Incorporating Rest
There is an ancient truth that I’m trying to incorporate into my life. I wonder if you might join me. It is the ancient truth of rest. We hear constantly about the crippling pace of our modern world, about how our technology dissolves the difference between work and play and then extends this uncertain busyness into every available moment of the day. We hear also about how our digital lives can leave us with a psychological state not unlike “screen burn” in which what we’ve absorbed embeds itself into an ever weaker and wearier soul. We also hear a great[read more]
5/8/15
I’ve been in Singapore and the Philippines for the last ten days. It has been a demanding time of speaking, meetings and media. I’m grateful, though. My admiration for this part of the world is several decades old and I cherish every moment I am allowed in these lands.What has stirred me most on this trip are the young men. Everywhere I go I meet intelligent, gifted, curious, young men who are eager to make their mark upon the world. I know that young lions of this kind exist most everywhere, but here in Asia—and in a number of other[read more]
4/30/15
Just about the time you get this newsletter in your email box, I'll be jetting off to the far side of the world. I'm not going to be too specific about my itinerary, but what I'll be doing, as you can imagine, is speaking. I'm going to speak to gatherings of men about being great men. I'm going to speak in defense of the Kurds. I'll also speak to business leaders, politicians and even entertainers. My goal with each talk will be to light such fires in human hearts that my listeners will want to live exceptional lives and to do so in[read more]
4/23/15
Next week we'll find ourselves stepping into the month of May. I mention this because it is just about this time each year when I start thinking about my summer reading. Now, I read fairly voraciously all year long but there is something about summer reading that stirs a kind of bookish romance in me. Perhaps it is the memory of summers past filled with poolside adventure stories. It might also be that summer travels have a way of setting words on the page aflame for me. Of course, it could just be part of an ongoing rebellion. In my youth,[read more]
4/16/15
During this past week, I’ve been deeply challenged about how I live. It has all been the doing of Apple—the company, not the fruit. Apple, Inc. released a new version of their Photo program about a week ago and it is so wonderful that it has plunged me into the more than 6,000 photos I have stored on my computer, iPad, and iPhone. It is nearly as though my life—in the form of occasional photos—has passed before my eyes. I have felt the things I imagine we all do when we look at past photos. I have grieved the loss[read more]
4/3/15
On this Good Friday, I want to provide some food for thought appropriate to the day. Please find some quiet moments to read what follows. And may the spirit of Jesus grace your life. Jesus was crucified at nine o’clock in the morning. It was the Phoenicians who were the first to devise the art of crucifixion. They had experimented with strangulation, drowning, burning, boiling in oil, impalement, and death by spear. They found that each of these brought death too quickly. They wanted a slow, humiliating demise fit for punishing criminals and terrifying onlookers. Crucifixion more than met the[read more]
It Is Time For A Kurdish Nation
If there is a cause that screams its urgency from today’s troubled Middle East, it is the cause of Kurdish nationhood. It sounds forth from the battlefields of the war against ISIS. It echoes from the agonizing disappointments of the Arab Spring. It pleads from the blood of far too many martyrs for a more tolerant version of Islam. The time for a Kurdish nation has arrived. This cry is not new. As long ago as the end of World War I, a Treaty of Sevres called for “autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish areas lying east of the Euphrates.” (III,[read more]