Lately I’ve enjoyed using sports to get guys out of their element or get me out of mine, and I’ve learned some worthwhile lessons in the process. Racquetball Over the years, I have taught several guys how to play racquetball. It's a great game—when you're competent. I've previously written about some of the distinctions of the game her...

When it comes to Bible translations, I’ve been an ESV (English Standard) guy for quite some time. Though I’ve dipped into the NLT, the NIV, and the NASB, and I’ve heard good reports about the CSB, I settled with the ESV. I admit, much of that had to do with convenience—my church uses it. And overall, I found it reliable and suitable fo...

On Tuesday night, January 13th, Ruth Truth took an ambulance to the ER. I'll come back to that and how she's doing a little later, but first some background information. It's been several months since I last shared Miss Roo's News. The Great Wean Since Ruth's birth, she hasn't been able to eat by mouth. For the first few months of her ...

Psalm 127 is well-known and oft-quoted. It's one of my favorite psalms. After establishing that it is the LORD who builds the household and guards it too, this psalm sings that children are a heritage and reward. But the verses make clear that children aren't meant to be hoarded like gold. No, they are like arrows. They are to be tuned...

Every now and then a word or a verse will get lodged in my mind for a time. It's different depending on the season, but whatever it is, I find myself returning to it often, turning it over and over, and examining it from every angle. A Good Word Substantive. That's the word I'm mulling over now. Up to this point in my life, it's not be...

Several years ago, as I was coming to the end of my college career, my good friend Alex Jackson and I began choosing a word to guide each of our years. A men's breakfast at Cedar Heights Baptist Church gave us the idea, and over the years we've kept at it. Admittedly, our practice of this has waxed and waned. At times, we've done well ...

Ruth made it. After the start of her surgery was delayed by two hours, it was done two hours ahead of schedule. We were surprised by this. When we got the text message notification, Lauren thought it was a mistake. But it was accurate. It was a classic case of underpromising and overdelivering. God is so good! Prayer and Peace Ruth’s s...

Today, August 12th, Ruth Truth will have a 4-hour surgery to repair her soft palate cleft. We check in at the University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children's Hospital at 11:00 a.m. CST with the surgery scheduled from 12:30-4:30 p.m. The surgical technique that our team will use to repair Ruth's cleft is called Z-plasty. I won't ...

I'm late to post this, but I just want to say: We made it! Over the course of traveling to Houston and back a couple of weeks ago, we logged 35+ hours of driving, +2,124 miles, 2 big-city rush hours, 4 stops at Buc-ee's, lots of glazed pecans, my second ever 24-hour day, and one successful surgery. We left on Monday (7/14) at 8:00 p.m....

Monday evening, July 14th, we leave for Houston, TX in my parents’ camper van. We’re driving the whole gang (my mom, Lauren, Martha, Ruth, and me) through the night and into Tuesday. Ruth has her ptosis surgery on Wednesday, July 16th, at 8:30 a.m. CST. For Prayer Please pray that... • God would give us travel mercies as we drive 2,000...

I've been thinking about the challenges and opportunities facing our neighborhoods. We need to think honestly about the present state of our neighborhoods and our efforts within them if they are to become Christ-centered. After all, that’s the goal. At the risk of being reductionistic, I would say there are two main problems hindering ...

The home that my family now lives in has a more spacious front yard than backyard. At first, this seemed less than desirable, but the longer we’ve lived here, the more thankful I’ve become for this. It’s a feature, not a bug. In fact, it’s made me think that front yards are superior to backyards. Spending time in our front yard has gon...

Recently, my mom told me that when she was growing up in Marble Rock, IA, her family would occasionally decide to go on a bike ride around town. But the bike ride was less about riding bikes and more about stopping to talk with whoever was out and about. Their visits were always welcome because there was always an open invitation. One ...

The temple keeper wakes breathless and damp with sweat. The sky is still dark, but a faint orange light glows on the eastern horizon. In the distance, shouts ride the air and the rumble of war lurks below. The horde is coming, he thinks to himself. He mutters a foul-tasting curse and goes to his small window. From his chamber beside th...

I’ve not shared any updates about Ruth’s ptosis surgery because I haven’t had much news to share. We’ve been in a sort of limbo. Here’s where we’re at: Delays First, we delayed Ruth’s surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital to Wednesday, June 11th, in order to give us more time to work with insurance. Since my HMO plan is limited to provi...

Earlier this year I was thinking about illustrations in children’s books, so I thought it fitting to sketch out some thoughts on illustrating and share several of the illustrators I enjoy with my family. My Appreciation for Illustration My ability to draw is limited to rudimentary doodles, a skill that I developed in Algebra but is now...

Fresh out of the shower with a towel wrapped around my waist, I sat down at my desk to pen a shower thought. My wife was in bed in the other room. We hadn’t spoken a word to each other since our argument. My pen bleeding on the page, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of suction losing its seal. I stared in disbelief as my heart...

Ruth Truth has always had heavy eyelids. I don’t remember noticing it much when she was really little. There were so many other things on our minds at that point. But it’s definitely become more apparent now that she’s grown bigger. She will have just woken up from a nap and someone will comment that she looks like she’s ready to go to...

I recently realized that I’ve been telling myself a lie. I’m not sure when this started, but I know it’s gone on for years. Maybe even most of my life. And as is the case for most, if not all, of the lies we tell ourselves repeatedly, I believed it. The Unscathed Life: Part I The lie? I thought that I could get through this life relati...

As I’ve matured in my faith, my hope in the resurrection of the saints has matured, too. A Healthy Progression At first, when I was young, I most looked forward to meeting the great heroes of the faith. Who wouldn’t want to talk with Noah, Moses, David, or Daniel and hear their stories? One day we won’t be surrounded by a cloud of witn...

A week and a half ago we met with the genetics team in Iowa City to initiate the tests that we hoped would provide us with the cause for Ruth Truth's conditions. They told us there was only a 30% chance that they would find an answer (we still know so little about the human genome), and that we could expect results in three to four mon...

I owe everyone who subscribed to this blog an apology. You expected Ruth Truth updates, and I have not written any! Remember when I said that I would try to write updates weekly? Ha! I thought I might be overpromising, but I didn't realize I would be this far off the mark! That said, you can expect two more Miss Roo's News posts coming...

We were in Arizona last week as a family for a physical therapy intensive for Ruth. While I have much to share for Miss Roo’s News (that update is coming), this post is about some thoughts I had as I spent time with Martha this week. Experiences While Ruth was in her afternoon therapy sessions with Lauren and my mom, Martha and I went ...

I can always tell how much experience a player has in racquetball by how hard they hit. If they are always trying to smash the ball through the wall, they’re new to the game. If they regularly tap the ball into the corner, they’ve spent some time on the court. Recently, I was at a conference that reminded me of this. But the theme of t...

There are many things that God put in this world which require an acquired taste to enjoy. Coffee, beer, wine, and dark chocolate all come to mind. If we get past the things that only touch our tongues, I would also add British humor. Or should I say, humour? Somewhere along the way, this is a taste I’ve acquired. My first exposure ver...

Dear Martha Mercy, Mama fell in love with naming you Martha first. I was resistant for the longest time, but eventually God settled it in my heart when I saw your ultrasound and heard your heartbeat. While we didn’t find out that you were a girl until you were born, God used that moment to give me peace in naming you Martha. Since then...

Concerns Wednesday is my day in the office, so that's where I was when Lauren called me yesterday and told me that we needed to take Ruth to Iowa City. That hit me like a punch in the gut. We thought Ruth might have an infection at the site of her G-tube surgery. Our concerns started on Monday when we noticed she was starting to develo...

When elections roll around, they seem to set our minds on all that may or may not change with their outcomes. As they should. There's much at stake. But whether your candidates win or lose their elections, what changes in your Christian calling if you're a follower of Jesus Christ? Absolutely nothing. I’ve included a few examples from ...

It's only been a few days, but there's much to say. The short of it is that God brought Ruth Truth safely through surgery, and we made it home Saturday evening, November 2nd (despite the Hawkeye football game happening that night). Sniffles and Answered Prayer Ruth's surgery was scheduled for Thursday morning, October 31st, so we drove...

In my last update, I said that I was moving all future updates to this platform. If you're reading this, well done. You found me. Also, thanks for your patience. I said that I would aim to write one update for Ruth each week, but so far I’m quite off target. On Writing It’s not that I don’t want to write. Really, one of my main desires...