I’ve always been fascinated by “5-Tool Players” in major league baseball. These are the superstars who exhibit the sport’s most important tools–Speed, Throwing, Fielding, Hit for Average, and Hit for Power. Think Willie Mays and Shohei Ohtani. In professional hockey the five tools are Skating, Shooting, Playmaking, Scoring and Defense. Think Wayne Gretzky. Basketball uses Scoring, Rebounding,...

It’s imperative for all believers to periodically look BEHIND and AHEAD for perspective on the past and hope for the future. I do this several times a year to elevate the precious nature of every day and minimize my time gazing in the rear-view mirror and its string of unmet expectations, dashed dreams, and spoiled plans. This keeps me in touch with the turning pages of my life’s book and the inexorable...

I decided this morning to write about the JOY SLUMP I’ve been in for the past couple of months. There have been “pockets” of joy during this time, but they seem fleeting and somehow less than complete. Yes, this challenge has happened in the exact same period my two-year-old grandson Briar has been fighting cancer. But that is, at least in part, the point. No matter the circumstances, I have to accept...

Preparing for the late-July launch of my new book on AMAZON has brought many reader comments to my attention. The most common goes something like this: “I want to activate my faith, but I keep putting it off.”  There was one that even wrote: “It’s on my bucket list.” These comments remind me of a FACTORY PRODUCTION LINE that has boxes stacking up on an overwhelmed conveyer belt. The congestion eventually...

YES! God is the master mind reader. But it goes so much deeper than that. He reads our hearts and our soul, too. And he knows our thoughts and feelings and choices BEFORE they result in our actions. Why is this so important for believers? Because our thoughts are the raw ingredients that make up our words. And our words define us. They build or break relationships. They power or pulverize our efforts...

An interesting question from our global online tribe came in over the Memorial Day weekend: “Mark: My faith is strong one day and then weak for many days after that. It’s more weak than strong. Why is that?” That comment reveals a torturous challenge and shines a bright light on this reality: Many Christians around the world are living with FAITH INTERMITTENCE where God’s light seems to flicker...

Our family’s SPIRITUAL ENDURANCE TANK is being drained by the cancer battle raging around us. My daughter’s 2-year-old son—Briar Strong–has clear-cell sarcoma and is halfway through nine week-long sessions of chemotherapy after having a one-pound tumor removed from one of his kidneys. That has us constantly searching for charging stations along this dark road to receive much-needed and sustaining...

Well Done Good and Faithful Servant? One of the most interesting questions in the life of a Christian following Jesus is: “Where do we quench our human desire for affirmation and approval?” It’s a question animated by myriad contradictions—it can be good or great; devastating or dangerous. Failure to understand these approval/affirmation contradictions will trap us in a confusing toggle between...

Dominated by my 2-year-old grandson’s cancer, the first quarter of 2023 delivered a slew of challenges for our family. And though perhaps different in circumstance and nature, I am sure you battled your own challenges, too. The afflictions of life on earth pose this critically important question to all believers: ARE YOU SPIRITUALLY RESILIENT? re·sil·ience: Toughness and the capacity to withstand...

It’s tough to look at Good Friday as a celebration with all of the pain and cruelty Jesus endured on a deadly timber atop Golgatha. All of the optics—at least on the surface—scream bleakness, futility, and hopelessness. But we celebrate anyway because God made these three days that changed the world forever to be a victory march to life. Even though it can be tempting to sugar-coat the Easter story,...