I’ve been thinking about compassion. I’m thinking about it because we live in a world filled with passion. We can summon passion for all sorts of ideas, causes, and groups. Over at Rich’s Ride yesterday I wrote: Passion might boil over into hatred and a demand for vengeance, or passion might lead to a decision to love and seek justice. I […]
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How Passion Seeks Justice
“Where did you get your passion for this cause?” Great question. Like a lot of mission commitments, our involvement with the kids at the HOME OF HOPE has a back story that starts with a tug on the heart strings. In 2012 Becky and I did a bike tour from Cincinnati to Washington DC to […]
Continue readingFeeling
Happy Monday! A conversation from a long time ago prompts today’s word-of-the-week… FEELING “Love isn’t a feeling.” My friend looked at me like I’d just landed from Mars. “Of course love is a feeling. When you fall in love, it’s the greatest feeling in the world!” “And then you fall out of love and it’s the most […]
Continue readingHope With My Fingers Crossed?
I heard someone speak about hope as an invitation to disappointment. “I’m hoping for something to happen when I know the odds are stacked against it. So when I say I hope it goes well, I really mean I’m worried it won’t.” We’ve all hoped that sort of hope. I hope my friend recovers from cancer. […]
Continue readingFear the Giant Snake!
What’s more fearsome, more freeze-you-in-your-tracks terrifying, than a giant, nasty-looking snake? My friend Woody stops and makes friends with snakes, but just about everyone else I know would stop if they saw a big, mean-looking snake in the road. Chris Guillebeau shared a cool story last week. I’ll edit a bit. One day as he followed his […]
Continue readingThe World’s Most Influential Story
Is the story you tell yourself. It’s influential because, after all, it’s right. You know it’s right, because you invented it. You’re the storyteller. You’re the main character in your own story. So you can give your character a big pile of unforgivable guilt and shame to haul around. You can make her too young, […]
Continue readingKnow
Happy Monday! The current political “discussion” inspires today’s word-of-the-week… KNOW Some folks seem to know just about everything. The wisest people I know, the ones I trust the most, seem to be full of doubt. Where others see black-and-white, they see all sorts of nuance and shades of gray. They’re more likely to ask tough questions […]
Continue readingOrder In The Court!
“Don’t judge.” Jesus said that, and I suspect He was serious. I’m supposed to do my best to not judge other people. God’s the judge. I’m not. When I judge someone, I try to become God. Pretty serious stuff, right? For Lent this year I decided to take the notion of judging seriously. I’m not […]
Continue readingIs It Time to Leap?
Happy Leap Year! Usually I’m all about training and continuous, incremental improvement. Keep riding, running, walking, talking to God, day by day, and over the long term big changes happen. Yesterday, on Leap Day, I looked back at my life and noticed a few points at which the move from Point A to Point B required […]
Continue readingResponsible
Happy Monday! A friend’s advice brings us today’s word-of-the-week… RESPONSIBLE “You can’t be responsible for someone else.” My friend’s right. You and I can’t be responsible for self-destructive choices made by others, though some people will try to manipulate us into that unhealthy position. There’s a line, I think, between caring about someone and taking responsibility. If […]
Continue readingWhen It’s Worth The Risk
Stepping out in faith is risky. “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Trusting God to commit to the climb without knowing where it leads–that’s a risk. Actually climbing the staircase probably isn’t that hard. On the other hand, a well-marked, well-planned climb to the […]
Continue readingWhy It’s Never That Simple
“My life is over.” When doctors told me the reality of my injury–spinal cord damage and paralysis–I absolutely knew my life was over. I couldn’t walk, run, ride a bike, or do any of the things thirty-six-year-old men were supposed to do. I’d lost everything, and my life was over. It’s easy to understand my immediate […]
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