September 15, 2014 “At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, ‘I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that …
Author Archives: Bob Shank
Good News
September 8, 2014 “First, the doctor told me the good news: I was going to have a disease named after me.” (Steve Martin). I took a break from the unrelenting news cycle over the weekend to get a couple of runs in with one of my mileage buddies. He posed an intriguing thought: why aren’t …
Who’s your daddy?
September 2, 2014 “Who’s your daddy?” It’s slang, but it’s telling: no one starts as a first-generation anything. We all come from somewhere; we’re all marked by someone along the way, for better or for worse. I was recently asked to write a tribute to Dr. Howard Hendricks (“Prof”), one of the handful of mentors …
Weary
August 25, 2014 Weary: lacking strength, energy or freshness because of a need for rest or sleep. Bored or annoyed by something because you have seen it, heard it, done it, etc., many times or for a long time. Back in January, ISIS was compared by the White House to “the JV (junior varsity) team,” …
Greatness
August 18, 2014 ”It ain’t that great.“ In a world ruled by personal opinions – expressed on everything from YouTube to Yelp – it doesn’t take much to order-up the headstone and doom someone/something to early death. Just let a loon with the leverage of social media express their opinion – well-founded, or embittered – …
Share Your Experience
August 11, 2014 Anomaly: an irregularity; something that deviates from the norm, or from expectations. We run across anomalies frequently: an American, who doesn’t embrace democratic ideals. A person driving an environment-friendly car, who throws a Starbucks cup alongside the road. A school teacher, who doesn’t like children. A university professor, who imposes a narrow …
Running Toward Eternity
August 4, 2014 It’s probably not in your “to read” stack. The Journal of the American College of Cardiology isn’t a page-turner; if you’re not employed in the field, you’ve never heard its name. Featuring articles with headlines like, “Effect of Intensive Statin Therapy on Regression of Coronary Atherosclerosis in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome: …
Plan Good Things
July 28, 2014 I’m seldom – if ever – enviable, but today takes the cake. Today and tomorrow, I’m in a crucial lockdown-mode, in an undisclosed, secure location. My task: plan 2015. Over 100 weekdays – avoiding local school breaks – I’ll be leading sessions for The Master’s Program. Board meetings and special events for …
Maximum RPMs
July 21, 2014 Malaysian Airlines Flight 17: did the Russians do it? Boko Haram: what’s happening with the girls they kidnapped in Nigeria? Lois Lerner: will anyone find a way to reconstruct her e-mails? Gaza: will the ground offensive become an all-out war, drawing outside participants? Health Insurance: will my policy cost go up 25% …
A Returning King
July 14, 2014 “The King Has Returned!” The sentiment was sincere, on the placard held over the head of a celebrating fan in Cleveland, to the news that LeBron James was “coming home,” to the Cavaliers. The photo ran on Section 1/page 1 of the Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition, so the neighborhood buzz received …
A Reminder of Freedom
July 7, 2014 America is cleaning-up from Friday’s fireworks; despite the horror of the daily headlines, people around the world still long to join us in “the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave…” Conflict continues over the price paid to bring Bowe Bergdahl home from Taliban captivity (five of their top-guys …
Exceptionalism
June 30, 2014 If you define life based on your Christian faith, your calendar declares a major time-out when Christmas and Easter come ‘round. If your life is more defined by national boundaries – and, if you’re an American – this is your week: come Friday, we’ll celebrate Independence Day, on the 4th of July… …
Embrace Disruption
June 23, 2014 “Is it a significant birthday?” The question was asked by a younger-than-us – well-intended, but nearly clueless – restaurant hostess regarding a peer’s upcoming surprise party. I thought to myself, “young lady: at this point in life, they’re all significant!” Every age offers its own potential for advantage. I was thinking about …
Accelerate the Pace
June 16, 2014 Do you sense it? Your bod – and your brain – are probably talking to you right now. It’s in the air. Not the air, really; it’s wired into your DNA. Within the next seven days, it’s coming. Can you feel it? If you saw the most depressing movie ever made (What …
Build with care
June 9, 2014 A question, for graduates: “What’s your goal in life?” Ask that question 10 times, and you’ll get a few serious answers, and numerous frivolous responses. Wait about a decade, and the intensity might rise. The longer one lives, the more you feel the weight of the significant. What’s your goal? Paul’s reply: …
Graduation Day
June 2, 2014 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:16) If you’re not comfortable with paradox (“a self-contradictory statement”), you’ll have a hard time with the Bible. So much of what God has to say runs in head-on conflict with what we have spent a lifetime confirming. It’s …
Memorial Day
May 27, 2014 “A day to honor our ancestors.” There’s a church a mile away from my home that has a monument sign out-front that challenges my spiritual maturity, constantly. The message changes every week; each time I go by, I’m reminded that the designation “church” is very fluid and flexible. The pastor is very …
Come join me at the Summit
May 27, 2014 Perhaps I’ve worn out my welcome. Over the last few weeks, I’ve sent you a number of invitations to join me at the Issachar Summit on June 4th – next Wednesday – in Costa Mesa. There are lots of amazing Christian events that you could attend; I know you are inundated with …
Closed-Minded Campuses
May 19, 2014 I’m getting my affairs in order; this may be my last Point of View. Condoleezza Rice had to cancel her flight to New Jersey when the outcry by the students at Rutgers made her commitment to speak at their commencement a bad idea. Christine Lagarde was coming to Smith College in Massachusetts for …
Climate Change
May 12, 2014 There are certain words/phrases/concepts best left to news pundits and political candidates. Polite conversation among friends disallows controversy and conflict; some things are just better left on the air, rather than in the air. Climate Change is one of society’s new four-letter words: drop the CC bomb in the wrong circles, and …
The Last of the Lost
May 5, 2014 It had been almost 30 years since Samuel found David – youngest of Jesse’s sons – in a sheep pasture, doing the family grunt work – and tapped him as God’s choice for King of Israel. David was not yet a teenager, but his destiny was already set. What followed was not …
Make the Most of Your Partnerships
April 28, 2014 What’s the greatest challenge facing every human being? I cite loneliness as the universal deficiency, embedded in the DNA of all. You don’t have to be alone to be lonely; many live in dense population… with no connection to anyone. “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to …
What now?
April 21, 2014 What now? Human experience gets us every time. Take any category of life: define an emotional high; a zenith achievement that warrants group photos that go straight to Instagram; an extraordinary culmination of efforts that resulted in more than anyone could have ever imagined. Once life’s unbelievable! becomes a confirmed memory… how …
Seven Days
April 14, 2014 What a week… Fortunes can turn on a dime; the half-life of popularity can be extraordinarily brief. An individual’s affection can shift directions in a heartbeat; a mob can be redirected in a nanosecond. Have you ever felt the whiplash of commitment, offered… and, then, withdrawn? This is a week handcuffed to …
Lewis and Clark
April 7, 2014 Pages of history are written every day… but the chapters are devoted to the deals. A major chapter of history was opened 211 years ago, by America’s third President, Thomas Jefferson. He had already made his contributions to history as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence; he served in the …
A Tweet to Live By
March 31, 2014 What do you have to say for yourself… in 140 characters or less? The Bible remains the most successful publishing venture in the last 2000 years. They’re everywhere; as long as there are hotel nightstands, a market exists for new copies. Every president needs one, for the first day of their term …
Crisis
March 24, 2014 The fact that there’s no crisis may be the bigger crisis. Erik Erikson was a psychoanalyst with a unique pedigree. Born in Frankfort in 1902, his single mother was Jewish, married a physician and kept his birth circumstances from him until he was an adolescent. With blonde hair and blue eyes, kids …
Waiting for News
March 17, 2014 Don’t sweat the small stuff. That’s easy advice to give… but much harder to receive. It’s usually good counsel, given the fact that we often lose sight of the forest because of our preoccupation with those trivial trees. But there are times… This morning, the headlines are eclectic. Over seven billion people …
For the Sake of the Father
“Would you do me a favor?” The question was not unusual; we all hear it – and, request it – numerous times, every day. Favors – “acts of kindness beyond what is due or usual” – are the lubrication that keeps the machinery of life running smoothly. We are acquaintances; not friends. Why would he …
Drama or Trauma
March 3, 2014 “What's in your rearview mirror?” For most of my adult life – from Richard Nixon to now – Americans have lived with a growing sense of best-days-coming-soon, no matter the current metrics. In 1972, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit the amazing high of 1,000; in the next 35 years – the …