
Improving Your Life’s Batting Average
Years ago, a great teacher named Bob Mumford had this thought. He said, “If you want to increase your batting average, you have to stop...

Managing Yourself from the Inside Out
Lately, many people I'm meeting are apprehensive about the future. I can’t blame them. We feel like we have never been this way before....

Upgrade Your Birthday: Take a Cha—Cha—Cha—Chance
One of my favorite people in the world is my brother-in-law, who is celebrating his 80th birthday this month, July 2021. I thought I...

Church and Culture Encounters of the 2021 Kind
Cartoonist Gary Larsen inked quite a word picture in a cartoon. It is a picture of a big male deer with a target on his belly. Another...

You’d Do Well to Know Them Better
Many times in life, we make judgments about behavior we don't understand. Often the younger look at older people as people to be...

A Strategy You Know, But Don’t Know
Have you ever heard of the Doberman Pinscher strategy? You have seen it in operation but have not seen what caused it. Let’s say someone...

Close Friendships: Annuals or Perennials?
I recently read the following short story from a weekly newsletter from my real estate agent and friend, Joe Karcie, in Prescott,...

When is Enough, Enough?
In today's world, almost everyone is looking for perfection. Perfection seekers seek the perfect partner, perfect job, perfect life,...

Two-Faced or True Faced?
A minister told his congregation, "Next week, I plan to speak about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to...

Amazingly Graced Phyllis and Perhaps You
One of the most extraordinary experiences of my life was serving as a Singles Pastor at two different churches in the Phoenix area. From...

Your Future—A Choice or a Chance?
Here is a true story of a composer and a potential forgiveness issue. Every Christmas, composer Giacomo Puccini would have a cake baked...

Exploring Outer Space and Inner Space
A professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, he picked up a large and empty...

Uplifting Passion is an Inside Job
Consider this statement by Pastor Bill Johnson. When we live out of discipline, we are admired. When we live out of passion, we are...

What's in Your Diary?
Here's a great illustration I found on the internet of two different perspectives…one coming from Venus (a feminine perspective) and the...

When Obvious, Isn’t So Obvious
Sometimes we struggle to embrace what should be obvious. Here are some original, amusing headlines in respected newspapers and magazines...

The Horse Whisperer and the Inmates
I wrote an article in 2012 in this column about a pastor friend of mine who has impacted the prison at the Arizona State Prison Complex...

Reclaiming Your Ability to Trust
This is the fourth installment in my four-part series about moving from trust impaired to trust repaired to trust prepared. Obviously, I...

Judgments and Generalizations and Vows, Oh My!
This article is the third of four installments about learning how to trust all over again. With what we have gone through recently with...

What is Your Most Important Currency?
Last week we started a short series of articles about trust. I chose to write about trust because many people these days seem...













