Owning My Dysfunction and the Freedom of Dependence

It was nearly five years ago that Janny and I moved to Golden Hill, a neighborhood in San Diego, to be part of a little faith community committed to love God and neighbor in some of the most tangible ways we had ever encountered. As you can imagine, we were curious as to what all …

The Holidays: Anxiety & Consumption or Presence & People

As we enter the holiday season, the lure of “necessary” excess and the myth of a consumption that satisfies will steadily grow stronger. This is not a reality in every culture, but it is front and center in ours.   It for this reason that I offer this timely and prophetic quote from a faith …

In A World of ISIS, We Need More Muslim Friends

I can remember when I was scared of Muslims. I don’t think I would have ever uttered those words, but subconsciously, they were true.  As a good, Bible-Believing-Evangelical-Christian (that’s all one word, right?) who could recite the two greatest commandments to love God and love others before I was out of diapers, how had this fear …

Problem to Fix or Opportunity to Embrace? 3 Ways to Care for Unaccompanied Minors

A couple weeks ago, Mexican and USAmerican leaders gathered at Friendship Park – the wall between us – representing millions of Christians throughout Mexico and the United States by offering a prayer on behalf of the 60,000 unaccompanied minors detained on our border. As I stood in this sacred prayer circle that extended across our shared …

3 Barriers Hijacking Christian’s Ability to Love Our “Enemies”

In recent years, my family has navigated some rough patches; death, cancer treatments, open heart surgeries, chronic disease, etc. Now, I’m certain this isn’t everyone’s experience, but mine has been that in these times of trauma or tragedy, family comes together to stand with one another as we wrestle through life’s crap. We aren’t picking …