This picture contains some of my favorite memories of Egypt. The picture encapsulates three things. First, there’s the newly discovered Arabic proverb, “Coffee cannot be drunk too quickly.“ On practical level, Turkish coffee is the norm over there. This means that you need to slow down to drink it, otherwise you’re just gonna get a … More An Arabic Proverb About Coffee

A year ago my brother Tim and I were in Egypt! As usual, my sketchbook and watercolors came along and I was able to keep track of some of my favorite parts of the trip. Since most of us can’t go gallivanting off on our usual travels, I thought it would be a neat idea … More Egypt and Jordan Travel Journal

Hello my dear readers. By now you’ve probably already seen this picture and heard the back story to it. If you haven’t, this painting captures the favorite childhood memory of Callia’s mom -Callia is a good friend of mine. The mom was doing dishes one day and looked out the window to see her husband … More Nothing Higher and Stronger

As a little kid, did doing great things always seem easy to you? They did to me. And doing little things well, excellently, always hard. Ugh, terribly hard. Now, as an adult, the latter still holds true, and as for greatness, well, if you can’t be great instantly, forget it. Lately I’ve re-realized that being … More Consistently Showing Up

We’ve been blessed to be able to have some small art classes this summer. It’s gotten pretty intense with drawing fundamentals, like perspective and then more pressure came with watercolor 101. But it was also what the kids were looking forward to the most: Beginning to paint! Things were pretty serious with topics like brush … More Tilling and Watering

Being bold requires going against the flow. It requires attacking a weakness, often directing attention to that weakness in the effort to address it. This past weekend our community came together, thanks to a wonderful individual, to celebrate The 4th of July by means of a small festival down at our city park. My little … More Being Bold

Creativity relies upon a surplus of good ideas and imagination. It’s necessary to keep that tank of ideas and imagination full to the brim. Little kids can teach us a lot about how to keep that tank full. They have their duties they do, sure, but then most of their day is spent playing, exploring … More Filling up the tank

This Kansas summer is a good year for fireflies. Or lightning bugs, as we grew up calling them. Take a stroll as twilight settles over the land and you’ll see their twinkling lights floating here and there. Better yet, walk up The Old Farm Road on campus, or down any road in the country which … More Fireflies

Each day seems to wind one up Tighter than the next. So much to do,  So little time, Scratch off any fluff that doesn’t help the climb. So the other day,  The inspiration came that A little more being must occur Before all the doing rushes in. So on this bright Sunday morn  The morning … More Slowing Down Enough

Last post mentioned two ways discoveries that would help one see God more in creation. They were: Know Creation better. Know God better. I’ll add a third one: Make a connection between the two. Today, I’d like to just briefly share one observation of Creation that helped me begin to know it more and connect … More Looking Closer