June 22, 2012
A friend/colleague and I recently had a discussion about motivational speakers and televangelists who try to convince us that we deserve to be happy and are entitled to serenity. While this is an attractive concept, it can actually rob us from living a full and whole life. This sounds paradoxical, but really the more we focus on ourselves and our own happiness the more elusive it becomes. Maybe people don’t know what they are looking for, in fact I’m sure this is often the case. Henry David Thorough is quoted as follows about happiness: Continue
November 11, 2011
Last time we stayed at Fairfield Inn my wife remarked about the card on our pillow “wouldn’t this be great we treated each other like this?” The card had a promise on it. It read “We promise to always… Continue
October 26, 2011
We live lives mostly in a routine. We get up relatively close to the same time every day, eat meals at the same time every day, follow our weekly schedules year after year. There is comfort and security to be found in routine. There is also a danger lurking there in our routine – the danger of going on autopilot. Its the danger of becoming closed off from others, even from ourselves and ultimately from God. Our routines are pathways externally as well as internally – pathways of thought and emotion as well as behavior.
The usual reaction when our routine is disrupted is frustration, dismay, and resentment. The disruption is seen as inherently “bad” and label the cause of the disruption as such; whether it be a person or a situation. A fact of the matter, however, is that only when our routine is disrupted can we have new experiences. These new experiences have the potential to provide growth opportunities. People experience God in these sideline moments of their lives more often than at any other time. So my challenge to you is to set aside your frustration at the disruption and choose to remain open to life when things aren’t going your way. Its my challenge to myself. “Life is what happens while you are making plans.”
A mother told me an amazing God story today. She has a 7 year-old Down Syndrome son who functions at the level of a 1 yr-old. She was in a hospital waiting room with him when an older gentleman remarked to her “I don’t know why God allows kids like him to be born.” Nobody has ever said this to her before, though she knows many wonder the same thing. She said what happened next was something he…r son never does – her son crawled out of her lap, toddled over to the man and raised his arms to be picked up. The man picked him up. The boy laughed, looked in the man’s eyes, laid his head on the man’s shoulder, and continued to giggle. When her son’s name was called, she went over and picked him up off the man’s lap and replied to him “God allows kids like this to be born so we can experience His love.” The mother doesn’t know how this impacted the old man, but the story has impact.
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July 19, 2011
Parents are given the responsibility to create an environment for their children in which to grow and thrive. God created the concept of the family as a place for children and adults experience life to its fullest. Parents create this environment for their family. I’m going to use a metaphor to illustrate my point. A fish tank is a man-made environment for fish. If the environment in the fish tank is toxic, the fish will die. The fish are not created for the fish tank, but the fish tank was created for the fish. I cannot become angry at my fish for not thriving in the environment I created for them. They can’t just conform to the environment if it’s toxic to them! If I truly value the fish, I have to change the environment to suit their needs. The fish tank is made for them, not them for the fish tank. In the same way, the family environment is made for the children (adult children included). Continue
