Rodney King died recently and of course his most famous line was out of the riots that followed his beating and arrest. "People I just want to say you know can we all get along? Can we get along?"  While that line has been comic fare for years ” I ask myself that question all the time.  I don't like conflict or confrontation and living in the midst of tension drains me. While some like the action of Israel conquering the land of Canaan” I like the verse that goes "Then the land had rest from war."  That is exactly how I would have things end.  Happily ever after and everyone getting along.  Unfortunately that's not…

I received a call today from a friend with whom I’ve not spoken in a couple of years.  He has brain cancer and we were talking about the struggle.  He told me about a time last year when he thought he was going to simply give up and die because of all the complications and stress on him and his family.  I asked him why he didn’t give up and his response was a long pause and then “The presence of God.”  I heard the exact same response from another friend with cancer two days ago when I asked him what was keeping him afloat.  Time and again I have…

  In his short story “The Rocking-Horse Winner” published in 1926 D.H. Lawrence describes a young Englishwoman who “has no luck”.  Though she and her husband have expensive tastes neither of them separately or together are able to stay out of the debt necessary to maintain their lifestyle.  They are preoccupied by a sense of failure and as a result the house is permeated by an inaudible but palpable anxiety about the lack of enough money. “And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud. They…

  If you go to Cuba today the single most obvious image is that of Che Guevera.  While he has been dead for 45 years an industry has grown up around that single photo.  He more than any other embodies and perpetuates the revolution.   While most of the countries I’ve visited have portraits and posters of the current leaders (especially dictators) plastered on buildings or hung in offices I saw two public pictures of Fidel and not a single picture of Raul.  However fashion photographer Alberto Che’s image has a quality that allows it to signify anything to anyone and most everything to everyone.  Whatever a person wants to see…

  On May 18-24 a group of 15 Gathering participants flew to Cuba.  Most of us had never been and were curious about what is going on with the church there.  All of us were surprised by what we learned and experienced.  I don’t want to write a full report but would like to focus a couple of blogs on some of the highlights. The influence of China has almost replaced the subsidy of the Soviet Union.  I use those words carefully because China is not subsidizing.  It is in a trading relationship with Cuba.  Still as a result of seeing China’s operating pattern in Africa and other places they…

I was with a young man who had just completed the biggest business deal of his career and if managed right left him with a fortune that would provide for he and his family for the rest of their lives.  I asked him how he felt and he said, “I’m afraid.  I know I don’t deserve this and I might lose it as quickly as I made it.  God might take it away.” That reminded me of Jesus’ calling Peter in the boat on the lake.  They just had the biggest catch of their lives and suddenly Peter says, “Depart from me Lord for I am a sinner.” It’s odd…

  I used to kid our youngest daughter that she came into this world saying “Let’s go guys.”  She was five when we set up a lemonade stand in the front yard. She was ready to flag down all the passing cars.  I stepped inside for a minute and when I returned she was nowhere in sight!  I looked down the street and she was standing at our neighbor’s front door with the pitcher and cups.  I ran down and asked her what she was doing and she said ” “They weren’t stopping.”  That same word (except in Greek) for “let’s go guys” is dierchomai  and Jesus uses it to…

  In a few days I'll be in a leadership seminar.  There will be hundreds of others in the room with me to watch speakers and consultants on the topic from all over the country via live feed.  I know there will be some thought provoking content but I doubt this thought by G.K. Chesterton will be part of it.  "Distribute the dignified people and the capable people and the highly businesslike people among all the situations which their ambition or their innate corruption may demand but keep close to your heart keep deep in your inner councils the absurd people; let the clever people pretend to govern you let…