A little background before I tell you a funny story: Several months before I released Every Bush Is Burning, my writer-friend Courtney Gibson asked me, “Are you afraid to release something so dear to you, knowing that it will be out there for all the world to critique and criticize?” I shrugged and said, “Nah, not really.” And honestly, I didn’t think much of it at that time. Then a few months passed. Release day got closer. And one day it hit me out of nowhere: I wasn’t just afraid. Part of me was terrified. I suddenly wanted to crawl […]

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I met Jeff Goins last September at the STORY Conference in Chicago. I had been following his blog for a while and as we talked, I found liked him more and more. Being two young guys in ministry who also love to write–we had a lot to chat about. Thus a cyber-friendship became a real-life friendship, and as they say, the rest is history. I’ve continued to appreciate and learn a ton from him since. Jeff just released his first print book this week, titled: Wrecked: When A Broken World Slams Into Your Comfortable Life. The cover has the image […]

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Man. It’s been a really crazy, fun week for Every Bush Is Burning. Last Wednesday I started a promotion where the Kindle version would be free for 5 days, to hopefully spread the word and gain some exposure. I was hoping it would reach a couple thousand new readers total, but when I checked the stats mid-day on Wednesday, it was already well over 5,000. My mouth hit my desk. Over the next few days, it climbed up into the #3 and #2 spots in the Free Kindle Store (of over a million free books). That gave it a ton […]

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If you haven’t checked out my book yet, now is the perfect time. Why? Because you can get it for FREE on Kindle for the next 5 days (July 25 – July 29). (Don’t have a Kindle? No problem! You can read a Kindle book from almost anywhere…details here.) Also, if you’ve read the book and know someone who might enjoy it, please pass the link along to them. It doesn’t get cheaper than free after all.

You are not going to believe this. Sunday night I was sitting on the steps of the church before our 5:00 gathering talking to someone. An African-American man in his forties walked by with a woman about the same age, smiling and nodding. When I smiled and waved back, he stopped for a minute and looked up at me. “That’s a real nice church you got there,” he said, very genuinely. “Thanks,” I said, “it’s not our building, but we’re really thankful to get to meet here on Sunday nights.” He then shuffled a little awkwardly and braced himself for […]

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My friend Jon Ludovina made this to celebrate the 4th of July. It’s a list of all the things, in his words, that “America has invented and given to the world free of charge. You’re welcome, world.” I have no idea where he found all of this (or really, how true they all are), but I thought it was pretty awesome. Which is your favorite? Mine has to be the coffee percolator. Or the ferris wheel. Or the cheesesteak. It’s a toss up, really. – 1717 – swim fins – 1776 – swivel chair – 1792 – crackers – 1829 – […]

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I’ve known for a long time that I have a pretty stable personality. What I mean by that is, at least around most people I’m mostly always the same person, in the same chill mood. I’m not very excitable, and I don’t get down about things often. I score high on the S part of the DISC personality profile, which in part symbolizes stability. Part of it is how God made me, no doubt. And part of it, I believe, is a reaction to less than positive experiences with more unsteady personalities. That has led to a large part of […]

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Thinking about this stunning passage from Annie Dillard’s Holy The Firm today. “I salt my breakfast eggs. All day long I feel created. I can see the blown dust on the skin of the back of my hand, the tiny trapezoids of chipped clay, moistened and breathed alive. There are some created sheep in the pasture below me, sheep set down here precisely, just touching their blue shadows hoof to hoof on the grass. Created gulls pock the air, rip great curved seams in the settled air: I greet my created meal, amazed.”

  On Father’s Day I stumbled on this post by John Piper describing the father of a missionary named John G. Paton. Piper introduces some brief sections of John Paton’s autobiography and shares some quotes from the book concerning his father. Piper: “There was a “closet” where his father would go for prayer as a rule after each meal. The eleven children knew it and they reverenced the spot and learned something profound about God. The impact on John Paton was immense.” Though everything else in religion were by some unthinkable catastrophe to be swept out of memory, were blotted […]

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This past weekend Kristi and I went to the Upstate to see our families and go to her brother’s high school graduation. When we visit, we always stay with my Mema because she has plenty of extra room (and because she’s awesome). Staying there has become one of our favorite places in the world–from sitting around the table catching up with her to peacefully quiet nights in her house to Saturday morning trips to Yank’s for breakfast. And let me tell you, it’s beautiful. Decades ago my Grandaddy bought 45 or so acres of rolling green hills and built their […]

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