Faith

I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was October 4th, 1986, 35 years ago. It was the day my knee was shattered to oblivion and my dream of playing professional football came to a grinding halt. 

Of course that dream was a long shot, but I believed in my heart it was possible. It ended up being an unrealized dream as 280 pounds of an offensive lineman came crashing down on my knee as my foot was firmly planted on the artificial turf at the University of North Dakota.

The lower half of m…

How did I get here from there? Do you ever find yourself asking yourself that question? I have been doing that a lot lately as I have been on this journey of finding my own spiritual path. 

Who would have thought that my work would be as a spiritual warrior coach. Not me. I am a personal trainer. That has been my identity for almost thirty years. I started as a personal trainer back in 1993 working at a small upscale personal training studio in Edina, Minnesota.

I will always be passionate abo…

Jesus wants our hearts, not to be blind rule followers. Jesus broke his fair share of rules and was revolutionary in how he lived while he was here on earth.

If you haven’t been watching The Chosen, I highly recommend it. It’s a beautiful portrayal of how Jesus lived, the interaction between his disciples and the profound impact that Jesus had on people’s lives.

There was one particular scene from season 2 episode 4 that shook me to my core where Jesus healed a paralytic at the Pool of Bethesd…

When I have been frustrated with life or with people in the past, I would go into isolation mode. I would cut myself off from the world not wanting to deal with the reality of my life. My fantasy was to run away to a tropical island being a beach bum avoiding the world. Sometimes life can feel so hard. I have wanted to do nothing more than isolate and escape my problems.

But that has never served me. When I finally decide to come out of isolation, my problems are still there and so are the peop…

Do you ever wonder how you get to where you are in life? I found myself this past weekend pondering that question. How did I go from being a rebellious pastor’s kid who hated going to church to voluntarily going to a silent retreat at Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House spending hours in silence. The only thing I could come up with was once God gets a hold of our heart, he doesn’t let go and when we surrender to God, there is no telling where that will take us.

The four days I spent at the silent…

One thing that has shown up in my life lately that has gotten my attention in a not so comfortable way, as it usually does, is that I have not been living from my heart. I haven’t been trusting my own intuition and inner wisdom. I have taken on the challenge of writing a book. This is my Mt. Everest to climb so to speak as my business and life coach, Kimberly Dawson pointed out to me. My big hairy audacious goals usually revolve around physical feats. I am finding this one to be considerably mor…

Why? That is the question that keeps popping up in my mind and I am sure everyone else’s too.

This past Monday another mass shooting occurred right in my own backyard in Boulder. Every mass shooting is a horrific tragedy, but when it hits this close to home it somehow gets magnified one hundred fold. I have been in that King Soopers grocery store many times over the past several months since I have moved to Boulder. I know the layout well.

The image keeps popping up in my mind of having a dera…

When you put the two words tender strength together, it doesn’t usually make sense. Can we really be tender and be strong?

I think most people would unequivocally answer no to that question. When we think of tender, we usually think of being soft, over-emotional and physically weak.

I am here to say that thinking is 100% wrong. A man showing our tender side doesn’t make us weak, it makes us human. It makes us strong and it makes us authentic.

Every Man Has a Tender Side

I believe every man h…

I am sharing this blog post on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. What an amazing man and legacy he has left for us to follow. He has inspired me because I have a dream too.

My dream is that men get out of quiet desperation and start to live a life of divine inspiration.

My dream is that being a Christian man in today’s world is no longer about suffering in shame and guilt, but living a life that makes us feel fully alive because we see ourselves the way God sees us. 

We are his beloved sons.

My d…

Instead of setting New Year’s Resolutions and a list of goals, I have found it more helpful to choose one word that I want to live my life by. Last year my one word was courage. This year I want to live my life by joy.

As I reflect back on my life, I must admit it hasn’t been filled with joy. Fleeting happiness, yes. Joy, definitely not. My joy and happiness has always been dependent on external circumstances and other people.

As a recovering codependent and perfectionist I have lived my life …