Sometimes you’ve got to just stop! Yesterday I got my very long to-do list done at 4pm. And then I kept thinking of more I needed to do. Next thing I knew, I was sitting on my couch at 8 looking for more to get done. Yeah, I know. Sick! […]

I’ve got a big idea that I’m getting ready to communicate. The idea isn’t important (to you), but the way I want to pitch it should be. A while back I was spending a few hours in Barnes and Noble skimming books. I do that regularly. If a book I’m […]

Obedience will always make room for blessing, but the blessing may look quite different than we thought. When we have surrendered our whole lives to God, it opens up the potential for His blessing to flow through us. But I’d be lying if I said that the blessing always looked […]

Let me tell you a secret: I don’t really always fit in very well. Moving around all my early life (20 houses by the time I was 18), I got used to quickly figuring out a situation and finding people to hang out with, but rarely totally fitting in. The thing […]

“Where is God?” Pastor and Author Jerry Cook repeatedly asks the question to congregations. Hearing that he recently asked that in a friend’s church made me start to think… Diests are content to leave God in heaven. He’s “up there” somewhere, but probably unconcerned with what’s happening on earth. Some […]

“When the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, whoever enters by the north gate to worship is to go out the south gate; and whoever enters by the south gate is to go out the north gate. No one is to return through the […]

I’ve been thinking about an analogy that Christian leaders like to use. We often talk about passing the baton. Like in a relay race. I’ve heard (and preached) sermons on it, seen videos specifically designed for the illustration, read books about how to pass the baton better, and even been […]

I love an uncluttered room. A boutique with few well-placed items to draw my attention is much more inviting to me than an messy, overstuffed superstore (I’ve been know to just walk out). A simple ad with lots of white space makes me look at what is there—marketing with too […]

Simplicity is not as easy as it seems. In fact, it’s very difficult to communicate simply. It’s an art. Remember the day you discovered it was much easier to write a slightly long, rambling paper than a fairly short, excellent one? We live in a world of increasing information and […]

I just got off a short phone call with a friend. It was a pretty standard conversation—there was nothing life-changing, but those few moments were life-giving. Everybody should have a friend or two who consistently elevates their energy level and encourages them…that reliably give them life. I’m fortunate that my […]

Yesterday, for my day off, I decided to organize the family room. We moved into this house about a month ago, and this is the room to which all the extra random boxes have found their way. It was a daunting task, but it needed to be tackled. Sometimes, though […]

I was reading a relatively obscure story in Scripture today. Jeremiah 44 contains the narrative of the prophet Jeremiah in Egypt. He was there because he had traveled with the unfaithful remnant from Jerusalem so he could keep speaking God’s words to them. At one point he channeled God’s direct […]