Thursday Thoughts

  • Another one bites the dust

    Another one bites the dust

    I have seen it play out so many times over the last fifty years.  Another godly, gifted, and impactful Christian leader confesses after being confronted with a moral lapse that disqualified him/her for ministry.  Too many gifted leaders suffer debilitating moral injuries after they achieve success by choosing to walk into a moral morass.  During…

  • Wandering and Identity

    Wandering and Identity

    As you read this, Mary Kay and I will have completed almost four weeks of wandering where we have changed locations eight times across six states. During this time we have had very gracious friends and family who have opened their homes and lives to us.  We have been blessed during the process. There have…

  • Shortcoming of the Scientific Method

    Shortcoming of the Scientific Method

    I have spent a large portion of my life being educated, trained, and practicing the scientific method. I have found this very helpful. What is the scientific method? Simply stated, the scientific method identifies the influences that may produce an outcome (variables).  Then, the “scientist” holds (controls) all these variables constant while changing only one…

  • Change of heart

    Change of heart

    I have been writing this blog for two years.  I remember the concern I had in starting it because I had struggled with writing much of my life.  I did learn to express myself in writing through years of journaling.  Journaling was a good training ground.  Through over 45 years, I slowly absorbed the value…

  • Not feeling well

    Not feeling well

    The last month has been challenging for several reasons: we brought to close a 37-year season of our lives when we packed our belongings into several PODS and drove away from Orlando. Mary Kay and I experienced many emotions as we recalled events and reminisced on relationships over the past four decades.  It was like…

  • So what name would you choose?

    So what name would you choose?

    Mary Kay and I have met with three other couples over the last several years, working through the Good and Beautiful series by James Bryan Smith (thanks, Marc Sundstrom). Smith does an excellent job at creating a process to live out some of Dallas Willard’s thoughts and writings on life transformation.  In the second to…

  • Finishing well

    Finishing well

    These past few weeks have been really frantic for Mary Kay and me.  We are packing and purging, all the while trying to bring a 37-year season of life to closure.  During this time, we have raised our kids and loved our grandkids; I had four careers, and MK also had several, hopefully loved and…

  • The Tension in Loving God

    The Tension in Loving God

    Last week, I wrote about how being in Christ enables me to maintain the tension of healthy relationships. As we are in Christ, we respond to his love for us by keeping his commands out of our love for him.  In John 15.9-10, he tells us, “As the Father has loved me, so have I…

  • Needing relationships or abandonment

    Needing relationships or abandonment

    What is the difference between needing relationships and finding our significance in relationships?  We all need relationships, especially healthy ones that are life-giving. However, at times, it is easy to mistake this need for a sense that we are only significant IF we have this need met, even if in an unhealthy manner.  It is…

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