Devotionals

Have you ever had someone give you directions that left you more confused than when you first asked? I am a landmark guy. I need directions like, “Turn left at the McDonald’s, go until you see the Dollar General, then take a right.” That works for me. But don’t tell me, “Go to the old Johnson place and take a left…” I don’t know where the old Johnson place is. At the same time, don’t give me road names or route numbers. I was listening to someone in our church recently explai

“We had hoped...” This phrase is common in our world and culture. It often describes disappointment in a person, plan, or situation . But when you slow it down, it exposes something deeper: not just disappointment, but misalignment. This is a great season for many people. The weather is warming up and spring is here. We’re coming off the most watched stretch of college basketball all year, March Madness . People come from everywhere to predict who the next national champion w

One of my favorite movies is Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory . I even call one of the kids at church “Charlie Buckets.” One of Willy Wonka’s classic lines is, “Strike that. Reverse it.” He says it while talking about how much time they have in the factory. He tells the Golden Ticket winners, “So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.” Honestly, that line feels a little too real. When There’s Too Much to Do and Not Enough Time Because most d

A little over a year ago, my wife and I started CrossFit . After more than a decade of not doing anything consistently, I plunged into this new fitness journey. There has been a lot to learn, and there still is. Some things feel completely new. But there are also things that have come back surprisingly quickly. Many of the lifts and movements we do now are things I first learned when I was 13 years old. Different form. Different equipment. A very different body that had not

This week at CrossFit , it’s 1-rep max week for back squat, shoulder press, and deadlift. For many athletes at our gym, this is just another set of workouts. Others, like me, have been counting down the days. No matter where someone falls on the spectrum, 1-rep max week is a regular part of what we do. It reveals the progress we’ve made over the past 12 weeks and shows us where we currently stand. Since much of our training is based on percentages of our max lifts, this week

What is that thing that just bugs you? We all have at least one. If we’re honest, most of us have a few things that can drive us crazy. One of mine? People talking on speakerphone in public. Recently, I was sitting in a restaurant when a grandmother , mother, and little girl came in for breakfast. It was a sweet scene, three generations sharing a meal. Everything was calm and enjoyable… until the grandmother had to leave for work. A few minutes later, the little girl, no olde

Image by E1St0rm from Pixabay Last week, I rewatched one of my favorite movie trilogies: The Lord of the Rings . I admit, I’ve never read the books, but I’ve seen the movies several times. Ironically, I was a late adopter. My aunt got me The Fellowship of the Ring on VHS when it first came out in 1999. At the time, I thought it was stupid. I didn’t even watch it. But one day, having “nothing else to do,” I finally popped it in. And I’ve been hooked ever since. I even have

Here in Central Virginia, we’ve had some crazy weather lately: ice, snow, bitter cold, and then rain on top of it all. While that may not be unusual in general, it’s unusual for us. Having to break through snow and ice just to get out of our driveways isn’t something we’re accustomed to in this part of Virginia. All of it got me thinking about a scene from the movie Frozen where Olaf the snowman talks about how much he wants to experience summer. Of course, the joke is that

Taken from Reddit , edited in Canva (Image may be subject to copyright) One the most memorable television shows in history, and one of my wife’s and my favorites, is I Love Lucy . The shenanigans, the craziness, the humor, and the relational dynamics are top-notch. I’ll admit, occasionally it’s hard to watch because you just know Lucy is about to do something that will mess everything up. Sometimes it even feels unrealistic. You think, “No one would really do that.” And yet,

I don’t know how people cooked in ovens without timers back in the day. When I watch shows set in earlier eras, I’m amazed that someone could put bread or a roast in the oven and just… know. No digital countdown. No pre-set alert. Just a clock on the wall and a sense of when it was time to pull it out before it burned. Modern cooking relies heavily on built-in timers. It’s rare to see someone sprinting to the oven, waving smoke out of the air because they lost track of time.

One the common shows in my house is the classic I Love Lucy . Over the years, I have become pretty well versed on the show and even many behind the scenes nuggets. Recently, I used an illustration from one episode in a sermon. The story takes place while the main characters are in Hollywood for Ricky to film a movie. When the film is suddenly shelved, Lucy springs into action to make sure Ricky isn’t fired. She devises a plan to hire a random man to pose as a big-time produce

We live in a time in American history when people seem more divided than ever, even while loudly proclaiming messages of diversity and inclusion. This division is especially evident in our political scene. Whether you like him or not, Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, is deeply loved by many and just as deeply despised by others. Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, or whether you even knew this was a thing, I recently came across a headline

As I am writing this, we are all bracing here in central Virginia for a big snow and ice storm. By the time some of you read this, it may already be behind us. Right now, though, everyone is making last-minute preparations and hunkering down. It is crazy how storms refocus us on basic things like food, clothing, shelter, and warmth. All week we have been thinking about what we need to get through it. Some people were prepared . Others waited and then discovered heaters and n

I was rushing to a school to officiate a basketball game, frustrated that I might arrive late. Not late for the game itself (almost though), but late for when officials are expected to be there. As I drove, my wife had just asked how I was doing, and I realized my answer was more edge than honesty. The problem was simple. I left the church later than I should have. That moment stuck with me. People often tell me I am “ so busy ,” and for a long time I have pushed back on tha

Happy New Year (2026)! When I was growing up, I had a shirt that I wore all the time. It was a USA Basketball t-shirt that simply said, “Respect the past. Represent the future.” As a kid who grew up in the 1990s, I vividly remember watching many of the players who made up the original Dream Team, the first group of professional basketball players to represent the United States in Olympic competition. Those players were legends. They changed the game and left an undeniable m