Does It Even Matter Anymore?

I was driving down the 210 Freeway the other day stuck in the state of unfettered joy that is Southern California rush hour traffic (don’t tell me you can’t relate).  You know, the kind of traffic where texting while driving is probably legal; where you get the privilege of studying the nuances of any and all scratches, dents, or other blemishes in the cars around you; where your desire for listening to yet one more podcast about business, spiritual development, or anything else for that matter has died a slow and painful death; where all you want to do is move out to the prairie, learn a new dialect, and watch cows in the pasture.

And I don’t even like cows, which shows you how much I hate SoCal traffic.

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Hell on Earth (Why Playing It Safe Emotionally Doesn't Work)

I’ve found that I’ve been a man of few words lately.  Despite my genuine efforts, I’ve quite simply had very little to say, particularly in social settings.  This, from an attention-getting extrovert…

No details seem to be available when my wife asks me how my day is.

In a discussion with a friend yesterday, I was unable to answer simple questions about the week, and even the weather.

The funny thing is, I’m not in any kind of emotional distress.  Not angry, not agitated.  Actually fairly happy, to be honest. 

 

If I could choose one word to articulate how I’ve been feeling lately, it’s detached.

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There is No Life Without the Storm

I’ve been reading a book about different personality types, and my particular type, it turns out, tries to avoid pain at all costs.

Now, I get that it’s human nature to avoid pain, but apparently people with my personality type will go to nearly superhuman lengths to avoid it.  It seems that pain is something that is particularly difficult for someone with my makeup to deal with.

And since God isn’t really interested in stagnant character development… the past 11 months have been some of the most difficult of my life.

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When All Hope Seems Lost

You know the feeling.  That one where you’re up to something good, something that benefits others, and no matter which direction you turn, it seems like all of the forces of nature have been set out specifically against you, with the sole aim of thwarting your efforts?

That’s where the past few days have left me.

Battered, beat down, discouraged, and several times on the verge of sheer hopelessness

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Let's Stop Being Angry

It seems that everywhere I look these days, I come across people who are angry.

Not like, irritated angry, but deep-down-inside angry.

The kind of anger that surfaces when things aren’t going quite right, when we’re downright sick and tired of how things are—that kind of anger that arises out of discontentment of the soul.

I see it in our presidential election, I see it on social media, in the news, in my friends, and in my own personal relationships.

So I have to ask:  Why?

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An Open Letter to My Three Sons

To My Dear Boys,

It’s a different world than the one I grew up in.  A very different world.

In some ways, it’s a much better world.  But in a lot of ways things are pretty rough.  Hatred abounds, whether between the sexes, between nations, between ideologies, between races.  It’s everywhere, boys.  It plays out on social media, on the news, and in classrooms and playgrounds.

Avoid hatred at all costs, sons.  It is everywhere, but it doesn’t have to be inside of you.

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