You’ve probably heard someone refer to a segment of their life as a “season”. The more I think about it, that word isn’t the best representation of what we’re actually implying. Seasons are regular and predictable. It is obvious when seasons will change, because they typically cycle back around. Maybe your life works that way; mine does not.

I think I prefer the word “chapter”. You often don’t know quite when a chapter will end until you reach the beginning of the next. Chapters aren’t predictable or recurring, and you can’t do much to affect the next chapter except by taking care to end the previous chapter well.

As one chapter comes to an end, I’m excited to share that that G and I are beginning our next chapter by relocating to Dallas, Texas at the end of November for me to join the team at Gateway Church.

As you can imagine, this is definitely a bittersweet move. We have...

We all have stuff. Things, objects, possessions. Some have much, while others have little. The size of your possession collection is usually irrelevant because over time, no matter what we own, an interesting phenomenon begins to occur between us and our things: the things we own slowly begin to own us.

You see, we have a growing collection of stuff in our home, a mobile collection of stuff in our vehicle, and even a portable collection of stuff in our bags. The idea of traveling without luggage, being on the other side of town without your car, or even forgetting your bag at home probably makes you a little stressed at just the thought. We like our things, and we like them close.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I love designer sunglasses and Nikes. I love watches and Apple products. I love Tumi luggage, and I’m certain I would absolutely love a Mercedes-Benz.

You could argue that...

Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov won his first world-championship chess match in 1985 and went on to dominate the chess world for several decades. In his book he shares this thought:

A Grandmaster makes the best moves because they are based on what he wants the board to look like ten or twenty moves in the future.

I was challenged by this idea in an essay by Mark Batterson on setting life goals. As Batterson correctly points out, so many of us spend more time planning our next vacation than we do planning our lives. It’s clearly no surprise that our lives don’t turn out like we hoped when we haven’t even put time aside to write down or think about what we might want our life to end up like in the first place.

If you can’t tell, I’m guilty of this myself, and so I started out on a journey to document and make public the goals that I have for my life. But when I started down this road I...

We all have our wild card. We keep them in our back pocket as a backup plan just in case our typical conservative plans don’t work out.

“All I have to do is build an app that takes off and then I’ll earn some real money.”

“I’ll write my book when I have more time.”

“I’m just working here till I get my big break and then I’ll be set.”

“I’ll go back to school when it makes more sense.”

We stick with the life path that has predictable cost and equally predictable return because we’re scared to play the wild card — the wild card that secretly inspires us every day — the wild card that we secretly wish we could work on full time — the wild card that we’re too nervous to play because it’s unpredictable.

The wild card helps and hurts. It inspires and yet it also keeps us insecure.

Somehow, along the way, we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s safer to keep our biggest dreams on the shelf...

I’m tired of it. I’ve heard it for weeks, and it’s more absurd each and every time.

“Notre Dame doesn’t deserve to be in the National Championship Game.”

“Sure they’re undefeated, but look at their schedule. Who have they played?”

This is some of the most childish logic I’ve ever heard from people who pay bills. This is my first time on the other side of the SEC fence, so I realize this sounds like bandwagon talk, but bear with me.

Notre Dame deserves their spot in this game just like you deserve your job by being better qualified than every single other employable person on the planet. You didn’t have to beat out every better-qualified job-seeker in the world, you only had to outshine the other candidates. Notre Dame didn’t have to be better than all of the SEC. They needed to be better than the teams on their schedule. That is the system that’s in place.

On September 22, 2012, I was introduced to a whole new world. After a lifetime of unrivaled support for LSU Tiger football, I watched the Notre Dame Fighting Irish take on the University of Michigan Wolverines on an electric night at Notre Dame Stadium. I loved it, and I wasn’t sure why.

Between the ages of 2 and 5 my family lived less than 1000 feet from LSU’s Tiger Stadium and Alex Box Stadium. That meant more trips with mom and dad to baseball and football games than the average kid was afforded. The part of this story that matters is the fact that, aside from a few players who went on to have a substantial professional career, I’d have a hard time naming any of the players I watched during those years.

It’s fairly obvious that I wasn’t there for the specific players (most kids aren’t), or even necessarily the teams. I was there for the experience! Being at the stadium with my...

While shopping around for the perfect pair of Wayfarers recently, I noticed a few pairs marked with the label “New Wayfarer”, ever so subtly. I like to make informed purchases, so I decided to try to determine the difference between the Wayfarers I was initially shopping for and these New Wayfarers. Because obviously, new is better.

Here’s what I found, straight from the horses mouth:

Ray-Ban New Wayfarer sunglasses are a slightly smaller interpretation on the most famous style in sunwear. The iconic Ray-Ban Wayfarer is immediately recognizable anywhere in the world. The Ray-Ban signature logo is displayed on both sculpted temples. The New Wayfarer flaunts a softer eye shape than the original and offers both classic and fashion bright color options. These sunglasses allow the wearer to enjoy a classic, celebrated style while adding their own individuality.

Ray Ban had a classic style...

It’s the ultimate accessory. We don’t leave home without it, and yet, somehow, very few of us really pay much attention to it. Like a watch with a dead battery that still gets worn because it’s in style, we waltz through life with an identity that seldom gets paid any direct attention. We wear our identity with pride, typically without much real regard as to how it’s formed.

Visit any major city in the world and you won’t have to search long before you find a bar or pub where displaced LSU alumni gather on Saturday nights every fall to crowd around a television and cheer on their fighting tigers. Is it because each of them has a fond memory of the grades the earned while at LSU? Doubtful. Perhaps it’s because they are all actively donating money to the alumni association and want to see a good investment? Again, unlikely. No, these crazy tiger fans gather together because they find...

Gifted. Talented. Ahead of the curve. Over-achiever. Genius. I’ve grown up hearing these words used in reference to me, and it’s time to set the record straight.

I was homeschooled. My mom, a former special education teacher, was often required to design a custom curriculum for her students. Needless to say, I was privileged to a learning experience that was crafted around my learning style. Thankfully, I embraced it.

I started school younger than most, completed 1st and 2nd grade in one school year, skipped most typical 8th grade courses, and by the time I was 16 years old I was wrapping up high school and diving into college correspondence work. My first few weeks as a full-time LSU student began with me getting dropped off by my mother at school.

The easy answer is that I simply had a good education, but it’s not the complete answer. The truth of the matter is that my greatest...