In times of crisis, we lean on our faith community and religious rituals to give us frame of meaning and a promise to be strong and to hold on to something greater. This is not a time for social or spiritual isolation. We need each other more than ever now. Read more
That family applause of achievement never really ends. We cheer our children as they grow. Education, jobs, promotions and then kids of their own. The refrigerator is never really empty. That’s what any kid deep down inside want to hear. “I’m proud of you. You’ve done well.”I wonder if when we get to heaven, God will have a refrigerator. What accomplishments will he hang? What matters to Him? Read more
Anger is a proper motivator to rid the world of evil or to right wrongs. Henry Beecher said “A man that does not how to angry does not how to be good. A man that does not know how to be shaken to his heart’s core with indignation over things evil is either a fungus, or a wicked man." But admittedly, I don't handle it well. Read more
So, it’s finally time to come clean. I worked at a restaurant once as a teenager. It was the Nugget, on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. It was a small casino with a few 21 tables, a row of slots, and lots of bleary-eyed people pulling nickel slot machines. The back of the casino had a small restaurant where we served $2.99 stacks of pancakes and a $7.99 prime rib. It was my first real job as I bussed... Read more
I was once a not-stopping-for-anything young man, ready to change the world. I did my share of shaking things up. But then life got in the way — Marriage. Kids. Jobs. Career. A mortgage. Soon, I had every excuse, every reason why I couldn’t change the world. Not much has changed, except now, I use my past as an excuse, littered with selfishness and broken relationships. I have proven inadequacies, personal chinks in my armor that I know leave me vulnerable.... Read more
As a kid, I watched with wide-eyed fascination the campy Lost in Space television series. The recent reboot on Netflix keeps the Robinson family structure, as they battle various challenges using the skills of their super-smart kids and savvy first-mate, only to be thwarted by the scheming Dr. Smith. And there’s Robot. Despite being a high-tech machine that can fix anything, fight anyone and even display human emotion, his verbal programmers designed his language to be at toddler level, uttering... Read more
My fear of failure is rooted in my past -- and all the voices that tell me I can't. But every day, I have chance to start again. I have a chance to “be transformed by the renewing of my mind.” Read more
Rather than sit through a lesson and find some sort of application for my mixed-up life, maybe I would be better off finding out about God, his nature, and his expectations. The Bible is about God. It’s not about me. I wonder if I’m photo-bombing the Almighty – who he is, what he says, and what he wants me to hear. Read more
You probably have some old injuries you are carrying around. Someone said something to you or did something to you. Maybe your heart was broken. What is most interesting is that we prop up these past injuries, we given them prominence. We idolize them. We are Divorced. Broken. Abused. Hurt. And that label becomes who we are and what we worship. Read more
Your pain, your trial is real. But this time in your life is the perfect opportunity to that there are things more important than life on this earth. Don't let this moment slip by. We’re really not supposed to wait for the wild ride to end. We are meant to embrace our trial and actually benefit from it. Read more
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