What do you think my greatest challenge is? Church politics? Middle School kids who don’t shower? Lock In’s? Parents? All of those are challenging in their own way, but all of those are externals that I can handle. It’s what’s happening internally that is the most challenging, I’m getting older. I turn 48 in a…
Sheryl shares the three P’s—personalization, pervasiveness, and permanence—that are critical to how we bounce back from hardship. The seeds of resilience are planted in the way we process the negative events in our lives. Personalization – Not everything that happens to us, happens because of us. Pervasiveness – This will effect every…
Civil War is everything I hoped it would be. The fights and the match ups were magic. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) was a breakout hero and made me excited to see the Black Panther movie. I really liked the new Spiderman (Tom Holland) and his story line. Soooo much better than Andrew Garfield. This movie…
We have two ways to travel, by trains or dune buggy. Trains are predictable. They have scheduled stops. You may even arrive on time but you have one problem, tracks. If you want to go “over there” you can’t. You have to stay on the tracks. One other thing. you are not the conductor. You…
I am not a Radiohead “fan” but I’m always intrigued by their music. It’s moody and reflective and worth taking a listen to. I saw their new video Burn The Witch pop up and immediately saw he connection to Nicolas’ Cage movie The Wicker Man. Not his best or worst but a disturbing movie none…
Consider all the unlikely biblical characters God chose in the Old Testament Abraham and Sarah to have children beyond their years David a shepherd Moses a murder Gideon a coward Samuel a child Jonah the runaway Joseph a teen Jacob the liar and then who Jesus chose in the New Testament Fishermen Lepers Mary the…
Just saw an article on Mashable.com about Daisy Ridley extoling the values of being yourself, and I applaud her. Daisy posted a picture of herself on Instagram without make up and with no filters. Feelings create the need to filter. Feeling unworthy. Feeling lonely. Feeling disrespected. I tell my students all the time, “Feelings are…
Things can seem, and many times are, uneven in youth ministry. The church down the street has: a bigger budget a better youth facility a brighter influence in the community But, you’re not competing against the church down the street, you’re competing against yourself. God does not love the church down the street any more…
I heard this morning about an older man, I knew from a former church, passing away. He had lost his wife many years earlier and never remarried. He was a godly man and will be missed. What I’ll miss about him, and men of his generation, was his resolve. Resolve is a word I like.…
Are You Busy? You may say , “Heck yeah! I’m up to my eyeballs in forms, paper work, programming, meetings, etc.”. These things are necessary, but not necessarily productive. Busy means we’re hiding from real work that matters. Busy means we’re in our comfort zone. Busy means we’re working hard to maintain the status quo.…
