Think About It

We are just a couple weeks away from the full-blown holiday season, so let’s stop and take a deep breath. It is easy to get sucked into the promise of a perfect holiday, but let’s remember that relationships are still more important than gifts, parties or even decor. The thing that makes this time of year special is who we spend it with and not just how it looks on the outside. When we keep the value of the relationships in mind, we will be able to overcome any struggle we’ll face coming into crunch time! As I thought about what might be able to speak to us this time of year, I was reminded of Paul’s love list, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:4-7). ...

I like capitalism. I appreciate the idea of a free enterprise system. I grew up in a time and a system that advocated that we could grow up to be anything we wanted to be. Now, while I like the idea of seeing how far we can all come when we work together, I realize there must be limits to what we do and how we do it. Business and industry cannot be left unchecked to the point that it puts our people or our society in danger. Entrepreneurship needs to limit itself to what is good for society. It can be intoxicating to believe in a system that is built on pushing the envelope to the edge, but we must make sure to keep our distance from falling into the great dark abyss of unchecked advancement. It mustn’t always be what is best for me, we have work together to better society and other individuals. Thousands of years ago, a world renowned wise man observed, “Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.” (Proverbs 16:8). Solomon saw how growth could over...

I don’t know too much about Chip and Joanna Gaines other than they have made a pretty good career out of fixing things. I have watched some of their shows and have been impressed by their ability to see beauty in some pretty rugged situations. Another thing that seems to impress me is their partnership – not just in the business but in life as well. Recently, I came across a quote by Joanna that might help explain their success, “I always said, ‘When things come against us we can either turn on each other, or we can come together and turn on it.’”. As I pondered this observation, it helped me realize that relationships are more important than circumstances. When things begin to get difficult, it puts our relationships under a microscope. We can either work together to solve the problem or we can point fingers at each other and assign blame. When times get tough we can either point at each other and say, “If you would have only …” or we can point out the issue and agree to work o...

I can only imagine the words that typically accompanied the scene of a crucifixion. I figure there were all kinds of nasty interchanges between the accused and the executioner. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were pleading and protesting going on. The whole process must have been ripe with anger, fear and sorrow. Maybe that is why Jesus’ remarks surrounding His crucifixion were so incredible. The soldiers who nailed Him to the cross may have figured they had heard it all, “But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.” (Luke 23:34). It’s not that the soldier didn’t know how to do his job, he just didn’t understand the implications of what was happening. He was killing the Son of God! Yet, the most compelling part of the story is that Jesus also did His job – He forgave the soldier without even being asked! As I think about this moment in history it challenges me to think...

When I was a youngster, my dad would jokingly say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up”. I would kind of chuckle at the absurdity of the comment, but the older I get the more the applicable the concept seems to be. While there are times preference drives our actions – we like what we like; however, the real problem is when mere conviction trumps truth. It is easy to fall into the rut of believing what we want to believe whether there is evidence to the contrary or not. It is no longer that we acknowledge the appeal of our preference; it becomes dangerous when we fail to realize the difference between preference and truth. I don’t have any problem with liking what we like, but we must be careful when we become so closed minded that we are blind to any effort at establishing reality. If we want to do something or believe something because that’s our preference; that’s fine as long as we don’t become adversarial to accepting true understanding. We can be con...

One of the things I like most about this time of year is that people tend to look for more outward ways to help others. It’s not that people need more help this time of year, it is just that there is a special spirit of giving during the holiday season. It is easy to ponder this and be critical that we should be doing more throughout the year, but in all honesty, I’ll take what we can get. If our society is going to be more caring for one month out of the year – let’s savor it. One of the challenges of doing good for people is that they often make it harder for us to feel good about helping. If you give someone a $100.00 gift card, they wonder why someone else got more. If you give people a Christmas bonus, they complain it wasn’t as much as last year. If you ask someone for their wish list, we can be shocked or disappointed by what is on it. Each of these are common reactions, but let’s keep in mind that we get to control our spirit of giving. No, we don’t have to meet someone...

If you have spent much time reading my thoughts you know that I am a sucker for a pithy quip. Well, the other day I found a hidden gem that may not be well known, but makes a ton of sense. In a collection of proverbs I found one that proclaimed, “Empty vessels sound most”. I guess I can’t be certain what the original sage had in mind, but the first thing that came to my mind was how often people who have the least to brag about do the most talking. Those who accomplish the least are often the ones who shout the loudest. People who are full of knowledge and accomplishments are typically content letting others sing their praises, but those who have more pride than productivity are often the ones tooting their horns the loudest. I guess there could be a lot of reasons for it, but the simplest explanation might be that they aren’t accomplishing enough to be recognized, so they have to tell the world what they are doing! Centuries ago, the wise man Solomon observed, “Let another prais...