Hey East Texas: Two Shows Coming Up Soon!

March 3, 2011.Reading time 2 minutes.

Hey East Texas Friends: I’m gonna be spending some significant time in East Texas, playing two shows in two weekends. One is with the band, and one is a solo show. Here are all the details: Connections Tribute to Billy Joel and Stevie WonderMarch 5th, 7 pmMabank High School AuditoriumHwy 175 at Hwy 198 The […]

A Rant In the General Direction of Anyone Living North of Here. And Mother Nature Too

February 9, 2011.Reading time 10 minutes.

OK, I’ve had it. It’s icing again outside. We’re scheduled to have below freezing temps for the next two days….including a current wind chill of minus one. (Yes, right now) The weather around here, for the past few weeks, has been beyond insane. And beyond having to contend with it ourselves, we’ve had to contend […]

The Ultimate Weakness of Violence

January 18, 2011.Reading time 21 minutes.

What follows is a text version of Sunday’s sermon. You can hear it here. Apologies for the stuffed up nose…) I try to pay attention to morning “ear worms.” I find that they are almost always some kind of message I should be paying attention to. This week, on two separate mornings, the “ear worm” […]

The Word and Our Words

January 9, 2011.Reading time 24 minutes.

(A sermon delivered at Northaven United Methodist Church, Sunday January 9th, 2011, in response to the shooting of Rep Gabby Giffords. Apologies for any and all typos. Let me know and I’ll correct them…) Listen to it here. This morning, I am weary. This morning, I am tired. This morning, I am, in a sense, […]

My iPod’s Most Listened-To Songs for 2010

January 1, 2011.Reading time 23 minutes.

It’s become a tradition for me to reset the “number of plays” on the iPod/iTunes each Jan 1st and, come December 31st, to see where my ear has led me in the year that has passed. Clearly, it was another awesome year in music. In years past, I have spent a lot of time on […]

The Martyr of Black Friday (Why I Won’t Shop Today)

November 26, 2010.Reading time 21 minutes.

Black Friday has never been the same since 2008. That year, it turned from something mildly annoying to something approaching evil. I know, I know. You’re already calling me a Debbie Downer. I know, I know, I’m probably too late to stop you from shopping today. But if I could, I would. Yes, I’m a […]

Bullying, And The Theology Behind It

November 15, 2010.Reading time 27 minutes.

(I intended to post this sermon weeks ago, but life marches on and I never got around to it. This was preached in response to the bullying deaths of several LGBT teens in the weeks prior. You can hear it here. Significantly, at the conclusion of the sermon it got a standing ovation…which I take […]

Three Shows Coming Up

November 13, 2010.Reading time 3 minutes.

Just a last minute post to say how excited I am about the shows coming up in the next few days. First off, Connections is back with our new show. We’ve been rehearsing the past few months, and tomorrow night we’re back with our fifth tribute show: Connections Tribute to Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder […]

How Can They Keep From Singing?

July 13, 2010.Reading time 9 minutes.

I want you to spend a few minutes and listen to some audio links below. The first is a story I heard tonight on KERA, driving home from the “Second Monday” series at Northaven. (And it led me to the second link when I got inside to my computer…) It was a “driveway moment” for […]

A New Song: "Fogelberg"

June 23, 2010.Reading time 5 minutes.

I’ve talked about the Fogelberg Weekend on Facebook, but not here at the blog. It’s a pretty amazing thing that’s fallen in my lap in the past month. The last weekend of August, the City of Peoria, Illinois will dedicate a memorial to Dan Fogelberg along the riverside there. You can read about it here. […]