I like to play golf. Golf isn’t super-exciting. In fact, it’s kinda boring. But hitting a little ball hard with a club can be therapeutic. I’m a below average golfer. Golfers at a below average level use mulligans occasionally. If…
We live in an increasingly angry world. If you don’t believe me, drive during rush hour in any major city in the U.S. Or watch cable news for thirty minutes. You’ll be convinced. Anger is a human emotion common to…
Have you ever been in a meeting where people were talking (and maybe even shouting), but no one was communicating? I recently sat through one of those . . . it was ninety minutes of sheer torture. Multiple people talking over each…
In 1992, I was the lead pastor of a growing church. We were having a banner year. Highest attendance ever. More people committing their lives to Christ than any year prior in our tenure. Record financial giving. We were in…
“Lord, I’m hurting this morning.” Ever prayed that prayer before, or some version of it? I’m not talking about physical pain here—rather, about emotional pain. Especially the variety that issues from disappointing relationships. You know, the kind of pain that…
I am a recovering perfectionist. It was circa 1997. I was in a pre-service prayer room, getting ready to speak to a group of about one hundred teenagers. I was pleading with God for twenty agonizing minutes to help me,…
Do you struggle with the F-word? The last two weeks we’ve been looking at the subject of getting a grip on our anger and learning how to express it in a healthier way. You can’t talk about anger very long without…
We live in an angry world. The age of outrage. In last week’s blog, 5 Things Everyone Needs to Know About Anger, we considered five basics we have to understand: Anger is part of the human experience Anger often involves…
We live in an angry world. The age of outrage. Is it just me, or do people in general seem angrier than ever? A husband remarked to his wife one day, “When I get mad at you, you never fight…
“John I’m feeling depressed.” In my line of work, I often hear those words. Having experienced major depression two decades ago, when someone tells me they’re feeling depressed, I wonder: are they having a couple of bad days in a…
