In our heyday of real estate sales we had a saying, “I’m going bear hunting.” This was analogous to chasing something really big. Wether it was a big client or a new business idea, “bear hunting” was our catch phrase. Unfortunately, we learned the hard way that sometimes the bear eats the hunter. After the market crashed, I traded in my bear hunting attire for a suit and tie. It was time to grow up and stop living with such […]
For the past few years, I have taken time to study and reflect on the story of Christmas. Although the characters stay the same, the experience is always unique and stretches my faith. Last year, I was overwhelmed by the lineage of Jesus and what it teaches us about God’s desire to use our imperfections. This year, I find myself focused on a few ancillary characters that I’ve never considered—King Herod the Great and The Magi. King Herod the Great […]
I climbed the stairs to the raspberry-colored, oceanfront home, ready to begin a 2-day sabbatical. It was an odd feeling to be alone in such a beautiful place with only my thoughts and the vastness of the ocean to keep me company. But this is something I desperately needed. In 37 years, I’ve never been truly alone. I guess that’s why it terrifies me so much. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been an extrovert. But the problem […]
Our home backs up to College Acres Baptist Church, a largish church with quite a bit of paved parking that drains to a retention pond just behind our home. Although the frontside of Hurricane Florence only produced five inches of rain, the retention pond was full and it appeared that their drainage system was not removing any of the standing water. As the water began to backup, it flooded an undeveloped lot beside our home and subsequently poured into our […]
As I sit here on my front porch overlooking countless piles of debris and water receding from my yard, I have mixed emotions. I can’t help but be overwhelmed with gratitude because our family and our home is safe. But there’s a sense of grief as well because I know so many who can’t say the same. There are hundreds of thousands of people with significant structural damage and millions more who have undergone significant emotional stress. And as I […]
Seventeen years ago, I was asleep in my dorm room at University Towers on the campus of NC State University. My phone rang. It was my mom. “Hey, bud. Turn on the news. A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.” Along with the rest of the known world, I watched in horror as the events unfolded before our eyes in nightmarish fashion. It was the worst case scenario—something we’d never imagined. I remember the fear. It felt like […]
Sometimes, God hides truth just beyond our view. We get to choose whether we’re going to complain that we can’t see what He’s doing, or we get to go an an adventure to seek it out. That’s because God knows that for deep truth to sink in, we can’t be told, we have to be shown. After five years of writing and seeking, I’m finally beginning to understand the deep truth of rest. Stress is a Thief Our world is […]
We get busy in life. Matt reminds us of why we dedicate ourselves to something other than ourselves.
- Robert Wagnon, CEO, Republic State Mortgage
