My guest blogger kicking off the new year is my youngest daughter, Lauren Drapal. She’s our brain injury survivor. She’s also a successful hairdresser in Kansas City - check out her Instagram @hairlikeaqueen. But first and foremost, she loves Jesus. And she’s a pretty good writer, too. She doesn’t have a blog, but posted this…
Sunday Perspective
Having a contentment issue? Think about Psalm 16:5-6: LORD, you have assigned to me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. To me, that means if God doesn't want something for me, then I don't…
Perspective, Promise and Presence
There are just two things I want to know when I start hiking a trail. Where does it go? And how hard will it be? For me, the trail is a metaphor for life. For the passage of time. For choices made and not made. I'm also fascinated by the fact that inverting just two…
Close Calls
Ordinarily, we want our children to obey authority, right? Well, there was one time when it almost didn't work out so well.... During a family trip to Washington DC one Spring Break many moons ago, we came to a stop on the Metro near the Smithsonian Museums, and our entire 8-person group started the processional of…
No Secret Passages
The world of secret passages conjures up for me visions of medieval castles, old Frankenstein movies, and trying to win Clue games against my wife (and losing...every...time...). By the way, I'm grateful to Mel Brooks for removing the scariness from Frankenstein movies, and providing an endless supply on one-liners in his classic 1970s movie Young…
People-Watching
Don't lie, you love to do this too. Sitting in a coffee shop on a Saturday morning writing this blog post, I'm taking in everything that's going on around me. Couples are enjoying each other's company. Young families are grabbing some breakfast before their youth sports game of choice (baseball and soccer seem to be…
Lessons From a Broken Gas Gauge
In the early 1980s, summers in Kansas City were wonderful. More fountains than Paris, beautiful flowers and foliage, and at the time, pretty good baseball too (we had this guy on the Royals named George Brett -- you might want to look him up). One of the oldest and largest parks in Kansas City, Swope…
Mike G. Smith 