Happy Monday! A fifth grader’s comment brings us today’s word-of-the-week… PERSPECTIVE The young lady told me she loved the idea of perspective. I just spoke to her class and she was escorting me to the office. “Why is perspective so interesting to you?” She stopped and gazed right into my eyes. “Because,” she explained, “it means I […]
Continue readingI Didn’t Know
I thought I knew a lot about school. I taught in schools for thirty-five years. With all that practice, in some pretty divergent environments, I figured I knew about schools and kids. About three years ago I learned about a Christian school called Life Center Academy in New Delhi, India. Math, science, bible classes. It’s […]
Continue readingAnd
Happy Monday! The day after Easter brings us a simple word-of-the-week… AND Most of us read some version of this passage over the weekend. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell […]
Continue readingWe’re Not Trying
We’re not trying to be the biggest bike tour. We’re not trying to be the fastest bike tour. Or the most efficient. Or the most diverse. Seth Godin pointed out that you ought to be prepared to invest your heart and soul into the thing you’re trying to be. So you should know what that […]
Continue readingDo I Turn Toward The Need?
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 […]
Continue readingHow 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 […]
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