Michael Spencer, who became a friend personally as well as a friend of Common Grounds Online, has died.

Michael's prodigious output as a blogger, both at Internet Monk and at the Boars Head Tavern that he started, relentlessly directed readers to the person of Jesus. His wide-ranging reading interests incurred the ire of some, but many readers like me found provocation of the best kind, inspiration and encouragement. Michael was captivated by radical grace, and now that Grace has captured him. Though he died, yet does he live.

“If I stand, let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through, and if I can’t, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to You. If I sing, let me sing for the joy that has born in me these songs, but if I weep, let it be as a man who is longing for his home.” -Rich Mullins
     I can hardly get through this song without weeping, even still, 20 years or so after hearing it for the first time. My wife and I had this song sung at our wedding and to this day it still resonates with me.Read more

 
 
This week, John Piper did the almost unthinkable. He confessed a growing sense of pride in his soul, and with his elders’ blessing, decided to take an extended leave of absence from his public ministry, as explained in a letter to his congregation. I’m deeply impressed that he decided to take a huge step back out of the spotlight before any egregious transgressions happened. It seems that too many of us don’t make such drastic steps until we hit rock bottom and have no other choice but to address our sins and addictions. The problem seems to be exacerbated with leaders and celebrities of all sorts – pastors, politicians, athletes, business executives, recording artists, and so forth.  Whether their fame and power make them feel exempt, invincible, or irreplaceable, an admission of such shortcomings often seems utterly out of the question.Read more

I am missing cartilage between the big toe and ball of my right foot.  They did surgery to remove this weird--tennis induced--bone spur, only to discover:  "The joint is shot."  And unlike with knees, there's really no such thing as "toe replacement" surgery.
    So today, when I walk-limped into the foodbank where I volunteer, I began talking to the coordinator who asked, "How's your foot?" (she knew I'd had surgery).
    "Not so good.  No cartilage.  I'm afraid my tennis days might be over."
    "Over?  That's sad," she said.
    "Definitely," I confirmed, acknowledging the loss after 33 years of smacking the ball around for exercise and joy.  Looking down at my running-shoe clad foot, I continued, "It's a fallen world.  Darn it."Read more

 Not that I can whole-heartedly recommend the body of work by the 70s-80s band Supertramp, but there was one song that held my father-in-law’s whistle for a recent ski trip: “Take the Long Way Home”.  Unfortunately, the song itself seems to be about staying away from home and the nagging wife therein, but the sentiment felt by the main riff (the only lines we sang while heading down the mountain on skis) was “soak this in, appreciate the beauty around you”.  God has surrounded you with his love, his affection, his mountains, so please observe.
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Great piece at SportsProf about the contrast between the Tier 1 basketball program of Kentucky and the bus-travelling, no-scholarships-allowed program of Cornell.

Excerpt:
And he did it without basketball scholarships, without much help from boosters, without special living quarters or travel accommodations for his players, well, without a whole lot of hype, jazz, spectacle, or anything else. These kids play their league schedule on back-to-back nights, Fridays and Saturdays, in order not to miss too much class. They travel by bus for league play,Read more

Many of my friends are pastors and I regularly hear them lament the difficulty of finding "a right fit" for a position on their church's staff team.

A friend of mine, a former large church pastor, has been doing this the past three years and he excels at executive search. William Vanderbloemen just left the search firm where he was previously to launch Vanderbloemen Search Group

Thinking William's particular expertise might be useful to some of my clients, a couple of years ago I introduced some pastors to William. William has been exceptional at this task of confidential pastor search and my clients have been quite pleased with what he brings to the table.Read more

The summer after my senior year in high school, I went on Young Life's Wilderness Ranch backpacking trip. At each meal on each day of that week-long adventure in Colorado's backcountry a member of our group would share his or her “Life Story.” The solitude of the immense forest provided a safe environment for talking about things that wouldn't be said in the crowded city. Finally at the end of the meal and the conversation, one of the leaders, with a little ceremony, would ask a question asked of all the backpackers that come through the gates at Wilderness Ranch. Imagine there's a horse coming up the trail, and there's a saddlebag on his back. If anything you want could be in that saddlebag, then what would it be? I remember distinctly what I said as the brand new world of attending college loomed over me at the time. I answered, the blueprint for my life.Read more

Who am I? I am a juncture of stories, and a story of junctures. I am especially aware of the junctures this week.

Friday was, to the day, the 6th anniversary of my saying yes to the job offer that propelled my uprooting from St. Louis and transplanting to Western Pennsylvania. The multiple tectonic shifts of that time rendered me a different person.Read more

I should be used to it by now, I know. But every time I go to a new place, meet new folks, I'm always a little ill-prepared for the sorts of questions that women typically ask one another.
"How many children do you have?" (None. Unless you count the cute one with fur. He turns four this month.)
"What does your husband do?" (This would be much easier to answer, I assume, if I were married. Which I'm not.) I've actually said -once- "I'm not sure." But I don't think the "asker" got my feeble attempt at humor.  
Then once these two awkward hurdles of social exchange are cleared, and I imagine I've escaped the getting-to-know-you-gauntlet relatively unscathed: "You mean you've never been married?" (This one is True or False, right? True. Final answer.)
Usually that's the last question in this particular line of inquiry, but occasionally, I'll get a fourth: "Really? Why not?"
When I was younger, I was prone to say with a smile, "I just haven't found a dress I like." A little later I employed "I haven't found anyone I want to ask." But then I realized a lot of women do ask or demand or set deadlines (!), and what I thought of as an absurdity might have actually been their experience. So I stopped that.
Now I just say that God hasn't seen fit yet to give me away. The question begs a longer answer, but really, this one is the essence of any further explanation I might give. My heart belongs to Him. It's His to give, and so far, if anyone's asked Him for it, He hasn't seen fit to say yes.
Do I have "the gift of singleness?" Every time I hear this phrase I think of a good friend (single well into his 40's) who likened it to the gift that no one wants--like a bad Christmas sweater or a pair of itchy pajamas. But actually, I do. Today. Because today I am single, and this day--all of it--is a gift from God. I don't know what gifts tomorrow will bring. But yes, today He's given me the "gift of singleness." And I hope to use it well.
I've never married. I've never had children. I'm not sure why. But if you asked me what part of my life so far I would have traded for the mystery behind "door number two" I'd have to say none of it. Because my Father's been very, very good to me in every season and every circumstance. And if you asked if I have any regrets, if there was "one I let slip away," I'd say I don't think so. (Although once I might have hesitated.)
I wrote a book about singleness because I was asked to, not because I wanted to. Good things came from it, but I never wanted to be just a "singles" author or a "singles" teacher, or "that girl who never married." My singleness is a present-tense fact of my life, just like the fact that I'm green eyed and Scotch-Irish, that I'm 5'7" and brown-haired, that I live in the city but dream of the country, that I love baseball and dogs and Scrabble and can't whistle or tan, and can make myself at home in five minutes with just about any book that's printed in English. It's only one fact about me. But it's not the one that defines me, any more than any of these others do.
Here's what defines me: I'm His. And I'll be His forever, no matter who else I might belong to in the meantime. That identity suits me. It fits. It's a role I'll spend a lifetime growing into. Until then, I am His to keep, and His to give away.

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