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Trusting God in the Bizarre
I have tongue cancer. Bizarre, right? I’m not male, nor do I engage in the particularly bad combination of both smoking and drinking, which are the big markers for this nasty invasion. In two weeks I am scheduled for surgery to remove the cancer by cutting out a big chunk of my tongue—which is a particular challenge and sadness for a professional speaker. One of the things I have discovered is that, even without any drugs, the weight of this diagnosis and the upcoming difficult surgery and recovery has consumed a lot of my mental and emotional energy. Everything in my life has taken a back seat to this crisis.…
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un-cursory
Victoria Monet shares a poem relevant to many conversations about race on social media. In her poem "un-cursory," she highlights themes of humility and redemptive relationships in light of racial reconciliation.
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To Tell the Truth: Integrity and Social Media
The United States has just past through a particularly contentious news cycle. What about in your country? Are people working out problems or are they viciously debating issues and name calling? I wrote this post several years ago, but its message still seems necessary today: Are you like me? Controlling my words is an area where I have to be vigilant. Lately negative social media posts are on the upswing, and lies and exaggerations are not uncommon. The “share” button is another potential pitfall. I am convinced that words matter—whether spoken or written. Psalm 34:12-14(NET) challenges me: Do you want to really live? Would you love to live a long, happy…
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Rebellion and Exponential Evil
“For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment, and if he did not spare the ancient world, but did protect Noah, a herald of righteousness, along with seven others, when God brought a flood on an ungodly world, and if he turned to ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when he condemned them to destruction, having appointed them to serve as an example to future generations of the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man in anguish over the debauched lifestyle of lawless men, (for while…
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Am I Who You Think I Am?
Have you ever read any statistics on how social media is affecting our sense of identity? In a world where we can post who we want others to perceive we are, we can end up with an online-induced case of plural identities. Not only does this create confusion, it also is exhausting to maintain. My daughter, Kari Ciliberti, recently in a paper on this very subject, cited “Mary Aiken’s, an expert in cyberpsychology, comments on the feedback loop of one’s cyber self, saying, “… The cyber self is always under construction, physiologically and digitally. Even when …sleeping, the cyber self continues to exist. It is always on- evolving, updating, making…
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It Is Well With My Soul
On September 7, 2016 – 450 high school students from Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee came to their beloved Latin and Bible teacher’s home to sing and worship with him and his wife outside his window. Their teacher, in the last weeks of a long battle with cancer, had no treatment options remaining. The subsequent video of this event has gone viral with an estimated 35 million hits having been picked up by the national news -ABC, Good Morning American and CNN. Early Friday morning, September 15, 2016 Mr. Ellis slipped quietly from this life and into the Presence of the Lord whom he loved to worship…nor more pain,…
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Out of the Abundance of the Heart–Flows Road Rage. And Other Stuff.
In this morning’s traffic, my husband apparently violated one of the most important unwritten rules of the road: he changed lanes into the very spot that another driver intended to move into. Suddenly this large pickup truck zoomed up alongside us just so he could dangerously cut us off, then slammed on his brakes. To teach us a lesson, I suppose: Don’t you dare get in my way! I’m the most important person on the road! A few minutes later—from a safe distance—we watched him tailgate the person in front of him. He was clearly an angry and aggressively hostile driver. We did not have to wonder what was in…
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Time Savers, Life Takers
Leadership is broken because leaders are unbroken You have the watch, we have the time –African proverb Well, Apple has the watch anyway! Mac has taken a bite out of the apple with its heart measuring, health monitoring, run pacing—and, oh yeah, time telling—watch. There’s a whole new world of time savers available in any language from IOS to Android to Windows. And there’s all those other tech time savers like DVRs, online banking, texting, caller ID, and navigational tools, Yes, and Evernote and Dropbox too, both of which have cost me more time trying to figure out how to use than they ever saved me. That’s my problem, I’m…
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The Rescue of “Emmanuel” and a Christ Play
The days before were particularly cumbersome and discouraging, pressure filled and crowded. It was easy to become myopic, self-focused and SO tempting to giving into being overwhelmed. Circumstances dominated, recent concerns trumped joy and the slithering down into the place of “why try?” was imminent. I hate that place. So, early that morning, when I walked into our kitchen and checked the emails, while the water was boiling for tea, I was not expecting anything more than my status quo of struggle. The crisis of a compromised pregnancy and delivery was still happening thousands of miles away for our dear friends recently returned to their home country. I read through…
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The Tyranny of the Expected Response… What lies beneath?
A farmer sits on his front porch. Just inside the screen door the phone rings. And rings. His neighbor asks, “Aren’t you going to get that?” The farmer spits and leans back, “I bought that phone for my convenience. And right now…it’s not convenient.” Not so long ago…if someone phoned you and you didn’t answer…they just called you back. Then, If someone emailed you…you responded within a day or two. All was well. Then came instant messenger and Facebook messaging. We see you are logged in on Facebook so we kind of expect you to respond… Then came a river of tweets rushing by…I know you’re always checking…
