8 Jul 2016
Have you ever wanted to pull your car to the side of the road, get out, sit on the curb and have a good cry? You’ve been juggling end-of-school schedules, kids, the expectations of others, such that it seems like your world is spinning out of control. And now that the school year is over, summer activities threaten to be just as overwhelming. Is there a solution? Perhaps a principle from a different context will
15 Jan 2016
Have you ever hit a deer? I have. And you cannot fully understand the meaning of the expression “deer in the headlights” until you have seen it up close and personal. The Urban Dictionary online (which HAS to be accurate, right?) says the expression refers to “A mental state of high arousal caused by anxiety, fear, panic, surprise and/or confusion . . . A person experiencing the ‘deer in headlights’ syndrome often shows behavioral signs
As I write this we are approaching the second Sunday of Advent according to the church calendar. I have not always thought of the yearly cycle in these terms. I grew up in a secular household that relegated religion to holidays characterized mostly by Santa and the Easter Bunny. Even after responding consciously to God's call on my life as an adult, I continued for some time to order my life around the secular calendar.
As Martin Luther approached the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31st, 1517, he did not expect anything remarkable to occur. Knowing something of what has transpired since that momentous event, I find this fact about Luther fascinating and worth some reflection. Not long before posted his "Ninety-five Theses," Luther had already written and posted a different set of theses (ninety-seven) to be debated in an academic setting. There was nothing unusual
I have several children under the age of ten, and I often find myself teaching them what classical educators have called the Trivium: the arts of language, reasoning, and expression. To cite one example, my five-year old daughter and I were on our way out to milk the cow the other night when she noticed how the clouds were moving quickly past the moon. But to her it was not the clouds moving but rather
22 Jul 2015
Several years ago I read a book by Ken Hughes called Disciplines of a Godly Man. The main theme of the book deals with imitating older, wiser men and their godly habits. One such habit he discusses is reading. Hughes challenged me to think more deeply about what I read, and at the end of the book he listed several well-known leaders in the church, and he included a list of their favorite books. Knowing