Should Christians grieve?

Posted by Tim Jackson on August 17, 2011

Is grief okay for a Christian? Is it legitimate to be sad when you lose someone you deeply love? What’s this thing about “consider it pure joy” that James talks about in the New Testament? Should my “joy” as a Christian erase the pain of my journey through grief over... Read More

Christmas “Magic”

Posted by Jeff Olson on December 23, 2010

My neighbor across the street stopped by the other day to ask how my nephew with Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy was doing. Last week my nephew faced a life threatening situation because the muscles in his throat that allow him to swallow food stopped working. I told my neighbor that he pulled... Read More

Holidays & Heartache

Posted by Tim Jackson on October 8, 2010

I’ve sat on this post for over a month. Didn’t know if I really wanted to post it or not. It just opens up areas of woundedness for us all that sometimes I’d just rather say nothing about. But then again, if we . . . I mean . . . if I really do believe that God is up to something... Read More

Puppy love . . .

Posted by Tim Jackson on October 5, 2009

I received an email recently that set me back and pushed me to tears. It simply read:

We want to share some sad news with you. This past weekend, Brittany, our Golden Retriever, died at a little over 15-years-old. She was the puppy we bought from you back in 1994. I don’t... Read More

Power vs. Happiness

Posted by Jeff Olson on September 27, 2009

I don’t rent many movies these days, but last week our local movie rental store gave me a free rental. My vote was for the film about the true story of the blind man who climbed to the Summit of Mt. Everest. But since the last movie I picked out was about football, it was only fair that we went... Read More

Happiest Days of Your Life

Posted by Jeff Olson on September 11, 2009

Just the other day I over heard a man say that the happiest days of his life were the day he bought a boat and the day he sold the boat. As one who owns a small fishing boat, he makes a good point.

A friend and fellow boat owner jokingly says that that the word “boat”... Read More

Who are you?

Posted by Jeff Olson on August 3, 2009

Certain songs tend to stay with and get me to thinking. Lately, I’ve been struck by the following lyrics from an older song,
“Who are you? Who, who…who, who?
The words strike me as more than a line from a catchy tune by the British band The Who. The... Read More

“Happiness only real when shared”

Posted by Jeff Olson on July 27, 2009

I was recently watching the 2007 film Into the Wild. It’s based on the true story of Chris McCandless. Upon graduating from college in the early 1990′s, McCandless had become disillusioned with his conventional life. Without saying a word to his family, he up and sold all his... Read More