“Be a Scrooge!”
“Don’t be a Scrooge” It’s a line we hear really all year long but certainly more during the holiday season. But what exactly does it mean? Scrooge (skro͞oj) n. A mean-spirited miserly person. (The Free...
View ArticleBroken Widows
Broken Windows The Broken Widows Theory in criminology provides a metaphor for tackling disorder within neighborhoods. The creators of this theory developed it because… “They saw serious crime as the...
View ArticleIdentity Crisis
Identity Determines Focus Protecting your identity is a big deal these days, and for good reason. 10 million Americans yearly are victims of identity theft. Identity theft happens every 10 seconds....
View ArticleIdentity in Christ
Our identity is important because it is the core of who we are. It creates our values, which shape our beliefs, which direct our actions. Our identity shapes the focus of our lives, and our focus...
View ArticleInstauration
God Speaks to Us God speaks to us in unique and varied ways. The Bible provides many examples of this. Elijah (1 Kings 19) Samuel (1 Samuel 16:6-7) Paul (Acts 23:11 & 2 Corinthians 12) Peter (Acts...
View ArticleSocial Connection… Not Easy But Best
Because introversion is a dominant part of my personality, I used to believe I did not need much social interaction. In fact, I once bragged I could go days without talking to anyone outside of my...
View ArticleWhat Does “God is Faithful” Actually Mean?
A God of Absolutes Humans are not 100% faithful. We let down people we love, and we struggle being consistent with what we know is healthy. This is one reason we have a hard time believing God is...
View ArticleRefocusing on Christ
Should & Could But Don’t There’s so much information available telling us what we should be doing and how we could be improving our lives. Just take a look at the self-help books currently on...
View ArticleApplying Personality Profiles
Personality Profiles Over the past 20 years or so, I’ve taken at least three different types of personality profile assessments. They all provide the same, basic information, just different wording....
View ArticleReset Your Focus
What’s Your Focus? Lost and a wrong focus happens to everyone from time to time. Busyness. Illness. Distraction. Details differ, but everyone struggles with keeping focus on what God desires for their...
View ArticleRemember?!
Is Remembering Enough? From holidays to monuments, memorials commemorate and preserve a significant person, place or event. Think of memorials as direction markers in history showing the people and...
View ArticlePurposeful Remembering
As Christians, it’s important that we “Don’t Forget to Remember.” Understanding this thread found throughout the Bible helps us understand the place remembering should take in our lives. In other...
View ArticleSurrounded
The song “Fight My Battles” by Michael W. Smith annoyed me the first several times I heard it. I mean, it’s the same wording over and over and over again. “This is how I fight my battles…” “It may look...
View ArticleAlways Be Ready
The Questions Will Come “Honor Christ, and let him be Lord of your life. Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope.” (1 Peter 3:15) When you live your life for Christ,...
View ArticleBattling Discouragement
Life can be discouraging. One area of persistent discouragement for me involves lack of apparent progress. That lack can be in myself or in those closest to me, but it also can be in general with how I...
View ArticleCourse Corrections
Pilots make course corrections continually throughout a flight. If they don’t, the plane will end up far from its goal, maybe over an ocean and out of fuel. Several factors cause an airplane to get off...
View ArticleStability Within Change
Changing Seasons While the extremes vary, everyone experiences changing seasons no matter where they live. Even Hawaii changes seasons, though not an extreme difference and only between two different...
View ArticleGo ahead! Be stubborn!
Bad Stubborn Most of the time, stubbornness is seen as bad. It seems self-serving, whether a front for pride or a display of arrogance. Unwilling to change. Can’t admit when wrong. Refuse to see...
View ArticleMetanoia
In psychology, metanoia involves experiencing a psychotic breakdown and then subsequent, positive rebuilding and healing. My journey through depression was a metanoia. In fact, this blog – Struggle to...
View ArticleMy New 4th of July Perspective
Fireworks. Cookouts. Parades. Sarah’s birthday. Without effort, these used to be my first thoughts when thinking about the 4th of July. With purposeful thinking… Independence Day 1776. The Declaration...
View Article