The world has STOPPED as if someone hit PAUSE during a NETFLIX blockbuster. And every Christian on the planet needs to STOP right now, too. What began with a cold-blooded homicide in Minneapolis has exploded into mayhem. Protesters and Police. Looters and larcenists.    That’s sad, of course. But we need to STOP trying to analyze the differences between the protesters (GOD BLESS THEM) and...

This just in from our GLOBAL ONLINE TRIBE: How do you keep your faith so focused day-after-day? This is a great question!    The focus part speaks to spiritual discipline. The heart and habits of a disciple.    The day-after-day part is also all about DISCIPLINE.    That’s the answer to the question–DISCIPLINE. But there is a much DEEPER MESSAGE to consider…    Focusing...

When I pulled my weary frame out of bed this morning to confront another day, I was greeted by a question that stirred my senses and got me riffing like Neil Young “rocking in a free world” at Staples Center. It was, at least for me, a totally new way of looking at the HAPPY/SAD NEXUS in our lives. Here it is: Why do Christians seem to always feel their SADNESS, but rarely celebrate HAPPINESS? I...

As this yawning Thursday scurries to catch up from losing a day to remember our veterans, Christians are waking up LONELY. In fact, the percentage of people who report being LONELY continues its inexorable march toward 50%. Fueled by COVID-19, new research says 44% of respondents claim to be LONELY “more than occasionally.” There is a LONELINESS PANDEMIC sweeping through the land like a wind-swept...

I thought a lot yesterday about suffering and sacrifice. But that came late in the day when the screen of my mind’s cinema inched toward its fade to black. Earlier in the day, thoughts of it being “just another” Memorial Day were moving through my mind like Georgia fireflies dancing above a summer fire on Lake Allatoona. Sadly, the most memorable part of yesterday’s Memorial Day holiday for most people...

“Fake it ‘till you make it” (FIUYMI) is an English aphorism suggesting that if we “pretend” to feel or act a certain way, eventually the pretending will turn into reality. The term originated in 323 BC when Greek Philosopher Aristotle argued: “Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a certain way.” The term was lit up by pop culture in the 1970s and is alive and kicking...

“I want it now!” (IWIN) thinking has a vise-like hold on all of us. We know what we want, and we want it NOW. The best and most recent example of IWIN is our desperate pleas to shoo the pandemic out of town. We want the COVID-19 restrictions lifted NOW!    IWIN thinking has moved from a rare occurrence to a daily expectation. Once we have a taste of fast, we don’t want any part of slow.    When...

We are living right now in a moment IDENTICAL to what the prophet Isaiah predicted. IDENTICAL to what John the Baptist experienced. And IDENTICAL to what countless other Christians have stared down for millennia. For context, let’s step back in time.    As prophesied in Isaiah 40:3-5, God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus. His mission was to tell people their lives could...

The world is quickly running out of patience like a kid runs out of nickels on his first run to the mini-mart. Lock down and shut down have become trigger words that slice a piece off everyone. “REOPENING” is now a surreal soundtrack crackling in the background while we search for a switch to flip our life back to “NORMAL.”    Believers and unbelievers alike are in the middle of this nasty...

Well before GPS cured our directional disease, captains of the sea used a SEXTON to “shoot the stars” at dawn and dusk to identify their navigational position. In almost every case, a course correction of some kind was needed.    Christians need to a sexton, too. But our sexton is God. And, yes, we need to check it twice-a-day—once in the morning and then again as the day fades to black.    Failure...