Then What?

April 15, 2026

The thesis topic I preferred in grad school was based on a book by Isaiah Berlin on Freedom. He discussed two types of freedom—freedom from and freedom to.

Many Americans focus on freedom from. They don’t want laws, rules, regulations. These may be from government or from religions. Just leave me alone to do what I want, they proclaim.

The concept of freedom to points to the freedom to create, to pursue the profession I’d like, to live my life.

The question pertinent to both of these ideas is Then What?

The philosopher Erich Fromm observed in the 1930s that many in western Europe had achieved this freedom from constraints. But then they didn’t know what to do with that freedom. Authoritarian political leaders leapt in to fill that void offering something to do with that void. Hate, anger toward those not like them, anger toward the rich, blame those of different faiths or cultures.

Sound familiar?

I think the apostle Paul struggled to explain this phenomenon. One of his earlier letters, that to the Jesus-followers in Galatia, tried to explain this new freedom given to us by Jesus’ resurrection. How we are now free from the rigid rules of the Hebrew scriptures and the overbearing judgements of the Pharisees. 

He struggled with how to explain how we live with this new freedom. With the Then What?

He found a clear answer in the letter he wrote to the Roman group of Jesus Followers. After going through phases of spiritual formation, he explained the grace of God. Then in chapters 12-15 he answered Then What?

  • Living sacrifice
  • Genuine love
  • Hate evil
  • Love one another
  • Subject to authorities
  • Love your neighbor
  • Don’t judge
  • Don’t make another stumble
  • Please others before yourself

These actually illuminate Jesus’ instructions, yes, even commands, to love one another as he loved us.

These ideas illustrate how we live in grace. We are not left to drift wondering how to fill our days making us prey to every articulate charlatan that comes along.

What is your Then What?

[The faculty closed the graduate program I was in before I got as far as the thesis. I was accepted into another program, but I now had a wife, two kids, and a job. I lost interest in credentials. I may still write that thesis for the fun of it.]

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Creating Value

April 14, 2026

I receive great value from the wisdom and generosity of  Seth Godin. He thought out a progression of business value. As you create products and companies and churches and organizations and personal value, consider this deeply and seriously—Create value by connecting people.

I seem to do this all the time on my business side. Perhaps we need to do more of this on the faith side?

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Posted in Evangelism, Mission | Leave a Comment »

Creating Community

April 13, 2026

The most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.   Kurt Vonnegut 

The plight of American Christian churches has been on my mind. Even the megachurches seem to be losing members. I’ve read where younger adults these days are craving a formal service rather than the Boomer-dominated rock music entertainment. I don’t know if that’s true.

What I suspect is that people want less of being told what to do and what to think and more of community.

It’s a daring thing to create community. I’ve not seen much of it in megachurches. But also not always in small ones. 

Who is daring enough to create community where you are? Wouldn’t that be better than expecting to walk into the middle of one? Do you blame others? Do you create? How does one create? The first step? Being open? 

Gosh, it’s nice creating questions rather than answers 😉

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Posted in Leadership, Relationship | Leave a Comment »

Energy–Givers and Takers

April 10, 2026

Have you finally become aware that being with certain people drains all your emotional and physical energy? You have lunch or coffee returning home exhausted.

On the other hand, you have encounters with other people where your energy level increases. You return home or to the office strangely both energized and relaxed.

The easy decision—intentionally spend more time with the latter people, reduce or eliminate time with the former.

A harder question.

Are you the former or the latter? Do you need to change?

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If You’re Asking

April 9, 2026

If you want to activate more happiness in your life, ask yourself: Who am I helping grow? 

If you are wondering what career to pursue, ask yourself: Who can I serve?

If you are at a crossroads in life, ask yourself: How can I begin a new service?

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Listening Without Agreeing

April 8, 2026

You talk with a person who advances ideas that seem off to you. Like with a person I know who has bought almost every conspiracy theory alive on the internet.

The test. Can I listen without agreeing and without arguing?

Greek philosopher Aristotle on listening but not agreeing: “It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

This remark is about 2,500 years old. I’d go him a bit modern to make it, “It is the mark of someone with equanimity and kindness who can entertain a thought without accepting it.”

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Posted in Attitude, Listening | Leave a Comment »

Practice Kindness

April 7, 2026

A philosophical razor consists of a principle or rule of thumb that allows one to eliminate (shave off) unlikely explanations for a phenomenon or avoid unnecessary actions.

Hanlon’s Razor describes one of my favorites. 

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

We interact with other people frequently. They do or say something. We take offense. Maybe it’s on the highway and we give the American one-finger salute.

Maybe these people aren’t out to get you. Maybe they have their own problems and aren’t even aware of you. Or, maybe, yes, they are just “stupid.” 

Our best response is…kindness. (He says as he helps a mother with two small children navigate leaving Starbucks.) 

I’ve never found kindness out of proportion even when dealing with those people who have (metaphorically) stabbed me in the back or revoked promises. I don’t think it’s weakness. I think it’s an attitude that allows me to forget the past and journey into the future.

Practice kindness.

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How We Interpret The Bible

April 6, 2026

Rich Dixon asked this penetrating question at Rich’s Ride Blog.

Do we use Scripture to interpret what love means – or do we use love to interpret what Scripture means?

When I sit down to read, am I asking God for the message? Or, am I looking for sentences that validate what I already think?

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Cross Pollenating Life

April 3, 2026

From my earliest memories of high school, I recall loving to learn from a variety of sources trying to synthesize knowledge and experience.

Fitness has been a goal since the mid-70s when I moved from a job in manufacturing where I walked miles a day to a desk job in engineering where I walked feet per day. It happened in late summer. The first of April I went out to play softball and couldn’t run from home to first base. I joined the jogging craze the next day.

Now in my mid-70s I walk miles and resistance train. Like Yoga was developed thousands of years ago to train the body for sitting in meditation, the physical fitness helps my mental and spiritual fitness.

I use The Pump app to guide my program. It’s designed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and two guy who work closely with him. One just interviewed his boss.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Trained for 60 Years Without Counting a Calorie. Research Explains Why It Worked. The science of decision fatigue, goal complexity, and why simpler approaches to health are also the ones with the strongest evidence.

So I asked him: after sixty years of training, what has actually lasted? He gave me the answer, and I realized I already knew it. The basics. It’s always the basics that work best.

When we’re given too many choices, too much complication, too much nuance, we’re less likely to act on any of them and less satisfied when we do.  When a health plan contains too many decisions — which supplement? which protocol? which meal timing window? — every micro-choice draws from the same limited cognitive well. You deplete that resource before you ever get to execution.

A lifetime of studying and teaching the Bible has taught me the same thing about spiritual life. I love studying the earliest Jesus followers. For 300 years, they sought to live out what Jesus taught. We can tell from some early letters that have been preserved that avoiding the too human pitfalls sometimes complicated life.

The answer invariably returned to Jesus’ two commands. You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.

Period. Full stop.

Everyone who tries to complicate those commands with more options and decisions and complexity have strayed from the simple path. Physicists call it first principles.

(Oh, how am I doing? And how are you doing?)

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Posted in Attitude, Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Spirituality Means Waking Up

April 2, 2026

Sometimes I can see it in the eyes. The person is lost. Sleep walking through life. Thinking they are free from encumbrances, while being buffeted by emotions, swayed by advertising, provoked by social media.

Reading from a retreat led by Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello—Spirituality means waking up. 

Open your (spiritual) eyes. Become aware of where you are, what you’re doing, what you are allowing to guide your life.

As de Mello repeated, “WAKE UP.”

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