What do you have to say for yourself? For the last few weeks, we’ve spent these moments on Monday eavesdropping on the Apostle Paul’s intimate communiqués to people for whom he cared deeply. His letters always addressed crucial issues regarding their faith: both foundational truths and the practical implication. The Christian believers in Colossae – […]
Nov 9 2020
I know what you’re thinking…
It’s time for some brainwashing. We’ve all got some crud on our keyboards; the crap in our craniums has accumulated over the unrelenting months of Covid and Campaigning. I’ll confess on behalf of both of us – you, and me – and call it straight: our minds have been sucked into septic swirls that have […]
Nov 2 2020
The fight doesn’t end tomorrow…
Gear Up! For football players, that’s the summons into the locker room, to don pads and helmets. For firemen, it’s the 911 call to get into protective gear, ready to run into the flames. For a SWAT team, bullet-proof vests and shields come out of the truck and into the array. The opposition is at […]
Oct 26 2020
What’s Your “Bottom Line?”
What’s the Bottom Line? One on-line dictionary – devoted to the idioms of American English – defines “Bottom Line:” the most important aspect of something. All apostles/prophets/evangelists/pastors/teachers (Ephesians 4:11) have important messages for people whose spiritual development are in-process. Their sermons might be given without an archival capture, but in this era, many are recorded […]
Oct 19 2020
Don’t be an innocent target…
It’s the toughest request you’ll ever receive. A dear friend and collaborator of mine passed from gory to Glory on Saturday. Gordie had been on our ministry’s Board of Directors for decades; he was a trusted partner and had earned widespread respect from all who knew and worked with him. When Covid’s craziness wanes, the […]
Oct 12 2020
Your job, after the election
Politics is – along with religion – a taboo subject in social settings. Despite that timeless ground rule, you can’t find a dinner table in October ’20 where the conversation hasn’t turned to the election – or, protests, or societal issues that are woven into presidential platforms – with passion. There’s a man whose wisdom […]
Oct 5 2020
What do you have worth dying for?
When was the last time you dealt with your mortality? Every person – from the most marginalized homeless person camped on a sidewalk in a modern, declining urban neighborhood to the POTUS who is whisked from the White House Lawn to the VIP Suite at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center – will likely find […]
Sep 28 2020
You were made for more
I’m not completely insensitive; I know that this is a busy week – with the end of Q3 happening on Wednesday, and the start of Q4 signaling the last chance to make something out of a calendar year that started with a bang and has run for months as a bust – but this won’t […]
Sep 21 2020
Will your last words be famous?
Steve Jobs: “Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.” A direct quote from the famous Founder of Apple, but that wasn’t his marketing pitch for a new product launch at the annual MacWorld gathering. Steve’s last words; his wife was there to hear them. Reflections from some of history’s famous notables as they breathe their last: […]
Sep 14 2020
The road back is the road less traveled…
I left college before graduating. Cheri and I were in the countdown to our marriage date, and her father invited me to come into his 25-year business and apprentice under his leadership. I was going to school to snag a career, so the decision wasn’t difficult for me. I traded books for a briefcase… For […]
Sep 7 2020
How to guarantee you’ll be forgotten…
Say it ain’t so, Joe… It was 100 years ago this month – September 28, 1920 – that a Grand Jury was tasked with hearing testimony in what came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. In brief: the 1919 World Series matched the Cincinnati Reds with the Chicago White Sox. The allegations emerged […]
Aug 31 2020
Follow the money…
When will things return to “normal?” The question is fraught with confusion: what – exactly – do we mean by “normal?” Pre-CV-19? Pre-election conflicts? Pre-Russia probe? Pre-Trump? Pre-internet? When were things “normal?” It’s time to figure out how to fulfill your life’s essential mission, no matter the conditions surrounding us. What does it take to […]
Aug 24 2020
The marathon course goes through a minefield…
Finishing Well. Bob Buford wrote that book in 2004; he, himself, finished well in 2018. I have my copy of that book in front of me, right now. Here’s Bob’s inscription to me, on the inside flyleaf: “To Bob Shank – A true comrade-in-arms in this ministry. God has joined you and I together in […]
Aug 17 2020
This should scare the hell out of us…
Whose advice will you take? For those whose career life happens in the marketplace, the points on the scoreboard have the “$” symbol. “Bottom line” becomes the bottom line; if money makes you the “winner,” the leaderboard is maintained by Forbes. Every year, their Forbes 400 list updates the current prize winners… Right now, the […]
Aug 10 2020
Will you fumble on the one-yard line (in the game with Estate Planning)?
Mid-summer; vacations – such as they are in a no-fly zone, with CV-19 isolation – calling for lighter issues and an escape from the macabre realities swirling in the incessant headlines. Start the week with some light reading, Bob. “Estate Planning?” What was I thinking? The markets have rebounded; savings rates have climbed. People are […]
Aug 3 2020
It starts with faith; does it end there?
We’ve always called this weekly blog the Point of View. An alternate name could have been The Politically Incorrect Journal. It’s never been my desire to be in-step with the culture; I’ve always preferred to be in alignment with God, and the truth He has disclosed in the Scriptures. A three-week series on Estate Planning? […]
Jul 27 2020
Are you acting like a grown-up?
It’s tragic to hear about the passing of someone you love; here’s the pronouncement that amplifies the loss: “He/she died intestate.” You might be not be able to beat death – at least, the kind of death whose cause is not needless risk or undisciplined behavior – but you have absolute control over being intestate. […]
Jul 20 2020
What’s your next, big move?
We were supposed to be in Colorado last week… I’m giving this season an acrostic; it’s SOLO: Summer of Lost Opportunities. Two years ago, we calendared a commitment to be in Colorado Springs last week – with the team of The Jesus Film – helping to recruit another wave of resource partners to help their […]
Jul 13 2020
The Message from Maximum Security
It’s been four months, and there’s no end in sight. What’s the plan? If your Myers Briggs profile starts with “I” (introvert), the last 16 weeks might have felt like an unexpected energizing vacation. Released from unnecessary interaction with people, you could be free to read or binge to your heart’s content. Congratulations on your […]
Jul 6 2020
Is America on its death bed?
The patient is symptomatic; are they terminal, or can they recover? Sounds like another Covid-19 story, doesn’t it? Far from it, this is far more serious. Viruses come and go; pandemics are recurrent, and are part of life in a fallen world. This short treatise does not concern a malady that is treated in hospitals, […]
Jun 29 2020
Am I a racist? This is the question that everyone is asking
Am I a racist? Are you? Writing this weekly message – blog? article? newsletter? – every Monday is stretching. For 30 years, I’ve sought to challenge you and my other friends (nearly 5000) to address the hot-off-the-press issues of the moment looking through the lens of Scripture. It’s 4:35a as I write today’s edition… Jabez […]
Jun 22 2020
What’s in Your Pocket?
So, how have you managed to navigate through the last three months? Your answer to that question may not receive the same kind of broad exposure that the Wall Street Journal gave to Deepak Chopra over the weekend. In the post-religion era, he’s the most accomplished guru of the spirituality movement that offers mystical creativity […]
Jun 15 2020
Old or new; is it really Normal?
Is this the “new normal?” Everyone seems to be using that term – the “new normal” – as if it has some empirical certainty. In a cultural laboratory somewhere, some highly educated people in white lab coats are probing the current societal situation – which seems to be manifesting a values virus with no antidote […]
Jun 8 2020
From Long Shot to Hot Shot
They didn’t have a prayer (or shot). That’s an idiom that says it all. Usually pronounced about someone whose demise is now history, the onlookers agree that the person in question never had a chance. His/her outcome was pre-ordained, in the now-expert view of all assembled. In retrospect, the Monday morning quarterbacks all agree: they […]
Jun 1 2020
Are you under attack?
“Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free […]
May 26 2020
Who’s going to get the credit?
“Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free […]
May 18 2020
How can you earn your next promotion?
We’ll spend two more Mondays talking about Jabez; as promised, we were going to use some of our stay-at-home time to gain some insights from the life of a man whom God chose to elevate above the mean-average impact level of his own generation, and the generations before and after him. Two verses tell his […]
May 11 2020
If you don’t start well, it won’t end well
For a few Mondays in a row, we’re taking a few minutes to ratchet-back a few millennia to be reminded of the story of a man whose life is recounted in just 63 words (in the New International Version) in the book of 1 Chronicles: “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had […]
May 4 2020
Whose opinion really matters?
If you’ve embarked on a structured reading program, intent on reading through the Bible in a calendar year – using the straight-line approach from Genesis to Revelation – the last few days would have been a real challenge for you – Chronicles. Last Thursday – April 30 – you would have landed on 1 Chronicles. […]
Apr 27 2020
What if mom said you were a loser?
For over 30 years, I’ve been writing this weekly message. My audience – from the beginning – was Christian leaders; most with careers in the marketplace, but over time, that’s broadened to include leaders from across the spectrum of careers in our culture: marketplace, ministry, military… the works. Known first as the Fax of Encouragement […]
Thank you for reading the Point of View, my weekly commentary on life today from a Biblical worldview. It is available via email as well as this blog.
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