Rather than burn things, pray for them. Rather than protest, seek to serve. Rather than demonize, wish for their well-being. Rather than scorn, show compassion. Rather than shout, speak in whispers. Rather than be heard, fervently listen. Rather than ridicule, show admiration. Rather than hate, love. Rather than go after ‘enemies,’ pray for them. It […]
As a society we are pontificating about how to stop school violence. The focus is on shootings at the moment, but there are other forms of harm that are rampant in our schools. In these ‘debates’ the question is often given, “What are your solutions?!” The reality is there is a cost of stealing the […]
The slander of the NRA bothers me greatly for a number of reasons. The biggest is the false motives assigned to them. The summer camp I attended had NRA certified instructors man the rifle range. As a boy I loved guns and all things explosive. But from them and other NRA friends I learned more […]
You cannot control outcomes, you can only control how you respond to them. In various types of crises I see people trying to control outcomes. This is futile. You don’t have that much power. If we try to control things we can actually make things worse or open the doors for other negative experiences. Why […]
Change is possible. One of the biggest changes we need is the courage to engage in conflict rather than run from it, only to have an explosion. In the entirety of my ministry, conflict resolution, or peacemaking, is the most often used skill set used. I discovered the norm for most people is naivety on […]
One of the biggest things that holds us back is ourselves. We often get stuck because of our own thinking and attitudes. We also think with an “I’ve arrived” mentality than a “joy in the journey” one. Each situation and aspect of life calls for renewed commit to our attitudes, beliefs and actions. As for […]
Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. Both those statements are frequently said by all. When the church says that people are broken, depraved, sinners, etc. people seem to become unglued. There is a flurry of criticism on churches for being abusive because they call our sin and seem to use fear. While I know […]
