I woke up to this Labor Day holiday thankful to be sure, but wrestling with how the world sees work VERSUS how God sees it. And I kept coming back to the tradition of work and its focus on our twin-tower values of hard work and achievement.    I ended up content with that viewpoint being the essence of this holiday we celebrate today. Rest from the toil. Satisfaction in the results. Thankfulness...

Early in my faith walk I played the “I’M BOSS” role and lived out that “large and in charge” persona. If they gave medals for playing the “I’m Boss” game, mine would be solid gold. Even though there is not one good thing about that memory, God is using it for good in my life and ministry. Here’s the story…    We actually start playing boss as children, always wanting something and eventually...

I woke up this morning full of angst and flushed with thoughts about the “NOW” moments of life. Not in five minutes. Not in five hours. Not in five days. RIGHT NOW. I have received this nudge from God many times through the years–especially early in my faith walk when I never once met a now moment that I allowed to soak in and be cherished–but this one was more like a jab with a little...

It’s true. That is a perfect description of my feelings early in my faith walk as I moved through a fast-paced and stressful life as a CEO. I was constantly battling anxiety, emotional confusion, and anger.  A negative pattern developed when I failed to off-load those pesky issues to God. I had a case of seemingly incurable whiplash.      Each new wave of anxiety hijacked my mind...

I spent 20+ years earlier in my life living with embers of fear, doubt, and worry ready to catch fire. AND THEY DID! The resulting conflagration produced much pain and the consequences were horrific. But the coin has another side, a good side, and God is using that in my ministry to help others. He taught me that our tendency to doubt and worry resides in all of us to one degree or another, and it...

“This is hopeless…everything is hopeless…life is hopeless.”    “What good is my faith in God if the pain of life keeps coming?”    “I’m going to let go because taking the spiritual road is not worth it.”     Those are just a few of the thoughts I had early in my faith walk during an excruciating painful stretch of road. But God is now using that experience to...

What happened to honesty? Not superficial honesty. Not manipulative honesty to get something we want. REAL HONESTY. The kind of honesty modeled by Jesus. It is crystal clear to me that Christ-like honesty has tumbled down today’s steep slope of moral relativism where everything is judged on a sliding scale to fit the new societal narrative. That makes it difficult for all of us to sort through what...

Earlier in my faith walk I thought God’s peace and joy would appear instantly and automatically! I know, it sounds crazy, but that is exactly what I was thinking back then. It gets worse. I was also convinced that my profound sadness would leave me like David Blain vaporizing a truck from his Las Vegas stage.    I was WRONG.   There’s more. Another “spiritual misread” on my part...

It’s true. Early in my faith walk I used my own flawed logic to decide what was REAL and what was FAKE. I manufactured my own life path and then perpetuated it with selective interpretation of new information. I had unwittingly created a FAKE narrative for my life that became “permanent” as it morphed and multiplied and mowed down my connection with God. It was horrible. But in God’s infinite goodness...

  Needing “THINGS” to be content is a trap because the need never stops asking for more. There is never enough pay-off. The cravings never end. We think having more and more will equate directly to our happiness level. But there is never enough. This is a vicious cycle because those cravings actually increase over time as we come up short in our quest for happiness in order to “get ahead.” The...