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29
Feb 2012

Men, Are You Brave? Or Complacent?

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Would you consider yourself brave?

Since early childhood, my family has had a friend who owns a cattle ranch in Oklahoma. I have memories of pulling on an old pair of jeans, boots, and gloves in preparation for a day riding around in his Ford pickup. We would herd cattle and occasionally I’d find an opportunity to get out and climb two-story mounds of manure while he worked. (After you get over the smell, you’d be surprised how much fun a kid can have in a pile of poop.)

On one occasion, as I stood at the summit of Dung Mountain, I watched as our family friend seared steer after steer with a branding iron. This troubled me.

“Doesn’t that hurt the cows?” I asked him.
“It’s a little painful for a minute, but it protects them. It lets others know who they belong to.” [Read more...]

Categories: Spiritual Growth Tags: , ,
30
Nov 2011

Distracting Ourselves to Death, The Final Chapter

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Bible © by Savio Sebastian

Editor’s Note: This post is the final post in the “Distracting Ourselves to Death” series. You can find the previous posts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

The enemy is crafty. Just after coming off the “high” of my sabbatical, I immediately went about making changes. I was excited to initiate many of them. My confidence was high, my vision was clear, and my path seemed a little straighter than it had in years.

I woke up every day excited about the new direction I had for my life. I was finally starting to see my way out of the ruts I mentioned in my first post. Unfortunately, a trend started to develop. For almost two months, after my “life-changing” sabbatical with the Lord, I cracked open my Bible very few times. I didn’t journal, worship or even pray much. It was a subtle drift, but one day led to two days, then a week, and eventually an entire month had passed and then two. [Read more...]

Categories: Spiritual Growth, Stewardship Tags: , , , ,
29
Nov 2011

The Pity Party from Hell (Literally)

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confetti © by Looking Glass

My college experience was one best characterized by all the fun I had. By senior year, I was extremely pleased with my long list of friends and was typically in the know about all the best parties. Most importantly, the majority of cute girls on campus were at least familiar with whom Brandon Howard was and in this, I was well pleased. From time to time I managed to sneak in a little studying as well.

After graduation, I fully expected that, while the setting might change, the party would certainly not end. I pitied friends who were jumping into post-grad life feet first by adding a wife, a mortgage, grad school loans, or jobs working long hours. Some were even crazy enough to complicate life with babies. Those seemed like such “grown-up” decisions and I resisted them.

“Why rush into so much responsibility with so much youth left?” I asked myself. [Read more...]

Categories: Relationships, Spiritual Growth Tags: , , ,
08
Nov 2011

Fortified Bunkers

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Army Men 3 © by Spesh98

{Editor’s Note: Today’s post was written by Scott Gottreu. You can learn more about Scott at the end of the post.}

In the Star Trek universe, the Borg are a parasitic race. They conquer other races and incorporate their technology and knowledge into their own. The individual does not exist within the Borg. There is nothing that sets each part of the collective apart from any other. As they encounter new races, they send a preemptive message, “Resistance is futile.” Many worlds put up valiant defenses but each culture and world falls like each world before.

We often talk of how we resist things in our life. We resist the actions of our boss. We resist the changes in our families. We resist the Lord’s leading to follow Him in some area. But resistance is also an outside force at work in our lives. Resistance can be similar to the Borg trying to destroy the life God desires for you.

Steven Pressfield in The War of Art discusses resistance as a force acting against us.  Here are a few characteristics he lists:

  • “Resistance is a repelling force. It’s negative.  Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”
  • “Resistance has no conscience.”
  • “Resistance is always lying.”
  • “Resistance aims to kill.”

[Read more...]

Categories: Spiritual Growth Tags: , ,