A Saturday Thought before Christmas
On this Saturday, I invite you to contemplate this bit of wisdom from St.Ambrose of Milan: "He took what is mine in order that He might impart to me what is His. He took it not to overturn it but to fill it." If we are to ever escape the constant...
Joyful Leadership
"I'm their leader! Which way did they go?" I have a cap with two bills on it, one in the front and one in the back with that slogan on it. It's funny because it's so often true. Leadership is always such a rewarding and challenging calling. In fact, if...
Bearing Fruit
I remember sermons I preached years ago admonishing the congregation to "love each other more" and "be joyful," and I also remember the puzzled looks on their faces as I could almost hear them asking in their heads "OK, how do I do that?!" Too many times we so quickly...
Are You Growing Old or Growing Up?
Life is an amazing adventure and an amazing gift. But part of this life is the daily challenge of actually being awake to that amazement and the call to progress ion our lives. George Bernard Shaw once said "Youth is wasted on the young." What he meant by that is...
Hold On!
"Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance." Virgil The ability to have "stick-to-it-tavness" is a learned trait. The fact is endurance is both a gift and a habit that can be developed. That means our ability to learn how to endure is something we hold within our power to...
Inconvenient Questions
You've met people like this. You may have even had a few of them as fellow students in college. You know the ones. They are the students who ask inconvenient questions of the professor that calls for complicated answers and explanations. Those are the fellow students that always seemed...
Black Friday
OK, more like "Gray Friday" since the retailers have been bombarding us with ads and "special prices" for days now, even opening earlier on Thanksgiving Day to garner more sales. But today marks the "official" beginning of the holiday gift buying season. And it is a perfect icon of our society...
Happy Thanksgiving!
From Orthodox on Purpose to all our friends, may you discover that becoming grateful, learning how to allow gratitude to overwhelm disappointment and bitterness, and entering into a life of gratitude is the antidote for most of life's problems! A Blessed Thanksgiving to all. Through the prayers of the newly...
Black Ops and Intrigue
Secrets and intrigue seem to make for good movies and great gossip. The recent uproar about our own government and it's efforts in internal spying continues to generate much interest and fascination. There's even a story out now that a recent person who shared a great many "secrets" concerning...
Actions AND Words
Do you know what a dichotomy is? Exactly, it is when we set in stone what appears to be two opposites. You know, like good and bad, healthy and unhealthy, up and down, you get the idea. But there are some dichotomies that are false. We separate what isn't suppose...