Everything abandoned to God will be returned to us, either in this lifetime or in eternity. One of the devotions in Soul Weathered is called Abandoned to God. In it, I make a statement that someone recently asked me about. I wrote: "Everything abandoned to God will be returned to us, either in this lifetime or in eternity." Do I really believe that? Absolutely. Recently I had lunch with a friend I've known for several years. Twenty-six months ago, he made a decision that most

Adventure taught me how to be a guide. God taught me how to be a man. If you've been reading Soul Weathered for very long, you may have noticed that I write a lot about the heart. About grace. About fear. Joy. Fatherhood. Walking with God. Sometimes I wonder if someone reading these reflections might think, "This guy writes a lot about feelings." And they'd be partly right. But I also want you to know something about me. I've been an adventurer all my life. From the time I wa

One of the themes throughout Soul Weathered is what I call our inner weather. Not the weather outside us. The weather within us. The emotions no one else sees. The conversations no one else hears. One of those conversations has followed me for most of my adult life. It's the way I speak to myself. I've always been impatient. Not just with traffic. Not just with delays. Not even primarily with other people. I've been impatient with me. For years, every little mistake became an

One of the things I wrestle with in Soul Weathered is mystery. Not because I enjoy unanswered questions. But because there are questions that simply don't have easy answers. Sometimes I wonder about the person who might pick up Soul Weathered—the agnostic, the atheist, or simply the person who has been deeply wounded—and think, This doesn't answer my questions. Honestly, I understand. Because I've asked many of those same questions myself. In my early thirties, I went through

One of the devotions in Soul Weathered is called Immortals. And if I'm honest, most of my Christian life I didn't think much about eternity. I believed in it. I believed heaven was real. I believed that through Christ I would spend eternity with God. But I didn't spend much time thinking about what eternity actually meant. Like many Christians, I think I viewed life as a bell curve. You are born. You grow. You reach some kind of peak. Then your body declines. And eventually y

I've been thinking about time. My time. My days. My plans. And honestly, whether I'm doing enough with any of them. Most mornings, I wake up thinking about what needs to get done. The calls I need to make. The projects that need attention. The responsibilities that seem to multiply faster than I can keep up with them. And if I'm honest, I often wake up with a subtle feeling that many men carry: I'm behind. Behind on my goals. Behind on my plans. Behind on where I thought I'd

One of the recurring themes throughout Soul Weathered is wilderness. The cover itself shows a man walking a trail into the fading light. And honestly, that image represents far more than hiking to me. It represents space. Silence. Invitation. The kind of places where a man can finally hear again. For the past 25 years, I’ve led men into wilderness settings through ministry. Mountains. Streams. Trails. Campfires. Remote places where the noise of life quiets down long enough fo