Window or Mirror?

I am a tireless proponent of strong, lion-hearted Christian men and my heart is roused in me when I hear, watch, or re-tell the stories from the pictures above. How then can I say that these representations of men are “not what it takes”?

While the men portrayed in the pictures above have characteristics that are precious today (because they are so rare), there is one aspect of our lives as Christians in which the approach that these men take to life will never work. Regardless their strength, their will, devotion to a cause, willingness to sacrifice all; there is one place where none of this will bring results… Read the rest of this entry »

Five monkeys were in a room that contained a table in one corner, and a banana hanging from a string in the middle of the room. The monkeys figured out that if they dragged the table to the middle of the room, they could climb up and grab the banana. So they did. As one of the monkeys quickly hopped up and reached for the banana, hidden compartments in the walls suddenly opened, releasing high-pressure cold water that knocked the monkey off the table and drenched the other four monkeys.

They quickly learned that whenever one of them climbed on the table, all of them were soaked with cold water. They realized climbing on top of the table was a bad idea. Unbeknownst to the monkeys, the high-pressure cold water hoses were disconnected and removed.

The next week, one of the five monkeys was removed from the room and replaced by a new monkey. The new monkey saw the table and the banana dangling from the ceiling… Read the rest of this entry »

My parents married in the mid/late 1950’s, and by the mid 1960’s were ready to have children. For several reasons they decided not to bear children, but to adopt them. They applied through an adoption agency, and they began their wait. In 1968, in the first week of October, my parents received a call that a baby boy had been born and placed into the system. He was sick, but would be ready to take home in a matter of days. In the third week of October, my parents picked up that boy and brought him home; yours truly. I was still sick, weighing in at only 4 lbs 11 oz, (I’ve made up for it since then). I grew up, not speaking a word until age 3, and not even a short sentence until age 5, (I’ve also made up for that since then). Read the rest of this entry »

Coming out of the Fort Hood massacre, we’ve heard words like “heroism”, “terrorism”, “combat disorder”, “fear”, “Muslim”, “hate”, and “harassment”. The thing that is frightening to many however, isn’t that these words are used, but what each of them are describing and what they are being used to justify. I’d like to take a short look at what several aspects of this case seem to indicate about the state of our hearts and minds in America today.

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Earlier this month I attended – for the first time – a Christian music festival called “Lifest”. It is billed as a place to connect with family and God, reconnect with old friends, and to worship. It was all that and more. It is held at the fairgrounds in Oshkosh, WI in early July every year and it’s been held every year for 10 years. There are tens of thousands of attendees, scores of bands, seven (7) stages, over 6,000 people camping and requires 1,600 volunteers to execute. The word is overused, but it was awesome. [read more below] Read the rest of this entry »

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