Many of the frustrations we face in life result from denying, rejecting, and/or ignoring our personal calling. As we do this, we become split off from ourselves and the ONE to which we are a part and belong. Few people pursue, discover, and fulfill a calling because...
“You have to carry the fire.” “I don’t know how to.” “Yes, you do.” “Is the fire real?” “The fire? Yes it is.” “Where is it? I don’t know where it is.” “Yes you do. It’s inside you. It always was there. I can see it.” The Road, Cormac McCarthy The novel The Road by...
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being...
Calling is where the inside drive meets the outside need. “Vocation does not come from a voice out there calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice in here calling me to be the person I was born to be.” Thomas Merton The aerodynamics of an airplane...
“Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide.” C.G. Jung Calling is the path to meaning, purpose, and significance. The iconic 1985 movie The Goonies tells the story of Mickey, Chunk, Data, and Mouth (the Goonies); a group of young misfits who...
It takes time, effort, and attention to develop clarity on your calling. Rarely if ever do the heavens part and a voice bursts forth telling us what to do when. What’s the fun in that anyway? And if it did, would we really listen? Would we even believe or trust it?...
Please join us in helping refugees stay warm & keep heart this Christmas. Legacy Mission Village is in need of hats, gloves & coats for their refugees. All sizes accepted (kids and adults). Brand new or gently used condition preferred. Drop them unwrapped in...
To the doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers, We will never be able to thank you for the sacrifices you are making for our safety and wellbeing. We cannot understand what it is like for you to risk your own lives for ours. We don’t have a way to repay you for your...
Dear nurses, doctors, healthcare professionals, and first responders, You are no stranger to sickness, suffering, and death. You willingly enter its chaos every workday, and are the first to volunteer your skills and bedside manner on your day off. For that, we thank...
For the majority of my life, I’ve felt drawn to change. Not the dye-my-hair-every-season type of change, but a voracious hunger for new surroundings, new roles to explore, new relationships to replace old. I moved across the city, the country, the world; I changed...
Years ago I wrote a book titled The Voice of the Heart: A Call to Full Living. It is about feelings and living how we are created to live. That was almost twenty years ago. I have continued to work in the field of “living life on life’s terms” and continue to...
What do you say when you don’t know what to say? What can be said that helps when you are presented with another person’s loss, pain, grief, and struggle? When we are presented with pain over which we are powerless to repair, the words that truly fit the circumstance...
The need to belong is met by having a place where you can be yourself, in all the struggles that entails. A place where you can be accepted as you share and deal with feelings, needs, desire, longings, and hope. You belong when you know that you can be celebrated in...
What makes facing and knowing our own hearts so vital? The heart is the record-keeper of our life’s emotional and spiritual experiences. It is our “life-lived memory.” Out of it we remain compassionate and generous, truthful and confessional, humble and celebratory....
While life can seem really lonely, isolating, and meaningless sometimes, it can be comforting to know that we are all wrestling to come to terms with the same core issues. 1. Life is tough. As M. Scott Peck so accurately said in his book The Road Less Traveled, “Life...
Lesson 3: When you get in a rut, ride it out. This is the third installment in a series of essays about some life lessons I learned on a recent enduro motorcycle adventure designed to help rejuvenate leaders. In total, we covered more than 275 miles from Sequoia...
Lesson 2: Ride your own ride. This is the second installment in a series of essays about some life lessons I learned on a recent enduro motorcycle adventure designed to help rejuvenate male leaders. In total, we covered more than 275 miles from Sequoia National Forest...
Recently, I organized an adventure trip for male leaders through Wilderness Collective . In four days, we covered more than 275 miles from Sequoia National Forest to Yosemite National Park. We traversed rugged terrain on enduro motorcycles that lead us over mountain...
We are created to dream big. The moment we dream, we open ourselves up to feeling, desiring, aching, grieving, suffering, and celebrating. To dream means to be fully alive in a beautiful and tragic world. It means that we are willing to reach outside of ourselves,...
At the beginning of this year, I sat with a client as he marked two years of consistent counseling. As he remembered the beginning of this journey, he described realizing early on that there was a closed door inside his heart. The key to unlocking the door was a...
Most of us at the beginning of the New Year see it as a time of new beginnings. It really is because we can start from day 1 and have 364 days afterwards to come to a conclusion of some sort for a solution. Of course, we also all know the trap of day 17 or day 221,...
What if the questions we ask around our faith and spirituality are making us more lonely, more afraid, and more isolated? Our questions have become formulas… How can I do more of this (prayer, bible studies, quiet times) to add more of this (peace, joy, love) and...
When we look back on our lives, there are people who play significant roles in shaping us into the people we become: relatives, friends, coaches, mentors. For me, it was my middle school English teacher. I was raised in a small town and attended a private Christian...
