Faith on the "fly"

​There is a reason poets, theologians, and thinkers have long been drawn to moving water. On the surface, fly fishing is a pursuit of trout—a careful, technical dance involving artificial flies, weighted lines, and subtle currents. But anyone who has spent a morning waist-deep in a cold mountain stream knows it rarely stops there.

​Fly fishing, much like a journey of faith, is less about immediate rewards and far more about how we show up to the river.

​1. The Art of Unseen Hope

​In spin fishing, you often cast a heavy lure with an active, visible retrieval. Fly fishing asks for something far more delicate. You present a pattern made of thread and feathers—often microscopic—and place it where you believe a fish might be resting beneath the foam.

​You cannot see the trout. You cannot force them to rise. You simply cast with intention, drift with grace, and wait.

​Faith operates in this exact space. It is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." It requires us to lay down our need for instant, tangible proof and instead trust the quiet, unseen life moving beneath the surface of our circumstances.

​2. Mending the Line

​In fly fishing, one of the first critical skills you learn is "mending"—lifting and repositioning your line on top of the water without disturbing the fly. If you don't mend, the varying speeds of the river's currents create drag, pulling your fly unnaturally across the water. The trout will ignore it every time.

​Our lives are filled with competing currents: busyness, noise, anxiety, and distraction. Without intentional effort, these forces pull us out of alignment.

​Mending is the spiritual discipline of repositioning. It is taking a breath, returning to prayer or silence, and adjusting our drift so we can live genuinely in the present moment rather than being swept away by the surface noise of the world.

​3. Grace Over Control

​You can buy the finest graphite rod, tie the most accurate fly, and read every chart on aquatic insects—and still go home skunked. The river does not yield to hubris. It demands humility, patience, and submission to forces far greater than yourself.

​When a trout finally rises to take the fly, it never feels like a victory of dominance; it feels like a gift. Fly fishing reminds us that the best things in life—peace, connection, grace, and faith—cannot be manufactured or forced. They are received.

​Returning to the Bank

​We don't go to the river merely to catch fish, just as we don't practice faith merely to get answers. We step into the water to remember who we are, to slow down our breathing, and to participate in a creation that is constantly speaking to those willing to listen.

​Next time you step into the current or tie on a fly, consider the drift. Yield to the water, mend your line, and keep faith in what lies beneath.

The River

Where the cold water flows and boulders reach to the heavens. Where trout dart from rock to midge to riffle to pool. Where the world slows to a stop and my mind is clear. Where my faith is renewed and my soul finds rest. Where the trail ends and the people dont dare go that far. Where my heart finds peace and my spirit is at ease. Where with simple rod and fly in hand, my feet deep in the pool, I am one with the river. Find all these things and you'll find me.

Come and Die?

I grew up singing a bluegrass hymn "come and dine". The song speaks of the incredible pleasure of feasting at Jesus' table all the time, an absolutely beautiful picture of the love of God. To this day I love this song. However, over the last decade I've come to the realization that before we can truly find joy in the table spread before us we have to come to the grave. Specifically our own grave. The grave where we place our idols, our selfish desires, our wants. The grave where even our best intentions are laid to rest. Here's the thing, even when we know intellectually the right answers, if we come to the table before us with anything other than complete reliance on God, we will without fail try to make the dinner about us. We will think the dinner is about us and the empire we've created rather than the Kingdom of the one who invited us. The last decade has been about death for me, literal death of mom and dad, my dreams and desires, death to selfishness, death to empire building, death to my inflated ego and sense of self, death to the pulpit and platform, I could go on and on. What I've discovered through this season of death is simple, the food at the table is so much sweeter, more savory, and most importantly, more filling now that the old me has died. Come and dine? Absolutely! Come and die? Definetly. Come to the table empty and leave full.

Hi

It has been 13 years since my last post. Wow! A lot has changed in my world, not sure how to encapsulate 13 years into one post, maybe I shouldn't do that. Quick update, there are 5 of us now, Levi was born a year after my last post, Gabriel is off to college playing soccer, Mia is a senior and passionately following her music career. Katie is doing well, and I am figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. We are back in California! God allowed for us to make the move this year, and by his grace we made it! I want to write an anthem of what life has looked like for the last 13 years, but for now I'll just say hi, I'm back, and maybe I'll start writing a little more. who knows!

Ramblings on Grace and God

So I struggle with the reality of grace even though I've experienced it and know it to be true. I don't deserve it and I rarely give it, but every time I fail, grace is there. As I grow older I see grace clearer, I still don't understand it, but I see it.

I wrestle with the reality of a God that doesn't beat the sh*t out of me when I fall, but he doesn't. He simply says, I love you, here's my hand, get up when you're ready. He doesn't force me to get up, I'm welcome to wallow in my failure as long as I want, he's there, with one hand on my shoulder, and the other ready to wipe my tears away and pick me up. But I'm selfish and I try to get up on my on, and his grace lets me try, he remains steady, waiting on my cry. We go back and forth, round after round, and he never changes. I don't get it, he should hate me by now, but his hand is there, waiting on my cry.

Grace really pisses me off sometimes, I don't deserve his love and yet he freaking loves me. I want faith to be black and white, right and wrong, he just wants to give me faith.

I'm selfish too, I take his grace, but I don't always give grace. Especially to people who don't look, smell, act, believe, and THINK like I do. But when I look at their life, his grace is there too. I don't get it, but I'm so thankful for it.

Observations of a city

You love this city and yet it sleeps
You love these people and yet they turn their eyes
Your heart longs for them to be united with you and yet their hearts are hard
Your song over them is to protect and save
Their song to you is where are you, who are you
You reach out and your hands seem broken for we are your hands and we don’t reach
You go to them and yet your feet don’t move because we are your feet
You love them and yet we don’t love

AWAKEN YOUR BODY!!!
RESTORE YOUR PEOPLE!!!!
AWAKEN THIS CITY!
BREAK OUR HEARTS!

Tear away the things that keep us from you.
Tear down these things we call your church and build the church promised in your Word

Your love is ever reaching
Your heart is ever loving
Your hands are ever healing
Your feet are ever going
Your mind is ever teaching
Your Blood covers all our sin
Your Life teaches abundance
Your Death teaches us obedience
Your resurrection teaches us your divinity
Your return teaches us promise
You are forgiveness

AWAKEN YOUR BODY
RESTORE YOUR PEOPLE!!!!
AWAKEN THIS CITY!
BREAK OUR HEARTS!

You alone are the answer for our city
You alone hold the key to our future

This is your city, we are your people
This is your kingdom, we are your servants
This is your city, we are forgiven
This is your kingdom, we are YOURS

You have called us friend and now we call you Master

Today's Joy

The beauty of today is that every moment has purpose. Moment by moment Jesus abides in us, thus when we abide in Him every moment has purpose. The perfect Christian life is you now as a believer, you have all the Jesus you'll ever need right now. Rest in that! Today choose to love others in Jesus, it will change your entire outlook on the day ahead.

Check out www.abideinternational.org