The Thread of Grace

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PopThe last week of my life is a blur. It began about a week ago with a text message from my mom. I was preparing to officiate the wedding of a couple from our church, and my phone buzzed, reminding me I hadn’t turned it off yet. “The doctor was just here and said dad has ‘maybe’ 24 hours left. Maybe less.” My heart froze, and I lost my breath for a moment. I managed to pull it together to finish the wedding and immediately after began scrambling to make arrangements to get from CO to TN. As I did, I reminded myself that God was in control, and that in him every step of this journey belonged precisely where it was located. Read more

Swingin’

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Swingin’

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Tennessee sunset

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My first time outside the hospital today. A beautiful TN sunset.

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Fore!!!

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Andrew showing off his golf form.

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2013 First Day of School

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First day of school. August 26, 2013. Ethan – 8 yrs old, 3rd grade. Andrew – 6 yrs old, 1st grade.

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Honor Your Father and Mother

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My view for much of the last week

One of the great advantages of the technology-driven world we live in is that it has expanded our capacity to initiate and sustain relationships regardless of physical distance. Much has been written about the good and the bad of this, and there is definitely plenty of both. But this is our reality. There’s no getting the toothpaste back in the tube at this point. In this past week I faced a tension and a question I hadn’t wrestled with before related to this new power – how do you communicate really important personal news in a personal and appropriate way when your social and relational network has exceeded your capacity to do so well? Read more

Brief Reflections on Q LA

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IMG_0262I returned home to Denver last Wednesday from the Q LA conference to the typical rush of life that greets you when you return from a conference. While I’d hoped to take some time to share some of my takeaways the busyness of life has thus far prevented it. Then I got this email from my friend Dave this morning:

How was Q? What was your big take-away?

If I only download 2 talks, what should they be? Read more

Redden Family Year-End Update

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2012 was another great year for the Redden family. Lots has happened since our family update last spring and the updates about Ethan and Stephen’s trip to Guatemala. It’s not until you sit down with a friend you haven’t seen in a while or write an update like this that you realize how much happens in everyday life! Here are some of the highlights from our lives over the last few months. Read more

Marijuana’s legal in Colorado, now what?

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In 2008, shortly before I moved to Colorado, Initiative 40 was passed into law. Initiative 40 provided for the legal use of marijuana as a medical treatment for people with “debilitating medical conditions.” So the nearly four years I have lived here in Colorado has been the age of “medical marijuana.” This decision has brought a lot of changes to my city and to our state. Those of us who live here know that the “medical” veneer of marijuana is thin (it’s amazing how many 20-somethings there are here suffering from chronic back pain). With laughingly little regulation over dispensaries or the process for obtaining a card to purchase medical marijuana, we have stood for four years on the precipice considering the implications of making marijuana legal for recreational use. This week we stepped off the cliff. Proposition 64, which proposed a constitutional amendment to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol in the state of Colorado, passed into law with 55% of the vote. An inevitable fight between state and local government certainly lies ahead. As Governor Hickenlooper said in a statement last night, “Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.” Read more

Not Single

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Dan Snyder, my good friend and co-worker at New Denver Church, wrote a blog post this week entitled “Singleness.” It was an excellent post. Honest, vulnerable, hopeful – just like Dan himself. Like Dan, one of the things I love about working at New Denver is that I have many opportunities to spend time with young adults. Unlike Dan, I am no longer a young adult myself. Having crossed the big 4-0 line into mid life, when it comes to young adults I am no longer “us”; I am “them.” So it was with some perspective and nostalgia that I read Dan’s post and thought back on the single season of my own life. Read more