Last week’s post highlighted the battle for our attention in a frenetic, information-saturated culture. Like the drone of a fan or the roar of a river puts us to sleep physically, the seemingly infinite stream of data coming at us can lull our minds into slumber. I like this quote from the movie Joe vs …
One 90s movie we’ve enjoyed, Sister Act 2, includes a choral instructor‘s challenge to a disengaged group of high school music students: “If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you’d better wake up and pay attention!” One might easily recall the line after watching the film because a student immediately …
I remember as a teenager watching Soviet Olympic weightlifter Vasily Alexeev set a new world record lifting over five hundred pounds in the clean and jerk. Reported to have eaten 26 fried eggs and a steak for breakfast before a competition, Vasily set 80 world records and reigned undefeated for eight years. Feats of strength …
Whether it’s losing weight, saving money, or trying to develop a new habit, we often give up because we don’t see results fast enough. In much of the western world, we are programmed for immediate gratification. I read recently that in the United States, 70% of economic growth comes from consumer spending. The huge advertising …
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes confuse how things are with how they should be, holding tightly to the latter in defiance of the former. Some very stubborn behavior has accompanied my insistence on enforcing “the principle of the thing.” Yesterday, I was walking with a friend and where the trail crossed a …
You could sense their hesitation as the captains took turns choosing their players. Of course, they’d started with the fastest and strongest, but at this point, we were well past the elite and down to the dregs. No doubt they’d have preferred to stop while ahead, but they were obligated to include everyone in the …
Have you ever felt like you were facing something that felt too big for you? It might have been graduating from high school or college. Or the responsibilities of parenthood after learning you had your first child on the way. Perhaps it was a job that felt a few sizes too big for you. When …
Have you ever seen a lion? Perhaps at the zoo? And how did it behave? When I was in South Africa a few years ago, I enjoyed a small safari on a wildlife refuge where we saw a number of lions. Lying placidly under a shade tree they seemed little threat. But when the food …
Do you know how much God cares about you? I mean, how much He cares about you personally, and not just as part of the world He created? I was thinking this morning about how God cares for us so much, He anticipates our needs even before we ask (Matthew 6:8). Sometimes He sends the …
One recent afternoon I was doing a little craft project for which I used a hot glue gun. The glue stuck to my fingers, along with the matted residue of what I was gluing, making quite a mess of my hands! It reminded me of the time I was using superglue as a kid, and …
As I looked out our window one recent evening, layers of billowy clouds fringed with light from the setting sun reminded me of Psalm 113:3, that says from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. When we awake in the morning, we can choose our …
On a recent neighborhood walk, I was amused to see an iconic banana peel lying on the sidewalk. Where do you see that outside of the slip-and-fall cliche in cartoons? Apparently the #BananaPeelChallenge went viral on social media five years ago, and many teens injured themselves attempting to replicate the 100,000+ social media likes one …
