"Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes, they don't tell the truth, smiling faces, smiling faces, tell lies, and I've got proof..." The Temptations did this song in 1971 and it's a favorite. But its message is all too familiar. Sometimes, a friend turns out to be no friend at all....
Drama! I confess I am not a fan of drama in my house. And here I am living with three women! I guess the joke's on me! OK, before I get in real trouble here, let me say that I have noticed the older I get, the more I like...
Dear Faithful Partners of Faith Encouraged Ministries, Every year we reach out to you to help us celebrate Fr. Barnabas' birthday during the month of April. This year he turns 62. Recently he told me these years approaching "retirement age" fill him with both hope and dread. Hope in the sense...
Why is it I keep having to learn wisdom the hard way? I mean, it isn't like I haven't had wise men and women and friends who have offered wise counsel. I've seen how bad choices can really wreck a life and then I've watched myself make those SAME...
If you've spent any time with me at all, you know I'm a big fan of asking the "WHY" question when it comes to our motivations for living. In fact, I'm convinced that no one sticks with a pattern of life that is effective without really understanding WHY it...
Fr. Alexander Schmemann once said, "The greatest charge against a Christian is that he has no joy." Frankly, the normal Christian faith is incompatible with a life without joy. It is specifically joy, regardless of the outward circumstances that should be the "normal" Christian life. Now I know what you're...
Nelson Mandela once said "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." This is so true. I've found too many people who think that because...
https://youtu.be/ks7Pb_3yMA8
When I get discouraged, I can always trace it back to a loss of perspective. I mean, it's inevitable. My challenges give me tunnel vision and I lose the ability to see beyond my own immediate pain. By the way, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be....
They say there is a point of absolute clarity when a person is facing their own mortality. We've heard it all before; "Your life flashes before your eyes." Of course, this is a moment in human life we humans regularly avoid thinking about. Our mortality isn't something we like...
