Think About It

I have a question for you ... why do we ask questions?  Now, in the interest of full-disclosure, I am setting you up!  The superficial answer to “why do we ask questions” is to gain information from another person, but is that really why we ask questions?  There are several reasons to ask questions:  Some people use questions to bait someone into a debate.  Others ask questions to make another person appear foolish (because they know they can’t answer the question).  Some ask questions as a way to begin to teach a lesson by helping put people in a contemplative frame of mind.  And, yes, sometimes we ask questions because we want to gather information. I began thinking about this question question while watching the coverage of the Florida school shooting.  I noticed that a lot of questions were being asked – not to gather information – but, to promote an agenda.  The questioner knew exactly how the other person was going to respond befor...

One of the more common approaches to leadership these days is mentorship, but have we ever given much thought to what it means and how to go about doing it?  Often, as leaders, we are open to being mentors but we grow discouraged when people don’t seek us out for mentoring.  Have we ever thought that we might be missing out on mentoring opportunities because we are waiting to be asked rather than taking a proactive approach and reaching out to people we’d like to lead?  Yes, I realize that it can be appear to be a bit arrogant to ask someone if they’d like us to mentor them, but this is where our good reputation pays off – if we have lived lives of service, our offer will be perceived as supportive not manipulative. Once we develop a mentoring relationship, what should we do?  I think there are four steps to mentoring: 1).  Invite our mentees to go out with us as we do what we do .  Let them know when we are going to be active and encourage them to joi...

The other day I was pondering the question, “What does our church believe?” and I learned a pretty insightful lesson.  You see, when I answered this question I came up with what I thought were some pretty solid answers – we believe in the Almighty power and presence of God, we have faith that Jesus is God and was a man, we profess the need for baptism, we accept the infallible inspiration of the Bible through the Holy Spirit and so on – but, it took me a while to get to something that was probably too far down my list ... we love people!  As I pondered my theological processing I was intrigued by how long it took me to get to this observation.  Are people really important to us?  While we must make sure our worship of God is in order, we should never forget our relationship with our fellow man.  Since one of the most deeply-seated human needs is to feel valued; so how much easier would it be to influence people who ask us, “What do you believe?” if we acknowl...

          The other afternoon I was driving home in the fog and noticed that, while I could still see pretty well, my perception was negatively affected.  The diminished light made everything appear gray and I found it harder to distinguish images.  The fog covered the roadway in dampness and the darkness was compounded so twilight came earlier.  No, it wasn’t pitch-black dark, but it wasn’t the safest condition for driving.           As I thought about the fog I got to reflecting on the world in which we live.  Often, when we think about good and evil, we envision a distinctness between pure light and the dark, yet some of satan’s most dangerous weapons involve shades of gray.  Most of us can easily guard against absolute wrong, but we get in trouble when we find ourselves dealing with “a little bit of sin” or something that just isn’t quite right.  The more we live in the fogginess o...

As I sat and looked out my window I think I could see what I thought was a bald eagle flying off in the distance.  I watched it do loops in the air and ride the thermal waves high above the trees.  It was kind of cool to glance up every-once-in-a-while and see that it was still out there, but, in all honesty it wasn’t all that impressive or distracting from a distance.  If, however, there had been an eagle outside my window in the parking lot, I would not have gotten much work done.  I would have been so mesmerized by the majesty of the bird that I would sit there and stare at it for hours on end.  The plumage, the claws, the powerful muscle structure would be so impressive that I just wouldn’t have been able to take my eyes off of it. When we consider God, do we do so from a distance or from His up-close-and-personal presence in our lives?  I wonder if, sometimes, the reason we don’t praise and glorify God with the intensity that we should is because we...

The other day I was reading an 1896 speech about the need for improved African American education given by Booker T. Washington who observed, “In reference to my own race I am confronted with some embarrassment at the outset because of the various and conflicting opinions as to what is to be its final place in our economic and political life. Within the last thirty years – and, I might add, within the last three months – it has been proven by eminent authority that the Negro is increasing in numbers so fast that it is only a question of a few years before he will far outnumber the white race in the South, and it has also been proven that the Negro is fast dying out and it is only a question of a few years before he will have completely disappeared. It has also been proven that crime among us is on the increase and that crime is on the decrease; that education helps the Negro, that education also hurts him; that he is fast leaving the South and taking up his residence in the North and ...

Each Wednesday evening, as a part of our mid-week gathering, we spend time in prayer.  Our process is pretty simple – if someone has a prayer request, we write it on a board and, before we leave the gathering, we pray for each item on the board.  You never know what is going to make the list; some are continual requests, while others are unique.  Last Wednesday night someone brought a serious issue to the group’s attention, we put it on the board, we prayed for it and, within a matter of minutes, the requested blessing had been received.  What a powerful reminder of the power of prayer!  Do we really believe in prayer?  I think that, sometimes, we limit the effectiveness of our prayers because we are too analytical.  We tend to try to examine the process of prayer rather than just doing it.  We debate which prayers God hears (answers) and we discuss whether we have to actually formulate the content of the prayer or if the Holy Spirit can guide ...