As I sat down in frontof the computer before starting my humanities final exam, I felt fullyconfident that I could quite possibly answer every question correctly andachieve a perfect score. After all, for several weeks I had been repeatedlyreviewing the wide variety of material on that subject that I needed to passfor completion of my credit requirements to finally graduate from college.   But when the computerstarted the countdown on the timed exam, beginning with the very...

When unexplainable events occur or something bad happens, we often hear people say things like, "Well, God must have a reason for it," or "God knows what He is doing." Looking at things in that way rationalizes a thought process that says, "From somewhere in the cosmic reaches of the universe, God, in His infinite wisdom must have decided to send these difficult circumstances to teach us a lesson."All too frequently the blame gets pinned squarely on God's shoulders for almost any unfortunate...

Jesus tells this great story in Luke 15: "A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now before you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent...

Sitting in the airport terminal, waiting for my next flight, I watched a woman come running up to the empty gate next to mine yelling "Nooooo!" But she was too late. Her flight to Austin, Texas was gone. The jetway door had been closed and there were no airline personnel left at the counter.So the lady runs from the counter to the window and starts waving furiously at the plane, hoping someone will see her, stop the flight full of passengers, turn it around and come back just to pick her...

In Kenny Chesney's song 'Don't Blink' he sings about a man he saw on TV who was being interviewed on his 100th birthday. When asked if he had any wisdom to pass on, the birthday boy said, "You'd best start puttin' first things first. Life goes faster than you think. So don't blink."In Paul's letter to the Colossians in chapter 3, he talked about who was, and should always be first:"Christ is also the head of the church, which is His body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from...

Standing in the cool early morning air, everywhere I looked there were people of all ages with numbers attached to their running clothes, all in various poses of contortion.  I was surrounded by my fellow marathon runners who were pushing, pulling, flexing, bending and twisting their bodies in preparation for the grueling 26.2 miles that would test the limits of their physical endurance and mental determination. If someone didn't get loose enough before the start, they had to do what I did...

There's a classic episode of the 'Seinfeld' sitcom where George takes the car, leaving Jerry and Elaine stranded at a boring party with no ride home.  So while they're waiting for Kramer to finally come pick them up, they work out signals to give if either one of them gets caught in a boring conversation or awkward situation and needs help to escape it.  We can all use some good evacuation plans from time to time for when we feel like we're getting caught.  Trouble is, so many of the things...

Not too long ago I heard from a reflective old high school friend who didn't like the results he was seeing from the way he had been living and was looking for a change.  As we talked about how we're not getting any younger, he described how the desire for something new was coming from feeling almost like he had been sleeping for the past 10 years. What do we need to do when it feels like there's got to be more to life than how we're living? Most importantly, you've got to get clear about...

The night Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemene, right before He was arrested, He was feeling the weight of what He was about to do so heavily that He began to sweat drops of blood. This is probably where the "weight of the world" saying originated, a feeling we have become all too familiar with during our own turbulent times. In a pattern of prayer that is very similar to most of ours, the general theme of Jesus was saying that the task was too heavy for Him and He was asking the...

I don't actually remember it, but my Mom has told me that when I was a toddler, I meddled somewhere I shouldn't have and ended up pushing a hot iron onto my little left hand.  Apparently, it was quite a horrifying ordeal and after everything calmed down, I was left with a permanent reminder of the occasion.  That ugly burn from way back when has stuck with me through all these years, so much so that even now I can still see the faded outline of it around my thumb and index finger. Certain...