“Your experiences are an opportunity to write a great story.” I conclude many of my talks with that sentence. I think it prompts a lot of questions. What, exactly, does that mean? Write…where? A story about…what? Think of your life as a book. The major episodes and seasons are the chapters. So your life experiences, […]
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Was Your Injury A Good Thing?
“Are you better because of your injury?” It was the question of the evening at the Teen Challenge Home of Hope in Casa Grande. So finally I asked my own question. “Are you asking if I believe my injury was a good thing?” They all nodded. Since they’re in recovery, they want to believe there’s […]
Continue readingMore TagDid You Ever Cram For A Test?
You can’t cram for life. We all did it at some point. We put off studying for the exam and deluded ourselves into believing we could cram it all into an all-nighter. It doesn’t work. Learning, training, and following Jesus are long-term deals. Building character, growing communities, developing relationships, accumulating wisdom—the things that matter are […]
Continue readingMore TagWho Guides The Dream?
Dreams are pretty resilient. I think God wants us to try stuff with our dreams. He wants us to take risks, push boundaries, and face fears. Following dreams isn’t about being safe. But there’s one thing about your dream that needs to be carefully guarded. Biking time is thinking and listening time for me. I’ve […]
Continue readingMore TagThe Same Old Story
“Do you ever get tired of telling your story?” As we begin our week in Arizona, I was reminded of this great question from a group we spoke to last year. The young woman told me she was studying to be a teacher and she worried she’d become bored covering the same subject matter year […]
Continue readingMore TagSelf-Righteous
HAPPY MONDAY! A thoughtful article got me thinking about today’s word-of-the-week… SELF-RIGHTEOUS Self-righteous people are just comparing. I never thought about it like that until Don Miller pointed out that self-righteousness is really just a way of building myself up by tearing others down. It’s not about being truly righteous, only appearing to be in […]
Continue readingMore TagIs This Why We’re Obsessed With Keeping Score?
“There’s only one winner—either you win, or you’re a loser.” The guy was adamant. Life’s a competition, a battle, and there’s only room for one person at the top. If you don’t fight for that spot, you’ll get squashed. You exploit weakness, because if you don’t someone else will. I listened and tried to understand […]
Continue readingMore TagWhat’s The Next Chapter In Your Story?
I love this picture. It’s a lot more than just an old bald guy and his dog. For me, this picture signifies everything about the crazy journey I’ve taken since my injury. It’s the culmination (so far) of the story of Relentless Grace. It began in a rehab unit, wandered through more than a decade […]
Continue readingMore TagWhy Do We Make God Small?
We tend to make God small. Okay, we can’t actually make Him small, but our small group discussed how we shrink our perception of who He is and what He can accomplish. As I wonder about my habit of minimizing God I’m reminded of this unrelenting question: Do we really believe what we believe? # […]
Continue readingMore TagBeing
HAPPY MONDAY! Several converging thoughts got me thinking about today’s word-of-the-week… BEING Social justice seems to be the thing these days. Lots of folks talk about it, write about it, and give money to it. Some are even trying to actually do something about it. This newfound focus on justice ignites emotion and passion, but […]
Continue readingMore TagWhat’s So Complicated About Social Justice?
Social justice sounds simple. Feed a hungry person. Stop one episode of abuse. Rescue a slave. Prevent one kid from being bullied. Find a home for one orphan. Get a homeless person a place to live. Then rinse and repeat as often as necessary. Those things are hard, but there’s a lot of us. Sounds […]
Continue readingMore TagAre We Excluding God?
We’re systematically excluding God from our culture. Excuse me? You’ve heard the refrain. The country’s in trouble because we exclude God from the public square. Christmas loses its meaning because someone says Happy Holidays. Public schools stink because kids don’t pray. Apparently, we need to let God back into our culture. Every time I hear […]
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