What should you do with an impossible dream? Last week I spoke to about six hundred middle school kids—at an all-school assembly at the end of the day on Friday. Not sure if that’s brave or crazy. The kids were great. I encouraged them to dream big dreams and believe they can accomplish remarkable things. They listened […]
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The Altar Of Emotions
“You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them…” [Exodus 20:3-5a] What do I worship? That question’s been gnawing at […]
Continue readingMore TagHere, There, And Stuff That Matters
Does it really matter? I ask myself that question a lot. What’s “it”? Whatever I’m doing that’s consuming my time and attention. I’m all in favor of relaxing and having fun, but I want my life to be about stuff that matters. So—how do I decide? How do I know if “it” really matters? Last […]
Continue readingMore TagWhat’s The Value Of Stuff That Matters?
How do you decide what really matters? How do you balance what’s fun, interesting, or rewarding with what matters? I know about the platitudes—what matters to me is what matters to God. That’s true enough, I suppose, but it doesn’t always help me know if what I’m doing right now is work that’s worthy of […]
Continue readingMore TagGasoline, Money, And Stuff That Matters
Do you have a good working definition of “what matters” to you? I like to think and write in terms of metaphors and analogies. I heard a comparison a while back that helped me think about money in my own hierarchy of what really matters. In life’s journey, money is like gasoline for a car. You have […]
Continue readingMore TagWhat Did You Learn?
What did you learn? The big event’s over, the project’s complete, the crisis has subsided—now what? My “teacher mentality” trained me to move on to whatever’s next. Get ready for the next class, the next lesson, the next unit. It just keeps coming, and there’s little time to reflect. It’s a huge lost opportunity. It’s […]
Continue readingMore TagJust Walk It Off
Okay, we all know life’s not fair, right? Like it or not, we encounter circumstances in which justice simply doesn’t prevail. The bad guy gets the girl and the good guy loses his fortune. It’s reality—no sense complaining about it. I’ve mostly let go of the silly habit of lamenting life’s injustices, but once in […]
Continue readingMore TagOne Problem With A Weekend Retreat
One problem with a weekend retreat in the mountains is … it ends. At some point you have to pack up your stuff, climb into the car, and head back to the real world. The challenge is to bring something back, to make sure the sense of renewal doesn’t fade before the garage door opens at home. […]
Continue readingMore TagHow To Discover Gratitude
Can I be grateful without realizing it? Without expressing it? Last time I talked about maintaining an attitude of abundance (How To Relate In Abundance). Since I usually associate abundance with gratitude, I started wondering if I’m truly grateful. I haven’t said I’m grateful much lately, which got me wondering whether gratitude has to be […]
Continue readingMore TagHills Worth Fighting For
Do you believe absolute truth exists? I do. I believe some notions are set-in-stone, no-exceptions-allowed, no-question-about-it, all-time-and-forever true. I also believe most ideas don’t qualify for that status. I’ve written about this before (Left, Right, Or Something Else?) but it’s one of those topics that keeps poking at me. Apparently I still have more to […]
Continue readingMore TagIt’s Just What You Do For Family
Do you ever wonder if you’re missing incredible stuff that’s right in front of you? I see some of the coolest things on the bike path. Maybe it’s because I’m moving slowly, but I encounter brand new insights on routes I’ve traveled dozens of times. Recently I approached a group of cyclists, looked like mom […]
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Jon Swanson at 300 Words A Day wrote an interesting article titled What Counts As Church? It’s worth checking out—some of the comments are pretty good also. Jon basically tried to explain the essence of church once you strip away the unnecessary accessories that somehow become “church” in our minds. It’s a great reminder that, […]
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