Category: Musings

I don't usually cross-post my essays from whoneedsnormal.com, but this one was more personal. Here is the text in its entirety as it appeared here: Last week, I turned in my resignation from my day job. It was a good decision, allowing me to exit gracefully on my own terms rather than stay in a situation that would become more and more of a poor fit over time. At this point, it feels more like an opportunity - the kick in the pants we needed to move our family forward into the next adventure. However, it does mean that I have some serious work to do in order to find that next adventure. For the foreseeable future, my kids are going to continue to need shoes, daily meals, and an education,…

A few times a year, I get the chance to flex my preaching muscles by filling in when pastor friends and colleagues are away from their pulpits.  This last one was shortly after Christmas, and explores the challenges and opportunities of having many passions and uniting them within a single vocation or calling (I know - both redundant and repetitive). Here is the audio of that sermon, entitled What I Want To Be When I Grow Up. For some reason, there's an audio distortion that picks up about halfway through.  If I can figure out a way to filter that out, I will repost with a cleaner version.  

Originally published as a contribution to The Secret Lair titled Geek Husbandry – Care and Feeding of Yourself and Your Minions Part 1 – Myths About Introverts I was recently in need of some educational credits for work, and I decided to check out a book about introverted leadership. To my dismay, I quickly discovered that the book was written by an extrovert. I gave up about halfway through the small tome, feeling ickier and more ill-used than usual. After stewing on the issue for a while and writing a scathing review on Amazon, I decided to set the record straight regarding those whom society has judged based on their personality types. I have a personal hypothesis that geeky pursuits tend to appeal more towards introverts for a number of…

A month or two ago, a friend of mine asked his Facebook friends "Do you believe in God? Why or why not?"  Usually reluctant to (a) share personal things and (b) participate in the online debate / flamewar of the week, I refrained from answering.  I did follow the discussion thread as it grew, and the burden of answering the question continued to roll around in my head. A couple of times a year, I get to dust off my professional ministry hat and put it on for a bit.  Aside from the occasional wedding, I sometimes have the opportunity to fill the pulpit for our pastor while he is on vacation.  This often happens after Christmas, as he likes to take some time off following the very busy Advent…

I have long ticked off friends and family by not following their lead and subscribing to a single political party.  I've made no secret about being registered as an Independent voter.  I think at its core, I find Libertarianism to make the most sense.  Indeed, in the last election I voted for a Republican, a Democrat, and a Libertarian.  I was kind of proud of that. Lately, it seems as though I have needed to hide more and more friends' posts from my Facebook news feed.  Maybe I've just lost patience with zealots in general, but discounting entire ideologies or people based on a label seems to demean us all and our capacity for critical thought.   I'm not really speaking of a particular current event in the news.  The…