So, I am a pretty big fan of the show Survivor. And this year, they are doing a special season full of past winners. Before the season started, there was a lot of press – articles, videos, etc. I was reading an article about some of the returning players, who had first been on Survivor like twenty years ago, and one thing really stuck out to me: how many marriages have happened between Survivor contestants. I once saw a meme... Read more
I was shocked this week to hear a group of adults claim they were perfectly unbiased and to go so far as to express “offense” at the very thought they might be biased. I think ignoring the reality of our bias has hurt us in a lot of different ways. It assumes a rightness for rightness sake; that if we think we are right it is empirically true, not at all influenced by presuppositions and conditions specific to us. I... Read more
Like anybody else, I love getting my way. I celebrate when circumstances turn out the way I hope they will. I feel safe and secure and happy when reality matches my expectations. When circumstances are bad, I struggle. I question my existence and the point of it all; I lament and project/inflict my pain onto others. I feel malaise and anger. When things are tough, I am constantly working to make them better (if not constantly on the verge of... Read more
I saw an ad recently about how to handle our emotions. It suggested the way we are designed is to stay planted in consistency and watch our emotions go by, acknowledging them and addressing them. It described our fundamental human task as sitting and waiting while the circumstances and feelings fly by us. Where we get into trouble, the ad claimed, is when we follow a particular emotion or experience too far. We jump off our stoop of consistency and run after one particular... Read more
It has always been a dream of mine to be a fiction writer, a la Michael Crichton, John Grisham, and Agatha Christie. I love stories. I think they are about so much more than entertainment. We use stories to tell the truth, as parables to say something significant about the world in which we live. The best thing about being an (aspiring) writer is the way it affects the way you view the world. It invites you to look deeper... Read more
The first Memorial Day happened in the aftermath of The Civil War. Soldiers from both the North and the South were honored for having lost their lives. It was designed to be a day of remembrance, a day of grief and unity. A few Memorial Day events were held in the latter part of the 1800s and into the new century. People left flowers and flags on graves in memorandum of the lives lost, the cost paid to live life... Read more
There is a big difference between the everyday pains and struggles of relationship and a major dilemma. All of us need to persevere and communicate through the conflict, the challenges, and the annoyances of being in a relationship. The best relationships still have to deal with struggle. It is a part of what makes a relationship great, the way we tackle issues. But the stress and strain can also be indicative of a major problem. Use whatever metaphor you like –... Read more
Every day we feel some semblance of pain. From agony, torture and tragedy to discomfort, unfamiliarity, and annoyance, the practical reality of pain covers a wide spectrum of experiences. It also covers a vast spectrum in terms of value. Some pain is just plain evil. It is the opposite of good, a force working to subvert us away from the best we can be. But some pain is not only tolerable but valuable for the journey we are on –... Read more
I am helping to edit an online commentary that is sorted by books of the Bible. Each passage has its own page and you click an arrow to scroll to the next page (or backward to the previous one). For example, if you are on a passage contained in Ruth 2:4-11, you would read the commentary and when you were ready to see more, click the arrows that would take you to the page for Ruth 2:12-18. The reason I... Read more
My brother got married before I did. A couple years into his marriage, he told me this: “when considering a wife, the most important question you can ask yourself is…how would this woman be as a mother?” It hit me as a pretty interesting idea. My brother’s advice was basically to move past the less important ideas that cloud your head – like how she’ll look in lingerie or how often she’ll make me laugh. Think about this person as... Read more
Victorious Living
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In