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 …
Tag Archives: bob
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Arthur Laffer Family Economics
February 24, 2014 “What was your secret?” Cheri and I live in close proximity to our kids. Some would say, “close knit family;” that’s probably a good description, both relationally and geographically. “Best of friends” captures the nature of our current experience. Both of our daughters are married to great guys, and – over a …
Just
February 10, 2014 Drop the four-letter word when you’re talking to God. Communication is a powerful tool. Relationships depend on communication; if there is no conversation, there is no relationship. Experts tell us that non-verbal communication can be more powerful than words, but a dour look only goes so far. “If looks could kill…” may …
Walking Shoes
January 27, 2014 My wife and kids have shoes. They got them from me… "The cobbler's children have no shoes" refers to the phenomena observed when people who are successful at doing something for others don't demonstrate that expertise in their own personal lives. Ten years ago next month, I had an unusual convergence of …
Remembering Dr. King, Jr.
January 20, 2014 A day of remembrance, in a week of remembrance. I’m writing on the holiday set-aside to remind America about the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose contribution to history was his leadership in the war against the idea of racism. Though he was only 39 when assassinated, he …