What is our narrative?  What is the story-line that we’ve authored to explain our world, or allay our fears, or justify our agendas, or excuse our behaviors?  What is the narrative that we’ve created to give ourselves permission to do whatever we want permission to do?  What are the story-lines, the spins, the bits of fiction that we create so that … [Read more...]

I want to be happy, but I don’t think I want to be satisfied.  I want to experience a resilient and wonderfully endearing sense of contentment that neatly threads itself through every part of my soul, but I don’t want that contentment to morph into the baser mentality of complacency.  I want to keep a weathered eye on every horizon, but I want to … [Read more...]

Our humanity is ingeniously fashioned in a manner that it can handily break the realities that would seek to break it.  Our existence need never be held hostage nor pressed into servitude to the sordid realities of all that is happening around us.  Rather, we are able to stand in spirited opposition to those realities, and in the face of them we … [Read more...]

My life is spent in holes more times than its not.  Some are deep and some are not so deep.  I have this maniacal tendency to go from one hole to another, rarely staying above ground long enough to understand what above ground looks like.  Instead, I’m repeatedly looking up from the bottom of some hole that I don’t necessarily remember falling … [Read more...]

Both the space and the tolerance to speak the truths of God into the mounting chaos of the 21st century seems to be rapidly diminishing.  Clearly, there is a formidable wave of mounting dissent that opposes God with an ever-accelerating intensity.  And in facing such a foreboding reality, how do we speak the saving truth of the Gospel into our … [Read more...]

We all have our proverbial soapboxes.  Sometimes we find ourselves hauling them out on a regular basis, standing high atop them and vigorously pontificating on whatever we’re pontificating about.  Other times they’re rarely used except in those most exceptional moments when circumstances are of such magnitude that not pulling them out feels as … [Read more...]

She walks ‘with’ fear, but she does not live ‘in’ fear.  At nineteen, Anna’s story is less a story and more a most wrenching tale penned of blistering heartache, seemingly unscalable disadvantages, improbable misfortune handily spun on the loom of all things unjust, and hope ground to powder only to be blown away on the ever-restless winds of … [Read more...]

I’m often left with the frightening realization that when someone has made up their mind, all of the logic, and all of the facts, and all of the truth that we can gather up and bring to bear in some sort of meaningful dialogue is meaningless.  People are not interested in meaningful dialogue.  Rather, they’re simply interested in promoting their … [Read more...]

When we get frustrated with people and begin to skirt the periphery of hatred, maybe we should consider a few things.  When we come to despise them and wish to rid ourselves of them, maybe we should ask who they really are and what they’re really experiencing.  When our tolerance level has long been surpassed and rage is all we know, maybe should … [Read more...]

What is independence?  Definitions abound, but what is it in actuality?  The Encarta Dictionary describes it as "freedom from dependence on or control by another person, organization, or state."  At its core, it's freedom from dependence or control.  It grants self-autonomy and self-directedness free of encumbrances.  Independence provides the … [Read more...]