Present Over Perfect

voice that tells me to hustle can find a to-do list in my living room as easily as it can in ...

And then somewhere along the way that frantic energy translated itself into work, that same ...

Dethroning the Idol Busyness is an illness of the spirit. —Eugene Peterson I come from a long line of ...

high school. In college, I was all over the map spiritually and couldn’t be bothered to attend chapel or ch ...

stories I told about myself is that my ability to get-it-done is what kept me around. I wasn’t beau ...

miserable. Not all the time, of course, but sometimes, in those rare moments when I let myse ...

You Put Up the Chairs I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope ...

same conversation we always have when we see each other: we should get together more. It’s just s ...

unstoppable phenomenon. The seasoned pastor pushed him gently: “You’ve built this, and it’s okay to say t ...

play soccer again? Does he want to start piano, or move to a different town, or get bunk beds? “Mor ...

with two little boys for hours on end is sometimes less great. It’s so easy to hop on a plane ...

The Word That Changed Everything The word that changed everything, of course, is no. I’d been saying yes and ...

it: if you’re not careful with your yeses, you start to say no to some very important things without even ...

badly, awkwardly, sometimes too forcefully, and sometimes with so many disclaimers and weird ancillary statements ...

many times a day, and our constant refrain sounds like this: what can you lay down? How can we make th ...

On Disappointing People Some people are very uncomfortable with the idea of disappointing anyone. ...

this person will be angry with you, or sad. You’ve left them holding the bag. Or maybe instea ...

authority. Or people we want to impress, or people who seem fancy or important in some way. I’ve ...

the decisions you face. Picture your relationships like concentric circles: the inner circle is your spous ...

you give to people, because you’re giving them freely, untangled from resentments and anger. My knee-jer ...