Stumbling Over the Truth

     Back when my wife and I were first married, Dunkin' Doughnuts had an advertisement that showed one of their employees getting up in the early hours of the morning--every morning.  He would be half asleep, but he would repeat, "Time to make the doughnuts," every time.  It was very humorous and got my wife and I to repeat that slogan as we would wander out of bed to start our day.  It was those morning blahs of a daily grind that we were referring to when we said, "time to make the doughnuts."  But haven't you ever felt like you are stuck in a rut?  Maybe it's your job or your relationships or you church or your life that have you feeling like you are caught in routine.  Possibly it is something that really has you enslaved that you really don't want anyone knowing about. Don't get used to slavery!      The Israelites had this problem.  They had grown accustomed to being slaves in Egypt.  Joseph...

      Not being able to see can be frustrating and definitely painful.   Have you ever stubbed your toe on something in the dark because you couldn't see?  That can be so painful!  Not seeing what is coming can also be dangerous.        " A discerning person keeps wisdom in view, but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth ." -Proverbs 17:24      When I was in high school, my dad and I got blind sided by another car on our way home from school.  I can remember the car rolling over and over as my head and arm broke out sections of glass.  We finally came to rest with the passenger side of the vehicle (my side) flat on the ground.  It was a few minutes later that rescuers rocked the car back to an upright position and an emergency crew cut me out of the wreck.  They placed me on a stretcher and into an ambulance where I was quickly taken to a hospital emergency room.  They patched me b...

     Almost anything you need you ca find these days on the internet.  Between Amazon, Google, Walmart.com, and e-Bay a person can have most anything delivered within a short amount of time.  As a society, we have so many resources at our finger tips, and just one click items can be shipped to your front door.  Countless volumes of information stand ready at our finger tips, which causes me to wonder how anyone could fail.  But the truth is that all these advantages don't equate to success.  You can't order success online.        Success isn't something to obtain or arrive at.  It isn't a destination, it's a derivative of the journey.  And what is even more frustrating is the the road of success is often paved with disappointments and setbacks that serve to extend the road not to block it.  Failure often leads us closer to success.  David put it this way in Psalm 37:23-24,     "The step...

     Yesterday I came home from work to find that my kitchen light wasn't working.  No big deal, except for the fact that today is my oldest son's birthday.  My wife was intending to make him a birthday cake, but with no light it was going to be challenging.  So we decided that the thing to do was to try new light bulbs and if that didn't work, replace the fixture.  This meant a trip to our local Lowes to get what was needed.  The unique light bulbs took a while to find and then we selected (after a few moments of debating price, color, size, etc.) a new light fixture and went home.        The easy and more inexpensive solution would have been the replacement light bulbs, but when we changed them out the light still did not work.  This meant changing out the fixture.  Though the box of the new light fixture assured me that this was a simple task that could be completed by one person but this proved to be not as s...

     Why?  A simple question yet complex question that keeps parents on their toes and leaders up late at night.  Why?  It is the question that perplexes organizations and confounds individuals, yet it is vitally important that we all ask it often.        Motivational checks are a good idea and "why" is the tool to get the job done.  We have all heard stories of people who do things without a reason, but it is the reason why that truly keeps us moving forward towards the unimaginable goals of life.  "Why" gives us the edge, the laser focus that keeps us committed to achieving the dreams others believe to be out of reach.  Why is what keeps marriages together when it would be easy to quit.  Why makes New Year's resolutions last past February 1st.  Why helps you put both feet on the floor on a Monday morning to face another day at work.  Why is also that tool that causes us to evaluate the motives...

     Influence,  the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something is an interesting conversation.  We chide the young about the importance of avoiding bad influence, encourage the inexperienced to learn how to exert influence, and lean on the mature to gain the impact from their influence.  Influence is all around us, which leads us to analyze, scrutinize and emphasize the how, why, when, and who.   It is the "who" of influence that I wish to talk about.        Recently I read a story (unverified) about Albrecht Durer, a German artist of the late 1400's to early 1500's.  According to the story, Durer grew up in a poor but large family of eighteen children of which he was the third child.  Early in life he displayed talent in artistry.  Because of this a close friend of his offered to work in the mines for Durer to pay for him to be able to attend school for his art. ...