Think About It

Typically, when we get to this time of year, we have mixed emotions. A lot of parents are excited for their children to head back to school while many of the children are lamenting the loss of summer freedom. We are shopping for new clothes and school supplies. Many children are looking forward to exploring new grades and reconnecting with old friends. We are looking forward to fall sports – including the community event known as local High School football. Teachers are getting geared up for new challenges within the context of their familiar profession. Yeah, those were the good old days. With all the uncomfortableness of the unknowns of this school year, I know very few people looking forward to the beginning of this term. While all of us are being impacted by the pandemic, my heart really goes out to our teachers. Most of them are having to adapt to a changing climate on the fly – with minimal preparation, little comfort and limited confidence. If teaching weren’t hard eno...

  One of the questions that we are facing in modern times is about the survivability of Christianity.   If we listen to many of the doomsayers we would be led to expect that Christianity will go the way of the leisure suit and mullet haircut.   We are being told by some that because it doesn’t tolerate anything and everything that is should be done away with.   Others, who would like to hold on to the way we have done things in the past, lament the lack of support for their ways, so they predict that we are heading into oblivion.   While I am not overly optimistic that our churches are going to fill to overflowing in the next few years, I do not believe that Christianity is doomed.   Much of what we are seeing today is a social honesty that we haven’t had in the past (in other words, those who don’t want to have anything to do with Christianity are truthful about their feelings rather than masking it with a religious façade).   Yet, there is another,...

            What does it mean to be a leader?   We live in a world that is in desperate need of leaders, but who should we follow?             Before we discuss the qualities of leadership, it might be beneficial to identify what leadership isn’t.   Leadership is not management.   Managers are people who are assigned the completion of tasks and utilization of resources.   Their job is make sure goals are met as efficiently as possible.   Sure, they can play an important role in the bottom line, but they aren’t necessarily people who will help their people be the best they can be.   Leadership is not authority.   Many people have risen to a position of power in ways that are illegal, immoral or just plain out wrong.   They have influence over people because they control a certain element of their lives.           So what ...

            The other day I was looking at some quotes about leadership and came across something intriguing attributed to Warren Buffet.   According to this article, the very successful businessman observed, “In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities:   integrity, intelligence and energy.   And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.”.   I really like Buffet’s commitment to hiring people of integrity, but I believe that this quote goes deeper than a search for good employees, I think it also applies to making good friends.   When we choose our friends and influential acquaintances, what do we look for?   Do we want to hang out with people who will buy us stuff?   Do we want to be around people who make us feel good about ourselves?   Do we seek out those who agree with us all the time?   As we evaluate our relationships – especially our close relationships – we need to consider t...

            If things hadn’t been exciting enough over the past few months, they are about to really heat up.  As we continue to face issues like the pandemic and our social climate, we are about to add another layer of excitement with an upcoming presidential election – and who knows whatever else will raise it head in the next few weeks.  It is tempting to get wrapped around the axle about health, social and political issues, but how important are they?  Now, this might sound a bit odd – I mean this is pretty heady stuff that has quality of life implications – but sometimes I wonder if we invest more in these concerns than in those things that have an even more everlasting implication.  Yes, we need to do what we should do to ensure that we provide for others, but which is more important – their earthly well-being or their spiritual welfare?  What would happen if we were as fervent in presenting our spiritual p...

            I have read several of the Psalms throughout my lifetime, but the other day I came across one that I hadn’t really noticed up to this point.  Psalm 4 is becoming one of my favorites because it is just as applicable today as it was the day David wrote it centuries ago.   There are several things that drew me into the psalm, one of which is an observation made in verse 4, “ Tremble, and do not sin; meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.”  In this verse we find a couple of insightful observations:  First, we are emotional beings .  Some biblical translations add extra information by noting “Tremble with anger or fear” which indicates that we are going to be emotionally impacted by the events in our lives. Second, we have to practice self-control .  It is not a sin to have an emotional feeling; however, we must control how we deal with it – because when we don’t that’s where w...

  How do we defend ourselves against those in the world who attack our values, principles and doctrine?   One thing for certain about being a believer is that someone, somewhere is going to challenge our faith and they might even get nasty about it.   There are a couple of points that need to be made about this statement – first, this shouldn’t surprise us and second, we need to be prepared to respond to it appropriately.   While it is tempting to fight fire with fire and retaliate against them with equal vigor and vile, that isn’t the way the Lord wants us to respond.   When the Apostle Paul taught the minister, Titus, how to teach others he noted, “… urge the young men to be sensible;  i n all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified,   sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.” (Titus 2:6-8).   ...