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Consume-ation
Read more: Consume-ation“A leader’s greatest fear is not something that might happen to us, is it something that might happen in us.” (John Ortberg, Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2007) Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their…
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Entertaining Thoughts
Read more: Entertaining ThoughtsWhen my brother entered our house last Thursday night, he was impressed. Our house was clean. Not just tidy, but actually clean. We scrubbed, dusted, de-cluttered, de-catted, even steam-mopped. Yeah. That happened. Our preparation for his long-distance girlfriend’s arrival was intentional and meticulous. We spent several hours a day for three days cleaning as much…
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Tour Guides
Read more: Tour GuidesThe whole thing began with an announcement slide in church. “Children’s Ministry needs workers: 3’s room,” it read. “I love preschoolers!” I innocently thought and proceeded to volunteer myself to fill that vacancy at once. Now, three weeks into my commitment to shepherd the three year olds at church I have realized that I know…
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The Riotous Milking of Sacred Cows
Read more: The Riotous Milking of Sacred CowsThe title for this post comes courtesy of the Los Angeles Times’ review of “The Book of Mormon,” a musical created by South Park’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and Robert Lopez, who is also known for penning that earworm of a song, “Let it Go,” from Disney’s Frozen. It seems that nearly every…
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Sandy Toes and Solid Ground
Read more: Sandy Toes and Solid GroundAs my son dipped his tiny toes into the water and set foot on the coarse, wet sand, a sly grin came over his face. “Oh yes, I like this, “ his expression implied. As a novice toddler, he is still unable to walk without a hand to hold. Yet that didn’t stop him from…
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Privacy Rights and Wrongs
Read more: Privacy Rights and WrongsIs it just me or has there been an onslaught of privacy-related issues lately? Whether it was the defiant acts of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden or the Target data breach, it seems that the ideas of privacy and security have ominously loomed in the collective consciousness. Even this week’s scandal related to L.A. Clippers’…
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The Parable of the Lost Check
Read more: The Parable of the Lost Check“Suppose a woman has just received her family’s income tax refund checks, one state and the other federal, in the mail and she loses one. (She swears seeing it on the coffee table yesterday and cannot for the life of her find it today.) Won’t she and her husband turn on all of the lights…
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Thumb War
Read more: Thumb War‘Tis the season for self-control. The beginning of Lent always seems to inspire a flurry of resolutions and prohibitions, sometimes the same ones we made at the outset of the year then promptly forgot to keep. As we begin this season of intentional identification with Christ’s wilderness experience and self-denial, my husband and I are…
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If God, Then…
Read more: If God, Then…The other day, I was listening to Larry Mantle’s show AirTalk on my local public radio station. His guests for one of the segments that day were Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Magazine, and William Lane Craig, philosophy professor at Biola University’s Talbot School of Theology. Their discussion was based on the recent opinion piece…
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The Purpose of (The Secret) Life
Read more: The Purpose of (The Secret) LifeEvery year, my film-nerd husband, Daryl, painstakingly crafts a list of his five favorite movies. Each movie gets weighed against the others and the list is unceremoniously published and updated on his Facebook wall several times throughout the year. Usually, it is locked in by early January and elicits comments from the friend network privy…