Love is a word we use to describe our passion or commitment to someone or something. Love is a stirring of our souls that compels us to do what we do. Love motivates people to lay down their lives for the sake of another. In all these ways, love is essentially a strong emotion. The Bible, however, describes love as an act of volition, of choice. Scriptural love has less to do with early dating and much more to do with clear-eyed wedding vows. Jesus makes an appeal to this kind of love when he said, “Love the Lord with all your
Read MoreIt is hard to look at anything in our culture without seeing division. Sadly, groups are pitted against groups. There is a push to pit People of Color – PoC is the new buzz word - against Caucasians; male against female; left against right; ‘Gender Queer’ against ‘Cis Gender’; young against old; moral against immoral (doesn’t matter which side, you are one); ‘Oppressed against oppressors’; and ‘Good’ against ‘Evil’. Unfortunately, defining the division, the ‘us’ and ‘them’, is in the eye of the beholder. In the end, there is little to bring people together except to despise, mock, and hate the other side. Our echo
Read MoreLife is a struggle. There is no sugar coating it. It is baked into our relational experiences. Conflicts arise in way too many of our relationships. Even our best relationships demand forgiveness and reconciliation to get past issues no matter how small they are. But let’s focus on the big ones: bosses, peers, career advancement, marital
Read MoreJesus wants us to be real, not religious. At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us who is blessed. One of sayings is “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” Jesus doesn’t want the religious in heart. He wants the pure in heart. The problem with the ‘religious’ of Jesus’ day, and ours as well, is that there
Read MoreA lot of time and energy is spent trying to create a transparent government. People want to know what is really going on, to see for themselves. But have you noticed that everyone wants the other person to be transparent. Nobody welcomes the scrutiny and judgment that comes when it is all put out there. We have a hard enough time being completely honest with our spouses and friends. We often hold back because we are afraid what they might think and that the relationship might be damaged.
Read MoreLife’s Healing Choices begins with the choice to get real, to let down our masks and be honest about who we are. Daniel Lanois wrote a song that contained this line: “My image talked with your image, and your image talked with my image. And somewhere along the way, our images let each other down.” Everyone wants to fit in. We don’t want to talk about our failures and difficulties for fear that we will be judged and looked down upon.
Read MoreHave you ever played Wii sports? There is everything from bowling to golf, from driving to flying. The idea is that you can burn calories when you get off the couch and move around in front of your TV. Tennis burns 341 calories per hour, while boxing burns 360 calories per hour. I played Wii golf with a youth several years ago. We had a lot of fun, though I was frustrated that I couldn’t hit the ball straight. I used the same form that I do when I am out on
Read MoreWhat do you pray for and why? We usually pray about our personal lives, for forgiveness, for help with family, for friendships, and sometimes for God to correct (we often mean ‘smite’) someone’s error. How often do you pray for direction and success in your work? On average, Americans spend 150,000 hours working over their lifetime. That is more than any other activity that we do. Work dominates our lives--and God wants us to succeed--yet, we forget to ask God how to work wisely.
The wise person seeks God’s counsel and direction for their work. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.” (Prov 16:3) This verse contains a premise and a promise. The premise is that we give God authority over our work. The promise is that God will guide us into good productive work. Two proverbs say how this is done. "The prayer of the upright pleases God.” (Prov 15:8) And "He who plans a thing will be successful." (Prov 16:2) God delights and desires for us to seek His wisdom and insight for our
Read MoreJim Collin’s book Good to Great was a best seller and a must read for MBAs. He and his team put in years of research in companies that were doing great, a notch about the really good. He delved into the different facets of the particular companies but came back again and again to leadership. Collin’s describes the actions of “Level 5 Leaders”. They develop humility, ask for help, take responsibility, develop discipline, find the right people, and lead with passion. The first quality is Developing Humility. In fact, Collin’s says that humility is key to the rest. Here is the way he describes it:
Level 5 leaders display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will. They're incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for
The week we now call Holy Week began with the day which Christians hail as Palm Sunday. The excitement of Passover rippled through the Jewish community near and far. As this was one of the holy days that Jews were to present themselves before God at the Temple, Jerusalem swelled from 50,000 inhabitants to 150,000 with pilgrims everywhere. Early Sunday morning Jesus boldly and publicly entered the city. For Jesus – and his followers – this was the end of all privacy and safety. Riding in with throngs cheering, singing, and waving palms set Jesus on the inevitable collisions with the political
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