Monthly Archives: April 2015

A Magnetic and Strange Thing

A Magnetic and Strange Thing

I’ve known Carolyn for seven and a half years. Our relationship began over a cup of coffee. Carolyn was the one ordering it and I was the one making it. Many of our initial interactions felt like a scene out of the movie Groundhog Day—I asked the same question each day, and each day she offered me a verbal picture of her life. Over time, though, through those seemingly routine exchanges, I realized we were becoming friends. We share a love for the Midwest where we both grew up, though living now in the land of “Bless your heart!” and...Read more …
Guilty. Nailed. Exposed.

Guilty. Nailed. Exposed.

My wife looked at me after her exhaustive recap of the details surrounding an incident she faced at work, paused and said, “I can tell that you might be listening, but you haven’t heard a thing that I just said.” Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve never been referred to as a man of few words. So at that moment when my wife confronted me with her admonition, I blinked two of those very slow and weighty blinks…and remained speechless. Guilty. Nailed. Exposed. I realized that my being in the room with her, just like the many other people...Read more …

On the Radio – Walk the Way

  • Posted on April 24, 2015
  • /Under Praying
This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. I met a couple in Detroit Michigan who wanted me to know their faith story – how they became followers of Jesus. It turns out that their neighbors had regularly prayed for what was at the time, the empty lot next door. Someday, a house would be built there and new people moving in. People they didn’t even know. Those neighbors prayed for their future neighbors, that they would be receptive to the Gospel of Christ, that they could begin a relationship and become friends. The...Read more …
Be Careful What You Ask for!

Be Careful What You Ask for!

  • Posted on April 22, 2015
  • /Under Praying
My story might be similar to many of yours. For some time, God had been breaking my heart for those around me whose economic circumstances were different from my own. But I just didn’t know what to do about it. My church family has a strong, beautiful ministry heart and was reaching out to some lower income communities, but I lived in the opposite direction of those and the location made involvement a challenge for me. My heart remained broken and I continued to feel the nudge to enter in. I just didn’t know where to begin. So I prayed....Read more …

The Struggle

  • Posted on April 20, 2015
  • /Under Praying
When it comes to writing about prayer, I consider myself qualified to do so only as a fellow sojourner who desires to see people in my life to come to know Jesus. I want God’s power to flow through me for the advancement of his Kingdom. At some unconscious level, I used to think that someone’s conversion was up to me, my clever presentation of the gospel, my compelling apologetic, my solid argument. I thought it was my job to convict, confront, and convince others of the error of their ways. But—and is this really surprising?—more often than not my...Read more …

On the Radio – Walk the Way

  • Posted on April 17, 2015
  • /Under Noticing
This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. Are you all alone? Researchers have said that the majority of Americans experience “crowded loneliness.” We are continually exposed to people, but have no meaningful connection with them. We’re surrounded, hardly ever alone, and yet, isolated. We stop at the crowded coffee shop and commute to work on a packed train, but our ipods are in our ears. We grocery shop or exercise or spend the day in and out of meetings and lunches, without so much as a glance up. At the end of our...Read more …
Wolfgang

Wolfgang

  • Posted on April 15, 2015
  • /Under Noticing
When he walked up to the register, I had to look up to make eye contact with him. I greeted him and asked, “What can I get started for you?” He told me he wanted a venti nonfat latte. I marked the cup and asked my next question, “What’s your name?” Wolfgang. It took a few more interactions before I cemented his name in my head, and the first time I greeted him by name when I saw him in line, his face lit up. Wolfgang and I had this 30-second encounter five days a week for several years. One...Read more …
Burning Bushes

Burning Bushes

  • Posted on April 13, 2015
  • /Under Noticing
We all know the story of Moses. Fleeing Egypt as a murderer, he ends up tending sheep in the wilderness for 40 years. Was this the dream Moses had for his life? Probably not. Life as a fugitive was a far cry from the one he knew growing up in the Pharaoh’s house. But God had a different plan for him and chose an interesting way to reveal it. Let’s talk about the famous burning bush. Most likely, this wasn’t the first fire that Moses would have seen while out with his sheep; brush fires were common in the dry...Read more …

On the Radio – Walk the Way

This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place. I’m Jeff Klein. I love the YouTube video that shows a massive, clumsy, walrus dancing the tango with one of her handlers. It’s true! In a zoo in Istanbul, Turkey, Sara the Walrus dances an impressive tango with her aquatics trainer. Apparently, the ability to dance was dormant deep within this particular walrus. Who’d have thought? And here’s where I’m going with this: Latent within each follower of Jesus is the ability to walk His way. But I’m not sure how many of us really believe we’re capable. Yet we are! Within...Read more …

When Opportunity Knocks

Sometimes opportunity comes literally knocking at your door. I was at my desk working when my peripheral vision caught movement outside through my front window. I looked up. Someone was walking toward the house but I couldn’t make out who. It was snowing, and the hat and the hood made identification tricky. I got up immediately, grabbed my coat from the entry hooks, and just as he knocked (I could see through my front-door windows now that it was, indeed, a he), opened the door and stepped out to greet him. He was a bit taken aback that I was...Read more …
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