Evangelical Malaise – When Christian Culture Doesn’t Sit Right
When I truly dug into the Bible and the life of Jesus for myself, what I found often didn't align with what I'd been taught by Evangelical culture. [...]
Archive
Gifts of Gratitude – What Thanksgiving Really Means
We've turned the giving of thanks into a courtesy. We rarely give thanks anymore. We say "thank you" as readily as we say "please". But this isn't giving thanks; it's just saying thanks. [...]
Truth in Love at a Candlelight Service
Like so many believers around the world, we have an annual Christmas tradition of attending a candlelight service. You know the scene: singing lots of Christmas music, [...]
My Joseph Journey – Introduction
A Christian in Prison It’s a new year, so let’s start things out with a bang. I’m a felon. Yeah, that’s right. I committed a crime. And got caught. I [...]
Antlers Only
It’s only fair. I’ve added a bit of #irreverentholidays flair to our Christmas Eve traditions with having my wife get all dressed up, so on Christmas night, [...]
Beautiful Bacon
I'm so thankful for the freedom to eat bacon that comes with this Christianity thing. I won't say that it was the deciding factor when choosing between the big three monotheistic religions, but it certainly didn't hurt the case. [...]
Mother Nature Hates Me
Basically, that. Yeah… I wish there was a way to explain the feeling to somebody that doesn’t deal with it. The best I’ve come up with is that everything on [...]
A New Year, a New Season
The past few months have seen a lot of shifts in the Osgood home. Some good, some bad. It’s caused me to reflect a bit more than normal, and reprioritize some things in [...]
Video Games
There was a time not too long ago when parents first bought video game systems for their families as a whole. Boxes and marketing materials portrayed smiling families [...]
A Daring Truth – the False Start of our First Mobile App
Here at theUMB, we strive for transparency. Sometimes, that takes the form of letting our readers catch a glimpse of our experiences or relaying some facet of our deeply [...]
Pajamas with Feet
When my son was still little, he wore these big, all-covering affairs. It was one huge piece that had long sleeves, long pants, and feet. Yes, pajamas with the feet. I was imagining something similar in my wife's size, with some minor tweaks. [...]
The Sacred Toothbrush
The toothbrush is often iconic in the secular world's relationships: when a boyfriend or girlfriend begins leaving a toothbrush at their partner's place, it indicates a new step in the relationship. A new level of intimacy. My wife and I had something similar, actually, though it wasn't a precursor to us moving in together. [...]
Strong Emotion on Lotion
Most of my life, I have stood firmly — even violently — against lotion. Not on lotion as an idea: "I don't believe in lotion." But rather, I resisted any opportunity for it to make contact with my person. This applied to moisturizer, sunscreen, and even oils or other topical applications that left a residual texture, fragrance, or generally clammy feeling. [...]
A Song about Gnomes
It's been at least a couple years since I last thought of the underpants gnomes who sang this song, and it's easily been several years since I saw the episode. Yet this morning, it popped back into the limelight. [...]
Game Day Jersey
That loving, supportive wife of mine gets in the spirit, wearing a Packers jersey and — assuming the house isn't full of strangers — little else. It's a fun thing to look forward to, even if we miss the game itself. [...]
Waterguns
Nowadays, water guns come in all shapes and sizes, from the cheap handheld ordeals that empty in minutes and break after a couple refills to the heavy duty Super Soakers with sights and incredible ranges. Well, this row of lusty boxes contained something like a Super Soaker on steroids. [...]
Belly Dancing and OCD
I have a thing for bellies, and I make no secret of that. Maybe it's not a full-grown fetish, but it's notably influential. It may come as a surprise, then, that the art of traditional belly dancing doesn't "do it" for me. [...]
A Harmless Post
Many Christians tend to really not like the idea of tackling sexual issues frankly. But let no one say this website lacks something for everyone. Here's a handful of videos everyone can agree on. Who doesn't like cute little dwarf bunnies? [...]