My Thoughts and Articles
Life as a Competition? Think Win-Win Instead
I’m a very competitive person. I’m always looking for a game or contest to enter. Last fall, I traveled back to the college I attended, and my college friends and I went to a football game. I loved rooting for my team. My friend had a foosball table and a ...
Why Trying to Improve Your Self-Esteem Doesn’t Work
When I was a kid, self-esteem was a big deal. We had programs in school that tried to help us feel better about ourselves. We got participation trophies in sports, irrespective of whether we were the star player or bench warmer. Not Much Good Looking back, all those self-esteem programs ...
Forget the Golden Rule
One of the first key principles we learn as children is the Golden Rule—do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But as I have gone through life, I have become more and more convinced that the Golden Rule is incomplete. Platinum Rule Instead, we should follow ...
Encourage “You”
A few years ago, I helped lead a college mission trip to Guatemala through my church. We partnered with Habitat for Humanity, and spent a week working on building two houses. Over the course of the trip, one of the things I felt God leading me to do was to ...
Not Part of Our Group
There’s an interesting story in the Gospel of Mark that critiques our tendency to form little groups or cliques based on our particular understanding of God. Here’s what happened: “Teacher,” said John, “We saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was ...
4 Steps to Emotional Peace
When it comes down to it, most of us are looking for emotional peace and happiness. But life has a tendency to disrupt this goal. Lost jobs, broken marriages, scary diagnoses, and pandemics all have the potential to rob us of our peace and happiness, sending us into a fog ...
