Intentional Encouragement

I have been enjoying some much needed vacation time this week and focusing my attention on some important reasons that I have to be thankful.   Part of my time has been invested in catching up on some reading.   I’ve finished one book that I had been working away at and will probably finish another today.   I read something in one of them today that really has me thinking about the process of my Christian life. We often think about the goal of our Christian life as conformity to the image of Jesus and eventually a home in Heaven.   Those are both true and are important for us to remember because they are what await us at the end of the journey.   But what about the journey itself?   Do we view the journey as part of the excitement in being a Christ-follower?   Let me quote Wayne Jacobsen who writes of a friend who is a wood worker who “loves to work with wood and to make decorations for his home,” and who had a “light dawn” for him “when he noticed ho...

I've been thinking today about a phrase I used occasionally when I helped to coach middle and Jr. High school basketball a few years ago.  "The best offense is a good defense."  When I was going through school, I couldn't handle the ball very well, so I learned to play pretty good defense.  My logic was that if we can keep the other team from scoring; we won't need to worry about scoring too much to beat them.  A couple of good zone defensive strategies; and good understanding of a man-to-man defense; some good conditioning to keep up and the rest will take care of itself.  No need for a lengthy playbook with all those different plays intended to dazzle the opponents and run up the score. Well; shame on me.  First of all; that a misquote.  You can google it.  Several people are credited with the phrase, including prize fighter Jack Dempsey.  But it really goes like this: "The best defense is a good offense."  Go ahead and re-...

OK, I need to reflect a little on the wave of changes to our political landscape in the last 24 hours.  First of all, will there be that much change?  We shift back and forth, expecting one group or another to accomplish things that are desperately needed in our country.  When they don't accomplish what they said they would, or what we think they should have (in a short enough time), we replace them.  It is really the heart of our political process.  We get to decide who is in charge and who we will entrust our well-being as a nation to. Secondly, it is interesting to me that the number of people from the various camps of voters shifts from time to time.  One or two demographic groups standing up and being counted can turn the tide of an election.  But what often to seems happen?  The groups of people who are content with the way things are tend to trust "their" chosen leaders to continue to do the job.  The groups who disagree with the p...