The Simpleton Blog

Eugene Peterson is probably most famous for his work on the translation of the bible called “The Message.” But, I have discovered in recent years - he was SO much more than that. His knowledge of the original languages is incredible, but his knowledge of the bible - both the words on the page, but also the meaning behind those words -  is even more inspiring. He has an intimacy with the way he walks through the pages of scripture that left me with my jaw on the floor more tha

Now I know that it’s January - it’s a new year, and so I’m sure that none of you are wasting your life watching stupid videos on the internet. You’re better than that, I can feel it - you’re people with purpose, people with drive. But not this guy - I love those dumb videos. That algorithm has got me pegged - they know exactly what I want to watch. You can ask the staff, or my poor wife - the amount of times I whip out my phone like, “hang on, I have a cool video I want to sh

You know, we’re getting to a sort of weird place as Pastor and people - where I’ve been here for a couple of years now, and I.. I can’t quite remember which stories I have already told you all. So if you’ve already heard this one - bear with me. Back in 2013, I was just finishing up seminary. Sara was completing her masters degree at Wheaton College in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. And we were both about the graduate. And for a while there we had talked abo

You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout, I’m telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. Little did you know, that beyond being just an adorable children’s Christmas song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is an extremely accurate, wildly creepy metaphor for God’s impending judgment. He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake. If you want more detail, go read Psalm 139

[read the tale of three trees] You know what I love about that book? It’s so clever - when we start out, we have pieces to a puzzle, but we can’t quite see the picture. We don’t know how all the pieces come together to make a complete and beautiful picture. I’d never heard that story before I got married, but my wife Sara knew it from her childhood - and we’ve read it to all of our children. I can’t figure out if it’s a Christmas book or an Easter book - I think it works for