Archive - More Essays

Continue Reading: This page shows additional essays beyond those featured on the home page.

  1. Awake but Asleep

    There it is: pressure. That's familiar. The tension in my chest and stomach, wanting to hold my breath. A feeling of impending disappointment lurking behind a closed door somewhere.

  2. Trust at 4AM

    I want to trust. I don't want to worry. I wish I would know, deep down, that my needs and the needs of my loved ones would always be met. And I want this for everyone that shares this planet with me. Why can't I have what I want?

  3. The Ceramic Floor

    On that ceramic floor, I couldn't see any of the blessings I'd been taking for granted. My words and reason reached their end. They were radically insufficient. All that remained was my bedrock conviction that our good God wastes absolutely nothing.

  4. Why Buy a Car to Work a Job?

    My daughter asked, "Why do I have to buy a car to get a job I will have to work to keep the car?" Beneath her question was a deeper one: What's the point of all the commotion that fills our days?

  5. The Weight I Couldn’t Carry

    That seven-year-old in the mud decided he'd prove his worth by being the smartest and best-paid guy in the room. It took decades to realize my life is my testimony, and it has value simply because it is a gift I've received from the One who says it is good.

  6. Homo Accipiens

    I felt disconnected from my morning work, though it had been productive. I had nothing to regret since it aligned with my spiritual and material priorities. But I was doing it alone. I'd been living as homo economicus—out of sync with my values.

  7. Morning News and the Cross

    The only human who has ever lived who had an absolute claim to the moral high ground did not use human strength to preserve what he valued.

  8. When Beauty Breaks In

    Every strum of the guitar gave voice to the pain I'd felt as a child, to the nothingness I felt now. Sitting alone in my room, my heart was cracking open to the presence of someone I'd known since I was four.

  9. When Your Friend Goes Under the Knife

    As the surgeon works on Rick, my heart beats, carrying nutrients and oxygen to my cells, each one unearned, uncontrolled, winding down toward inevitable silence.

  10. The Dog in the Lake

    I wanted to run, but it was too late. They spied our skin shining in the early morning light. "Wemistikoshe!" they taunted, "You're next!" There it was, the familiar taunt, somehow "white man" was a curse word. "Never come this way again!"

  11. When AI Can't Save You

    Sometimes, it's OK to quit. My self-worth is not at stake here. God values me non-economically, apart from my work. He wants my heart, not my effort.

  12. The Playground

    I writhed face down in the muddy school yard, unable to get up, alone, ignored by my first-grade companions. Some time later, the bell rang to end recess, and good boy that I was, I got up, staggered bent over and collapsed on the bench outside our classroom.

  13. The Red Door

    Could a simple testimony provide an opening through which others can enter the Kingdom of God?

  14. Sunday Night Faith

    I long for a trouble-free world and assume I'm a bad Christian, or a weak person, if I cannot stand up under the heavy load of daily life. But nothing could be further from the truth. I am guaranteed suffering, we all are, but with us in the suffering, we have a Savior.

  15. The Brute Fact

    I could make no meaning of what had been done to me. It was a brute fact, and it colored everything else.

  16. Strategy as Control

    I cannot earn through strategic thinking what is only a gift of grace. If I ever truly love my daily work, it will be the result of something God does in me.

  17. Ministry and Money Pressure

    By pushing to create an income from something meant to nurture spiritual growth and detachment from worldly concerns, the whole enterprise would be perverted. What was meant to support life would stunt it.

  18. A Sanctuary of Grace and Doubt

    I make everything I have a tool to protect myself because of my over-developed need for safety and security. But only in God can I find any lasting peace and security.

  19. Oatmilk and Ordinary Faithfulness

    I will not wear work as armor, but see it as a means to a larger end.

  20. God in Dangerous Places

    God met me in the dangerous place. I stood up and left that place knowing God loved me.

  21. No Blueprint

    Not a blueprint. Not a map. Faith, and the next step. That will be enough.

  22. What Rain Taught Me About Work

    The work itself needn't be delightful when its results are.

  23. Choosing Faithfulness over Anxiety

    Am I taking a wrong turn? Do I just keep showing up to everything I feel God is leading me towards and not worry? That's the right thing to do.

  24. Bearing Witness

    I'm old enough to pretend I no longer care what people think of me, so I've decided I have nothing to prove and little to lose by owning my life, claiming my story, and sharing it without pretense.

  25. How to Get More Creative Work Done in a Day

    Productivity is hard, but the facts are simple. Every one of us has 24 hours available each day. Whether we realize it or not, we allocate those hours to the activities we value most. So perhaps when we say we need more time, we aren't discussing time at all.

  26. Choose Action Over Analysis

    When an idea catches our attention, we ask, "Am I ready to apply this idea if it proves valuable?" If the answer is "No." we move on to other things without regret.

  27. Your Business Is Better, But for Whom?

    People are not alike. At least not in the way most of us believe. During the 2020 presidential election, pundits endlessly discussed the Latino vote, Black vote, College-educated White vote, and the Evangelical vote. Too late, it seems, everyone has discovered there is no such thing as a monolithic vote by everyone who looks similar—even when that similarity is profound.

  28. Stop Coding Under Stress: Avoiding Bugs & Catastrophes

    Programmers and web developers spend most of their time sitting and thinking. How can that be stressful?

  29. What a Failed Startup Taught Me

    Vulnerability and learning from failure. What startup collapse taught me about resilience and growth.