Boat Potatoes

Boat Potatoes

I had reason recently to review some of the principles found in John Ortberg’s great book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get out of the Boat. Using the story found in Matthew 14 where Peter joins Jesus as He walked on the water, Ortberg contrasts “water...
Learning from Failure

Learning from Failure

The author John Ortberg tells an interesting story about how failure is tied to learning. Apparently a ceramics teacher divided his class into two separate groups. One group (we will call them Group A) was going to be graded on the basis of the quantity of their work....
Who is in Your Basket?

Who is in Your Basket?

The children of Israel enjoyed peace and prosperity in Egypt as long as Joseph was on the scene. But Exodus 1:8 tells us that there was a new king and “he did not know about Joseph.” Circumstances changed drastically. In fact, in order to control the population growth...
Hard Things

Hard Things

David made a profound statement at the beginning of Psalm 60. He flat out declares, “You have made your people see hard things…” And as difficult as it is to embrace those words, I know them to be true. From time to time, bordered by His intense love, the Lord...
Our Purpose in Life

Our Purpose in Life

I read about an executive headhunter who specializes in finding executives for major firms in the US. He remarked, “When I get an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone else, I like to disarm them. I offer him a drink, take my coat off, throw up my feet and...
Pause and Think

Pause and Think

Recently, I have had the privilege to help a young friend learn to drive. One day, as we sat at a traffic light, I shared with her my most important driving insight. I told her she had to develop the “one-two-three” mentality for entering an intersection. After the...