Out of Order

Doing all things “decently and in order” applies to a lot more areas than theology. It’s remarkable how many guys who have the ability to articulate the most exacting details and nuances of their area of expertise never get their desks cleared off or their workrooms organized. They’re brainy enough to rebuild some complex engine, but the trash under the kitchen sink can overflow until it’s ankle deep, and they aren’t even aware of it. Isn’t it amazing how many men have quiz-kid heads and pigpen habits?

Stop the Elevator

Elevators are weird places. You’re crammed in with folks you’ve never met, so you try really hard not to touch them. And nobody talks, except for an occasional “Out, please.” You don’t look at anyone; in fact, you don’t look anywhere but up, watching those dumb floor numbers go on and off.

Intimate Communication

You who are parents need to think it over . . . to come to terms with this business of communicating openly, tactfully, and intelligently with your children in the areas of intimacy. lt’s a parental task that must be handled with great care and wisdom—but it must be handled. Obviously, it is not to be directed only toward the girls, but to boys as well. Nor should it be communicated only by mothers, but by both parents. God’s beautiful plan regarding conception and birth needs to be shared from a balanced perspective.

The Need for Integrity

Leaders with power and brains are common. So are leaders with riches and popularity. But a competent leader full of integrity and skill, coupled with sincerity, is rare indeed.

Joyful Generosity

Thoughts disentangle themselves . . . over the lips and through the fingertips. I learned that saying over thirty years ago, and just about every time I put it to the test, it works! Whenever I have difficulty comprehending the complicated or clarifying the complex, I talk it out or write it out.

New Hope

Floundering with my father is among my most cherished childhood memories. Armed with a beat-up Coleman lantern, two gigs, a stringer . . . we’d head to the water. When the sky got nice ‘n’ dark, we’d wade in about knee-deep and stumble off into the night.

Witnessing

Various methods are employed to communicate the good news of Christ to the lost. Take the Eager-Beaver Approach, for example. “The more scalps, the better.” This numerical approach is decision-centered, and little (if any) effort is directed toward follow-up or discipleship or cultivating a relationship.

A Survival Secret

One winter day while a Chilean peasant was tending his cattle along a long, deep gorge in a remote area of the Andes, he saw two gaunt, bearded figures across the chasm. Thinking they were terrorists, he ran and hid. The next day he returned and saw they were still there. He quickly gathered a pencil, some paper, and a stone, wrapped them in a handkerchief, and heaved them across to the strangers.

Doing the Unexpected

There are various ways to describe it: turning the other cheek . . . going the extra mile . . . doing good to those who hate us . . . loving our enemies. We may say it in different ways, but the action amounts to the same thing. By doing the unexpected, we accomplish a twofold objective: (1) we put an end to bitterness, and (2) we prove the truth of the age-old axiom, love conquers all. I’ve seen it happen over and over again.

The Final Toll

Sleep came hard for me last night. Earlier that evening, Cynthia and I had read together a letter from our long-time friend Wally Norling, who had just returned from the bedside of Betty, his “loving partner in life for forty-two years.” Betty is dying of cancer of the liver, and Wally’s letter, written in the midst of that, was a gracious, understated masterpiece of faith.

Category Archives: Christian Living