We’re all so different, right? In the past four days I’ve spoken to: Folks from housing projects Kids in children’s church at a campus chapel Developmentally disabled adults Employees at a successful financial company Mentors for underprivileged inner-city kids learning character and life skills through golf Folks from an affluent suburban church Women in a […]
Continue readingMore TagMLK Day In Memphis
I’m not a museum guy, but I felt honored to visit the National Civil Rights Museum on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Being in that place on that day was truly a humbling experience. Dr. King came to Memphis in peace to try to help settle a long, contentious sanitation workers’ strike. Yesterday, people walked […]
Continue readingMore TagDreams Aren’t Free
I believe God wants us to dream and follow big, outrageous dreams. But let’s never fool ourselves. Dream-following has costs. On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered one of history’s most famous speeches. In perhaps its most recognized line, Dr. King proclaimed: I have a dream that my four little children will […]
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Happy Monday! A Sunday school class we visited this weekend got me thinking about today’s word-of-the-week… END If you’ve hung around the bible at all, you’ve heard of The Beatitudes. (Matthew 5:3-11) It’s always good to hear familiar verses phrased in new ways. The first of The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3) says: “Blessed are the poor […]
Continue readingMore TagThe Dream Center
The Dream Center in Carbondale isn’t what I expected. The building’s kind of nondescript. Inside, things are plain. The furniture’s a bit worn around the edges. It’s serviceable, but certainly not fancy. At first glance, one might feel that the concerned people need to change the furniture, maybe buy a fancy table, drawer pedestal, or […]
Continue readingMore TagThis Is A Book Tour?
I recently described the beginning of my “book tour” to a friend. Our itinerary includes a group of folks from a housing project, a school for disabled kids, and a ministry that serves homeless men. We’re going to one town where the entire population is about a third of our church. My friend said, “Uh, […]
Continue readingMore TagSpiritual Cholesterol
My friend Dick Foth has a way with phrases. Recently he described a spiritual ailment called “hardening of the categories (HTC).” Those afflicted with this disease lose the ability to see individuals. Instead, they see people only in terms of their categories. It’s like the physical disease in which hardening of the arteries narrows the […]
Continue readingMore TagHe Likes Me!
Don Miller wrote a penetrating reflection about how his faith has evolved in the past decade or so. I paused a long time over one simple heading: Jesus likes me I believe Jesus loves me. It’s in the words of the simplest children’s song. Jesus loves me This I know For the bible Tells me […]
Continue readingMore TagWhat’s The Obstacle?
Yesterday I told you about my Friday meeting with an interesting breakfast group. After the discussion, one guy approached with a simple, penetrating question. “What’s the obstacle?” I asked him to clarify. “I agree with you…God made us to dream and follow big dreams. So why don’t we do it? Why don’t I do it? […]
Continue readingMore TagDream Or Bucket List?
A great group of guys—and a couple of ladies—invited me to their breakfast group Friday morning. We enjoyed a great discussion about bike rides and God-sized dreams. I think we might have mentioned floppy-eared blog writers along the way. One fellow asked a great question that went something like this: “Can a dream be an […]
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Happy Monday! A stranger’s death prompts today’s word-of-the-week… RIGHT By nearly any definition, Aaron Swartz was a computer prodigy, a brilliant, eccentric young man. As a teenager he created some of the backbone Internet systems we take for granted and later campaigned for online transparency and freedom. You can read briefly about his life, legal […]
Continue readingMore TagStone Her!
I’ve been thinking all week about our pastor’s weekend sermon. He talked about the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. John 8:2-11 There’s so much to the story, but I can’t get past one fact: the Pharisees were willing to stone this woman—to death! Her life mattered less than their desire to […]
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