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The Paradoxes of Christianity
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Now that is a contradiction! Please do any and all children a favor and let them know that sticks and stones, as well as sarcasm, shouts, and silence, hurt. We live in a world dominated by hate crimes, hate speech, hate mail. We live in a world of hurt, yet God calls Christians to remain vulnerable and kind. This played out in real time when recently I was hurt by some of the aforementioned hate. As the Lord ministered to me, I realized that I had two choices: withdraw, retreating from the possibility of getting hurt again,…
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Authentic Relationships: Being Kind, Compassionate and Sharing with One Another
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. Mother Teresa
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Lead by Loving
If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you had asked almost any one of the great Christians of old, he would have replied, Love. . . A negative term has been substituted from a positive . . . The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. — C.S. Lewis The poignant words struck my soul. What if we lived and led by Lewis’ observation? What if…
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Looking for Happiness today?
Just yesterday I learned that science now affirms two key ingredients that lead to greater happiness: gratitude and kindness. My granddaughter shared these insights with me from her current college studies in psychology. Interestingly the class reviewed scientific experiments that demonstrate the accuracy of those contentions. Additionally, it has been demonstrated as well that verbal expressions of gratitude, actually saying the words aloud, multiply the impact of thankfulness. Our conversation leads me to reflect as we celebrate today, Memorial Day. Established following the brutal Civil War, Memorial Day honors the lives sacrificed for our freedom. Since the Civil War, Americans have given their lives serving in the Spanish-American War, World…
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The Rudeness of Not Responding with a “Thank you for applying …”
Searching for a job is hard enough without all the rejection. I’m not talking about a reply saying that you didn’t get the job. I’m talking about getting no reply at all! You might expect this kind of rudeness from a secular company. Surely, Christians would do better! But do Christian organizations and Christian-owned businesses do better? In the past few months, several of my family members have been searching for new jobs. One of our daughters is an appreciated professor at a west coast Christian university. She recently applied for professor positions at several Christian universities closer to her Texas roots—universities that prominently display on their websites that they…
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What Does Grace Look Like?
Grace is one of those theological words that we think we know and understand, but many people don’t really grasp because they’ve never seen it modeled. Grace is what Mark Driscoll calls “ill-deserved” favor; it is the display of unwarranted kindness and love. I’ve been writing a radio program (the transcript of which will become a web article) for Probe Ministries on grace. So for the last few months I’ve been paying attention to people’s stories of grace, jotting them down so I wouldn’t forget (because I leak!). What a blessing it has been to record these stories in my Day-Timer, of receiving grace from God both directly, and from…