I’ve got a place I want to spend more time in 2014. And I want to invite you to join me. The place is right here, right now. Wherever that may be. I’ve begun to notice that I spend an incredible amount of time “elsewhere”—that space so many of our hearts and minds go that’s not where we are. I go elsewhere when I focus on what I’d like to have and miss what I do have. Like when at 6 p...
Spark
The internal struggle against sin is itself reason to hope. It’s evidence of the Master’s work in your heart, a spark of goodness within that wants to grow. But for many who struggle, however hard they try, the spark of good remains just a spark, seemingly ineffective amidst the familiar dark waters of temptation. Can you relate? You want to stop yelling at your kids, but you lost your temper...
Touch
For many men where I live, a handshake is the greeting of choice, sometimes even among close friends. One of my friends rejects this norm openly. If I reach out to shake his hand, he grabs it, pulls me in and gives me a hug. I love it. No, it’s more than that. I need it. Touch isn’t optional. I love the story of the leper who fell down at Jesus’ feet asking, “Lord, if you’re willing, you can make...
4 Lesser-Known Leadership Tips
Four tips for leaders concerned with helping those who most need their leadership.
When Experience Isn’t a Good Thing
Nothing on earth has the authority to define you. Your identity—your true identity—is who God created you to be. And yet, what you experience regularly informs your sense of who you are. In other words, your experiences—your circumstances, interactions, feelings, temptations, actions, etc.—all give you their opinion about who you are. And as you might guess, their opinion frequently doesn’t align...
Gold for Stones
The good news doesn’t start with people as sinners with whom God is angry. It starts in the beginning. And if we miss this, the good news will fail to be good news. In the beginning, God made man and woman to be the Imago Dei—the image of God on the earth. By God’s design, all of creation recognized them with joyful awe. They were the ones the Creator had joyfully made like Himself. Or as John...