This past week I put my finger on a personal mindset I seem to have held since a young age – one which has served me well: “I don’t want to be a typical anything.” This was as close as my fragile self-esteem could get me to “I’m going to be #1!” 😉 My goal is to beat the average. I aim for the top 5%, I suppose. In practice, it means on some deep level, I refuse to settle for being… Did you notice anything as you were reading the word “typical” throughout that list? What does it say…

As I am trying to get a solid start on 2024, one unfinished project is on my hit list and it relates to this blog and my daily writing habit.  Over 20 months ago, I set up my own website, gave it a name, and paid for it. My intent was to migrate all the posts from here at blogspot to my own domain. I was motivated by two thoughts: 1) I had read that blogspot was not the safest place to keep my material. In essence, it was possible – though not probable – that someday everything I ever…

I came across a “Personal Annual Review” template from Sahil Bloom as 2023 was drawing to a close.  I have made plenty of useful resolutions in past Januaries, but this year I was looking for a new angle. So I thought Bloom’s Annual Review might be a useful exercise. I was confident enough in this belief that, even before I had applied it to my own life, I recommended it a few days ago through the weekly email newsletter that I publish for Mission Resource. Now that I have started working through it myself?  I wish I could pass it…

For this week’s message, I am looking at the story of Jesus’ extra days at the temple in Jerusalem at age 12. I am focused on the explanation He gives his earthly parents when they return to Jerusalem in a panic. Mary scolds Him a bit – in true motherly fashion – “Why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”  Jesus picks up on the word “father” and uses it to reference Someone quite different from Joseph: “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Interestingly, this is…

I’ve done plenty of New Year’s resolutions in the past, but this year I am stepping into new territory and doing some year end review first. Although I have never done it intentionally, the value of reflecting on the year that has just passed now strikes me as being quite obvious. I like Sahil Bloom’s ideas for a “Personal Annual Review”. It includes the following 7 questions: It feels like some time spent meditating on these questions would provide an excellent foundation for developing goals and dreams for 2024.  Would you agree? If you are interested in a little more…

Happy New Year! These last few days I have been recording a few of the insights 2023 brought me. There are others and maybe I will still record those over the first few days of 2024. Tonight it is late and I am ready to head to sleep, but I will finish the year with one last lesson: even an introvert needs people around. For these past three days and a half, I have been alone in this house.  Well, me and the dogs. I have been fighting a sinus infection during that time and finishing up our Christmas letter…

“Teach me how to pray.” I am guessing that over the long run, making a habit of this simple, straightforward request of God along with daily contemplation on the words of the Lord’s Prayer will prove to be the most important development of my past year.  It got started back in June when I came to the painful realization that I was woefully underqualified to preach on prayer – while I was in the pulpit with Luke’s account of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in front of me. It was disastrous. But the next morning, I began to ask the Lord…