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Category Archives: Musings and Stories

The Seven Deadly Sins

14 Mar
  • Pride (Superbia): Excessive belief in one’s own abilities, often called the original sin.
  • Greed (Avaritia): Desire for material wealth or possessions, often called avarice.
  • Lust (Luxuria): Intense or uncontrolled sexual desire.
  • Envy (Invidia): Sadness at another’s good fortune or desire for their possessions.
  • Gluttony (Gula): Overindulgence or excessive consumption of food or drink.
  • Wrath (Ira): Uncontrolled feelings of anger, rage, or hatred.
  • Sloth (Acedia): Laziness, spiritual apathy, or failure to act.

Pope Gregory I

Dear God, my wife and I were just at a winery visiting about a book she’s been reading that was written in 1950 called The Feast by Margaret Kennedy. I might check it out. Apparently, it is a novel about seven people who died in an accident and each of them exemplifies one of the seven deadly sins as articulated by Pope Gregory in 590 AD. Frankly, I’ve never spent much time thinking about these seven sins as standing out as deadlier than the others. I wonder if he thought they encompass the other sins we commit much like Jesus thought the two great commandments encapsulated all of God’s other commandments.

Now I have to be careful because I’m getting a lot of this from Wikipedia’s entry for the seven deadly sins, but it was pretty interesting reading. Apparently, Pope Gregory listed them in order of importance from least to most. Interestingly, Lust was his least. Here is Gregory’s order:

  • Lust
  • Gluttony
  • Greed
  • Sloth
  • Wrath
  • Envy
  • Pride

And then Wikipedia quoted C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity regarding pride: “Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that Lucifer became wicked: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.” Interesting.

I guess the good news for me is that my temptations are lower in the order of importance with gluttony being probably my biggest struggle. But pride. Pride is interesting because I think it’s something we all struggle with at some point. I don’t want to be anti-God–anti-You. I want to be completely submitted to you, grateful to you, dependent upon you, and humble before you and other men. I want to be able to consider my life worth nothing to me. I told my wife at the winery that I get a lot of compliments from people through my work and during the week. It can be hard to know how to deal with them. Oh, how I want to just deflect all of the glory that people might want to see in me to you.

Father, I know I’m prone to wander, and it’s mostly my pride that makes me want to wander. I’m prone to leave you and take all the credit and glory for me. I want to be important. I want to be all in all. I confess it. That’s what I want. But I also know, thankfully, that all of that is a lie. I know that I am weak. I am fragile. I am human. I am nothing. I am your servant. Like Job, like Paul, and like anyone else, my life is to be submitted completely and totally to your will. So my I remember that without you having to take things away to remind me of it. I am submitted to you, and I love you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 14, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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“…anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and addiction.”

09 Mar

Speaking of the Asbury “Revival” two years ago, university president Dr. Kevin Brown recalled what someone said about the Gen Z young adults coming for prayer:

“Just a very quick story along those lines. Again this is anecdotal, but there was a constant prayer ministry [during the “revival”]. Again, we have a beautiful altar at the front of our chapel, and there were always people praying. And there were some amazing men and women who created a really structured prayer ministry. There were always people at the altar praying with people there. And a guy who was a part of that during that time that if Gen Z comes, he said they’re really only praying one of four things: anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and addiction. And predominantly with addiction, pornography. And that college day of prayer final evening, I remember being in the balcony and someone gave what felt like a prophetic word over 1,500 students, where he just said, ‘You will not be the generation defined by anxiety, depression, suicide, and addiction.’ And I just remember this like, this swell. This kind of cry arise from all of these students. And that’s where that Wesley expression came out. Chains falling off. Like running to God. Running to something beyond themselves.

Dr. Kevin Brown from interview with Skye Jethani on the Holy Post “SkyePod” podcast – Looking back on the Asbury “Revival”

Dear God, how heartbreaking. I wonder how much of our youth and college ministers in churches are seeing this or willing to address this among their youth and young adults. I think probably what’s not talked about enough is how these concerns have crept into the older generations too. We might now have had them when we were in our teens and twenties 20, 30, 40, or even 50 years ago, but I think it’s safe to say it’s happening now. Is it all to be blamed on our phones? Is is all to be blamed on social media? Is it all to be blamed on Internet news? More likely, it’s a factor of all three combined to various degrees in a person’s life. But while some might get more of their access to negative content through social media, Internet news, or readily available pornography, I do think the common denominator is the handheld computer we’ve been able to carry around in our pockets for the last 20-25 years.

And I’m not immune to it. Even typing the quote this morning, I had my Bluetooth earbuds in while I quoted it from a podcast on my phone. And my phone is currently lying less than six inches from my left hand on the table where I’m typing this. It has certainly become a ubiquitous part of my life. Almost as prevalent on my person as clothing. It’s just so convenient. And entertaining. And stimulating. And relaxing. And while I would put myself in a healthier category for the types of content I access through it, I still dabble in news and some social media (I’m grateful to be free of pornography). But I know people who are trapped by news and social media, and I see it wearing on them. I see the anxiety. I see the depression.

Father, as I’ve taken today off, help me to see my phone for what it really is in my life. Show me how you see it. Convict me. Guide me. Help me to have eyes to see it and myself. Help me to have ears to hear exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to teach me. And then help me to sound the alarm for others–especially youth. I know all of these things are prevalent in our teens and young adults today. The irony of the people who have been so upset over the last few years over the “pornography in the libraries” is that they didn’t seemingly see it in the handheld computers nearly every teen and young adult carries in their pockets. These young adults at Asbury weren’t checking out pornographic books from this Methodist school’s library. They were accessing it on their phones. I guess I will close with the “prophetic word” Dr. Brown said was spoken over the prayer service: You will not be the generation defined by anxiety, depression, suicide, and addiction. Let that be true of all of us.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 9, 2026 in Musings and Stories, Miscellaneous

 

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“EPiC” and “Steve!”

08 Mar

Dear God, I went to the movies yesterday and saw “EPiC,” which is a collection of backstage, rehearsal, interview, and concert footage of Elvis, mainly focused in the very late-sixties/early-seventies. It was well-done. The man’s talent and charisma were amazing. He seemed to be very likeable. But I left it so sad. I sarcastically joked later, “I should have gone into music to be famous instead of what I’m doing now.” That was sarcastic because there is no part of me that left that movie theater wishing I could have changed places with him. I actually found myself wishing my life on him. How much happier would he have been?

As I thought about it later, I remembered this documentary on Steve Martin that came out a year ago called “Steve!” It was another example of watching something that just didn’t leave me feeling like I would trade my life with his for anything. He seemed so empty, even now. Like he was chasing that everlasting joy and happiness rabbit that kept just escaping him around the corner.

I think a lot of Mr. Martin’s pain is more about parental rejection and difficulty while Mr. Presley’s seemed to be more about a deal he had made with the public to give everything he had in exchange for their adoration and money. Both lives just came across as very empty.

Of course, we don’t have to be famous to have empty lives. There’s a funny line in the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray where Bill Murray is living the same day over and over again, and he poses the question to two men, “What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same? And nothing that you did mattered?” One of the men (who is drunk) replies, “That about sums it up for me.” People are living empty lives all around me. And they might blame their marriage. They might blame their job. They might blame their kids or even the government. Maybe they even blame themselves.

The older I get the more I sink into the idea that when Jesus reiterated the great two commandments from you of us loving you with all we have and loving our neighbors as ourselves he meant it for our good, not yours. We were built to worship you and serve others. That’s where we find meaning. At least, that’s where I find meaning. And, on paper, my life might be incredibly insignificant in the whole scope of the world, but I sleep better at night when I know I’ve been able to get outside of myself, worship you, and love others.

Father, help me to carry reconciliation with you, worship of you, and then a path of working out our faith with fear and trembling with you to others. I’ve tried to offer a path of worshiping you to others lately, and I’ve been surprised how they’ve refused to do the work to take the path. The gate is truly narrow, and it’s frustrating for people no 1.) choose to get on it and walk it and 2.) blame other things for their lives not being what they want them to be. I have some friends right now who do walk the path, and the are simultaneously going through something very painful in their family. The path will be hard. The path will be painful. They will grow and be better at loving others because of the humility this path will bring them. But they will survive and grow on this path because they are walking the narrow part of it. If they were on the fringes and not walking through life with you then it might do them in. But that’s not going to be their story. So I ask that you please comfort and strengthen them. I ask that you would move and heal those they love. And I ask that you would give my wife and me eyes to see and ears to hear as we discern how you would have us love them through this.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 8, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Ignorance

01 Mar

Dear God, I learned yesterday that our nation took extensive military action on another nation, killing it’s top leader and several beneath him. Was it a good thing? Was it a bad thing? The right thing to do? The wrong thing to do? I’d love to say that I know, but how could I possibly know? There are things that people know about this situation that I don’t know. And then there are things that you know in the spiritual realm that they don’t know. I’m just a little guy in a small town in the United States with incomplete information. So my response was to ask my wife to go to our church’s chapel and pray for…well, everyone. It was a prayer of ignorance, just asking for you to move in this historical moment. To move in your mysterious way. Does that prayer change you and your actions? Does my little prayer make a cosmic difference? I don’t know, but it felt important to do it, not only for your glory and plan, but for my understanding of my place in all of this and learning to trust you.

As I thought about our trip to the chapel, I thought about these prayers I’m doing to you about prayer. This is certainly an area of prayer–praying in ignorance. I don’t understand a given situation in my life. I don’t know why this family member, friend, or community member is acting the way they are, but I know they need prayer. I know they need to be part of your kingdom. I know they need your peace that only comes through walking through the narrow gate. I know they need your daily bread and forgiveness.

Father, when it comes right down to it, every prayer I pray is laced with ignorance because I have no idea what you’re doing or what is going on around me. I don’t know what you’re doing in my life, my wife’s life, my children’s lives, my friends’ lives, etc. at any given moment, much less the activities in the entire world. That’s why I submit myself to your kingdom and your will. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. My will is foolish and ignorant. I will likely almost always ask for the wrong thing. So I offer you the prayer today that I offered you last night. Be in every situation. Help the leaders to receive your counsel through voices they can hear around them. But regardless of how this all turns out or how it even impacts my life or my personal safety, my hope is not in anything that is happening here. My hope is only in you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on March 1, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Rage Room

28 Feb

Dear God, I logged on to Facebook this morning to post the daily Parents of the Bible Lenten Meditations I’ve been doing on my Parents of the Bible Substack for Lent, and I happened to see a woman’s post about a political thing. It was a bemoaning of everything Democrats have done wrong when in power over the last 20 years (well, 17 years). That’s fine. The part that disheartened me was at the end when it ended with four words and three exclamation points: “Now it’s our turn!!!”

Honestly, the woman who shared someone else’s post who is my Facebook “friend” isn’t someone I could pick out of a lineup. I’m not sure how I knew her once or if I’m supposed to know her now, but I’ve forgotten. So I went to figure out how I knew her, and I saw another post. In this one, she was was angry (the irony of this will be apparent in just a second) that her family’s reservation at a “Rage Room” had somehow been canceled, so she created a rage room of her own for a birthday party for a child so they could have their rage-filled experience. HOLD IT! What? A Rage Room? I had never heard of this before. These things exist? Of course, I had to Google one, and it was as bad as I thought it would be. The biggest fonts on the page that were reversed out in white on a black background were “Seek + Destroy,” “Unleash Your Rage,” “Release Your Inner Beast” (with beast in red), “Rage Sessions” (sessions was in red for some reason), “Signature Rages” (rages in red), and “Join the Rage Club” (rage club in red). Probably most disconcerting was the fact that nearly all of the images, including the image at the top of the page, and video reels were of children wielding destructive weapons while donning their safety mask and suit . Every week in Sports Illustrated, they would end their weekly news briefs column with a little blurb they called “This Week’s Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us.” That was my thought when I saw this webpage.

But linking back to the woman who posted this. She is an older woman. I’d guess she’s in her 70s. And she is pursuing the idols of power, which in turn will let her down, which in turn will fill her with rage, which will in turn cause her to look for another idol to meet her needs, with will in turn let her down, which will in turn fill her with more rage. This pattern will continue until she is driven to create a rage room to teach other children to express their anger at something as rage to the point that violence is the acceptable outlet for it. It’s tragic and frightening.

Okay, so with all that said, and as I sit here in a moral, self-righteous judgment on this woman and anyone who is like her, let me step back and turn the viewer on myself. How do I handle my anger? How do I pray through my anger? As I think about prayer what I will say to the church I’m speaking at on the 18th, I think praying through anger, as well as the other emotions (yesterday, I talked about lament and disorientation) is important. As I sit here now, I’m trying to think of times the disciples got angry. Peter got angry with Jesus when Jesus was talking about dying. Peter had made an idol out of Jesus living his earthly life forever and probably had Jesus rising to political power somewhere in his calculus as well. He let his anger get to a point where he was an inadvertent temptation to Jesus on behalf of Satan (Matthew 16:21-23). I thought of James and John wanting to call down fire on the Samaritans for not welcoming them on their way to Jerusalem for what would be the Passion Week (Luke 9:51-56). There are all kinds of examples.

There are also examples of Jesus getting angry. Usually he would take that anger and use it to challenge the powers that be by asking them hard questions that would make them face their hypocrisy. The only time he really physically displayed his anger was when he turned over the tables in the Temple and grabbed a whip (John 2:13-16). But was the whip for the people or just to drive out the animals? Probably the animals. I don’t think Jesus was trying to whip people. He was making a point. An emphatic point. It wasn’t reckless rage. It was a thoughtful display of anger and making his point. And depending on when one thinks he did this (was is Passion week as in Matthew or early on as in John, or perhaps both) it could have also been an intentional ploy to provoke the Pharisees into killing him. Point being, the disciples displayed anger in unhealthy ways. Jesus used his anger to try to improve others in a constructive way.

Father, I have anger. I’m angry at people who have hurt me. I’m angry at people who I think are hurting our community, our country, and our world. And I think you give us this anger so we can pray through how you want to use it to motivate us. If I’m angry about vape shops opening in my town, what would you have me do with that anger? If I’m angry about sex trafficking, what would you have me do with that anger? If I’m angry about how someone has treated me or someone I love, what would you have me do with that anger? James and John were angry with the Samaritans. Maybe they needed to stop and pray for the Samaritans, and may the Holy Spirit would have given them a heart for the Samaritans’ pain–the pain that drove them to deny Jesus passage through their village. Maybe Peter could have taken his anger, and asked that you reveal to him if there was an idol and his own agenda you were trying to reveal to him. Now that I think about it, it would be interesting to make a list of the different ways you use anger in our lives. Maybe that’s what I’ll look at tomorrow. Until then, create in me a clean heart, oh God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 28, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Prayer: Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation

27 Feb

Dear God, while I was working out this morning I got to thinking about this talk on prayer I’m supposed to give on the 18th, and wondered what I need to consider next. That’s when this thought came to me: orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. I take it from something I heard about a few years ago by Walter Brueggemann. He was talking about the psalms, but I don’t think we have to be writing songs or poetry for our prayers to fall and the state of our hearts to be in one or more of these categories at a given time. And I think it’s important that we acknowledge this.

Okay, I just remembered a dream I had last night. I was preaching in a church and I was saying all the platitudes that churchgoers have heard all their lives. God is love. Jesus loves you. God is for you. The words were empty, and I made eye contact with a woman in the audience (I don’t know who she was) whose expression told me that I was just giving a bunch of empty words. The look jolted me out of it and I switched my talk/sermon into challenging people with practical takeaways. So I guess I need to think and pray about–make that pray and think about–what you really want people to walk about of my talk that night with. I can get up there and give them a bunch of ideas, but if they don’t walk out with a piece of you to carry with them and pursue then I’ll just be a clanging gong.

Back to orientation, disorientation, and reorientation, I think that sometimes we think we are only allowed to be oriented towards your awesomeness or reoriented after a trial, but we deny ourselves the idea of being disoriented in our lives with you. And sometimes I’ve been disoriented. I’ve had times where I’ve been disappointed in you and disillusioned by you. And the word disillusion can normally be seen as a negative word, but I think, in its best sense, it means that we had an unreal illusion that was destroyed. And I’ve had that of you to some extent at times in my life. I had illusions about what I thought I should expect from you because of our relationship. I thought you should cater to my desires a little more. And I thought my desires were noble, but even those noble desires hid idols I was trying to protect.

Idols. It always seems to come back to idols and the first commandment. Love you with everything I have and have no other gods before you. I guess part of the disorienting prayer is to find and get rid of the idols. I like that.

Father, I’ve certainly felt all three of these states of my heart. I think I’m fairly oriented right now. I’m grateful for what you have done, are doing, and will do. I have no expectations of you right now, but I know we are only one piece of bad news away from being disoriented. Like my friend who found out recently she has breast cancer. Like my friend who was in a bad car accident. Life can come at you out of the blue. So help me to use this time of orientation well and not take it for granted because I know the time of disorientation could happen at any moment, and I don’t want to let anything, even terrible catastrophe, get in the way of my relationship with you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 27, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Finding Home

20 Feb

“Chapter 10 is about ‘home,’ and about how we’re all looking for it even if we’re running from it, and the home that awaits us that we can taste and sample now. Maybe because my relationship with ‘home’ is complicated because I grew up with a tumultuous childhood. That was the one, for me that, this chapter, I don’t think I’m done with it even though I think I’m done with it.”

Hannah Miller King on The Esau McCauley Podcast, Episode “Lent After Loss: What Christian Hope Really Looks Like”

Dear God, I was listening to The Esau McCauley Podcast for this week yesterday when I heard Hannah Miller King say the quote above. It brought me to tears. I found myself in my truck, crying and repenting. This little 60-second, if that, soundbite drilled into my heart and found a piece of pain.

I have pain around home. I have loved ones who would fit this description of looking for home in the midst of running from home. And maybe they’ve found what they’re looking for out there. But seeing the home they ran from and the pain that caused brought me to tears. I found myself praying for them. I found myself praying that they would find home and find that home in you. I prayed that they would forgive their past and be healed from it. Then I was repenting for any role I played in their pain, known or unknown. I’m not a proud man. I’m humbled before you.

I suppose that’s what the Lenten season is about. Getting to know different parts of ourselves that need to be seen, repented of, and then redeemed by you. Corrected. Eliminated. And the more transparent I am with you the more humble I’m able to be with others.

While I’m here, I suppose I should think about my own search for home. What is home, anyway? I think it’s that place where you’re supposed to feel safety and rest. And let’s face it, there aren’t many places in this world, even in the houses in which we live, where many people can say they find safety and rest there. I’m fortunate that I can say I find safety and rest here with my wife but even that is fragile. We are just one illness or accident away from losing that rest and sense of safety. We are one tragedy from outside of our home that might impact us. No, if I make this house and the life my wife and I have built my source of safety and rest then it will fail me. That idol will fail me. I can’t put that kind of pressure on her. She can be a way that you provide for my emotional sense of safety and rest, but she cannot be the source of it. And I can’t be that for her.

Father, I pray for my loved ones, that they will find their home in you. If they haven’t found you then I know they’ll be searching for home and nothing they find will ever quite satisfy. This kind of plays into what I talked about yesterday with the pure in heart being able to see you. To use the quote again, “The pure in heart should be known more for their God-attentiveness than their sin-avoidance.” I pray that it would start with me. I need to be more about attentiveness to you than a puritanical lifestyle. You will drive those things out of me. I can see you doing it. So I give over any idol worship I’ve given to these loved ones. Any sense that my home is found in them. My home is in you. Help me to live that and then share that concept with others.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 20, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Forgotten

08 Feb

Dear God, I dreamt about my grandparents last night. I’m not sure where that dream came from, but it seemed fairly clear and significant. While it’s hard to say a lot of the details of the dream, it focused around their church, First United Methodist Church, back in Junction City, Kansas. I used to visit it with them whenever I would see them in the summer. They were pillars of that community at the time. They were loved and appreciated. They were part of the core of that church. Then my grandmother died fairly suddenly in 1992 and my grandfather move to Texas to be closer to my parents and had a long decline with Alzheimer’s, dying in 1999. It’s been over 30 years since they were part of that church family, and I would venture to say they have been forgotten. But how much of their legacy in that community remains?

Maybe I thought of this because my wife led singing for a double funeral this week for a couple who had been married over 68 years, and been part of our church for more than all of that time. They were respected, appreciated, and loved. They left a mark. There were 16 priests at the funeral because one of their son’s is a priest and while he was in seminary his mother would take treats and blessings to all of the young men in seminary. He was a fireman, among other things. And in your mercy, you enabled them to die within days of each other. The community really feels their loss. And yet, one day, 34 years from now, much like my grandparents, they will likely be forgotten. Time moves on. As Gary Thomas put it in Sacred Parenting, we are born we have children, and then we get out of history’s way. Yes, we contribute to history, but very few of us will ever have our names attached to something or be remembered. What I offer this world is my life, my actions, and how both of those things will touch other lives and fall like dominoes into the future. But in the long run, I will be forgotten.

Father, my grandparents’ names might be forgotten, but the vibrations of their lives carry on. They carry on in my father, in me, and in my children. They carry on in my aunts, uncles, and cousins. But more than that, they carry on in lives that experienced the vibrations of their actions who have no idea where those vibrations came from. And my life will be the same way one day. I will be forgotten. My name will disappear. And that’s okay. I don’t need people to remember my name so that I will be honored. Yes, there’s a sadness to know that my grandparents won’t be remembered because they mean a lot to me. But they’re fine now. They’re with you. And I’ll be with you someday. And even though I might be the lowest in your kingdom, I will still be able to worship you, love you, and live with the results of the life you gave me. Father, help me to be exactly who you need me to be today. The Gospel reading is about us being salt and light to the world. Make me salty today, but that saltiness can only come from you. That light can only be a reflection of you. Help me to be a conduit of you today through my worship of you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on February 8, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Jonathan Roumie Quote

30 Dec

“And if I never did anything else again in entertainment, I would be sad, but I would be content knowing that I said yes to this very very intense, long mission–it will be ten years by the time it’s all released from the time I started–and I will feel like, okay, I’ve done something with my life…I’ve seen what this kind of storytelling, and what’s at the heart of it, how it can literally change people’s lives…You see it. They go from non-belief to belief. They go from no being active in the sacraments to all of a sudden going to confession, and going to mass, and taking communion again. And that the difference between life and death. Spiritual life and death. And there’s nothing that’s going to be more important for me than affecting an individual’s relationship with their creator. It trumps everything. It is the top priority in everybody’s life if they acknowledge that there is a relationship like that to be had. And once you know you’ve somehow been a touch point for that person’s journey, it’s like, well, what else is there? What else matters in my work as an artist? Nothing. Nothing does.” (5:15 mark of the video)

Dear God, I listened to this interview from yesterday at least a couple of times, and this is quote is the part that spoke to me the most. I think it comes down to the heart of everything we are called by you to be. And I bolded the part that really touched me with the rest to set the context for Mr. Roumie’s statement: “And there’s nothing that going to be more important for me than affecting an individual’s relationship with their creator. It trumps everything. It is the top priority in everybody’s life if they acknowledge that there is a relationship like that to be had.”

I can’t help but think about the narrow gate. Jesus references it in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:13-14: 13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to [destruction] is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. 14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. I think I’ve found the narrow gate. And it’s frustrating to try to help friends decide to find it and have them turn me down. Family too.

So what does the narrow gate look like to me? How would I describe the narrow gate? I think answering this question might be different for a lot of Christians, and there are parts of this that I’m better at than other parts, but here’s what I’m thinking off of the top of my head.

  • Humility: Admit I am powerless and I need the God of the universe to restore me to sanity (combination of the first two steps in AA).
  • Make a decision to turn my life and will over to you, repent before you and others, receive your grace and love through Jesus, and turn my life over to you, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit to start to remove my character defects (steps 3-7 in AA).
  • Seek you through prayer and meditation (step 11 in AA).
  • Love others and carry this message to others (step 12).

I know I talked recently about a book that talked about the spiritual significance of the 12 steps in AA, and I think they ring pretty true here. I think if I walk in these steps then I have found the narrow gate. The one thing that is missing that, frankly, I’m not good at, is the intercessory prayer part for others. I think it’s important to pray for others and have them on our hearts, but outside of carrying the message to others there isn’t much in the 12 steps on that. But it’s important, and it’s something that my wife is so much better about than I am.

Father, make a difference in the world through my life. Today. In this moment. Of course, I want it for tomorrow too, but I just want to be in this moment today. Help me to be a man who continuously chooses the narrow gate and then guides others through it. Not so they can be saved from hell, but so they can know the peace and joy of relationship with you. And please forgive me for how I hurt others, myself, and you, and help me to know in the moment when I am doing something harmful and guide me out of it.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 30, 2025 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Fr. Mike Schmitz Interviews Jonathan Roumie

29 Dec

Dear God, I watched this interview this morning as I got ready for work, and it really struck me. I think a better word is humbled. It humbled me. I fight against it, but there are so many times that I get a bit full of myself and my “spiritual maturity.” The truth is, I’m an idiot. I don’t have anything to say. I don’t have anything to teach. I’m such a fool. I just need to listen and learn and appear foolish instead of opening my mouth and removing all doubt.

So I listened to Mr. Roumie’s experience playing Jesus–especially having just filmed the crucifixion–and it struck me how much I still take this for granted. How much all of us do. And we can’t, we simply can’t appreciate what you experienced during those 18 or so hours 2,000 years ago. He said he asked you for just a small taste, and even that left him overwhelmed and something that he might have to work through for the rest of his life.

Yeah, I just don’t get it. And I don’t know that I have the courage to ask you to help me get it. I almost prefer to insulate myself from really getting the depths of what you experienced through your incarnation, life as a human, brutal death, and resurrection. Can I just say that I get it and move on?

Father, thank you for fellow believers who inspire me. Fr. Mike and Mr. Roumie are people who inspire me. My young niece and her husband are believers who inspire me. I have young men I know through Christian Men’s Life Skills who inspire me. All of this makes me better. I love you, Lord. And I lift my voice to worship you. Oh, my soul, rejoice! Take joy, my King, in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears. With my foolish ignorance and all, let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on December 29, 2025 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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