There’s a lotta talk today about BEING REAL. You know, be yourself. Be authentic. But all of that is a façade fronting for our filtered and airbrushed culture that is ANYTHING BUT REAL. We say we want REAL…but we value the UNREAL.    Nobody seems to know anymore what it means to be real. So let’s explore that question by starting with a stop at Mr. Webster’s house:    re·​al·​i·​ty...

The word AUTHENTIC joined the world’s lexicon in the Mid-14th Century and has been a foundational part of myriad languages ever since. With a boost from the internet and much encouragement from idealistic Millennials, AUTHENTIC has become a hip and significant term in the 21st Century.    This is not to throw shade on Millennials craving for AUTHENTICITY. There is much right with “being...

Early in my faith walk, I thought I knew everything about DISCIPLINE. I played football in college. I built a successful career as a corporate CEO. And I spoke about strategic discipline to marketplace companies around the world. I was disciplined.    It’s no surprise that I took that discipline into everything I did—including my faith walk with Jesus. But that discipline was all about...

The world values, and then covets, DOING. God is pleased with, and then blesses, BEING.    That’s the essence of May’s theme for this blog. It comes after intense focus on a single theme during each of the year’s first four months: JAN: Release Control to God; FEB: Reject The World; MAR: Recognize Our Inadequacy; APR: Believe with a CAPITAL B; and now MAY: Switch From Doing To Being—How...

To believe with a CAPITAL B that God is control–and we aren’t–we must be actively CONSIDERING everything that pops up in the cinema of our mind.    con·sid·er “Think carefully about something, typically before making a decision.”    Every person on the planet is constantly considering something–day-in and day-out. But for Christians, the real definition of CONSIDER...

Even though the sun is bathing the western world with increasing amounts of pre-summer warmth as April turns to May, many members of our global online tribe are saying their faith is “FROZEN IN PLACE.”    I am not surprised. As a new believer following Christ, my faith alternated between cold and frozen. It happened to me as a stressed-out CEO constantly battling anxiety, emotional confusion,...

Most of us have heard this mantra in one form or another: “Dream it. Visualize it. Experience it” (DI-VI-EI). It’s a common take on life embraced by gullible denizens living in the 21st Century Thunder Dome. And, yes, CHRISTIANS can easily fall for its allure.     The DI-VI-EI mantra makes it difficult to believe that God is in control and we aren’t. Think about it like this: How can...

Yesterday while exploring the world of HACKS—steps to simplify and improve our life—we concluded that all hacks (and especially spiritual hacks) can easily become glorified SHORTCUTS to nowhere.      We’re jumping off that hack horse today as fast as we threw our leg over its saddle yesterday. We’re riding away from the word HACK because it’s a silly aphorism cooked up by a cliché-driven,...

I have no idea how or why the term HACK has reached such lofty status in 21st-Century life. In the not-so-distant past, the term was reserved for someone doing something poorly or irresponsibly. You know…people doing a bad job playing their role as a news reporter or baseball player or wanna-be motivational speaker, to name but a few examples. NOT ANYMORE. Today we have life hacks to squeeze every...

This just in from our global online tribe: “God feels like he is a million miles away from me right now and I feel bad.”    All Christians–at one time or another, to one degree or another—are pecked by this pain.    Knowing that these feelings will come is more than a “soft line of comfort.” Of course it’s comforting to know that information. But it also gives us the strength...