The Simpleton Blog

Today I want to start with the story of Angus McGillivray. It’s a phenomenal true story, that comes from a soldier’s account of life in a World War II Japanese prison camp. The book is called Through The Valley Of the Kwai, and the soldier who wrote it was Ernest Gordon. You see, Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the prison camps that was filled with Americans, Australians and Britons who had all helped build the famous Bridge of the River Kwai. But the massive prisoner

Pastor’s Bookshelf - Welcome to my bookshelf!  Each month I will discuss a recent book that I’ve finished.   This month I’d like to talk about  Living Life Backwards By David Gibson This book was recommended to me recently by another pastor. They sort of off handedly referred to it, and I thought the point they were making was brilliant - so I rushed out to the library (okay, the app on my phone) and downloaded the audio book immediately - I was not disappointed. This book ta

You know, when I was a kid - some of you already know this - I grew as a pastor’s kid, and our whole life revolved around the church. And I want to be clear - I loved the church. I know some people have had really rough experiences with the church, but every church I have been a part of has been a wonderful family of God. The little old ladies who ran Sunday school - they were like extra grandmas. The youth leaders were like aunts and uncles to us - my church friends were pra

Why do we build sand castles when we go to the beach? Why do we build snowmen that we know won’t last? For that matter - why do we do laundry in a never ending cycle and why do I bother cleaning my house while my children still live in it? These are the real questions that keep me up at night. I fell down a rabbit hole on the internet last week because I knew that sand castle, and sand sculpture competitions exist and I got curious - what do they do at the end? When my kids m

Have you ever read a story in the bible and thought - wait a minute, I’ve seen a TV show just like this? Well - maybe that’s just for bible nerds - but back in 2010 CBS aired a brand new show that ended up being WILDLY popular and it sounded an awful lot like the scripture we’re going to get into today. When it came out this show was the most popular new show in any genre that year - it premiered to 38.6 million viewers and to this day that premiere is the highest rated and m