Everything Does NOT Happen For A Reason!    I cringe a bit when this line, or some form of it, percolates to the top of a conversation:    “Well, everything happens for a reason…I guess it was just meant to be.”    It’s not Biblical.    Pain and disease and death and loss are inevitable fixtures of life because this is earth and not heaven.    When...

In the early part of my career as a successful CEO, success came lightning fast and served as intoxicating fuel for me to seek ever more “highs.”  But none of that changed anything in my heart for God. It was nothing more than a temporary fix to my carburetor, which before long actually needed to be rebuilt. Like all intoxicants, the effects were temporary…the damage devastating.   ...

  “Oh no! I haven’t made this month’s payment on the mansion. Or the sports car. Or the boat. Get to work and make some more money. You can do it…you’ve done it many times before.”    Thus began another performance of spinning plates in my life as a succeed-at-all-costs CEO striving and stressing to “have it all.” I was operating like a circus performer’s frantic and frenetic effort...

Do you ever feel like that?    It’s a feeling that comes on days where the fruit we bear seems more rotten than beautiful. And it can go from bad to worse in an instant. In fact, if we don’t turn to God immediately, this wobble in our faith gait can quickly lead to a trip and eventually a fall.    Going to God quickly with this destructive thought is imperative. He doesn’t want...

This yellow chair metaphor has profoundly and positively impacted my life as a believer. I pray that it will do the same for you, too.    I learned about yellow chairs from my engineer father while growing up in the suburban idyll of San Francisco’s East Bay. He used the term any time a person was falling short of their goal or potential.    The story would always start with a...

Each one of you reading these words right now is worried about something.    We worry over the fear of losing a job, or of not having enough money to pay the bills, or of a looming health crisis. We worry about an addition to the family, a relationship dispute, or any of life’s myriad challenges. We are prone to worry about everything!    For some of you, the worry is mild…maybe...

Christians cannot expect to go through life without at least some pain and suffering, right?    Of course.    So why are we prone to do everything possible to avoid pain and “make people pay” if they cross us? Are we surprised that life on earth is tough? I mean, c’mon. People don’t stay in the theater and complain when a bad movie ends.  They get up, walk out, and get on...

I’ve always loved rivers!    I love the rivers that snake across the globe and continually gain personal strength from the incredible metaphor they provide for my life.  Rivers are indeed powerful and majestic creatures capable of teaching us myriad lessons. No wonder this word shows up so many times in the Bible.    The most compelling “river lesson” for me came as I was...

You have got to be kidding me! How could a close friend, a Christian no less, let me down in such a dramatic and hurtful way? I can’t believe it…and I am furious.    Those exact words appear in one of my journals when a trusted and dear friend let me down. It’s a story I continually draw strength from and my hope is that it resonates with you.    I can remember this day as if it...

“Game Day” is special for any athlete. It is where we experience the ultimate high points of the activity and our passion. For Christians, game day is on Sunday at church or during the few-and-far-between spiritual highs on the “mountaintops” of our journey with Christ.    Of course these game days are blessings from our Father in Heaven. They’re great! But it cannot be game day every day....