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  • This Little Light of Mine…

    It’s amazing: the power of a candle. My family spends time doing a family devotion as part of our bedtime routine. It’s one small way to help the kids settle down and shift gears, in hopes of transitioning to sleeping children. (I’ll be honest: Bedtime has been a struggle for us for years…) Spending time…

  • Repurposed Garbage

    (The following is a reprint of a Newsletter Article I wrote for Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Fargo, ND for April, 2025) It only took about a month, but I finally got all my boxes unpacked and my decorations up in my new office space. I still need to change around some furniture, but am…

  • Washing White Robes

    I’ve begun preparing for the All Saints Day worship service that comes the first weekend in November. One of the texts usually read on that day is from Rev. 7:14, which says, “I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They…

  • Inconvenient Faith

    They sure don’t make things like they used to. This week, my fridge popped a circuit. When I reset it, I found that my fridge was giving me a few error codes. After looking them up, I found out it’s likely that there is an ice buildup that is interfering with the fan and causing…

  • Light to My Path

    During this time alone up north, I’ve felt the need to stay busy. Much of my time has been spent reading, making meals, relaxing, and reflecting. But, I’ve also been able to accomplish some much-needed projects. One of the projects I’ve wanted to work on for some time now has been to cut a new…

  • Dust and Ashes

    We have a rather large brush pile up at our land, made up of all the trees and foliage that were removed to make our driveway and clearing. It has been sitting there drying for about 2 years now and ready to burn. So, I’ve spent a lot of my day feeding the large bonfire.…

  • Fishers of Men

    I attempted to do some fishing today, except I forgot to bring something rather important along: bait. I had plans to dig up some worms to put at the end of my hook with a bobber, but I realized I had forgotten to gather some worms after I was already on the little paddle boat,…

  • While It Was Still Dark

    The sun is beginning to set on this first night of my “personal alone time” portion of the sabbatical. I have made it up to my land up north, mowed the grass, have set up the tent, made dinner, and am now sitting by the fire, reading my Bible. During this week of solitude, I…

  • Give Us This Day Our Daily… Kerosene?

    I asked my son today, “What should I write the devotion about?” He responded: “Fire. How it can burn (like in a bad way) and also light the way.” And, it reminded me about a certain plaque at the Presque Isle Lighthouse, built in 1872 off Lake Erie. The plaque I had in mind (seen…

  • Today, we got to see a bonus lighthouse. We didn’t have it on our original list of lighthouses, but realized it was only 25 minutes from our campsite. This light (actually lights), is at the end of the pier, and is made up of two lights. The website, Southwest Michigan, says, “Having a range light system…