I'll Have The Curry.

King of the Turtles I haven't always been a runner.  My adolescence was plagued with exercised induced asthma and being slightly overweight as a child. Running the mile in elementary PE was nearly impossible, and any confidence I had in my body’s ability to perform aerobically was nil. I often recall a painful memory, a theme of my childhood, where I had so convinced myself that “fat kids weren’t allowed” to participate in sports, that it became a mantra I lived by. None of the other kids enrolled in soccer or gymnastics or dance looked like me, so I thought it was a rule that kids like me were excluded.  It took me a long time for my mindset to change, well into my young adulthood, before I tried a sport…and it started with Carmen.  Carmen and I were co-workers at Liberty Tax Service, a very part-time seasonal job I picked up as I was struggling to find a full-time career ministry job in an expensive city.  She was a Baylor grad, as was I, so we bonded over our love...

Sharing Stories When I was in late elementary school, about the age that Ella is now, my family and I were sitting down for dinner one evening. My sister and I were probably arguing about something, and my dad told us to stop. My mom replied, “They are just being kids. You didn’t do that when you were a kid?” My dad said, “Nope! I was a perfect child.”  In stunned disbelief, I reached up to grab the phone that was hanging on the wall behind my dad’s head. I dialed my grandfather’s number and asked him, “Was my dad a perfect child?” My mouth dropped to the floor as my grandfather replied, “Yes! Your dad was a perfect child!” I couldn’t believe it was true! My dad still laughs so hard at the way my eyes got so big in sheer astonishment whenever he retells this story. It’s become a family favorite, remembered for my dad’s silliness, try grandfather’s quick wit, and the love woven through that playful exchange. I even had the chance to play this “joke” on Ella not too long ago.  S...

A Sermon written for the people of God at The Church at Highland Park, Austin, Texas August 3, 2025 Luke 12:13-21 Have you walked through a clothing store recently, specifically stores like H&M or Zara, or scrolled websites like Shein or Temu? These stores are filled with cute, trendy clothes that are irresistibly cheap in price.  It’s hard NOT to throw it in your cart. A shirt for $9? Heck yah! How about 2? Shein has thousands of pieces to sort through. And when you come back next week, the inventory has completely changed and you have an exciting new selection of clothing to choose from.    Up until the mid-twentieth century, brands created fashion collections for four seasons- fall, winter, spring and summer, planning way in advance to predict what consumers would want.  Inventory would sit on shelves for weeks and when they were sold, they weren’t replenished with something new. We had to wait until the next season. Now we see the “fast fashion” indust...