Drop It!

We, along with half the country, got a COVID dog. He is some kind of white lab mix and is now one year old and full of himself. Luke (Star Wars reference fully intended) is a pretty good dog, but he must have some retriever in him because his sniffer is always on high alert,

MAPQUEST

In early 2001 I stepped out of running restaurants full-time and dove headfirst into a new career of selling…stuff. Over the course of five years, I had six different jobs selling everything from cookies to concrete. As you could well imagine, my new bride was totally thrilled to see her new husband go from job

Where Did You Go?

When Saturday morning arrives, and I still don’t have a God-inspired word to share on here, it’s unnerving. I get this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach like you might get when the power suddenly goes out.  Did I pay the bill? Did something trip the breaker? How long will I be in

Playing Catch

Hiking in the woods last weekend was amazing! Fifteen guys going hard after God and fighting for their marriages and families was inspiring. One of the things I hadn’t considered when offering to lead these men on a spiritual journey is how many questions they would ask that I didn’t have an answer to. One

Story

“The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.” ― John Eldredge, Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive The first time I heard that quote was around 2005, and it made

Rocks Underwater

On my way to my mother’s house to meet up with the family for Easter, I stopped and bought Anna a hydrangea. It’s the flower that we predominantly had at our wedding, and there’s just something about this beautiful flower that says, McCarthy. It had been a long day, so after we got home and

Easter is Not My Favorite

As Holy Week has come and gone, I’m coming to terms with some of the reasons why Easter has never been one of my favorite holidays. When I was younger, I didn’t like Easter because we were required to give up something for Lent as a Catholic school kid. Most of the time, the nuns

Jesus’ Big Plan

I have a couple of friends that always seem to pick the phone when I call, and when they can’t, I’ll get a text saying, “Call you soon.” And they always do. I don’t do this very well. I was thinking about what a blessing this is to me yesterday when I was mowing the

The Perfect Mix

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 I’ve always thought that scripture meant that hard things would happen to my family and me, and I forgot that this applies to other

Empower vs Delegate

I dug into some stories on Jesus this week in search of a good operation plan on how to deal with difficult people. I’m still working on that theory and practice. More about those results next week. I stumbled across this simple statement that reminded me of what kind of leader Jesus was. “Jesus realized