Average life spans are shorter than most of us realize. For instance, a face-lift lasts only six to ten years; a dollar bill lasts for only eighteen months; a painted line on the road remains only three to four months; and a tornado seldom lasts more than ten minutes.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Christian Living
Sharing Your Testimony
A time-honored, effective method of evangelism is your personal testimony. Just telling about your spiritual pilgrimage. The skeptic may deny your doctrine or attack your church, but he cannot honestly ignore the fact that your life has been cleaned up and revolutionized.
Read MoreResponsibility
One of George Bernard Shaw’s statements frequently flashes through my mind: “Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” In a day when most people pass the buck with merely a shrug, those words bite and sting. It’s one thing to sing and dance to liberty’s tunes, but it’s something else entirely to bear the responsibility for paying the band.
Read MorePredicaments
Ah, those predicaments . . . life is full of them. Often they are of our own making. Other times they just seem to happen mysteriously to us. Occasionally, predicaments are comical or borderline crazy. Sometimes they can be irritating and troublesome. But one thing is for sure: Predicaments are unpredictable. And embarrassing. And confusing. And really weird.
Read MoreOn Being Confidential
Be honest now, can you keep a secret? When privileged information passes through one of the gates of your senses, does it remain within the walls of your mind, or is it only a matter of time before a leak occurs? Do you respect a person’s trust or ignore it, either instantly or ultimately?
Read MoreA Matter of Obedience
Leading can be awfully lonely and terribly frustrating. I haven’t always believed that. Fact is, when I was a starry-eyed seminary student back around ’59 and ’60, I had this crazy idea that a leader lived a charmed life. Especially a spiritual leader.
Read MoreA Mentor
There we sat, a cluster of six. A stubby orange candle burned at the center of our table flickering eerie shadows across our faces. One spoke; five listened. Every question was handled with such grace, such effortless ease. Each answer was drawn from deep wells of wisdom, shaped by tough decisions and nurtured by time. And pain.
Read MoreAn Appraisal
Well, we are [five] months into the year. Throughout the past months we’ve reaffirmed the significance of pacing ourselves and not allowing the tyranny of the urgent to blind us to the value of the important. Well . . . how’s it going? Pause long enough to review and reflect as you answer these questions.
Read MoreIt’s More Than a Job
A young fella rushed into a service station and asked the manager if he had a pay phone. The manager nodded, “Sure, over there.” The boy pushed in some change, dialed, and waited for an answer. Finally, someone came on the line. “Uh, sir,” he said in a deep voice, “could you use an honest, hardworking young man to work for you?” The station manager couldn’t help overhearing the question.
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