“This breakfast is depressing,” I thought. A number of my friends and I were recently talking. Most of them unemployed. They’ve been for many months. A few have been searching for more than a year. The talk was about fruitless interviews, endless applications and useless job fairs. There is pain — and failure — in their eyes. They’re all my age, stuck in the middle of life, feeling a little lost. Their career path is irrelevant in the modern economy. Their training is out... Read more
Linguists have tapped “App” as the word of the year. If you own a smart phone, you already know that “app” stands for “application.” Sold as an add-ons for cell phones, apps serve as shortcuts to all kinds of things you never knew you needed. You can point your phone at the heavens and it will tell what star cluster you are viewing. You can have your phone listen to the radio and it will tell you what the name of... Read more
This time of year, most of us have a few goals in mind. And why not? There’s no time like now to reassess our financial, career, family and spiritual direction. I have a few myself. I’ve written them down with some steps to get to each of them. There’s much to be said for having some structure to help catapult me toward a destination. Bradley Moore at Shrinking the Camel wrote a challenging post calling “Are you planning to grow?” ... Read more
Image by usag.yongsan via Flickr Blood. Sweat. Tears. I really wish I could say it would be easier, but losing weight, deepening my spiritual walk and improving my relationships are all going to require some sacrifice. And as my doctor said during my “procedure,” — “You might feel a little pressure.” That’s the nature of discipline. It hurts for a while, but the long-term benefits outweigh the temporal discomfort. (Still I ask, “Can’t I just buy an app for this stuff?”) Larry Hehn’s... Read more
Love. I guess I have always known about it. Cradled in my mothers arms, she whispered it to me. And I sensed it as I was consoled by my father, telling me that the bully’s words didn’t matter. I heard it when Nana reminded me I was important to her. And it might have pricked a tiny hole in heart as I watched Jill ride by on her bicycle and I wondered what it would be like to talk to... Read more
I’m a regular reader of “Live with Flair,” the creative outlet for educator and communicator Heather Goodman. She’s a great writer and has sharp instincts into the world around her. I really liked her most recent post, “Make Yourself That Somebody.” She caught herself complaining about a safety issue on a public sidewalk. When she said out loud, “Somebody should really fix it..”, she began to question just who “somebody” is! And she concludes that we are that “somebody.” I find myself... Read more
My mother used to put okra in the stew. And I hated it. It was slimy and green — two things that most little boys avoid with every fiber of their being. And never should those two ingredients be presented as food. No way was I going to buy it. To a ten-year old, okra isn’t food. I could eat the other parts of the stew, but leaving the okra until the bottom of the bowl only meant that I would have to take... Read more
The Top Blog Posts of the year, as selected by The High Calling Running in place, by Jennifer Dukes Lee of Getting Down With Jesus Failure is an Option, by Jessica of Jezamama Seeing God, by Deidra Riggs of Jumping Tandem God talk in the Office, by Michelle DeRusha of Nebraska Graceful Organizations and Bad Bosses, by Glynn Young of Faith, Fiction, and Friends Into the World, by Billy Coffey Becoming Men, by Lyla Lindquist of A Different Story Can Death be... Read more
I don’t know about you, but my life really isn’t all that deliberate. In fact, I find that I often come into my best situations just by stumbling into them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at my blessings and then asked, “how in the world did I get here?” I have a full-time job as a writer and communicator. The dirty little secret is that I’m really a college drop-out who banged away at the typewriter... Read more
I have watched this a half dozen times and am still mesmerized. I do love a grand pipe organ, but this is not a bad substitute, courtesy of Atlanta’s North Point’s “iBand”. And don’t miss the last song! I don’t care much for Feliz Navidad, but this version can only make you smile. Please, share with a friend if you feel moved. Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert Read more
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