There’s a small zoo in my hometown that boasts a lion as one of the main attractions. But if you pay close attention, there’s something terribly wrong. This lion doesn’t roar. Instead, he lay silent with his face pressed against the dirt of the earth. I imagine the lion initially welcomed the attention as the main attraction. He was well fed and he roared on occasion to keep his admirers entertained. But in time, the chains of captivity robbed him […]
America has become incredibly divided. But one of the most convicting things is the response of so many Christians to this divide. There seems to be an eager willingness to quote Jesus in spite of a rampant unwillingness to actually emulate Him to others. In a culture that finds Christianity difficult to believe, this makes it utterly unbelievable. In a culture of division, it’s simply not okay to hold up a LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR sign while throwing stones at anyone who doesn’t agree with you. While […]
As an eighteen-year-old high school student, I was given the task of completing a senior project. It seemed like an insurmountable goal to culminate thirteen years of education and my personal ideals into a thesis paper, related product, and oral presentation. I titled my project “Faith in Business”, an attempt to highlight the idea that these concepts were not oil and water. Contrary to popular belief, faith and business were not only intertwined, they were mutually beneficial. Those who judged my efforts introduced common criticisms, making it clear that America had […]
First, let me say that I’m more surprised than you are that I’m writing about Pokémon Go. But earlier this year, I began writing about social and cultural issues as a way to (hopefully) engage healthy conversations about the topics that usually get us in a tizzy. For those of you who are living in a hole, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game that allows players to “catch” cartoon-like creatures as they interact with the real world. The app’s technology allows […]
I recently read a story about an ambitious dad who decided to trump the Elf on the Shelf tradition by actually dressing up as the elf himself. Apparently, hiding a stuffed elf every night wasn’t challenging enough. His story went viral. Touché elf dad, pictures of you dressed up like a life-sized elf duct-taped to the wall are on every news site in America. Clark Griswold, eat your heart out. But I have a confession. When I see stories like this […]
If you pause and look at your life objectively, I think you’ll recognize a real tension that pulls you in opposite directions. On one side there’s gratitude, generosity, and humility. On the other side, you see entitlement, fear, and pride. Every human being is driven by three distinct tensions: Gratitude — Entitlement Generosity — Fear Humility — Pride In every circumstance, every relationship, and every interaction, we feel these polar forces at work. A quick look at American culture and many would argue that we […]
There are moments in our lives that stand alone. As ill-prepared as we might be, they happen anyway. These moments represent a coming-of-age, leaving change in their wake. They are a dividing line between the way things used to be and the way things are now. In these moments, people rally around a cause and culture as we know it is redefined. These moments unite us. Rosa Parks refuses to move from her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus Neil […]
We get busy in life. Matt reminds us of why we dedicate ourselves to something other than ourselves.
- Robert Wagnon, CEO, Republic State Mortgage
