The Pierced Pastor

Hearing God from Community Church Video on Vimeo .

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When I was a kid, we took a family vacation and headed to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore. While we were out there, we did some touristy things, but mostly we stopped at museums and historical sites and stuff like that. I realize now that almost every one of my family vacations as a kid were educational. Mount Rushmore, Gettysburg, even when we went to Maine; educational. I mean it makes sense, we were homeschooled, my mom was a teacher, I get it. But I can remember when I had the realization that everything we did was educational and it was like having the rug pulled out from under me. If you’re feeling any sort of outrage like I did, just wait, it gets worse. Every game I had as a kid was educational. While some of my friends grew up playing things like “Shark Attack” and “Dead End Drive”, we had card games like “Great Explorers of the World”. Even “Candy Land”, one of the great childhood games of all time, is designed to teach you colors. Boo. Well, now that I’ve tarnished every ...

 Some of you might not know this about me, but I was homeschooled up until 7th grade. I actually repeated 7th grade because the public school figured I was too young for 8th grade, but that’s neither here nor there. As a kid I struggled really hard with anxiety, especially in large crowds. Being packed into a crowd not only made me uncomfortable, but it made me feel real panic. I’m telling you this because I can vividly remember my first day of 7th grade. I rode the bus in and waited outside the building until they opened the doors. Then, like a herd of cattle, myself and all the other students pushed through the open doors into the main hallway. I made it through my first class and then got to my second class, Advanced Math with Mrs. Beilfuss, and that’s where it all went downhill. I can remember sitting in math class, with all these new students sitting around me, and one kid (shout out to Mikey-O) going, “Hey man, you look really pale.” He was right, I was pale, sweaty, and felt...

“Dad tax!” I say as I reach across the couch, take one of my daughter’s M&Ms and pop it into my mouth. Kendall simply smiles and rolls her eyes. The Dad tax is well established in our house. From fries, to candy, to popcorn and other snacks, the girls know that the Dad Tax is coming. Once I levied the dad tax on the girls while we were having dinner with a friend who didn’t have kids. He seemed confused at first, then asked why I didn’t feel guilty taking their food. I had to think about it for a minute because in all my years levying the Dad tax, no one had ever really asked me to explain it in depth. After a moment I responded with two reasons. First, they had more than they needed, at the end of every meal both of my girls had extra food left over. Second, I had paid for the food and so, technically, the food was mine anyway. He thought for a moment and then shrugged saying it made sense to him. So why all this talk about Dad tax? First, I’m sure that a number of you can relate ...