Nanci, my best friend for 40 years

December 7, this Sunday, is the 40th anniversary of the day Nanci and I met. We were freshmen in high school. It was a double date in which we went to see two new movies at Portland's Village Theatre on 122nd: the original The Odd Couple, with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, and The Americanization of Emily with Julie Andrews.

Forty years. Wow. I love Nanci more today than ever. She is a treasure. Fun, upbeat, delightful. You name it.

Nanci and I had a wonderful day celebrating her birthday last Sunday November 30. She loves football, so after ...

God Sends Christmas Snow, Clean and Quieting

God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.

He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ Job 37:5-6

5 Years Ago, and 35 Years Ago

Five years ago today, Jake Stump, our first grandchild, was born. Thursday everybody comes over to celebrate this milestone. Love you, Jako! You're a delight. (And so are those other grandsons!)

Wait Until Then

Wait Until Then, a thirty-two page big format picture book, was published in February. It’s a very short story, only two thousand words, about a boy who loves baseball, and his grandfather who played one year for the Boston Red Sox with Ted Williams.

My latest novel, Deception (and various digressions)

My twenty-sixth book and seventh novel, Deception, came out in April.

Tell Me About Heaven: Just Released

Tell Me About Heaven is about a grandfather helping ten-year-old Jake come to terms with his grandmother’s death. Jake has all kinds of questions about Heaven, and what his grandma is doing and whether she remembers him. When he spends two weeks at his grandfather’s house out in the country, they do things together and talk about Heaven as they go. (It’s a low-key story. No shootings, pirates or Bruce Willis taking down a helicopter with a car.)

California Vacation and Deadline Movie Script Read-Through

Here’s a photo I took Saturday on Mount Lassen, at about 7,000 feet. The lake, the flowers, the sky—beauty popping up out of barrenness, all declaring God’s glory.

The Blessing of Gratitude, the Curse of Complaining

The child in this picture is NOT one of my grandchildren. But he pretty much captures what a lot of us, older and younger, behave like when we don’t get our way. (And have you noticed, we often DON’T get our way…which is actually good.)

Welcome, Jack Timothy Franklin

At 9:00 PM Thursday, I got a phone call from Nanci as I was putting grandson Matthew Franklin to bed in the room that once was his mother’s. As Nanci talked, in the background was a loud cry, out of the mouth of Jack Timothy Franklin. Jack had just come into the world at 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and 19.5 inches.

Depression, Gratitude and Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I’ve had nearly six weeks now in which I’ve no longer experienced the depression I was battling the prior two months, which I blogged about June 30. (See also part 2 of this Spurgeon series.) Like some physical problems I’ve had, I don’t know why the depression came or why it left. (Add this to my very long list of things I can’t explain.)