HAPPY MONDAY! My “former teacher” self sponsors today’s word-of-the-week… FAST You should be able to do it fast without thinking. That was the commonly-accepted definition of basic skills “knowledge” when I started teaching. If you could get the right answer, fast, without thinking, you “knew” it. I was told to reward kids who produced fast answers […]
Continue readingMore TagCategory: Word of the Week
Disillusioned
Happy Monday! An odd word prompts today’s word-of-the-week… DISILLUSIONED Do you think it’s a bad thing to be “disillusioned”? I’ve always thought the word had a negative connotation, sort of like disappointment, but I actually think Jesus came to disillusion us. Dis-illusion: to remove illusions…that’s what Jesus was all about. He came to reveal the truth. […]
Continue readingMore TagWe
HAPPY MONDAY! A friend’s graduation inspired today’s word-of-the-week… WE My friend Melvin completed a year-long rehab program. At his graduation the other guys spoke about Melvin’s time with them. I was struck by how often they used the word “we.” These men arrived from big cities and small towns. Most had tough roads marked by […]
Continue readingMore TagCheek
HAPPY MONDAY! a twisty discussion leads to today’s word-of-the-week… CHEEK “So I guess you’re gonna tell us we have to turn the other cheek.” The sarcasm puddled on the table. A guy who’s lived on lobster boats doesn’t easily buy the notion of non-violece. We were talking about fear, and I said “He hit me” […]
Continue readingMore TagMean
HAPPY MONDAY! A friend’s blog inspired today’s word-of-the-week… MEAN Why can’t the bible just mean what it means? Well, it does. But knowing what the bible means isn’t always quite as simple as it might sound. My friend Jon Swanson wrote about some words in the book of James. As Jon explains, words often require […]
Continue readingMore TagQuestions
HAPPY MONDAY! One of my favorite things is today’s word-of-the-week… QUESTIONS I’ve learned everyone doesn’t share my love of authentic questions. I guess I understand, since questions are often thinly-disguised weapons. “Why did you do it that way?” may be a sincere inquiry. Or it may be an attack…”That was a dumb way to do […]
Continue readingMore TagBest
HAPPY MONDAY! A great group discussion got me thinking about two sides of today’s word-of-the-week… BEST I tossed out my idea that life doesn’t have to be a competition. In a group of men, I knew there’d be pushback. “Without competition, what’s the incentive to improve? Competition is just the way we’re wired. Everyone wants […]
Continue readingMore TagNothing (Repost)
Happy Monday! Okay, it’s a little weird, but for today’s word-of-the-week I’m thinking about NOTHING “Nothing” is an odd word. How can you write a blog post about nothing? You can play interesting word games with “nothing.” For example: A crust of bread is better than nothing, and nothing is better than a big, juicy […]
Continue readingMore TagTouch
HAPPY MONDAY! A weekend of great conversations brings us today’s word-of-the-week… TOUCH We spent a big part of the weekend talking to people who might want to do this summer’s 500-mile FRONT RANGE FREEDOM TOUR. I came away with a profound sense of the opportunity God provides for us to touch people in remarkable, unexpected […]
Continue readingMore TagFog
HAPPY MONDAY! A personal dilemma has me thinking about today’s word-of-the-week… FOG Lots of ways to get lost in the fog. Loneliness. Addiction. Depression. Grief. Fear. Pain. Fog descends, clarity dissipates, confusion reigns. In the darkness of the fog, once-obvious choices become impossibly obscured. Decisions that ought to be simple become impossibly complex. In the […]
Continue readingMore TagMistakes
HAPPY MONDAY! A thought-provoking statement brings us today’s word-of-the-week… MISTAKES “Mistakes are a great opportunity to ask for help.” An athlete said a coach once told him to stop regretting his mistakes. Instead, the coach advised him to find someone who could help him learn from every mistake. We’ve all heard about learning from our […]
Continue readingMore TagStart
HAPPY MONDAY! Welcome to a new year and a totally predictable word-of-the-week… START A New Year is a perfect time to start. Except, it’s really not. A New Year is really a good excuse to avoid starting. There’s no good time to start. We’re never quite ready. We’re always afraid of something. The audience isn’t prepared […]
Continue readingMore Tag