Recently, I was encouraged to give meditation a try. If you had asked me to do this a few months ago, I would have been skeptical. A few years ago, I probably would have laughed outright. I’ve always been a little unsettled by silence. As a child, I lived in a windy area, and my...
Over the last few years, I’ve been through quite a journey. In prior Estuaries posts I’ve referenced how I’d burned out big time and gone through the hardest season in my adulthood thus far. But I never divulged the details of what happened. Kind of evasive...
While I was having lunch with a friend who is also single, we began to talk about the difficulty of remaining in Silicon Valley because of rising rents, gas prices, health insurance, car repair, and those unexpected financial issues that arise every now and then. I mentioned an article I...
Some people are gifted with knowing themselves thoroughly and confidently. I, on the other hand, love the color gray for a reason. I often don’t know what I want to do or eat, and I look to others to help me decide. Over the years I have struggled with understanding who I am, why I...
My earliest memory of hearing the question was during first grade. I don’t remember the context exactly, but it might have been while I was walking to lunch or playing foursquare. Or maybe I was asked while I was waiting for the school bus or while running in the large grassy...
I am tired of living scared, a life I have been living since infancy. As a youngster, I adopted the role of the “good boy” in an attempt to gain approval and reduce tension in my family. I wanted to please rather than cause problems in response to my mom’s...
I am a big fan of drive-thrus. They are easy to access and have a good selection of fast food. Sure, I wish there were healthier or more diverse drive-thru options like good sushi or an authentic taqueria, but I do love that dollar menu at McDonald’s. And when a new...
The River Church Community has been my one and only church home. I started attending back when we met in the gymnasium of the Sunnyvale Community Center. I didn’t know anyone, so I appreciated how the dim lighting enabled me to slink out unnoticed as soon as service was over. My...
At the beginning of the summer, I felt the Holy Spirit convicting me to temporarily delete Instagram and Facebook from my phone and to focus more on God. I was initially caught off guard by this random tug in my heart. I didn’t think I was addicted to social media. It wasn’t...
I’ve been off of Facebook for almost two years. And it’s been fantastic. I consider myself an infrequent user of social media. When I share this fact with friends and colleagues, I get mixed responses. Some applaud my courage to pursue a low-information diet (which seems to...