Our Friday morning men's group is studying the book of James. Today we were in chapter two and covered these verses: "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" (James 2:1-4) James touches on a common human tendency: to want to impress those who impress you. In so doing, we often look down on those who don't impress us. It's why "average" people fawn over celebrities and then turn around and treat rudely…
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This is from the Wall Street Journal Blog. It's about how the advertising industry understands habit formation. Implications for your ministry or job? ********* "Ninety-nine hundredths of our activity is purely automatic," the psychologist and philosopher William James famously wrote. "All of our life is nothing but a mass of habits." James was pointing out that, though we give habits little thought, they define our lives: how much we eat, save or spend, how often we trek to the gym and what we say to our kids each night. But these compulsions aren't inscribed in our genes or hard-wired into the brain at birth. Scientists are discovering that habits are simply an extreme form of learning, a behavior that's so familiar we no longer need to think about it. The malleability of habits isn't news to Madison Avenue: Effective commercials show how people can be quickly trained to do something…
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Recently I was reminded of a Michael Martin Murphey song that I once had on a cassette tape. For those of you unfamiliar with what a cassette is, I've included a link to Wikipedia where you can read an article and view a picture. The song is entitled, "A Long Line of Love." I come from a long line of love. When the times get hard, we don't give up. Forever is in my heart and in my blood. You see I come from a long line of love. We all stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. We drive on roads someone else built. And if you're blessed, you have a heritage of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers or sisters -- all who form a long line of love. And if your line of love is shorter than you'd like, take heart. You're building the…
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"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). The story is told of a little boy and his sister riding on a wooden rocking horse. The little boy turns to his sister and says, "If one of us would get off there would be more room for me." That pretty much sums up our challenge. For the Christ-follower, the process of maturity is not to make more room for me but more room for Him. We are to look for ways to make more of Jesus and less of ourselves. It's not easy. Our culture breeds selfishness. From the time we are little, we are told that we deserve a trophy just for showing up. If we're not careful, we'll bring this attitude over into the church. The church…
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“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and love and live.” - Leo Buscaglia Buscaglia was right. Risk is not only a part of life, it is one of life's best growth engines. When a child is no longer satisfied to scoot along the floor, she takes the risk of learning to walk. Without taking that risk, she would never learn to skip, hop, or run. When we get to the dating and courtship phase of life, there is the risk she will say no. Those who have started businesses or churches or organizations, understand the risk of failing comes with the territory. Artists who take their craft from the basement to the stage, risk rejection. As Buscaglia says, you may avoid suffering and sorrow but…
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