Imagine yourself driving on a high mountain road. To the left, towering rocks rise high toward the summit. To your right, just beyond the passenger door, a cliff looms. The road is not too narrow, but with the ledge nearby, you wish the road had more margin. You grip the wheel tighter. Your eyes dart back and forth from the road before you to the cliff’s edge. Your heart beats faster. You can do this, but it’s uncomfortable, particularly since you can’t know what is coming in the other direction just around the corner. Now, imagine the same road, high rocks on your left, and a daunting cliff o ..read more

Somewhere along the way, we got the idea that we are never supposed to be weary. We just need to be stronger, to push through the weariness. That idea came right after the idea that stress is the enemy, to be avoided at all costs, a product of an undisciplined mind. Therefore, we strive endlessly and ineffectively for a stress-free, weary-less existence.  The truth is that we are not meant to live chronically stressed lives and perpetually weary days. The health world understand this by making the critical distinction between chronic and acute. An acute condition happens sporadically, som ..read more

We all know the old adage, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” It’s cute. I usually think of it as an encouragement when confronted with a daunting task. Now, I see it as wisdom with broader implications. One is the smallest whole number. It represents singularity. It connotes focus. One of my favorite books, The One Thing, by Gary Keller, recommends the clarity of identifying the one most important thing that we need to do to move forward. This thought has been helpful to me on more occasions than I can count. The truth is that I often try to eat my elephants using both hands an ..read more

I fell into a practice many years ago that has now become a meaningful way to end each year. I am a journaler. I believe journaling, however one chooses to do it, is a great way to structure thoughts and reflections. One year, maybe ten years ago, on the 31st of December, I spent some time reviewing my journal for the year. It was a bittersweet experience as I was drawn back into the painful and the beautiful of the year. Then, I began to reflect in that last entry of the year on the whole of the year: what I had experienced, what I had learned, where I had fallen short, and what I had accompl ..read more

I was recently told by an audiologist who was checking my suspect hearing both good news and bad news. “You don’t have a hearing problem. You have a listening problem.” Ouch! From the very beginning, Jesus showed Himself to be a listener. Luke records the only story of Jesus as a boy and He was listening. “They (His parents) found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers” (Luke 2:46-47). Jesus listened first, asking clarifying questions, before speaking. At twelve ye ..read more

In the Christmas story in Luke, Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. It is a joyous scene. Mary breaks out in a prayer of praise. Her prayer begins, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” What a strange verb to use! We expect praise, thanks, or even what appears in the next verse, “rejoices.” But she uses “magnify.” Her soul is making God appear bigger!  In photography, when we use a telephoto lens, we don’t change the size of what we photograph; we just see our subject as if we are closer. We zoom in. What we zoom in on occupies more of our vision. At the same ..read more

They waited. Zechariah and Elizabeth waited for decades to have a child, never relenting in their prayers (Luke 1:13). Anna, the prophetess, endured decades of widowhood waiting for her Messiah. Simeon “waited for the consolation of Israel” when he finally held the baby Jesus in his arms. All of Israel waited and waited through generations of dashed hopes and oppression for One who would rescue them. All of heaven waited patiently for the right time for redemption to come to earth. We wait. We wait for healing to come, for grief to subside, for relief from relentless anxiety, debilitation depr ..read more

December is upon us. I can almost feel the pace accelerating. On the one hand, stimulation is in the air with Christmas carols, enticing Yuletide gift specials, holiday parties, decorating, and preparing for the big day. On the other hand, Christmas heightens grief, increases stress, and exposes family dysfunction and loneliness. The drive of Christmas in both directions is relentless. How often have I pushed my way through the holiday season, come out the other end breathless, and then realized that I hardly gave the birth of Jesus, the reason for the season, a glancing thought! I want this C ..read more

I often have to remind myself of past lessons I’ve learned. One of those lessons is the joy of slowing down. Recently, I had the odious task of cleaning up my office space. This is a regular occurrence because I am terrible at cleaning up as I go along. After a while, my filing system becomes a piling system, my desk becomes clutter central, and a have this niggling feeling like something important is left undone in one of my stacks. Like I said, I intensely dislike cleaning up, although I love the feeling after it all is finished. This time I approached the grind differently. I gave myself a ..read more

Many are familiar with the verse from the Sermon on the Mount, “Seek and you will find.” But I ran across another verse in Proverbs that gives a different spin on seeking. “He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.” (Prov. 11:27) This verse suggests that everyone will find what they are seeking, whether for good or for bad. It is similar to another saying from Jesus, “For where your treasure is (i.e. what you seek), there will your heart be also (what you will find).” (Matt 6:21) Why does this matter? Because we are all seeking something. We may be seeking lo ..read more