When I worked with Bob Buford, I asked him how he had become so successful in the cable television business. His quick response was they had concentrated on being a dominant supplier to a specialized niche. That meant his company was not the only game in town but was so good at what they did that people thought of them first. They occupied the mental box marketers call “top of mind.” While winning this space may not eliminate competition, it makes it harder for others to win away your customers. For decades nonprofits have occupied a similar box in the minds of private foundations and donors. I remember well an…

The test of a long life is staying vital and not drifting.  Few of the leaders of Israel were able to be good for the long run.  They eventually gave in to deceit, drift or the ever present temptation to worship other gods.  There were many strong starts but scarcely any that endured. They became isolated from challenges to their whims and foolish choices. They were seduced by power and surrounded by liars and sycophants. The circle of trusted friends grew smaller and the ring of influencers with vested interests grew larger. Living longer only increased the odds of ending badly. It’s a question for some of us as well. …

According to Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I suppose that is right for the most part. However, is it possible to have an over examined life? In the last several years, I have been in conversations with people young and old about what it means to do something meaningful with their lives. For the young, it is mostly a question of investing their future years in a fulfilling and purposeful career – or series of careers. For many, this leads them to nonprofit work or social entrepreneurship as they have serious doubts about the value of either a corporate career or “menial” work. For the older, it…

From the first days of the Church there have been competing beliefs about the second coming and end times. Yes, there were and are false teachers but most of the confusion has resulted from jumping to conclusions about certain signs, overly excited imaginations or just different readings of Scripture. Why else would we have pre/post/a millennial interpretations? Why else would we have an end times industry? From the outset there have been two major perspectives on the role of the Church in the world as we await the second coming of Christ. There is the conquering Church– the Church triumphant. There are those pursuing dominion in the world and, in…

Carol and I were in Baltimore last week, and our visits included a middle school in one of the worst neighborhoods of the city. The principal told us their students consistently dropped out long before graduation, and the teen pregnancy rate was triple the state average.  On the wall of his office, he had a chart with three columns:  Coping, Well-Being and Agency. Each column listed the school’s initiatives to improve in each area. While all three are important, it is the sense of agency – the belief that there is something you can do about your circumstances – that drives so much of everything else. You are not a…

Looking back now, it is difficult to believe that in early 1972 I was singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in a choir for one of Arthur Blessitt’s crusades in Boston. You might remember Arthur as the man who carried the wooden cross around the world on foot. He logged 38,000 miles and visited 315 nations. A new Christian and like so many others, I had been swept up in the adventure of it. In June of that same year, I was part of the 100,000 high school and college students swarming in Dallas, Texas at the Cotton Bowl for Explo‘72. Sponsored by Campus Crusade, we had come from around the…

The boy had been sent to the office of the principal by a teacher at her wits’ end. “He’s incorrigible,” she murmured and left him at the door. The principal took the heavy wooden paddle from his desk and with me as the required witness gave the boy the first of three strokes. I knew it stung. I had been paddled myself at the same age and for the same reason. But it was the boy’s response that unsettled me. It was not a smirk but an indifferent smile after each swat as if he were neither frightened or remorseful. He only grinned and when the punishment was finished stood…

My travel agent informed me this week that for someone my age to rent a car in Ireland I must now provide proof that I am not only fully insured but a statement from our doctor that I am healthy enough to drive. I believe I have graduated to a different status in life. I am now elderly. Elderly is better than simply old. Elderly is something else entirely. It means I have the opportunity now of being an elder and that is so different from merely being old. An elder can choose to be wise and of use in unique ways. I may resist being old but I can…

Discoveries made through a mistake, battles lost by a sudden change of wind, unintentional inflection points in a life through a wrong turn. The history of our world is full of them. In fact, the closer we study major shifts the more likely we are to see they often hinge on seemingly unimportant choices that make the outcome radically different. What if Archduke Ferdinand’s driver had not accidentally turned down the wrong street giving a Serbian nationalist his opportunity? What if the wind had not shifted on the Spanish Armada destroying their fleet? What if a dish of bacteria in the lab of Alexander Fleming had not been contaminated with…

Don Miller’s first book “Blue Like Jazz” may be the most recognized of the several he has written but I have a special fondness for his book “Scary Close.” In it he chronicles his years of failed relationships, isolation and painful drama. Don is honest about his tendencies to manipulate, use and ultimately alienate people out of fear – fear of being honest about himself and with others. He writes that his actions were not altogether intentional but always inevitable: “A weasel doesn’t know he’s a weasel, he just does what works to get food.” But in Don’s life there was a moment when he changed — and that’s his…