Lord,
Please make me into the husband you want me to be one day.
Help me become the dad I want to be one day.
But for now, let me be the best brother, son, and uncle I can be because that’s who I am today.
Blueberries
They say blueberries are good for your memory. So lately, I’ve been eating a lot of blueberries. Except on Wednesdays because, y’know, there are some things I want to forget.
-Out of the Wilderness
Orelectic Green
Orelectic.
A word that made so much sense in my dream. I was in a restaurant. I was leaving when the hostess asked me for a noun. I thought, “Denim overalls. Perfect.” The Mad Libs sentence finished with ‘orelectic green.’ I remember thinking that it’s a color I’d never heard of but sounds like a nice shade of green. Since that dream, I’ve searched and can’t find ‘orelectic’ anywhere. I guess that’s the stuff dreams are actually made of… nonsensical combinations of events, people, or letters.
-Out of the Orelectic Wilderness
In My Dream, All I Wear are Green Overalls.
I was leaving a restaurant when the hostess asked if I could give her a noun, Mad Libs style. So I wrote in “denim overalls.” The final sentence: In my dream, all I wear are denim overalls in orelectic green.
She was going to read the sentence to the entire restaurant. The bad news: I’ll never know if anyone laughed because I woke up. The good news: I don’t own a pair of green denim overalls.
Small victories.
-Out of the Wilderness
There’s Something About That Name
“Kings and kingdoms shall all pass away
But there’s something about that name.”
It was the end of an evening, a fleeting moment. We were gathering our things to leave. Our coats. Our keys. The leftover food from dinner. A few Bibles. I glanced over to see a friend take a bowl that was stacked on a Bible, and set it beside.
Pride. Respect. Honor. Often these words are associated with the military. But in that little moment, I could see all those things in a small gesture of a friend.
It came on the heels of a night discussing offenses. These days in the U.S., almost anything a person says or does offends someone for one reason or another. We chatted about how Christians feel, or should feel, when the name of God or Jesus is used inappropriately. As Christians, should we be offended? Most said yes. If I’m honest, when I hear God’s name used like a curse word, or Jesus’ name used carelessly, I feel a sense of pride. Why don’t people yell Mohammed’s name? What about Buddha? This may sound odd or not make sense, but I believe it’s because there’s no power in those names. Think about it, whether the name of Jesus is being used the right way or the wrong way, there’s power when it’s used. His name evokes emotion.
It’s the name some people scream when they’re upset. Some whisper it when they’re at the end of their rope. It’s the name I thank when I see a giraffe or a sunset. It’s the name people remember when all else fails. It’s the name that rolls so easily off our tongues without a passing thought. It’s the name that divides nations. It’s the name that unifies families. No matter how you feel about it, there’s something about that name.
Jesus’ name is mentioned over a thousand times in the Bible, so I have a feeling that’s why my friend took the bowl off of the Bible. There’s something about that book, too.
Out of the Wilderness 