hope instead that it just comes across as real and relatable. We all deal with ups and downs, pit stops and road blocks, and in some small way, the hope is that you'll find some encouragement and a Christ-ward focus through these. The truth is, coming off of the recent travel ex

A rainstorm blows in over me and my friend as we attempt to shoot a sunset in Yellowstone National Park. I don't rest well. I find that doing absolutely nothing and letting my body, and in my case more importantly my mind rest, is a challenge. So given that I am going on a week of being sick and somewhat laid up at home, I wonder if perhaps being sick was God's way of causing me to rest after a couple weeks of nonstop on the move on travel, photography, and mission work. Ok,

It's the final day, I'm packed and ready, and our flight leaves in under 5 hours (Lord willing). It's still not the time (nor do I have the time) to go into all the details and thoughts of the week, but I think that's ok. Mission trips are life-altering, and you don't write out a 3-5 paragraph blog to cover all of that without taking some time to dwell on it. But as for today, it started out bittersweet. Of course we're all ready to go home. Two of our team is able to do an e

One last night up on the roof in Peru. It's certainly been an interesting and eye opening experience this week, and it will be time til I am able to process it all. Photos as well. I've taken hundreds of photos this week, but the editing process will take some time. But the next step for me will most likely be to process the spiritual and emotional side of it. Coming on trips such as this, in my short experience, results in high emotions, and that takes some time to settle, a

Today's blog will be short-ish and not very deep, as I realize the last few have been as well. Our schedules have been so packed, the internet so spotty, and my brain so frazzled from the days, that it has been pretty hard to write. Today's challenges were just that, challenging. And I don't really feel it's the time to jump into the details of it. But I do want to mention a conversation I had with a young man on our way home. One of our translators was a young man who, I don

As you probably gathered from my previous posts, I have had some thoughts and normal issues that come with being in a new place, etc. Today though, was a really nice visit to one of the other care centers for the organization we're helping. There we got to help with a vacation Bible school event, visit a family and share the gospel with them; and probably the most special moment for me was getting to share the gospel with a little girl. I don't say that to brag or anything li

On a trip like this, I suppose it's normal to have a variety of emotions. Part of me is, frankly, ready to go home. Another part of me isn't ready to go home at all. I think there's something emotionally settling about being in a place like this, for purposes like these; that is, sharing the gospel and helping others for the cause of Christ. But it's also challenging. There's the obvious challenges: a language barrier, cultural differences, and just being very busy. But there

Well, our first night in Peru has come to an end and I just wanted to share a few thoughts from the day. I could go through the events of the day, but I'll skip that for now other than a 30,000 foot view. Devotional in the morning, off to visit some families, and finally help with working with kids at a refuge. It's of course very interesting dealing with a language barrier. Several months of Duolingo really just evaporates when it comes to actually having to use what you've

The day started out early. The alarm I set was for 4:25 a.m., but as is often the case I woke up quite a bit beforehand. Last minute things around the house, pack the car, and head on. Half our team met at one house at 5:00 a.m. to head up to the train station, the rest met us there. Finally we ended up in Reagan national airport. Thankfully security was pretty simple, no issues. But you're probably not concerned with every minute by minute detail, are you? I'm noticing that

I recently wrote a post about packing, you can check that out here. Simple enough idea: work for the things that are eternal, because everything else you can't take with you. Now here I am, ready for a second trip, hoping I have everything packed that needs to be. It's easy to second guess, but eventually you have to just recognize you have it packed, somewhere. Our team leader for this mission trip sent a fitting message to our group this evening. In it he quoted a very help

I don't like posting photos before I'm 'done' working on them, but while this was edited on a flight, I decided I still wanted to share...