Grace, Grit & Grounds

There are seasons when life doesn't follow the plans we carefully made. In this episode of Grace, Grit, and Grounds, I'm back at the lathe with a simple cedar bowl and no real plan except to enjoy the process. What began as an ordinary turning revealed hidden beauty, unexpected imperfections, and a completely different shape than I originally imagined. Along the way, we talk about change, grief, a...

Some episodes teach you how to turn wood. Others quietly remind you how God shapes a life. This is one of those episodes. What started as an ordinary Saturday became an unexpected journey. With my family out of town, a quiet house, an unfinished sermon, friends carrying heavy burdens, and a restless heart, I found myself taking what I call a "walkabout." That simple trip led me to a piece of coffe...

There are some projects we look forward to. And then there are the ones we dread before we ever begin. In this episode of Grace, Grit, and Grounds, I'm back at the lathe working a simple piece of red oak into a low-profile platter. Red oak and I have a history. It's hard, stubborn, and never gives up its beauty easily. As I worked through the turn, I was reminded of a lesson that reaches far beyon...

What do you do with unfinished things? This week in the woodshop, I mounted what I thought was an ordinary piece of cedar onto the lathe, only to discover it was an old, weathered piece of black walnut. The wood was cracked, oddly shaped, and far from perfect. What began as a simple project to ease back into turning after breaking my finger quickly became a lesson in patience, expectations, and gr...

What started as a simple Friday afternoon project turned into a lesson I won't soon forget. In this episode of Grace, Grit, and Grounds, I return to one of my favorite woods: cedar. There's something special about cedar. The aroma, the vibrant colors hidden beneath the surface, and the way ordinary-looking wood can reveal extraordinary beauty with just a few passes of a gouge. After a long week, I...

In a world that constantly pushes us to do more, achieve more, and produce more, we've quietly forgotten something important: how to delight in simple things. In this episode of Grace, Grit, and Grounds, I step into the shop with a beautiful piece of walnut and a very simple goal. No complicated design. No ambitious challenge. Just a plate. As the walnut begins to take shape on the lathe, its rich...

Woodworking. Friendship. Faith. A cedar bowl, a hickory tabletop, and a conversation about the people God places in our lives. What if the friendships that have shaped your life were never accidents? In this episode of Grace, Grit, and Grounds: Grounded Theology for Life, a day in the woodshop becomes a reflection on one of God's greatest gifts: friendship. What begins with finishing a hickory tab...

In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, we step into the shop with a simple piece of cedar and a simple plan… and discover again that life rarely asks our permission before changing the script. What started as a small cedar bowl became a lesson in control, humility, adaptation, and learning how to hold things with open hands. Along the way, we talk woodworking, faith, planning for the future...

There’s something about cedar that keeps calling me back. In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, I head into the shop with a pile of cedar logs, a chainsaw, and a determination to finally figure out why this beautiful wood keeps exploding off my lathe. What starts as a woodworking project turns into a deeper conversation about perseverance, failure, craftsmanship, purpose, and the quiet det...

Sometimes the shop isn’t about finishing a project. Sometimes it’s just about showing up. In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, there’s no bowl turning, no polished tutorial, and no pretending to be a master craftsman. Just a real day in the shop. Rolling tools out into the sun, sanding a massive hickory slab filled with cracks and epoxy, fighting with a stubborn lamp project made from a p...

Sometimes the best days are the quiet ones. In this episode of Grace, Grit, and Grounds, I turn a simple curly maple bowl with a cauldron-style shape and reflect on slowing down, finding peace in ordinary work, and learning to embrace a better pace in life. No dramatic catches. No massive failures. Just coffee, wood shavings, sharp tools, and a reminder that not every meaningful moment has to be l...

Sometimes the most important work happens before the turning ever begins. In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, we spend time in the quiet preparation stages of the shop. Filling cracks with epoxy, working through damaged wood, cutting curly maple blanks, and reflecting on the seasons of life where God slows us down to repair, strengthen, and prepare us for what comes next. Not every seaso...

There are moments when life gets quiet… and the question shows up. What if? What if I had chosen differently? What if I had taken the chance? What if I could turn back time? In this episode of Grace, Grit, and Grounds, I take a beautiful piece of walnut with a striking line of sapwood and turn it into a wide, shallow blessing bowl. Along the way, we step into something deeper than woodturning. We...

Some mornings, before the world gets loud, God gives us a quiet reminder that we’re still capable of building something good. In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, I step into the shop early with a simple goal: start the day with a win. After a few failed projects and frustrating setbacks, I needed the grounding that comes from good wood, steady hands, and a little morning mercy. Working w...

Some men spend their whole lives believing they are defined by their worst moment. Genesis tells a different story. Before the fall, before the curse, before the sweat and struggle, Adam was given purpose. He was placed in the garden to tend it and to keep it, to build, protect, cultivate, and carry responsibility. Work was never a punishment. It was part of the design. In this episode of Grace, G...

Some things don’t break all at once… they fade. This piece of spalted wood was already on its way out. Left alone long enough, it would’ve softened, crumbled, and eventually turned to dust. That’s what spalting is… the slow process of decay. But in the right hands… something different happens. In this episode, I take a heavily spalted blank and turn it into a finished bowl, walking through the pro...

Some projects don’t fail at the end… they reveal what was wrong from the beginning. In this episode, I take a mix of scrap hardwoods and epoxy resin and try to turn it into something meaningful. What started as an experimental build with purpleheart, curly maple, red oak, and walnut quickly turned into one of the most frustrating pieces I’ve worked on in a while. The shape came together. The visio...

Some pieces don’t look like much at first. In this episode, I take a discarded board from an Indiana sawmill… something headed for the chip pile… and turn it into a simple plate. But the real story isn’t just in the wood. It’s in the preparation behind it. Long before this piece ever touched the lathe, it was growing. Season after season. Quiet, unseen work shaping something that would one day be...

Some cracks don’t show up until you start applying pressure. In this episode, I take a large piece of walnut and begin shaping what I thought would be a simple bowl… only to discover a significant crack along the rim. Instead of pushing through and risking the entire piece, I step back, repair it, and let it sit. What started as a setback turned into something deeper. As the turning continues acro...

Some pieces fight you from the very beginning. In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, I finally take on a piece of wenge wood I’ve been avoiding for years. Picked up from a specialty lumber shop in Alaska and carried through multiple moves, this dark, dense, and unforgiving wood turns into one of the toughest projects I’ve worked on. Wenge isn’t easy. It resists. It catches. It demands pati...

Some of you aren’t lost… you’re just tired. In this episode, I take a rough walnut offcut and turn it into a shallow bowl, but the work on the lathe isn’t the only thing happening here. This one is honest. It’s about that quiet kind of burnout a lot of men carry… still showing up, still doing what needs to be done, but feeling the weight of it. We live in a world that pushes us to move faster, do...

Today isn’t just another Good Friday. If the historical timeline holds, April 3rd aligns with the very day Jesus was crucified nearly 2,000 years ago. The same date. The same kind of Friday. A rare moment where the calendar circles back and reminds us… this actually happened. But the power of the cross isn’t found in the date. It’s found in what took place on it. This was the moment everything poi...

There’s a kind of weight most men carry that doesn’t get talked about much. It’s not loud. It’s not dramatic. It’s just… there. In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, I step into the shop to make a simple walnut bowl for a friend. But somewhere between the first cut and the final pass, this project turned into something more. This is a reflection on loss… on fatherhood… on the quiet questio...

There’s something different about white oak. It’s strong. Dense. It doesn’t give easily. And honestly… neither do we. In this episode of Grace, Grit & Grounds, I take two glued blocks of white oak and turn them into a cup, shaping both the outside and the inside. What begins as a rough, stubborn piece becomes something meant to hold life. But the real story isn’t just in the wood. It’s in the...

Spring in Northern Kentucky doesn’t give many guarantees. When the sun shows up, you take it seriously… because the storm is probably right behind it. After a heavy Sunday service centered on Zechariah 4:6 — “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord” — I found myself outside in the driveway, turning one last piece of Indiana walnut before rain and wind rolled in. This blank came...