In the Charismatic Christian community, there are two reasons why people have serious problems: it’s either a character issue or it’s a demon. Those broad sweeping generalizations are clearly inaccurate much of the time. It’s just as foolish as generalizing how women feel or how men react. Life is full of nuance and unique circumstance.
Have you ever felt guilty for pressing towards a career or a ministry or an artistic expression that you enjoy? I’m guilty. It’s almost as if I thought pleasure and enjoyment were signs of disobedience and sin. This is the result of the church’s representation of God in my childhood.
I can be blunt, abrasive, and unapologetic. I clearly can. But more often than not it doesn’t yield the result I want.
It doesn’t matter if people are “too easily offended” these days. I don’t win anything by trying to teach the world a lesson one person at a time.
When I speak, do I want to be understood? If yes, then the burden of learning how to speak in such a way that people will both listen and understand lies with me.
If I take the time and energy to speak but don’t give every effort to be worth hearing, then I’m wasting my own time.
As a parent, both your children’s needs and your adult responsibilities clamor for your attention at the same time. It’s easy to make your own concerns the priority and assume your son or daughter’s issue is really not as big a deal as they make it sound.
We know that babies cry to get attention for every need. There’s a phase kids go through as they learn more advanced and accurate methods of communicating needs.
When I don’t express my gratitude in any given situation, it’s not because I can’t. I’m never forcibly prohibited from thankfulness. It’s a choice. I used to tell myself that I couldn’t be thankful during the bad times. Whether because I feel like it’s not fair, it’s not just, or it’s not kind. Or I tell myself that I’m not glad this is happening. So what?
I don’t HAVE to NOT be thankful. So when I’m not, it’s because I choose to not be. And since thankfulness is ALWAYS within my power,
There’s always a certain kind of guy who calls me “Buddy”. He’s usually casual, intentionally easy to get along with. He’s often the magnet that draws other people in to hang out. Whether they’re drinking buddies, workout buddies, golfing buddies, fishing buddies, fantasy football buddies, work buddies, whatever.
It’s easy to start a blog. Anyone can do it. So easy, in fact, that I’ve started no less than 37 different blogs over the past 14 years. Yes, you read that right. THIRTY SEVEN. To give that number context, every year I rediscover at least one blog I had completely forgotten.
There are no simple answers to personal questions. “How are you?” sounds like a simple enough question. But it might as well be a grenade lobbed into your living room. I have no idea how to answer that question. How am I? I mean… I don’t know. Which things should I take into account when answering that question?
How much time have you spent doing what other people think you should do? Hours? Weeks? Years?
I got into blogging early. It was 2005 and MySpace was still humming. I caught wind of the notion that some early adopters were monetizing their blogs with ads. Imagine a world in which you blurt out the randomness you were already going to share with SOMEBODY, only you get paid to do it!
Do you feel like nobody is listening? Answer this question for me: If you were invited to a talk show and asked to speak on the topic of your choice, what would you choose? You can just answer it for yourself or you can drop me a comment below to let me know.