1152 pages! That’s what it took.

My mom made a deal with me, if I read the book Shogun she would stop pestering me about reading. She disliked how I would rather watch mind-numbing television and play Atari video games than read, so she challenged me, “Read one book and I’ll stop.” I took the challenge, and 1152 pages has now turned to 32 years of obsession and a love affair with the written word.

I desperately want other people to take the challenge as well. Just try it! Pick up a book and read, your life will never be the same.

That is also why I have taken to writing. I want to reach those who were once like me, those who would get hives just from thinking about picking up a book. I dare you, take the challenge my mom first gave me, “One good book, that is all it takes to change a life.”

My writing is not meant to impress, but to plead with human beings to “think again.” We are slowly losing the ability to follow a simple argument and the linear logic of your average conversation has been replaced with short sound bites, texting and emojis. Humanity is slowly trading nobility for the drab banality that only visual entertainment and social media can offer.

Why should a reader even want to read my writing? Because I was once just like you.

I have been a bartender, rugby player, salesman in the Chicago loop, and now for the last 25 years, I have been pastoring a rural church amidst the apple orchards of West Michigan farmland. I have lived in Russia for a year, teaching the Bible to public school teachers, was a guest lecturer in conferences in Poland, Bulgaria, and Portugal, and have even climbed the mountains of the Wind River Range in Wyoming with both of my sons (almost freezing to death twice).

My wife and I now spend every Monday visiting local coffee shops while reading our favorite books and talking about life.

More than anything, I want you to know, I love my God. So, take the challenge, pick up a book, and read!