Thursday Thoughts

  • The Curse of email

    The Curse of email

    Over the last six months my life gradually became more and more disorganized. This is primarily due to my work routines or habits being eliminated in our recent move and my changing home office environment.  Over the last number of years, I have been able to keep my inbox to less than 20 emails.  However,…

  • Why is it so painful?

    Why is it so painful?

    Why is it painful to get in shape physically?  During our recent transition, I did little to stay in shape except walk a lot. There really aren’t major challenges to my getting back in shape, other than I don’t enjoy it. It isn’t like I hate it, I just don’t like it, especially since I…

  • Entropy, Sin, and Satan

    Entropy, Sin, and Satan

    Recently, we returned from a trip, and I gained a lot of weight.  As I have written in the past, I can gain 5 pounds in a week and it will take me a month to lose it! This has happened most of my adult life. However, I find that fact intriguing, I suspect the…

  • The practices of a mentor

    The practices of a mentor

    Last week, I wrote on the value of a mentor and a reader thoughtfully asked me some probing questions about the practices of a mentor. As I processed her questions, I realized that I hadn’t talked much about the logistics of a mentoring relationship.  I am sure there are many good books on mentoring, I…

  • The value of a mentor

    The value of a mentor

    I had lunch with my mentor recently.  He is 10 years older and much wiser than I. Every time I am with him, I am inspired to be a better version of myself.  Over my lifetime, I have learned a lot about how to benefit from a mentor.  As I have written before, I have…

  • Learning to let things go

    Learning to let things go

    Because technology keeps me functioning well, I didn’t anticipate the challenge of setting up my new home office. I found it very difficult to keep my normal rhythms without my usual connectivity.  At one point my internet service provider literally cut the cable to my new house. It took me talking to five different agents…

  • I’d rather burn out than rust out

    I’d rather burn out than rust out

    I recently assessed a staff pastor from one of the larger churches in our nation.  He was being considered for another position and was very careful not to criticize the church he was leaving.  But he clearly had been working in a stressful environment with a high production mindset. He didn’t know that over the…

  • Why change is so difficult

    Why change is so difficult

    For the last few blogs I have written about transformation, The more assessment debriefs I do, the more I believe Psalm 139 correctly describes us as “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  We are so complex that one assessment instrument barely scratches the surface of explaining who God created us to be.  The instruments we use (TrueWiring®)…

  • Transformation requires what we don’t have

    Transformation requires what we don’t have

    In my previous blog, I discussed how many helping professionals give their lives to serving people for change, only to see few individuals transformed. Too often, change is temporary and superficial.  I want to continue with this theme.  Why do most of us want to change something in our lives but seem unable to actually…

Got any book recommendations?