Have you ever walked into a room and felt invisible? Have you ever felt like a nobody? Today my wife talked to me about how in middle school and high school, she was always known as the sister to her older brother. Then when she switched middle schools hoping to finally make a name for herself, she was known as her younger sister’s sister.  Read More

Let me caveat this quick story by saying that my parents were amazing and sacrificed so much to make Christmas magical every year. We got almost everything we wanted (And more) for Christmas even though we were not well off. But in the particular year I’m about to discuss, my desires were a little bigger than their wallets.  Read More

Helen Keller’s life is an amazing story of overcoming great adversity and disadvantage. Yes, Hellen Keller is real. There is film footage of her available on YouTube. Stop with all that nonsense.  Read More

Some of the brattiest words I ever said to my mother left my mouth. My mom gave me the look and sternly shot back, “You're never going over to Jacob’s house again!” I sat in stunned silence as she continued, “Every time you go to his house you start acting just like him.” As I replayed in my mind what I had just said, I knew she was right.  Read More

In my final point of last week’s message, I mentioned an interesting reality of Christian friendship. Christian friendship is forever. As with the rest of the Christian life, our time on earth is practice for Heaven. That means we better learn how to get along here. You see, God is going to give us opportunities and test us at our obedience.  Read More

Recently, I audited the messages I’ve preached since we started Arborway a little over seven years ago. I have preached about 350 sermons equaling over 200 hours of content. In all those sermons, I have preached several times on romantic and marriage relationships, once on relationships with our co-workers, a few times on familial relationships, several times on church community, and of course, I speak every Sunday about our relationship with God.  Read More

Think different. This was a slogan actively used in Apple advertisements from 1997-2002.  Read More

Where I grew up there was practically only one mode of transportation: Car. In many places, there were not even sidewalks. That means if you walked or rode a bike you were forced to hug the yellow line and pray drivers would not run you over.  Read More

Last Sunday, we celebrated our church’s seventh anniversary. One of my dreams from the beginning of Arborway is that we would be a church that loved our neighbors. Early on, when I was first asked about the vision of Arborway, I described it as a church where each member was like a beacon of Christ’s light on their blocks.  Read More

So far I have really enjoyed The Art of Neighboring, and it sounds like a lot of you are benefitting from it as well. The material is so helpful, and from the response, I’d say it has been challenging and eye-opening for many.  Read More

Recently, Allie and I began using a new budgeting app. I like it for two reasons. First, it gamifies budgeting. Which makes budgeting more fun for my dopamine receptors. Second, and more importantly, it helps us budget every single dollar we earn. Every dollar has a name and a place. This may seem counterintuitive, but we even have spontaneity built into our budget.  Read More

Not many people know that I was an art minor in college, with an emphasis in graphite (Pencil drawings). I was always pretty good at drawing and art was an easy A for a little GPA boost.  Read More