joel's thoughts

One of the things about this property that appealed to us, as I mentioned before, was that we had an interest in having goats and it was already set up for that. There was a nice little barn, two pastures with plenty of forage, and a wooden board fence with a few strands of barbed [...]

I’ve learned that, at least for us, life is going to be crazy no matter what we do or leave alone. But I’ve also learned that if we can accept that as a given, we always have a choice — we can let the crazy bus take us wherever it will, or we can drive it ourselves. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather stomp on the pedal, steer as best I can, trust God with everything, and see where we end up.

Okay, I know I’m a little late to the party for commenting on this whole 7-year-old dancers video, but I’m actually commenting on the clip of the Early Show discussing it (click on “Launch video player” on this page to see the Early Show clip).  I just find it remarkably ironic that three grown women [...]

I tend to have certain Libertarian leanings in my political views, so I was very interested to see Rand Paul win the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.  He’s now on the national stage, and the more liberal side thereof has zeroed in on (and is seeking to amplify) his take on the Civil [...]

So I just got done reading this fascinating piece on the upcoming Tea Party convention, and I had a bit of an epiphany.  The author kept talking about waiting to see if the movement could be organized into a “political machine” with “influence” while pointing out the inherent challenges in organizing rather disparate groups, some [...]

It is not my goal to make my children’s lives easy.  To be sure, neither is it my purpose to make their lives difficult.  Rather, it is my goal and purpose to train them and shape them and prepare them for the lives they will be leading when they are no longer under my wing.  [...]

Yeah, so I still exist.  I’ve been getting too caught up lately in political analysis, I must say.  I’m much more fascinated by what people say about the candidates than by what they say themselves, oddly enough.  Anyway, I’ve also recently started poking around a bit with Twitter, believe it or not, and I’m contemplating [...]

Heidi pointed out these songs a couple of days ago, and they’ve been haunting me (in a good way) ever since. Two completely different styles, both full of incredible energy and emotion. See what you think… I Can Hear the Rhythm by Misty Edwards The More I Seek You sung by Kari Jobe

Jonathan Walton over at Religion Dispatches Blog turns a critical eye to seminaries and churches, and how more and more they seem to inhabit completely different worlds.  Good thoughts, and challenging.  At first glance it may not seem relevant to the everyday layperson, but it seems to me we could all stand to be (and [...]