Think About It

On this day in 1971 Charles Manson was convicted of a series of murders committed by his “family” in 1969. The crimes took on a life of their own because of the publicity surrounding the acts and the investigation. One of those killed was an actress by the name of Sharon Tate (who was pregnant at the time). According to some, the crimes were connected to Manson’s concept of Helter Skelter (the name of a Beatles song and a book by Vincent Bugliosi). While I don’t really want to give this evil man much attention, I am fascinated by how he could attract so many people and convince them to do such evil. Every time I looked at him – and even now when I see photos of him – all I see is evil; but somehow he attracted a following. I don’t get it! Few of us will be seduced by people like Manson, but these types of stories remind us of how careful we must be. We must choose our influences wisely and we must use our logic, reason and spirit to help us avoid being duped by people who intend...

As a business major in the 20th Century (yes, I have a degree in Business Administration) I couldn’t help but bump into the philosophies of Peter Drucker. Drucker was a business leader who helped shape modern philosophies about how business should operate in today’s world. During his lifetime, it was no longer acceptable to use up resources (especially human resources) in the interest of the financial bottom line. Drucker was a part of group of people who brought us from the business magnates to business leaders. Peter Drucker was very quotable, but I came across one the other day that really got me to thinking, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”. Interestingly, my initial thought when I read this had nothing to do with business and everything to do with attitude. What I heard when I read this was that the best way to have a positive attitude was to create it even before being influenced by outside forces. If we are going to feel uplifted we can’t depend upon g...

How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? For a lot of us, we start out the year with good intentions, but then life gets in the way. Our trips to the gym become less frequent while our trips to the refrigeration come more often. We are more critical of people and less tolerant of the differences we see in them. We start to worry more and relax less. Now, the reason I bring this up is not to shame you into hanging in there another couple of weeks, rather it is to help us all understand that for changes to be effective, they must be viewed through a telescope, not a microscope. We are going fail … we are going to struggle … we are going to stand on the brink of giving in or even giving up. That’s okay because when we truly want to make a change we should be okay with progress, not stuck on perfection. Most of us realize that it has taken months (or years) for bad habits to develop and it would be absurd to believe we can make meaningful changes in a matter of days. We are goin...

Have you ever heard anyone say that God is irrelevant in today’s world? It doesn’t take much reading from modern philosophy to see someone say that even if there is a God, religion (especially Christianity) is archaic. Now, if we are using 21st Century human logic, there could be some legitimacy in that observation; however, is modern logic the basis of everlasting truth? The history of mankind is more than just the here and now. Reason is far deeper than how we have been taught just in this generation. Making a statement that mankind has plateaued in today’s knowledge and reason is arrogant at best and short-sighted at worst. I don’t think our society is the first to have to deal with this faulty logic. Two thousand years ago the Apostle Paul wrote, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is the One who c...

A lot of really odd things surrounded the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. One of them was the presence of an angel at the tomb when some of Jesus’ disciples returned to prepare Him for His proper burial. Matthew states, “And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:2-4). Recently, when I reflected on the presence of the angel, I got to thinking about the real function of the angel. It doesn’t seem like he had been involved in the miraculous resurrection of Jesus, but he was there to protect the integrity of the event and speak the truth as to what happened. Have you ever given much thought to the role of believers in Christianity? We cannot save the lost in-and-of ourselves, but like that angel, we can protect the integrity of wh...

Have we ever done an inventory of what we talk about?  If so, how much time did we focus on what was going right with us and how many of our words described our difficulties?  I am sure that most people spend most of their time focused on positives, but some of us struggle with seeing the negatives.  Now we all go through times when we have major challenges in our lives, but some of us tend to overemphasize how tough we have it! Interestingly, the true issue isn’t what comes out of our mouths, the real struggle is how we perceive life.   The more we look for the problems, the more complaining we do.   When the Apostle Paul discussed perspective, he observed, “ Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.   For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,   while we look not at the things which are see...

What do we do when someone misstates something? If you are like me, I want to correct them so they get it right. I mean, after all, people don’t want to sound ignorant do they? Now, while that might be a rationale for correcting people, I wonder if that is really what is going on? When I correct them, is it because I want to make sure everything is correct for the record, or do I do it just to show others how smart I am? Let’s take this one step further. Why do we correct people when they are mistaken on things we have personally seen or heard? Again, is it to make sure that the true facts are known or is it to brag about how much “in the know” we are? I am sure there are times when correctness could probably be more important than kindness, but too often we speak too abruptly and pointedly. Rather than help people get things right, our desire is to show our superiority. It’s not the desire for veracity that is behind our interjection, it is arrogance. Let’s be smart enough ...