Our church is going through an existential identity crisis and one of the side effects is that we are praying for miracles. More than usual, we are asking God to show up in miraculous ways. The whole idea has me thinking about what exactly is a miracle. We talk a lot at Servant Leadership about definitions. So how would we define a miracle? I think it is an important question because the truth is we are all chasing miracles. Every day we get... Read more
If you’re anything like me, you often leave a conflict and wonder if you are better or worse off than when it began. Indeed, one of the reasons we avoid conflict is because we are sure it will make things worse. And it often does. It can make things better too. Much better. But how can you tell the difference? How can you tell if conflict exacerbated or solved the problem? The answers are not as straightforward as we’d like... Read more
There are few things more powerful and more important than the truth. Whether it be in a relationship, organization, institution, or the contemplations of your internal soul, the truth is vital for healthy living. It is the measure that tethers us to reality and goodness. It is the motivation that drives us. But truth is more complicated than we think. We often mistake honesty for truth, especially in the modern West. One of the reasons our society is in such... Read more
A few weeks ago, I was watching a documentary on the 1998 New York Yankees, arguably the greatest team in baseball history. They won an unprecedented 125 games throughout the year and took home the World Series trophy. One of the things that struck me as I watched the documentary is that 1998 was the same year Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire were in a highly-publicized race to set a new single-season home run record, something many people doubted would... Read more
As far as moral attributes go, humility is one of the toughest to access. On one hand, we just assume we are humble, which is ironic. And on the other hand, we are so afraid to talk about humility. It seems arrogant to mention ourselves at all. As if we lose humility as soon as we acknowledge it. And the result is we don’t ever talk about humility or pursue it with intention. It becomes something we hope (or assume)... Read more
One of the side-affects of my patterned thinking is that I start to think the world revolves around me. I cast myself as the main character. Why wouldn’t I? I am the one I follow around every day. I am the one whose feelings I feel and whose perspective rings in my ear. The result is I start to build a narrative with me at the center. Everything matters to the degree it affects me. Rather than being the perceiver through which... Read more
There is a story in the Bible where Moses asks to see God’s glory. The Lord tells him that nobody can look him in the face “or he will surely die”. So, he puts Moses in the cleft of a rock and passes behind him as Moses stands in the crag like a kid in trouble. Most of my adult life has been about trying to discover the goodness of the world. Trying to pursue the truth and adopt a... Read more
As a Christian who has spent most of my life in church, I’ve often wondered why we call “Good Friday” good. It is the day Jesus died. The day he was brutally crucified on a cross. A barbaric and gruesome death. This is the day humanity took the most influential person to walk the planet and decided to end his life at just 33 years old. What is good about that? Calling Friday good flies in the face of just... Read more
Our emotions belong to us. As much as we try to pawn them off on others, they are truly ours. They cannot be properly transferred or ignored. One of the most difficult things about being human is taking ownership of our emotions and handling them appropriately. One of the ways we try to avoid this is by blaming our emotions on others. We say things like “They made me angry” in order to avoid taking responsibility for how we feel and to cure our... Read more
We spend a good chunk of our energy trying to avoid chaos. We try to order things, putting them in neat little compartments. We are chasing a nice, quiet life where everything fits and everything makes sense. With this being a paramount agenda for most humans, it is no small wonder how chaotic life seems. From the grander scales, like governments and popular culture, down to the closest ones, our character and our emotions, things certainly have a feel of chaos.... Read more
Victorious Living
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