Hooray! Happy Anniversary to me! To Rachel! To us! That also means it’s time to share what I have been learning in marriage! Yep, the lessons keep coming. I think they will never stop, even twenty or thirty years into this thing (God willing!). I’ve written out what I’ve learned at our six month, one year, two year, three year, four year, and five year anniversaries, and hope you find my reflections helpful in ...

With the new year upon us, I've been thinking a lot about keeping first things first. It's so hard when the tyranny of the urgent pulls us in all sorts of directions, and we go to sleep each night wondering where the day went. But we all know that if we don't keep first things first, we're going to have a lot of regrets at the end of our lives. ...

I am re-reading a book I love by Sara Hagerty, and the author brought up a point that I wanted to try to think through. She said that many of us hold a belief that has been quite detrimental to our walk with God. That belief is as follows: If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t matter. That struck me, and I wanted to think through how it applies to ...

I am not sure if you’ve followed the stock market this year, but it has been a wild ride. In January and early February, we were approaching record highs in the major indexes. Then COVID-19 happened, and everything plummeted in March and April before an incredible recovery since the middle of 2020 (with some minor corrections along the way). I have a huge interest in technology trends, startups, IPOs, and ...

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is…weird. Everything builds up to a zenith on December 25th – which is a great day – but then it ends. And we find ourselves suspended in mid-air until after the calendar actually turns, listless and a bit out of sorts, wondering what even happened during the past year and feeling hesitant about jumping into the new year with two feet. Maybe there ...

I was reading a paper recently entitled “Spending in Retirement: Determining the Consumption Gap” that talked about how retirees are dying with more money than they had when they actually retired. Specifically, the researchers studied 704 retirees between 2000 and 2010 and found that across five quintiles of wealth, each group had more financial assets than when they initially retired. What's also interesting is that in the top three quintiles, ...

We’re up in Southwest Virginia for the holidays, and God gave us snow on the night of Christmas Eve! The miraculous part of it was that it had barely snowed here in many years. But somehow, everything lined up perfectly and we got almost six inches to create one of the most picturesque winter wonderlands I had ever seen. We ate icicles, went sledding, threw snow at each other, and ...

Merry Christmas everyone! This special day allows me to reflect on Jesus, his celebrated birth, and all that He means to me and my family. And the day itself has become even more fun since Rachel and I had kids, because we get to remember what it was like as a child, and see everything afresh from their eyes. Finally, we do love that the holiday brings family members together ...

You may know that I’ve been hoping and praying for a older, wiser mentor in my life for decades. Someone who has walked the road I am on, who sees something unique in me and feels led to invest in me, and who regularly demonstrates they care through intentional actions and words – reactively (when I ask for help) and even proactively (because they love me and want the best ...

As you know, I have been thinking about how I’ll never be satisfied. And that all of the beautiful things I've gone after – romantic love, success, pleasure, adventure, money, clout – won’t ever fully do for me what I hoped they would do. Rather, they are meant to point me (and you) to God, who is the only One who can complete us. Well, I’ve had another breakthrough in ...

With Christmas fast approaching, I was thinking about the relationship between the parents of Jesus. We don’t know much at all about Joseph from historical texts, but English translations convey that he was a carpenter pledged to be married to Mary, a Jewish girl in her teens. However, under Jewish law and according to Old Testament scholars, a betrothed woman was considered to be married. When Mary got pregnant, Joseph ...

Every fall, it’s hurricane season down here in Southeast Florida - which serves as an annual reminder that disaster could be headed my way. I’ve had to deal with four major hurricanes while I’ve lived down here, and it has not been fun. Typically, what happens is that the news channels let us know a new one is moving in our direction, and everyone monitors the updates to see where ...

You might not know this about me, but I get frustrated frequently. Not with my job, or marriage, or even other people, but with small stuff. Like when one-year-old Ravi throws his food on the floor for the 100th night in a row. Like when something breaks in the house and it becomes yet another thing to do on my list. Like when I forget to set a reminder about ...

Have you heard this quote, or one of its variations? Originally made by John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard church movement which has spread across 95 countries and involves over 2,000 congregations, it is an allusion to the story of Jacob in Genesis 32. And the statement carries much wisdom by underscoring how extreme hardship produces humility and an honorable approach to God. To fill in the gaps of ...

I have been doing a lot of walking down memory lane recently. Every night while trying to fall asleep, I take these voyages in my mind back to various stages of my life. And I remember so much, in vivid detail. It brings me back to the sights and sounds and even the smells, and I once again feel the emotions I felt in those seasons. And even though many ...

Last night, Rachel and I were discussing the notion that how a person spends their time really says a lot about that person. Take me for instance: for over a decade, I have spent my free time 1) writing faith-based blogs 2) learning guitar and 3) working out. These pursuits were important to me, and even though they involved a good deal of effort, I enjoyed them. I felt they ...

Before my little girl Maya was born, I remember praying so very hard for her to have perfect health. Not just every time we went to the OB/GYN for another sonogram, and not just on labor day, but every night as far as I can remember. I just begged God for her to come out healthy. It was the same with my little boy Ravi. I prayed so hard for ...

I have always been extremely sensitive to those less fortunate than me. I think this started when my family took me to see our relatives in India when I was ten. On this trip, my eyes were painfully opened to so many living in abject poverty in that low-income country. I remember seeing homeless children wearing torn, dirty rags as their clothing coming up to our car asking for money ...

Do you know that song “Satisfied” in the musical Hamilton that occurs about halfway through the first act? It’s sung by Angelica Schuyler, who is captivated by Alexander at the same time that her sister Eliza becomes totally smitten with him – at a party where they first all meet. It is a phenomenal song, and it’s worth listening to if you haven’t heard it. The lyrics depict how Angelica ...

I am not going to lie – I definitely do it. I compare myself to other men. I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently and just wanted to get to the bottom of my motives. Just to sort of check the state of my heart. For sure, I am not wishing ill towards them, or feeling some type of bitter jealousy. I am just taking stock of the men ...

To this day, baseball is my favorite sport. And I’m thankful for the opportunity to play organized baseball when I was young – even though I wasn’t very good at all. For 4-7 year-old kids, Tee Ball is the best way to get acclimated to swinging a bat, running the base paths (in the right order), using a glove, and throwing the ball to your teammates. I don’t think I ...

Probably like every other kid in the entire world, my girl and boy love sweets. Maya is known to say “I don’t WANT food, I want treats and snacks and sweets!!” I just shake my head in exasperation. As parents, we obviously desire that our children eat healthy food as much as possible. We’re not crazy about this, and Rachel will tell you that I’m kind of a “sugar daddy” ...

Everyone who hears that we have a three-year-old and a one-year-old tells us that “they grow up so quickly” and to “take time to enjoy these moments” because they will be gone before we know it. That makes sense; it’s truly shocking how life seems to speed up as we get older. And those of you who know me know that I’m super intentional about everything, and keep trying to ...

I met Rachel in 2013 while volunteering at a summer camp in Banner Elk, North Carolina. According to her, she started falling in love with me after seeing how I was with kids: playful, carefree, easygoing, undistracted, fully present, joyful, silly, and super cute. That same year, she went to Ecuador for six months to serve at an orphanage, and I visited her during Christmas break. We had an amazing ...

Do you find yourself asking this question? Maybe just to yourself, in your head? Or maybe, if you’re feeling vulnerable enough, to someone you know who won’t judge you? “What is the point?” I feel like everyone wonders this at some stage or the other. I know I’ve gone through seasons of life where every day – even multiple times a day – I would ask myself that same question. ...

You want your romantic relationship to thrive, right? We all do. I’ve only been married for five years, but I feel like I’ve learned the secret to it. Perhaps that sounds arrogant but Rachel and I are thriving, and I’m proud of that – just like I would be proud to finish a marathon or earn a degree. Am I shocked by how much effort it actually takes? YES. But ...

I try to live my life with the “faith of a child” that Jesus talks about – a faith that is innocent, full, expectant, and without suspicion or distrust in God’s goodness. Of course, this isn’t easy to do given the unending challenges and struggles that we all face while living out the days He’s given us. However, I have found that nothing is more important, which is why that ...

Tests are not fun. Really, they are the opposite of fun. Many nights in high school, I remember staying on the phone into the early morning hours with various friends trying to cram for an exam the next day in Calc, or Chem, or European History. And then I couldn’t sleep well because of the anxiety of it all. I had a good grasp of the material, but they were ...

A few of my friends recently are having trouble sleeping these days, and I’m praying for them hard because I have absolutely been there during extended times in my life. I've often felt the same as them, and have even been on prescription medication in the past to help my mind detach. When I was struggling with sleep, my mind just kept spinning in random directions. I would have a ...

The other day, I stumbled upon a quote by British novelist Graham Greene which stated: "There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in." When reading a book, it isn’t often that I am stopped in my tracks and forced to think deeply about my life in that very moment. And so I started to wonder: ‘What was that moment?’ ‘What experience opened ...

Earlier this summer, I was putting my two-year-old Maya into her car seat when she hastily and forcefully pushed open the car door and scraped the door of our other car in the garage. This frustrated me.  I was like, “Maya! You’ve got to be careful, you can’t push the door open so hard because it hit and messed up the door of our other car!!” I was stern and ...

“Look, Daddy!!!!” “Are you watching?” “Pay attention, this is important!” “DAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” My just-turned-three-year-old Maya is the best. She’s always up to something: dancing and twirling around, climbing on furniture and banisters and countertops to test her strength, or jumping from pillow to pillow on her makeshift obstacle courses. And she needs me to witness all of it. Maya is constantly calling my name and trying to get me to focus ...

Rachel recently ordered some choker necklaces. Why, you might ask? Because I absolutely love that look. It reminds me of my punk rock days, where all the emo girls would wear chokers with their heavy eye makeup and blue or black nail polish. <swoon> Don’t laugh, it was a long season of my life. It encapsulated passion, emotion, energy, angst, and a bit of rage and helped me through the ...

Rachel’s granddad passed away recently. His name was Cliff Davis, and he almost made it to the ripe old age of 91. He lived with Grandma on the second level of Rachel’s parents’ home, and I loved seeing both of them whenever we went up there to visit. I felt like I got to know Granddad Davis over the last few years better than even my own grandparents - who ...

I didn’t know if it would ever happen – me meeting someone who was everything I ever wanted. And then I did, completely out of the blue, while I was serving at a summer camp in North Carolina. Her name was Rachel. We dated for two years, tied the knot, and now five full years have gone by and I’m married with two kiddos. Geez. That happened fast. Over these ...

I recently saw this slogan on a t-shirt. It feels right, and is super inspiring. But is it a healthy mentality? Will it actually lead to the life I really want?

In my classes at the university, I sometimes give my students extra credit. Most of the time, it is specific to the subject matter I’m teaching, but occasionally I mix it up and ask them to do something that will stretch their brain and get them out of their comfort zone. For example, i've asked them to partner up with a fellow student and learn a hand-clap (or hand-jive) song. ...

Something has been weighing on my heart a lot recently, and I’m really not sure what the right answer is. Maybe there isn’t a right answer. I don’t know. A handful of my friends are very sad right now because of life circumstances. They put on a smile and they soldier on through their days, but you can see their pain behind their eyes if you look closely. And it ...

I fly on a regular basis for work, and I’ve dealt with all of the typical hassles that might face a person while on a plane. This includes turbulence, smelly people, inconsiderate seat-back-recliners, smoke in the cabin, and…kids. Kids on planes are challenging simply because they are kids and generally fidgety, but sometimes you have kids on planes who are not just challenging but who act absolutely insane. They cry ...

We just had a boy! Rachel and I are so thankful that he is healthy and beautiful and perfect in every way. We named him Ravi Gabriel. Ravi means “sun” and I believe he is called to shine God’s light and be a bright spot in the lives of everyone he meets and knows. Gabriel means “God is my strength” and I really believe he is going to need ...

Wow, the years are flying by. I remember the very first time I saw Rachel on the morning of June 2, 2013. And now we’ve known each other for almost six years and been together as husband and wife for four. I’ve written about what I have learned during my first six months, year, two years, and three years of marriage, and I encourage you to read over those. With ...

When I was growing up, oh man, did I just want to be noticed. I remember in third grade intentionally wearing braided thread bracelets just so the girl who sat next to me would think I was cool. And want to be my friend (and girlfriend!). I remember wearing my favorite band shirts around school and town - so proud of the punk or emo or indie rock group that ...