People tend to regard armadillos as cartoon-like characters. It’s hard to take them seriously. They look odd. Walk odd. Act odd. But there is something oddly cool to me about armadillos. I was talking yesterday with a group of dear friends when someone dropped the “Armadillo Card!” I can’t even remember their point, but I have not been able to delete it from my mind ever since. So I went in the other...

If we don’t believe God’s promises about our identity in Christ BEFORE we actually feel it, the lies we have allowed to take residence in our soul will prevail. The consequence? We take on intense feelings of inadequacy that suppress activation of our faith.    The brutality of life leaves in its wake a stream of uncertainty that shakes even the strongest confidence. We erect barriers to...

Christians can easily forget that God has us on a SERIOUS road to develop our faith. And no believer wants to miss discovering the full plate of blessings God wants us to enjoy in this life. But “SERIOUS SPIRITUALITY” can seem impossible. But I know first-hand that Serious Spirituality IS possible because God showed me how to do it.    The first step is to acknowledge that Serious Spirituality...

The day my natural self was vanquished is a vivid memory seared into my mind’s hard drive and tightly attached to the walls of my now-free heart. Instead of trying to manage and control the “bad things in life” that produce pain, God helped me learn to view those events as on-ramps to glorify him. The door to discerning his will. The ticket to trigger what it means to walk with Christ.    I...

“Every object in a state of uniform motion will remain in that state of motion unless an external force acts on it.”                         Sir Isaac Newton 1679 Most baseball experts agree that Ozzie Smith—aptly nicknamed the Wizard of Oz–is the best fielding shortstop in major league history. The question everyone seems to ask...

The world’s soundtrack keeps getting louder and louder as it plays out on a Smartphone billboard conveying messages along an assembly line destined to capture our attention. The result?    God has more “attention competition” than ever before.    All of us are at risk. Many of us are becoming increasingly less attentive. Some of us have Spiritual Attention Deficit Disorder.    What...

Of course everyone loves it on the mountaintop where the exhilarating spiritual highs move us closer to God. It’s the spiritual equivalent of living in the Alps. But we cannot stay there indefinitely. We must come down willingly or we run the risk of a terrifying free-fall descent.  But there is good news off the mountain.    God’s grace and love and hope are part of a balanced...

Most of us have had that thought, whether we express it out loud or keep it under wraps. This “I’m Right” dynamic shows up in our closest relationships, at work, socially, and even financially when we assume our purchase is “right.”    Thinking we’re always right is largely about CONTROL. But its more pervasive driver in many cases is JUDGMENT that shows up like this: Answering before...

A 2018 poll of Christians showed that when someone they know posts a significant achievement online, their reaction is personal pain, not joy for the achiever. The more they want to be like this other person, the more pain they feel and the less chance there is of them being happy about that achievement. This “comparison reaction” is not new. The disciples following Christ wanted to know which one...

I’ve said those words. You’ve no doubt spoken that line. And most Christians have probably uttered the phrase at least once. And that’s good!    Prayer is a sacred responsibility and we should always be on the look-out for people to pray for and things to pray about.    But there’s a catch. It cannot be a hollow greeting or a polite gesture of affection.    Jesus says...