health – Delight in Disorder

The Physician Inside: 3 Steps to Better Self-Care

Note: This was first published in the Spring of 2017. Much has changed. I have more reason than ever to maintain my well-being. My solitary self is now in a shared union with another. What God has joined together is our job to care for. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Corinthians 6:19) As a competitive athlete, I diligently trained my body and "played through the pain," dismissing wounds I still face. As a student, I fiercely focused my mind on questions and concepts that helped me better understand who I am, but fell short of understanding how I fit in the world. As a pastor, I offered my best (and sometimes more) to meet people's needs, and became so obsessed with this, I ignored my own. Now, 54, launching new vocational [...]

The Meaning of Marriage: A Bipolar Perspective

Last week I married the woman of my dreams. She is smart, compassionate, beautiful, kind, and caring. She has a sharp wit, a keen appreciation for the absurd, and an abiding faith. We have much in common, but we also have distinct passions that help us grow day by day, like iron sharpening iron. We believe God has called us together and we have vowed to live out this bond in good times and bad as long as we both shall live. It's hard as hell to make a marriage work. There is so much sin within and around us that threatens to separate us, to tear apart what God has joined together. Both my wife Susan and I know the agonizing labor and painful repercussions of marriages that have ended. We have spent many hours, decades even, scrutinizing who we are and what we need, to ensure that we [...]