Saturday Mornings

  More pics here ...

Duct Tape Surfing from Mark Tipple on Vimeo .

Speaking of character : The most common cause of leadership failure is ego , which means that someone is looking out for number one rather...

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by t...

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -- Martin Luther King ...

It's for your own good. Cut these things out of your day and you'll see gains in productivity -- not to mention happiness: 1. Chec...

God doesn't promise an explanation,  but he does promise to walk with us through the pain . We have a choice - to be angry over what we ...

The first time I found myself today was on my routine morning  run , when I finally panted, " God , I need you to crack open my heart.....

...a meaningful expression of care is far more dramatic than gun-fire. -- Mister Rogers Times have really changed...or, have they?  ...

No matter what people say true success does not come easily. Like everything in life, if you really want something you are going to have to ...

You can’t do good business with bad people. -- Trammell Crow

Do not boast about tomorrow,     for you do not know what a day may bring. -- Proverbs 27:1

Few can willingly walk into the dark without anticipating light. I felt that heading into the trails  this morning; the possibility of su...

Lately, I've sat in different chairs at my house and noticed things I can see from that perspective.  Like this morning, a glorious one ...

An extended reading from Robert Rohr's book, Falling Upward : "The tragic sense of life" was first popularized by the Spanis...

We seem to be enlivened in areas where we are the most comfortable. We are energized where we feel natural.  And, these tend to be areas t...

We tend to see truth mostly through the lens of things we are comfortable with...things familiar to us. Or, to say it differently, we ar...

Proactive bonding is a mindset . You actively look for the common goal between yourself and the other person or team. This helps eliminate a...

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful  form of love .  In return, you will receive  untold peace and happiness. -- Robert Muller

I am mindful of my sin today. Sin is ugly. It is damaging. It is evil. I am only a couple of choices away from the kind of thinking and...

Science believes. It believes that something is knowable - otherwise, why bother. It believes that knowing matters, perhaps because knowin...

To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them.

Could a greater miracle take place   than for us to look through each other's eyes                                                   ...

Despite how unfashionable they are, some old ideas are still quite good, like this one: When I was 21, the U.S. Navy taught me how to fly ...

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been open...

Our celebration of Tami's Dad was soon over as we left town last night and learned that his sister was killed in an  auto accident  jus...

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. -- C.S. Lewis

  More pics here ...

It takes seasons of grieving to be reconciled to it.  -- Holly Benyousky

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. -- Charles Swindoll

Life is a slow accumulation ...of good or ill.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work . -- Peter Drucker

Pursue something so important that even if you fail, the world is  better off  with you having tried . -- Tim O-Reilly

Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchbac...

Poverty is not a natural condition; it is man-made. -- Nelson Mandela Some time well-spent...a Charlie Rose interview with Bono at ...

Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that th...

We are on the back-side of democracy when citizens vote primarily in their self-interest based on unrealistic promises. -- David C. Bake...

The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children. - King Edward VIII

Only 7 percent of the information people take in comes from the words they hear . Most of the information comes from vocal inflection and bo...

You can’t really talk effectively until you understand what your audience wants. Digital is creating all sorts of hints and clues that a go...

I've been collecting observations about listening this week.  I've been doing more listening this week. It is a powerful action t...

To enter into solidarity with a suffering person does not mean that we have to talk with that person about our own suffering. Speaking abou...

The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said. -- Peter Drucker

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. -...

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen . -- Ernest Hemingway

  ...plus Joel and Makenzie  are participating in the Momentum 2013 Youth Conference this week at Indiana Wesleyan University. Click ...

The secret to joy is to keep seeking God where we doubt he is. -- Ann Voskmp

God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them. -- St. Augustine

The unexamined  life is not worth living. -- Socrates

If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old . -- Peter Drucker

Speaking of change : Let nothing upset you, Let nothing frighten you. Everything is changing; God alone is changeless . Patience attains t...

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to ch...

It is hard to fail , but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. -- Theodore Roosevelt

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For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey ; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step. -- Thomas à Ke...

At times it seems like a long walk through this life.  It strikes me that it takes a while to figure out what is going on. We often start th...

...with joy ! And what is often the beginning of the journey towards joy?  Click here ...for one perspective.

And , it is service that surprises  us...

I regularly have to be brought back to the truth that what I really need the most is something that someone else cannot provide...only God c...

I stand holding the apple in both hands. It feels precious, like a heavy treasure. I lift it up and smell it. It has such an odor of outdoor...

In an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review, Ndubuisi Ekekwe wrote, “There’s an assumption that using smart devices boosts pro...

There is a communion with God that asks for nothing, yet asks for everything. -- George McDonald

Awareness of others can lead to self-awareness . But, many times it doesn't seem to.  Something blocks the otherwise natural transitio...

...to serve .

And , it is love that enables us...

The basal ganglia plays a key role in the formation of leadership habits, both the good ones and the bad ones. As we keep repeating a routin...

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character , give him power. -- Abraham Lincoln

Many people seem to think you have what you can get .  The secret, however, is that whatever you have has been given .  ...and that changes ...

Our capacity to hurt another person is great. ...our capacity to love another person is even greater.

Very few Christians have been taught how to live both law and freedom at the same time. Our western dualistic minds do not process paradoxe...

...to love .

And , it is our endurance that frees us...

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. -- Stephen Covey

  Click here for more details.  I know that girl in the middle!

There is no room for criticism on the training field. For a player – and for any human being – there is nothing better than hearing 'wel...

The most important thing a  father  can do for his children is to love their mother. -- Theodore Hesburgh Heat of Departure Ninety ...

So smoove!  ...nothing like good 'live' music. Got me snappin'!

...to endure .

And , it is obedience that strengthens us...

  You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. -- Jim Rohn I am so grateful that my 'average' is elev...

Many were what I call "Guru Books". Call them MBA-lite, loaded with can-do spirit about how you too can change your life. Just rea...

Hope begins in the dark , the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing , the dawn will come. You wait and watc...

It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to. -- C.S. Lewis

The farther away we are from something, the less we understand it and the less we understand something, the more likely we are to judge it....

...to obedience (right thinking / living ).

And , it is our hope that compels us...

Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves .  -- Romans 14:22 Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one o...

When you are doing what you love to do, you become resilient . -- Dick Costolo

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit . -- Aristotle

The Spirit works deep within us, so deeply that we cannot always identify its presence. The effect of God’s spirit is deeper than our though...

I know this is not the correct version of what is psychologically 'correct', because we all seem to think we need nothing but uncond...

...to our true hope .

And , it is our desire that invites us...

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelang...

If there are not serious warnings about the blinding nature of fear and fanaticism, your religion will always end up worshiping the status q...

Some may say... ...that a cloudy, rainy holiday is an unfortunate waste of time -- when we could be doing something fun or getting stuff d...

It takes a lot of sensitivity to live with the sins of others. Not the least of which is what you have to learn from living with our own .

Speaking at Commencement at Oklahoma State University: “Before we go to lunch, I want to make you a thought provoking offer,” I said. “...

...to our desire .