For me early in my faith walk, FEAR was my swamp of alligators. And I didn’t stand a chance of coming out in one piece. And I didn’t. My life was full of anxiety and confusion. It was horrible. Attacks by fear and the darkness triggered a torrent of debilitating pain coursing through me that eventually strangled my hope. No wonder I drifted away from God and into a fog of hopelessness.    But...

Allowing negativity to “hang around” causes us to view life as “HALF-EMPTY” and assume God doesn’t care about us. That’s NONSENSE!  At minimum, he wants us to live a “HALF-FULL” life. There was a time early in my faith walk when I WISHED my glass was half empty!    It was bone dry. I was living with an EMPTY GLASS! Looking at those words now prompts a chuckle, but that belies the pain...

That sounds odd, doesn’t it? Making pain “pay off” seems a bit crazy when you consider that we go to great lengths every day to AVOID pain! Who “signs up” for pain, right? Not me, and I suspect not you, either.    The reality is that pain is definitely part of life on this side of the heavenly divide. And this is where making pain pay off comes into the picture. God does not want us to merely...

No matter how much pain you are in right now, God is with you and wants to transform your life. I know that to be true from FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE. It came early in my faith walk while I was a Corporate CEO and in the middle of a two-year personal funk. I was stressed out, depressed, and overwhelmed with hopelessness. Even smiling was a chore.    Of course my responsibilities as a CEO, husband,...

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...