The timing of this post’s subject matter may seem off at first glance. As I write this, the battle for Ukraine and especially Kiev continues. The incredible courage of the Ukrainian leaders and people in the face of a massive onslaught is inspiring much of the world. It is unknown at this point where this… Read More Have you ever seen a frustrated tulip? Or a worried bird?
I have wondered when or even whether to write this blog post. Certainly it was going to be difficult to do with the physical fatigue I experienced in the aftermath of getting Covid-19 in late September. That fatigue only lifted in the past few weeks, but still I weighed writing this post. These past months… Read More How to Survive ‘Friendly Fire’
It was a stark image two days ago in Cincinnati, Ohio. A whole football team on their knees praying, surrounding a gravely injured teammate. A stadium of 60,000 fans silent, many most likely also in prayer for this 24 year old Buffalo Bills player named Damar Hamlin. He had experienced a cardiac arrest after tackling… Read More Every Life Important: 2023 Begins
It has been several weeks since I last wrote a blog post, primarily due to a post-covid intense season of travel and ministry. But even during this period, a question has been nagging me (as questions often do): When is empathetic listening not enough? Not just any kind of listening, but a quality of listening… Read More When is empathetic listening not enough?
I have been thinking again recently about the dangers of cynicism. It can so easily grow in our lives, to the point where it overwhelms our hopes and turns our longings into dust. So many world and national events can contribute to a sense of powerlessness: slow recovery from the pandemic, or fears it will… Read More Have your longings for change turned into cynicism?
There is a glory in limitations, in weakness. After struggling for many months with ‘long covid’, I thought earlier this year that it was completely over. The major symptom for me had been a deep fatigue, and now it seemed my energy was back, my doctor confirming I was ‘well’. But unfortunately that may have… Read More The Glory of Limitations
In my early 40’s I held eight different roles/positions in my organization, at the same time. Some were focused in the region of South Asia where I lived, and some were international in scope. I took them on in good faith, with a desire to serve and aware that some clearly overlapped. But I also… Read More Have you ever experienced a ‘conflict of interest’?
There are a lot of circumstances and people that can cause us to be a ‘victim’, some real and some imagined within our own minds. This post is not to make light of the kinds of traumas that can happen to us, but to suggest the importance of living in a way of increased freedom… Read More A ‘steward of our own brokenness’ or ‘playing the victim’?
What a year. We started 2021 with covid uncertainty globally, and 2022 starts much the same. But there is good news also with vaccinations increasing and economic recovery happening in many nations. Personally this was a very difficult year with the death of several friends due to the virus both in India and the USA,… Read More There is hope for a tree (and you) in 2022
Two weeks from tomorrow is the first day of 2022. As I write this post, uncertainties and anxieties about the existing and new variants of covid-19 continue to cloud the new year outlook. Recently I’ve been reading an excellent book on the first three hundred years of the Christian Church, The Patient Ferment of the… Read More The Corrective of a Long View of History
The image with this blog post may be pretty disturbing, unless you love zombie and living undead movies. A hand reaching out from a grave. Perhaps I meant to publish this two weeks ago on Halloween and missed my timing? But as stark as it is, it resonates with a mental impression I had a… Read More Have we learned to grieve our losses and disappointments?
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