We ask ourselves this question all the time, or one like it: Why can’t we just move back to Dallas? Why can’t I just go back to my old job? Why can’t we just keep our old car? Why can’t we just get back together? We get the idea that back then, everything was fine. […]
Many of us spend our lives gaining, earning, accumulating the objects we think we need to be happy. We make our plans, marry the right people, enter the right professions. We make our money, save, invest, borrow, overextend ourselves, claw our way back to where we were. And the whole time, we tell ourselves we’re […]
We’re busy. Busier, probably, than any culture has ever been. And leading is hard. It takes work, and it carries no guarantees that the work will bear fruit. It might lead to nothing more than unhappy followers. No wonder most of us don’t want to do it. Instead, we wait for the leader who thinks […]
There are moments it’s hard to tell the truth. When the boss asks about the project we haven’t finished yet, when the police officer asks how fast we think we were going, when our child asks us to come upstairs and play after a long day’s work when all we want to do is sit […]
When we meet somebody who doesn’t fit our preconceptions of a group, someone we find ourselves growing comfortable with, we often feel a need to praise our new friend with an observation that points out how unlike those people he is. We say something like: Those people are all so immature, so ignorant. Present company […]
I choose to make time to vote today. Our American political process, the way we select our leaders, the way those leaders govern, is often ridiculously frustrating. Even as I resolve to go vote today, I have to admit to myself that none of the current pool of candidates for president is at all exciting […]
We love stories about true love. They are every bit as stirring for us as the stories of justice and vengeance and underdogs finding victory against all odds: the stories of two people finding each other, two people who were meant for each other, who ultimately may never have known happiness if they hadn’t found […]
We love to talk about seeking understanding. But most of us choose ignorance instead. Small wonder. Understanding is hard. It’s much easier to judge poor single mothers, to talk about how their bad choices landed them where they are, than to speak to one, to try to understand why those choices may have seemed right […]
Faith is not a competition. But we love to make it one. In our competitive society, we find ways to compare our faith with that of others, ways to make sure we are better at faith than they are. We go to church more often than they do; we tithe, and they give less than […]
A Facebook friend posted something last week I feel compelled to comment on. I don’t remember the exact words, but the gist of it was that this person is sick and tired of the selfishness, self-centered attitudes, and sense of entitlement of people today, and they are waiting for a return of old-fashioned values like […]