In 1993, I was living in South Carolina when my family in Chattanooga got hammered by a freak snowstorm. Over 20" fell and paralyzed the streets. The only exit from Mom and Dad's home was up a long, ice-covered hill, so they (along with my brother, Preston) were...
Why is Palm Sunday relevant? If you Google "What is the significance of Palm Sunday?", the first hit is one of the most common answers. According to Wikipedia, "It thus marks the beginning of Holy Week, the final week of Lent." To me, it is about challenging the...
It has been two weeks since my last post, "Be Still or Prep?" I was true to my word, waiting and listening. The more that I saw people rushing frantically, worried about their situation, the more my answer was revealed. The familiar call to action never came. Instead,...
The past few days have been crazy. COVID-19, the Coronavirus, has taken over the country. Current confirmed cases stand at 2,345, or .0007% of us, with an apparent exponential growth curve. There is no real way to know what havoc the disease will wreak, but the early...
A few days ago I had breakfast with a few friends. After we finished eating, we stuck around the table for a bit continuing the small talk that is the real reason for such gatherings. Out of nowhere, one of the guys made a stray comment to the effect of "You know what...
Every day the news brings us stories of sexual abuse. No group is immune - the Catholic church, Boy Scouts, politicians, or business leaders. Most of the time, it is distanced from our reality. They are either groups we are part of but people we are unfamiliar with,...
Over the years, I've given Erin and James some bad advice. In 2012, we took a family trip to the mountains of Colorado. During a slow time one afternoon, I decided to teach them the value of trust. Our lodge was near to a water slide that ran a couple of hundred yards...
When I was a small child, my parents taught me to say my prayers each night before bed. I can see myself kneeling on the floor with my hands folded together, leaning onto the bed my brother and I shared. The prayer was always the same, it only varied by who I asked...
I went to visit my Tennessee family last weekend. It has been about three months since my mom passed away, so Kim and I flew over for a brief visit to check on dad and hoped that a family gathering would serve us all well. My sister, Kelly, made the two-hour drive...
In my new season, I am searching for what God has planned for me. I have done everything I can to get ready for this next chapter. I have burned the things that should not be carried forward, prayed for direction, and been vigilant for what is going on around me. So...
As soon as it gets dark on New Year's Eve, the McAfees head out to the pool in the backyard. Anyone is welcome to join. This year, we had almost twenty family members, friends, and neighbors.All of us had written down the things we wanted to leave behind in 2019, then...
When I was two years old, my dad bought a dachshund from a neighbor whose dog had a litter. We welcomed him into the family and named him Baron. Baron was a fat weiner dog with a red coat and a crooked tail. With tiny legs and a long body, he had only managed to...