If everything has gone according to plan, by the time you read this Anne and I will be in Spokane, Washington at Gonzaga University to share in our middle son Nick’s graduation from college.  Wow.  That will mean two out of our three kids are done with school.  It’s a little hard to fathom.   It means our kids are growing up.  It means they are adults.  It means we are getting…well, older! Usually when I attend such events, I get tired of hearing one ...

Stories.  Have you figured out yet that I love stories?  I have one for you, but I want to start with two questions:  Who are the people who have positively influenced your life?  Have you ever told them that? I played a lot of basketball growing up.  A whole lot.  When I entered Jr. High School, I turned out for the school team as a 9th grader.  I was a big kid, and so I always played center, close to the basket.  One day during a scrimmage at pra...

            Even with daylight savings in effect, it was dark outside by the time we were halfway through the Wednesday service.  Outside in the gathering gloom lurked the threats of a federal government shutdown, teacher layoffs and panic sales of houses and condominiums. Outside, Hollywood Boulevard teemed with broken lives, huge billboards loudly touted new cars and fancy liquor, and drug deals went down on the corners. Outside were wars and r...

          Last September, before Anne and I actually moved to LA, I preached a sermon at Hollywood Pres and told you about a friend of mine in Seattle named Luke.  I’d gotten to know him through our church’s version of the Lord’s Lighthouse.  Luke lived in subsidized housing on disability in downtown Seattle for years.  He was a strange dichotomy of a man who knew more scripture and theology than most people, yet could barely function in eve...