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There's a lot more going on in your heart and mind than what others see, right? It was certainly that way for Robin Williams. I remember the first time I experienced his comic genius. It was in the early days of Mork and Mindy and what made us laugh the hardest were his off-the-cuff shenanigans of this new young comedian that was improvising on the set.  He was hilarious. He loved to make people laugh and even in his Academy Award winning serious dramas, seemed to have a perp

Most of you know that I'm on Sabbatical for the primary purpose of learning Spanish. We have about 150 people who attend our Spanish service at The Bridge and almost half of them speak very little if any English. They call me, "Pastor" but I've not been able to communicate with them. So the elders of our church have graciously given me leave for three months to pour myself into learning Spanish. It's hard. At least for a 53 year-old brain it is. I use Greek and Hebrew all the

With my planned trip to Israel this October, many are asking if we are still going and my thoughts on the current conflict. Yes, I plan on going. I'm convinced that the immediate unrest will be over by summer's end. But the current conflict? It's been going on for thousands of years. In my sermon series perparation for the Fall from the Book of Revelation, I am realizing anew that it will not be solved until Jesus ends it with his return. Yaweh not only promised Abraham that

I don't like change.I prefer stability, tradition and security.It's been a frequent area of contention between Linda and I. She loves to move rooms, change furniture, paint, redecorate, and a host of those horrible things.But in order to last these thirty years of marriage, I've begrudgingly learned to embrace her wanted changes. Well, sort of :-).I also would not have lasted these 30 years in ministry had I not learned to embrace change in church and life as well.I have lear

I haven't roofed a house in twenty-five years. But I did a lot of during my college and early ministry years. My dad taught me how in high school, and I used roofing as a help to get through college and to supplement our income while church planting.While on sabbatical, I learned of a friend of my in-laws who needed their house shingled but couldn't afford to have it done. I'm not sure how I volunteered, but I'm about half-way into it now.But it brought my mind back to a less

Linda and I celebrated our 30th anniversary last Monday. We enjoy each other more today than even during our dating years. But our's would not make a good chick flick. We don't have a storybook romance. But I think our marriage can serve as an example for any couple. We aren't still married after 30 years because we picked the right person. Neither one of us really knew who or what we were getting. And while e-harmony will tell you that you are better off finding someone with

Erica and I went to a very good church last Sunday. It was a vibrant campus in Antigua of a large and growing evangelical church in Guatemala City. We enjoyed the service. It was alive and reaching a lot of people. It reminded me of The Bridge in so many ways, except I couldn’t understand most of what was being said. :-) The church held its services in a hotel that had been a Catholic Church complex in the 16th century. The ruins were turned into a museum for the general publ

It's our second week in Guatemala and I just had my seventh Spanish class. The classes are intense one-on-one tutoring and if I don’t learn vocabulary and word endings between classes, I’ll get little out of them. So Erica and I both spend an additional four to six hours studying in the afternoons and evenings. It’s quite a challenge.As we were walking and reviewing yesterday, we were practicing putting sentences together and responding. Erica is way better than me, but I try

I’ve been thinking about water lately. Partly because it’s been raining every day here in Guatemala (we had no idea it was monsoon season before we left). But also for another big reason. In Cook county, we have the best water in the world. We really do. Even when we lived in Wisconsin we had to have a water softener to keep our pipes and appliances working properly. But you really don’t need one in Chicago (apologies to softener vendors). Some of you are into bottled water b

I was sitting in my room at around 6:30 this morning reviewing Spanish vocabulary when everything started to shake. The windows rattled, a picture toppled, and I heard a few shrieks outside above the low rumbling sound of the earth shifting. I had never experienced an earthquake before so I was startled. For Guatemala, it was a mild quake (registered 5.0) and not a big deal. It’s an almost weekly occurrence here. But for me, it made me feel insecure. Guatemala is one of the m

So the sabbatical has begun. I’ve started the summer off with a language immersion in Antigua, Guatemala. My daughter Erica is with me.Erica took Spanish in high school and though she has not used it since, an immersion like this brings it back. She’s doing remarkably well, conversing with our host family (they don’t speak English) and people all around town. I stand there and smile, occasionally nodding my head when she does so it's not obvious that I don’t have a clue. I do

The turmoil over Bowe Bergdahl and all that it entails has captured the news in recent days. At first, most of us were happy to hear of his apparent release. Then there came controversy about the negotiations and release of high level Taliban leaders in exchange. But the whole ordeal has exploded since other questions of Bowe’s apparent desertion and even the possibility that he deserted his company in order to aid their enemy.A lot of uncertainty remains regarding the circum