Life is full of amazing, beautiful things for us to enjoy. I've always thought this... but a couple of years back I got stuck. Some hard stuff had happened, and the blows were too much for my emotions to deal with. I was sad but I didn't realize it, so I got angry but I didn't realize that either. So I was depressed and that was all I knew.
Read MoreYour parents aren't the enemy. Your spouse isn't the enemy. That man who abused you isn't even the enemy. You and I all have only one enemy, and his name is Satan. He would like you focus your attention and aggression on everyone else. But he is our only enemy, and every single one of us is a victim of his violence and deceit. When we understand this we can begin to dismantle our walls and extend grace and forgiveness and mercy to everyone else who has been victimized.
Read MoreGod created us (which includes you) to be the object of his love and affection. He created you just so that he could get to pour out his love on you. It's his joy and his privilege. He created you to be the recipient of his love, forever. And that means...
Read MoreYou are a free and powerful person, and within the bounds of the law and of love, just about anything goes for you. Your parents can't dictate your life for you. Your religious community can't dictate what is appropriate for you to do and what isn't. Don't reject wise advice or sound counsel don't be a slave to the machine either. You get to choose.
Read MoreGod was moved by Abraham's willingness, but he wasn't asking him to kill his son. God never asks us to put our children in the fire. God always provides the sacrifice himself and he too is the burning fire. His invitation is for us to enter his burning presence, lay down our lives and dreams, and be transformed into beings far more capable of seeing those dreams become reality.
Read MoreWhy does God speak? Because God wants us to know love. All communication that comes from God is designed to draw us into relationship with the Trinity. Relationship is God's major purpose. For that reason, all prophecy is best interpreted as an invitation to learn more about the character of God and respond to it.
Read MoreGoogle is estimated to have something like 30 million hard drives across their entire operation globally. That means, by statistical analysis, that Google can expect a hard drive to fail once every 6 seconds. Which is about how often we screw up as well.
Read MoreDuring my travels, what I discovered is that what's appropriate to wear in any given context differs widely from culture to culture. Dissonance occurs when what you feel is appropriate differs with what someone else feels is appropriate. Rather than acknowledge that we are experiencing cultural dissonance, we tend to project our own cultural values upon others, and use that as the basis for our judgement. Rather than accept the judgements our mind makes up, God invites us to have our minds constantly renewed.
Read MoreMany women I talk to tell me they married expecting a best friend, a confidant, a spiritual warrior, and a cuddle-bunny, all rolled into one. Many men I talk to tell me they were expecting a Godly but nymphomaniac sex vixen, the "righteous fox" promised by youth pastors, who would validate them at every turn and support all their crazy dreams. It seems that most of us were sold a bill of goods that didn't quite match up with our expectations.
Read MoreThis post includes massive spoilers for the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. I'm not talking about minor plot details, I'm talking BIG SPOILERY SPOILERS... secrets will be revealed. So don't read on if you haven't seen the film or don't want it to be ruined. Ready? Dive in.
Read MoreHurt, and the avoidance of future hurt, can be the biggest factor that challenges our growth to maturity. The more we shy away from pain, the more we insulate ourselves from the chance to grow and expand our personhood. When my grandfather died last year I had to face this challenge head on.
Read MoreMy wife and I travel in different circles, and are usually headed in different directions. She is a natural planner and strategizer, I am naturally empathic and sensitive. I feel first, she plans first. I work in a Christian ministry, she works at a University. When we got married, I had no idea what my dreams were, what my life’s goals were, or what calling God had placed on my life (whether or not you believe in such things). When we got married, Maija was already working the plan for her life. We’re very different to one another. We’re best friends, we’re lovers, we’re mom and dad to the same kids, but in many ways we’re poles apart.
Read MoreI've heard this line time and time again living in North America: Doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets elected. This attitude doesn't exist in nations who have governments that consistently earn the trust and respect of their people (the Nordic nations, for example).
Read MoreI want to make abundantly clear that the following are my own personal thoughts, and are not in way representative of the views of my employer. It's not often that I have a strong desire to express my thoughts publicly about current events, but the recent furore surrounding World Vision America and their very public tangle with homosexual hiring policy has captured my interest. As someone who facilitates donor relationships for a large charity, someone who has gay Christians in their family, and someone who is generally disturbed by the state of American Christianity(™), I suppose it's the perfect bait.
Read MoreMy preference would be to just come out and say "God doesn't test us." I considered that as the title for this piece because it's more incendiary, but it's not entirely accurate. Institutional education has given us a definition of "test" that is hard to shake, one whereby we are measured to a standard and we either fail or pass the test based on our performance against said standard. In some cases the standard is not predetermined, but is that of our highest performing peer, and it is against them that we are directly measured and our status of pass/fail is judged. As children, we heard that God was a just and righteous Judge, and we became familiar with his standards. I think bad theology, ill-equipped parents[1], and over-simplified children's Bibles[2] all combined to give us a view of a testing God that we were never meant to have. Because when God tests us, and test us he will, he is not measuring us against his righteous standards. That is not and never has been, the definition of his testing, and it's time that we all got past this.
Read MoreThe scripture in Genesis 1:27 has always fascinated me. It's well known, the first half reading "So God created man in his own image". This concept of man being made in God's image is one of the oldest pieces of theology in my memory, so it's a concept that I suppose strongly impacted my early childhood understanding of God and humanity. I can imagine a conversation taking place between mother and child…
Read MoreStack ranking is controversial. It destroyed Microsoft from the inside out, yet it helps make Valve the incredible company it is. Put simply, stack ranking is the practice of rating employees directly against one another, rather than against their job descriptions or some other standard. You're ranking your employees... stacking them on top of one another based on whatever criteria you find helpful. At Microsoft, it looks like stack ranking was the supervisor's responsibility, which over time led to a culture of intense competition between employees that destroyed moral and the team environment. At Valve, stack ranking is performed by your peers (as is almost everything), so it appears to contribute to the sense of ownership that each person has with each other. That's a very cursory analysis and it's likely flawed... but it's helpful to examine as a means of gaining team insight. Stack ranking, as with any other form of management and evaluation, is only going to cause damage or success in direct relation to how to use the results.
Read MoreGod is in the business of upsetting church cultural tradition. We have permission to explore a new world with Christ, and anyone who ventures outside the four walls of traditional church will find that they are far from alone.
Read MoreThis post is the final in a 3-part series called "The New Missional Paradigm"; it's something of a manifesto on the intersection of church, community and business management. Please see the first part for a thorough introduction, and for an introduction to the concept of spiritual community: what it is, and why it's God's plan.
Read MoreThis is the second in a 3-part article called "The New Missional Paradigm"; it's something of a manifesto on the intersection of church, community and business management. Please see the first part for a thorough introduction.
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