I wear plaid. I'm a blogger.

This past week Katie and I said goodbye to one of the most beautiful pieces of God's creation this side of the Mississippi. We had a 100+ year old tree in our backyard. It was located right smack in the middle of the yard, with some stones circling it to really showcase its prominence. It provided shade in the summer, a place to hang a 30' baby swing, and was a great anchor point for a handful of brave zipline adventurers at 40'. When we bought the house we fell in love with the backyard. It was a deep lot size with a huge tree to provide fun for many generations. We bought the house and a few months after moving in, an arborist came and told us that the tree was unhealthy and needed to be cut down. There was a section of dead wood at the base where a large branch must have fallen off a decade or so prior. It had left a nasty scab on the side of the tree where rot and bugs were now taking over. Any other part of the tree and we could have easily cut it off, but ...

I am a helpless romantic. By that I mean that I am helpless in my romantic efforts. The Christmas present I bought Katie this year was 2 Pan/Tilt/Zoom security cameras so that she could feel more comfortable coming home to a dark house on the nights when I am not there. So loving. So thoughtful. So helpless. Needless to say, the cameras were not a welcome Christmas present. Katie said something about "that doesn't count as a present," and "nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like a camera that reminds you that life is not merry all the time." Not my brightest Christmas buying moment. So I decided to sell the cameras. Might as well recoup as much of my losses as possible and maybe give somebody else a good deal on a secondhand like-new camera. I initially listed one of the cameras on Ebay and it sold for $21 (I bought it for $49). However, I accidentally clicked the "free shipping" button when I listed it so all of a sudden I had to pay the ...

My sister always dreamed of having a pet tiger. She is a cat person and so the thought of having a tiger as a pet was always intriguing for her. I figured that was a pretty cool idea but didn't think it was very feasible. Come to find out, there are a bunch of stories out there of people who adopted a tiger as a baby, nursed it, trained it, and now have a house pet that is capable of ripping their head off without much effort. If you came across a full grown tiger on the Savana you would likely find that to be worrisome. After all, the Savana is the Tiger's natural habitat; you are on his turf and you look a lot like lunch. You know it, and he knows it. And your chances of survival are somewhere between slim and none. But if you came across a tiger cub you would likely not feel threatened at all. At worst this little tiger cub is going to gnaw on your leg or claw your shin but it would just be irritating and wouldn't even draw blood. This leads me to conclude that th...

God had a plan. A plan from the very beginning. A plan to have a deep relationship with each and every one of us. In the beginning, God was able to walk with man. ....and then we blew it. While we were no longer able to abide in His presence, God still advocated for us. He fought for His people. God was for us.  Throughout much of the OT, God is represented by the name Jehovah-Jirah , "God will provide." But God's plan wasn't to just be for us,  ultimately He wanted to restore us to Himself--to be able to rekindle that intimate relationship between creation and Creator. So God promised a deliverer: Emmanuel   "God is with us." God sent His son Jesus to deliver us from the bondage that we put ourselves in with our sin. Jesus came into the world and the disciples of Jesus initially had a framework of understanding that Jesus would deliver them from Roman oppression and captivity. But God's idea of Emmanuel  was so much bigger, and better, than w...