Category: Word of the Week

Happy Monday! A simple question prompts today’s word-of-the-week…  NEED “How do you know the people you help really need it?” I’ll bet everyone who works with any sort of compassion or humanitarian effort has heard that question. It’s valid. People scam the system, look for a free ride. No question about it. If you become […]

Happy Monday! The nearby wildfire got me thinking about today’s word-of-the-week… EFFICIENT Firefighting brings a strange mixture of efficient and inefficient. Huge tanker planes drop chemical retardant, strategically creating barriers and lines designed to constrain the fire. One plane does work that couldn’t be accomplished by dozens of ground crews. It’s an efficient, big-picture way […]

Happy Monday! This weekend brought a wonderful example of today’s word-of-the-week… GENEROSITY Becky and I met a man named Garrett Saturday morning. He heard from a friend about RICH’S RIDE and wanted to know more about the story behind the dream. We spent less than an hour talking about our trip along the Mississippi River, […]

Happy Memorial Day! The holiday inspires today’s word-of-the-week… REMEMBER Today’s a day for remembering. I recently heard a surprising factoid. Twenty-seven of thirty major league baseball teams play in stadiums built (or substantially remodeled) since 1988. Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field (about 100 years old) are ancient. My brother Jim recently moved to […]

Happy Monday! Sorry for a really bad pun, but perhaps you’ll be enlightened by today’s word-of-the-week… LAMP What’s the purpose of a lamp? “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it […]

Happy Monday! It’s a special season for many students, which prompts today’s word-of-the-week… COMMENCEMENT I love receiving graduation announcements from former students. Each fancy envelope contains proclamations of proud accomplishment and brings back memories of a fresh face entering my classroom filled with possibility. I love the opportunity to remember successes and struggles and to […]

Happy Monday! Last week’s events (I Love A Happy Ending) prompt today’s word-of-the-week… RESTORE Restore: return to a former place or condition. I wrote a while back about The God Of “Re” and all the “re-” words associated with God. There’s a long list of God-related words with the common “re” prefix. “Re” means again […]

Happy Monday! I’ve been thinking for a few days about today’s word-of-the-week… Service Last week I attended a dinner at which our church sent five families into full-time ministry. These were young families with small children. A couple of parents held babies as they spoke. They’re going to places like Guatemala, Mozambique, and Pakistan. Those […]

Happy Monday! A wonderfully relaxing weekend leads to today’s word-of-the-week… PERFECT I spent the past few days speaking at a retreat in Moab, Utah. It was a perfect weekend. I’m thinking about “perfect” because of a particular scripture passage: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. (Matthew 5:48) That seems a bit unrealistic. […]

Happy Monday! Research for my summer bike ride reveals a difficult word-of-the-week… SLAVE I think of slavery as a historical horror that ended with the U.S. civil war. Sadly, I’m wrong. Around the globe more than 27 million human beings are slaves. How can that be? Today. In 2012. Slaves? Everything in my brain screams […]

Happy Monday! The Easter story reminded me of today’s word-of-the-week… REGRET Yesterday’s story of the first Easter morning prompted me to wonder how I would’ve felt if I’d been part of Jesus’ circle of followers. I missed the entire message. Jesus told me—in person—exactly what was going to happen. I listened, but obviously failed to […]

Happy Monday! A bible story and a television commercial got me thinking about today’s word-of-the-week… CATEGORIES In a commercial for a soft drink, people appear on a street wearing t-shirts proclaiming their identity. I’m a dreamer. I’m a winner. I’m a survivor. I’m a wingman. I’m a beginner. I’m a fighter. I’m a … I […]