Has the gospel changed you—how? I love my small group. We get into amazing, deep, authentic discussions. We ask questions to which there aren’t necessarily any right answers, and it’s okay. I think we’re blessed to spend time together each week. Last night we encountered this question: How has the gospel changed you? However, there […]
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Success And Fear Of Failure
Do you enjoy the feeling of success? Earlier this week, the University of Connecticut won the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. Maybe you’re a fan, maybe not. But if you’re a college basketball coach, this is as good as it gets. At age 68, Jim Calhoun is the oldest coach to ever win the championship. […]
Continue readingGod Is Not A Story Problem
This is a follow-up to Friday’s article (Crushing Creativity And Curiosity At Church). How do you “learn” about God? Remember “story problems” in math class? Story problems were supposed to show that you could “apply” what you “learned.” You had to determine the key words and produce the right answer to an inane question. Story […]
Continue readingDiffering Versions Of Wisdom
What would you do if you thought you were doing something well and an expert said you were totally wrong? I’m sort of chuckling as I write this. I want to open up an important issue wrapped in somewhat trivial circumstances. Apparently I’m doing this blogging thing all wrong. I read a lot of advice about effective […]
Continue readingDirty Hands – Clean Hearts
How can you guard your heart without living behind barriers? Two of this week’s articles create a bit of tension. I believe we’re called to engage with our community, so I don’t want to create a protective bubble in which I only interact with people and ideas that never challenge me. I don’t think it’s […]
Continue readingA Reluctant Optimist’s Code
Is faith optimistic or pessimistic? I’ve admitted that optimism isn’t my default approach to most situations. Relentless Grace certainly tells of a tug of war between intellectual faith and gut-level despair. As I said in Tuesday’s post, I naturally default to a feeling that The Half Empty Glass Is Leaking. Jesus’ teaching tells me something different. Many […]
Continue readingThe Half Empty Glass Is Leaking
Do you consider yourself an optimist? Why (or why not)? I’m doing a talk this week for an Optimist Club, so I’m thinking about optimism. I did a little research to find out what optimism is, where it originates, why some folks have it and some don’t. Frankly, for much of my life I was […]
Continue readingGames, Rules, And Life
What’s the right thing to do? I suspect we’ve all asked ourselves that question—many times. Life has a way of dropping non-black-and-white problems in my lap, and for some reason I seem to have misplaced the directions. Last week I talked a little about using games as a metaphor for life (Right Or Not Right?). […]
Continue readingRight Or Not Right?
Do you ever struggle to know what’s right? (I see you nodding.) This video made the rounds on the Internet this week. If you haven’t seen it, take twenty-seven seconds to watch. (If you can’t see the video, click here.) If you’re not a football fan, the kid figured out a way to trick the […]
Continue readingClanging Cymbals
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [1 Corinthians 13:1] Picture a band comprised entirely of first graders. Now imagine that they’re all equipped with cymbals and gongs. All different shapes and sizes of cymbals, all sorts […]
Continue readingCan Real Men Do Gentle?
Here’s this week’s contribution to the One-Word-At-A-Time Blog Carnival. I encourage you to click the link and check out some of the other carnival attractions. As we work our way through the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5), this week’s word is: GENTLENESS What do you think? Can real men do gentle? For most of my life, […]
Continue readingLeading Or Herding?
We must become the change we wish to see in the world. Ghandi What’s required to change the world? Let’s think big, beyond small-time issues like economy and war. What do you think it would take to really change the world?
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