There is only EARLY or LATE. If we are spiritually weak and unprepared to face the challenges of life when they hit our shore, it’s too late. I look at it as “simple,” but complicated. We may think we’re prepared for the next challenge life tosses our way. But when we “snap our fingers” in the moment, we often find there is much less spiritual strength to summon than we thought. It’s just like the...

My “God Connection” was severed as a young Christian when I learned that our “success dreams and destinations” may not be part of God’s purpose for us. In fact, they may be the polar opposite.   What!? I thought being a Christian meant we can have anything we ask for in Jesus’ name.    You may think this story’s next chapter will feature me pledging to be content with what I have...

Yep. It’s true. Last night I went to the county fair with my family and saw thousands of smiles (one of them you can see above on my grandson’s face). I saw thousands of people in relational bliss. And I saw thousands of people happy in that moment, their NOW.    My drive home in the still-warm night was filled with those images that were frozen in the cinema of my mind, along with thoughts...

The day my natural self was vanquished is a vivid memory seared into the cinema of my mind and firmly attached to the walls of my now-free heart. Instead of trying to manage and control the “bad things in life” that produce pain and angst, God helped me see those events as the gateway to glorify him. The door to discerning his will. The ticket to trigger what it means to walk in trust with Christ.    What...

It took some time to build up enough energy to explode, but that ending was inevitable now that I look back on those days earlier in my faith walk when I was living a stress-filled existence in the PRESSURE COOKER as a CEO in the marketplace.    I was constantly battling anxiety, emotional confusion, temptations, and anger. I failed to deal with the issues early before a negative pattern...

Early in my faith walk I was incapable of waiting for anything. So if I wanted it…I did whatever it took to get it. What I sought did not matter–money or mansions or sports cars or something on my unending list of “things” I “had to have.”    Applying the notion of waiting to the spiritual side of my life, it’s easy to see why I could not fathom having to wait for God to give me direction...

It took a while, but over nearly 40 years of walking with Christ I have learned that what we once thought was the forbidden ground of our weaknesses, sins, and secrets is actually the activator of our spiritual confidence and the gateway to God’s inner sanctuary!    It’s true.    He knows it all and yet still wants us to come to him wide open and offer every part of our lives to...

Trolls are on the prowl. Anarchists are scheming. And meanness has taken over.    We are living existential lives without ballast and without anchors. It is a liquid and languid life. Our world is dripping in mean-spirited and destructive venom. It’s sad. It’s scary. And it’s serious.    Of course hate has been with us since the beginning of time, but it is different today. That...

Money!   Success!   Power! Those threads were the pervasive focus of my early days as a Christian as I mounted a relentless chase of prosperity at the exclusion of almost everything else. I was the boss of my life and had not fully surrendered it to Christ. I was living in a mansion with an ASTERISK, and it was horrible.    Years later, after yielding to my life without...

Have you ever given yourself this pep talk: Control yourself! C’mon, get it together NOW! You can do it. C’mon, man.    Most of us face this SELF-CONTROL CHALLENGE every day as our earthly desires collide with the Holy Spirit and toss us into perpetual confusion.    No wonder God’s fruit of self-control is so important in our faith walk. Actually, it’s more than important—it’s...