Author: Jason

  • Shine On: Our Trip to Mexico and the Unexpected Souvenir We’ll Never Forget

    Shine On: Our Trip to Mexico and the Unexpected Souvenir We’ll Never Forget

    After months of anticipation about our family’s first trip to Mexico and an escape from the Wisconsin winter, the weather report turned foreboding. All eight days were calling for rain. Kim and I were crushed. Our family had finally recovered from a three-week battle with the flu over the holidays, and we were looking forward…

  • Looking for Orcas

    Looking for Orcas

    I’ve heard that God always answers prayers. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes, he says yes in ways that seem like a no. During a family vacation in the Pacific Northwest, one of the things I wanted to see was an orca. We heard stories of a mama and her baby being spotted in Puget…

  • Be The Light

    Be The Light

    When we were children, creativity was a regular part of life, whether it led to building a fort out of blocks, fashioning a fantasy world with our imagination, or coloring made-up creatures with our crayons. We are all still creative. Sometimes we don’t think we are, and sometimes we don’t use our creativity as much…

  • For God So Loved His Children

    For God So Loved His Children

    In her first two-plus years of life, my daughter Lucy has only been sick a few times. For that, Kim and I count our blessings, as there is nothing more miserable and sad and pathetic than a sick little kid. In those times when she is suffering, I’d happily take on her sickness and carry…

  • Happy Father’s Day, God

    Have you heard the story about the married couple photographed together at Disney World 15 years before they met? The couple didn’t know each other, and they didn’t even live in the same country at the time the photograph was taken: That fateful realization came just one week before their wedding eight years ago. Alex and Donna…

  • Free Will and the Pizza Parlor

    Once upon a time, there was a little girl. With her birthday just days away, her parents announced that as part of her gift, she could pick any restaurant she wanted to go to for dinner. She debated and deliberated. She hemmed and hawed. She asked her mom where she thought she should go. She asked…

  • When God Shouts At You

    When God Shouts At You

    I recently experienced one of my best days ever. I had a program in St. Cloud, Minnesota for an association of secretaries, and it couldn’t have gone better. They were a squirrelly group, and we had a blast. When I stopped at Applebee’s for dinner on the way home, I was still on a bit…

  • Shedding Light on What Keeps You Up at Night

    Shedding Light on What Keeps You Up at Night

    When you were little, were you ever afraid of the dark? I sure was. From horns and hair to scabs and skeletons, thinking about what lurked among the shadows was an all-you-can-eat buffet for my imagination. In fact, I may not have made it through childhood without that humble but powerful life-saving device known as…