A New Teacher

Eric and his daughter Emily

I shout out about my brother frequently. His band, Maida Vale, makes great music. I'm proud of him but apart and aside from all that, he makes great music, and I appreciate great music.

I've always been proud of the work he does through his local church as well. E3 is a thriving community of believers in Tallahassee. They live out their faith in the community in very tangible ways, make excellent coffee and celebrate together on the weekends. It's one of the most authentic churches I've experienced, filled with real people on real faith journeys.  Eric is on staff there as a pastor, with his primary role being music and worship, but more and more frequently as a teaching pastor.

I watch and listen, support and encourage. We're family; we've got each others' backs. That's what we do. It goes without saying and it's absolute unchangeable: I think he's awesome. He thinks I'm awesome. We both think the others' respective spouses and kids are awesome. We're each others' biggest cheerleader and best sounding board.

But something curious happened today; while I cleaned the bathroom, I listened to Eric's most recent teaching at E3, a message that dug into the Lord's Prayer. I've been in church for years; how many messages have I heard on this topic? Too many.

But.

Yeah, he's my brother, so I'm going to tell you he's great every time, because I always believe. But this time, it's different. He blew by his status as my brother and became my teacher. In 30 minutes, he schooled me with gentleness and grace and a powerful interpretation of scripture and fatherhood and prayer. So just like I recommend music and books and other various and sundry things, I am strongly encouraging you to take a half hour of your life and listen to this message.

You'll get something good, and I might even wager you'll pray differently from this day forward.