Tag: true story

Embrace Stillness Training
Life, Purpose

Embrace Stillness Training

I was barely ninety minutes eastbound out of Denver when the road closure forced me off the interstate. A spring blizzard near the Colorado-Kansas border was laying sheets of ice across roadways and knocking visibility down to zero. Even though the sky was sunny and blue at this exit, authorities deemed it too dangerous to allow travelers to rush into the storm unaware. So this is how it begins, I thought.

My wife and I had decided, after five years in Colorado, to relocate our family back to our hometown area in Southern Indiana. A tough decision—it was Colorado, after all—and if it wasn’t hard enough leaving my wife and children behind for the next two months to start a new job, getting stuck in Eastern Colorado (with no mountains) didn’t help.

But this inconvenience was about to reveal something crucial for navigating any season of life successfully. Continue reading “Embrace Stillness Training”

Paying Yourself Extra for Free
Life

Paying Yourself Extra for Free

At 4:30 a.m. on a snowy December morning, all I had on my 13 year-old mind was getting each nearly-frozen newspaper off my sled and onto each customer’s porch. The faster I could unload papers, the sooner I could melt back into a toasty bed. But I stopped after ten houses, glancing back.

Four newspapers had missed their targets by a mile, each sticking out halfway in the snow. Hey, I was paid for delivering newspapers to the premise, not customized handling. And besides, my toes were cold. Continue reading “Paying Yourself Extra for Free”

A Better End
Purpose

A Better End

I welcome 2012 like a cool surf on a warm beach morning. I leave behind a year of transition, and quite frankly, months of frustration.

One year ago, in January, I wrote in my journal these words:

My big, extraordinary circumstance for this year is whether to move to Indiana or stay in Colorado…I’ll walk wherever God leads, albeit severe difficulties…

On this cold and windy evening, one year later, I sit in my home office with a Rocky Mountain landscape adorning the western wall and a window overlooking an Indiana countryside. Moving across the country straddles so many facets of life. Patterns change. Habits. Comforts. Familiarity. And often, we change. Continue reading “A Better End”

“Visibilty”
Family, God, Parenting

“Visibilty”

That’s the way it came out.

The school library was packed with sweating parents seated amidst three-foot-tall bookshelves and wall-tacked posters lauding “Reading is fun!”

“V…I…S…I…B…I…L…T…Y,” he said, each letter spelled with confidence into the microphone. Continue reading ““Visibilty””

Desert of the Wise: A View-Master’s Journey
Christmas, Faith, Holidays, Life

Desert of the Wise: A View-Master’s Journey

The sandy hills roll like waves in the moonlight. Four sets of footprints follow the silhouettes of six along a ridge. Two of the travelers ride on tapestry-covered platforms atop shaggy humps, and the third walks, rope in hand, with his lanky animal.

The desert is quite cool tonight, and calm. Except for the faint grumbles of the camels. I think they’re aware of my presence, but their masters pay no heed. The heavily-robed strangers appear focused, intent.

Every few minutes it seems, the short one riding center points just above the horizon. His camel jerks its head and stops. A heel kick in the side and a “hut-hut!”, and the beast is moving again.

The short one speaks a language I don’t understand–it’s too fast. He points again.

I see now what he’s aiming at. It was staring at me this entire time. No, it was shining. Leading. And the interesting grown-ups with long beards and funny hats are definitely following it. Continue reading “Desert of the Wise: A View-Master’s Journey”

Coincidence or Divine Conspiracy?
Faith, Life

Coincidence or Divine Conspiracy?

The Twitter message popped on my screen.

“Are you and I really neighbors?” it read.

I glanced at his profile, noting the location of Golden, Colorado. Hmm. That’s where I live. Before I could reply, an email from Facebook lit up my inbox.

“Brock…I live in Golden. You too?”

One month earlier, he had added a comment to one of my October blog posts, The Curl. He said the post was being highlighted in The High Calling online community’s October edition of “Around the Network.” Quite the honor given that The High Calling is among the top 50 Church blog sites on the Internet (as ranked by the “Top 100 Church Blogs” at churchrelevance.com, Sept 2010).

It gets better. Continue reading “Coincidence or Divine Conspiracy?”