Missing Hearts
It’s a season of connecting with those you love and those you missed. As for me, I fell in love with three new people this past year.
Yes, I already had met them the...
Author: Seth Barnes
Portrait of a Bar Girl Leaving Her Bar
For a bar girl in Southeast Asia to leave her bar can be dangerous. She leaves her source of income. Most don’t have any place to go. She may face retribution.
Arlene is a...
A World Racer’s Prayer
Lord,
I want to learn to live as Jesus lived. Teach me to leave the things behind that he left.
Help me to learn to abandon all that has made my life noisy and comfortable. I am...
What Does It Mean to Be Born Again?
Jesus was talking to a religious guy about truth and made this statement, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” It’s a statement I’ve...
Searching for a Place of Grace
Somebody asked me, “How are you?” recently. It was the first time in a while I felt someone was really interested – my role can be intimidating and off-putting...
Millennials & Identity Crisis
Millennials are searching for identity. They look in all the usual places:
Their friends
Their jobs
Their hobbies
Their faith
Gret gives us some answers in this video.
Making Sense of Life after the World Race
That’s my L squad guys from two years ago in the picture – the ones I coached for a year. I stay in touch with a lot of them and have talked to them at length about...
Making Disciples Who Make Disciples
Gret Glyer lives in Malawi. He met a man there named Prince. Prince goes into a prison regularly to meet with murderers. Why? To do what Jesus did – turn them into disciples....
What I Don’t Understand About Christianity
I don’t understand how Jesus, who is the ultimate radical reformer, has been homogenized and made safe for the masses.
I don’t understand how his followers have become...
Growing Weary in Doing Good
Karen and I had four small children and she was pregnant with Leah. Coming out of business school I had followed a call to ministry. For the last two years, I had poured out my...
Why You May Need to Leave Suburbia
I recently was introduced to Gret Glyer. Gret grew up like so many Americans – comfortable. But as he shares in this video, leaving was one of the best things he ever did....
Wearing Fear
A friend called me from the airport and sent the above picture of a guy wearing a surgeon’s mask and gloves who was waiting for his flight.
Not only is Ebola in the...
A Storytelling God
God loves stories. He hardwired us to respond to them at a spiritual level – from our gut. “Tell me a story,” children say to parents.
I used to make up stories...
The Fruit of Commitment
Commitment costs in the short-term but pays in the long-term.
Kelli Miller and Matt Patch lived and worked for three years in Kenya. They committed that time to discipling a group...
My Story: How I got here
What motivates you? I mean at a core level really motivates you?
Is it to hang out with your family or friends? To see them thrive? To work on interesting projects?...
My Story: The Formative Years
Welcome to my blog! I have been writing it since 2005. For the first ten years, I wrote almost every day. I have been blogging less frequently of late.
I invite you to join...
To Live an Epic Life, Embrace Epic Failure
“I fear failure like a deer fears a lion because, while I don’t mind the chase now, I know I’ll ultimately tire. Truthfully, I don’t trust myself not to trade...
Your Problems and Their Solutions
We are all busy. We’ve all got problems that we see. We talk a lot about values and what keeps all of us from living them out. And yesterday we were discussing the value of Innovation. “Why...
3 Truths About Brokenness
I was talking with a life coach last week. He probed broken areas of my life that I had dealt with a long time ago. I’m a grown man in my 50’s, yet when my coach put...
Will God Give You a Sign?
Rinaldo and Esther are Christian friends from Switzerland. They had moved together from their native Switzerland to Naples, Florida.
Early on in their relationship,...
When Mission Trips Change Lives
I heard the testimony of a big and gruff, man about his mission trip.
“It was to Reynosa, Mexico. We didn’t do too much building or construction; we did do Vacation...
Overcoming Obstacles to Living an Epic Life
Seven years ago, I had a dream – to shoot a reality TV show of the World Race.
I believe that a generation of young people are dying to hear the story of hope it would tell....
Dangerous Jesus
In the Middle East these days, we’re appalled by the violence. The beheading of an innocent journalist leaves us shocked – we recoil. We feel threatened. The world feels...
Inviting You to an Epic Life
Walter Mitty was an ordinary man who lived an epic life in his head. In the recent movie, Mitty gets to exchange his drab life for an epic life. It’s a fantasy many of us...