We live in a world where anyone can pretend to be an expert in anything. We acquire a small amount of knowledge on a topic and then start to assume that we know more than people who have spent their entire lives working in their dedicated fields. We criticize decisions that we do not understand without acknowledging our limited scope of data. Do we realize how utterly stupid we sound when we talk about actual experts being idiots, morons, and clueless?

This behavior is called pride. When we elevate ourselves above others who clearly are far more accomplished than we are, we expose our foolishness to the world…

Rejection is a painful part of life. When any relationship comes to an end there is loss, but that loss is amplified when you are not the one who initiates the relational break. A family member stops communicating with you. A friend no longer wants to spend time with you. A client moves to a new vendor. Your company downsizes. Your doctor drops you as a patient. What happened?

Rejection is confusing. We are left to wonder, “What did I do wrong? What could I have done differently? I thought they loved me.” The reality is that they love you until they don’t.

At some point western Christian evangelicalism got highjacked by leadership culture. Every sermon, book, and conference became about how to be a better leader. Pastors began to focus much of their attention on leadership development strategies while telling every person in their congregations that they were called to be leaders. All that leadership rhetoric had some unintended consequences.

Constantly telling everyone that they are leaders is one of the fastest ways to make sure that nobody follows. That is a problem because Christianity is based on followership not leadership.

God commands us to forgive.

^“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11:25 NIV)

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32 NIV)

“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22 NIV)

Forgiving others as God has forgiven us is a crucial part of following Jesus. There are few things more confusing to our world than resentful, vengeful, unforgiving Christians. People who claim the name of Jesus but refuse to love with His love like He loves make it extremely difficult for people to understand who God is, what He has done, and what He promises to do. Refusing to forgive is a gross misrepresentation of God’s grace…

God’s commands are a blessing not a burden. His commands are for us not against us. When we disobey God, our actions declare that we think we are greater than God. Sin is anything we do that we know God doesn’t want us to do or anything we neglect to do that we know God wants us to do.

Obedience to God requires taking steps of faith. “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25 NIV) If we keep in step with God’s Spirit through daily obedience, we do not find ourselves in a position to take a leap of faith. Leaps of faith are terrifying, feel unreasonable, and seem utterly impossible. When obeying God feels like a leap instead of a step, there is a good chance that delayed obedience has been lurking for a while.

Delayed obedience is disobedience in disguise.

“Stay in your lane” is a phrase that people use to indicate that others have left their area of expertise or influence. It is a bit of a weaponized phrase, because it is intended to limit what others can or should do. I personally find it troubling, rude, condescending, and inappropriate. People can have passions, opinions, influence, and input into the full spectrum of the human experience. When we attempt to limit people to a single lane, we not only limit a person’s expression…

Yeah…here’s some serious life advice from a seasoned veteran: NEVER fight a BABY! At first glance, this seems pretty obvious. Who would fight a baby? What kind of moron would do something that stupid? Fighting a baby is a lose-lose proposition. If you win the fight, then you are a jerk that beats up on babies. If you lose the fight, then you are the wuss who got beat up by a baby. Lose-lose…

Prayer is a heart revealer. What I choose to discuss with God reveals what matters most to me. What I ask God for reveals what I feel like I am lacking. What I spend the majority of my time in prayer doing (giving thanks, making requests, worshiping, listening, and so on) reveals how I view God. It is easy to settle into predictable patterns of prayer and to experience a familiarity with God that can diminish the beauty, power, and magnitude of connecting with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords…

Planning is not the enemy of spontaneity, but people often neglect to make plans because they long to live in the moment. Spontaneous living sounds exciting, but without a plan it usually ends up being extremely predictable. People who do not plan for fun typically have less fun. People who do not plan to celebrate typically celebrate less. People who do not plan for life typically experience less living…

The zombie apocalypse happened and nobody noticed or seemed to care. We expected flesh-eating monsters mindlessly roaming the earth in blood-thirsty hoards but got social media instead…

Money is not only a terrible god…it is probably the worst of all gods. EveryOne worships something. We long to connect with something greater than ourselves so that we can transcend self. Money is the most common idol in our culture. People worship and serve money more than any other thing…

Major moral failure within evangelical Christianity typically focuses on three major areas…sex, money, and power. Church scandals almost always involve one or more of these abuses. When someone in leadership has an affair, steals money, or uses power to hurt people, we take notice and take action…

We are programmed to be consumers. We are targeted as consumers. We are rewarded for consuming. It is easy to see how “consumer” is the primary identity piece our cultural context holds. All other identities fall under the consumer profile. We use our lesser identities to support our primary identity. This is clearly reflected in way people respond to Christianity…

Organizations, families, and businesses have rules for how they operate. Some are written rules and some are unwritten rules. The rules for governing a group of people tend to develop and evolve over time. Something negative happens, so a rule is generated to prevent that event from happening again. A threat occurs, so new rules are created to mitigate the threat. Something positive happens, so rules are instituted to help ensure positive things happen again in the future…

Just about the fastest way to get me to tune out someone speaking to a crowd of people is for them to begin by addressing the crowd as “friends.” I think the same thing every time. “You don’t know me. We aren’t friends. We don’t hang out. I can’t call you if I need something.” I feel like at best the speaker doesn’t hold the same value for the word “friend” that I do and that at worst the speaker is being disingenuous in an attempt to manipulate me…

People do not like to be told “no.” We live in a world where being told “no” can feel like a personal attack. In a time where the pursuit of personal privilege is paramount, it is easy to believe that we should always be able to have what we want when we want it…

Does it feel like the world is getting louder? Like someone turned up the volume on hatred, misery, war, judgement, cruelty, evil, betrayal, harshness, and impulsiveness? Yeah…it’s definitely getting louder.

So much noise. So little love…

Busy. Busy. Busy. Be all I can be.

Dizzy. Dizzy. Dizzy. Take a spin and you’ll see.

Two of me. Two of me. Full of duplicity.

Copies of copies blurred with intensity.

Jesus never promised to give us busy lives…He promised us full lives.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV)

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Who is this thief and how does he destroy life? Satan is the thief and his tactics are sneaky, subtle, and attractive. Satan works to convince us to exchange God’s blessing of fullness for the curse of busyness…

Years ago, I started a new job and found the existing staff to be resistant to new ideas. I was confused by their resistance because they had a great reputation for enjoying innovation and I knew they were passionate about the mission. It was clear that their resistance was not a character issue but a culture issue.

When I challenged their resistance, I was repeatedly met with the same phrase. “We can’t do that with excellence.”…

Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years. A lifetime.

We measure life in time.

Calendars. Schedules. Appointments. Alarms. Busy.

We measure importance by how we fill our time.

We think that time is a standard we can use to evaluate our lives, but time is never enough…