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…

It is impossible to measure the depths of the human soul. We are created in the image of our eternal God for the purpose of being in an eternal relationship with Him. The capacity of the soul is boundless, and we have eternity with our God to explore the depths of His love for us. All people are deep people. We are full of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual depth but the depth we possess is not always the depth we explore…

This is an incredible time to be alive. We have instant access to information, art, music, literature, philosophy, and history. We can learn and share virtually anything the human mind can conceive. The biggest question we face is not “how much we can know” or “what should we know” but “what will we do with what we know?” Information is power and power is often abused and misused for selfish gain. What if instead of abusing power, we used power to make this world even more beautiful?…

Do you ever feel like this world does not make sense? Do you ever have the sense that what we refer to as reality isn’t very real? Do you have a haunting feeling that things are not really as they seem? Do you suspect that there are forces outside of your perception that are actively manipulating your world? Do you suffer from chronic déjà vu, recurring dreams, and the occasional partial song lyric that gets stuck on repeat in your head and you cannot for the life of you figure out what song it is or what lyric comes next?…

Our world is full of rhetoric about “joy stealers.” We love to point the proverbial finger at basic life circumstances to accuse them of robbing us of our joy. We label things like stress, conflict, hardship, negative emotions, difficult people, and general society as being “joy stealers.” Our finger pointing is in vain, because joy cannot be stolen…

What began as a preaching reminder and coaching strategy has evolved into a powerful life mantra. “No anxious, angry, or arrogant preachers.” I repeat this phrase before stepping on stage to preach and I share it regularly with our preaching team. It is a wonderful heart check and recentering tool that I now apply to every aspect of life…

Humility builds connections. Pride hinders connections. False humility destroys connections. One way that false humility is often expressed is through the inability to graciously receive a compliment. When we discredit someone’s compliment, we create a relational disconnect…

Every life is a story. When we encounter people, they are not just entering into our stories…we are entering into theirs. There is more than the moment. In the moment, I can easily be self-obsessed, self-absorbed, and self-centered. It is easy for me to only consider myself and how the actions of others impact me and my story. I often forget that every interaction is the intersection of stories. Where I’ve been, what I’ve done, and what’s been done to me collide with the collected experiences of another as our stories merge into a new narrative…

I know…I know…it’s simplistic and it rhymes, but don’t discount this powerhouse truth because of its inherent cuteness. When in doubt, do without. This basic principle has saved me from doing numerous things that could have brought more pain and brokenness into my world…

Here is a life lesson I had to learn the hard way…if you have no grass, don’t kill the weeds.

It started innocently enough. I woke up on an unusually warm early Spring Saturday morning. While enjoying a cup of coffee and looking at my backyard through the kitchen window, I crafted a plan for my day. I felt that I had reached the point in life where it was time for me to finally have a well-manicured lawn. I don’t know what got into me…it was probably the combined effect of the warm sunshine pouring through the window, the hopeful songs of early birds getting their worms, and a Saturday with no plans…

Staff Member: “We need $30,000!”

Me: “Why do we need $30,000?”

Staff Member: “Because we have bats in the building!”

This type of conversation is fairly normal in my line of work. Not necessarily the “bats in the building” part, but the “we have a problem and the only way to fix it is to spend a lot of money we don’t have” part…

God is love. The Bible is a book that contains God’s words to us. God prepared, preserved, and presented His words to us in amazing book that helps us to hear His voice in powerful ways. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible reveals God’s love for His world. Love is the foundational lens through which the Bible’s message is intended to be understood, applied, and shared. Since love is God’s intent, scripture not shared in love is out of context…

Here’s a lifehack that will provide you with more joy than you can imagine. Change your “have-tos” into “get-tos.” This simple strategic change in thinking is empowering and refreshing. Whenever you find yourself thinking that you “have to” do something, remind yourself that you “get to” do it…

Ducks are cool.

I love watching ducks. There are few things that I find more relaxing than watching ducks on a pond. Nothing seems to bother them. They are calm, cool, and collected. Noise doesn’t faze them. Rain doesn’t disrupt them. Being watched doesn’t change them…