“Write the greatest blog post of all time.”

So whispers something from deep in the shadows of my soul.

It’s the same shadow that whispers to me that I have to be the best/greatest/winner at everything I do. And being my shadow, it’s been stalking me since I first noticed it around preschool.

“You have to write the greatest blog post of all time.”

Yes, yes. I have to. I have to, or…

What?

What happens if I don’t write the greatest blog post of all time?

And if I do write the greatest blog post, how will I know?

Likes? Shares?

Getting linked by Rob Bell?

Publishers calling to ask for a book manuscript?

Do they give out Pulitzers for blog posts?

Does the title of “Greatest Blog Post of All Time” have to be a unanimous choice by all English-reading people in the world? What about the people who don’t vote for my blog post? Can it really be the greatest if some people...

I was at Lake Norcentra Park at Rochester College for a volunteer work day.

One volunteer was a Rochester alumna who told me stories of what the property looked like when the college first bought it in 1957. She expressed her great pleasure at how the Lake Norcentra Park project is enhancing and restoring the beauty and function of an important place at the college and in the community.

Then she said: “You know, when I was a student here [back in the early 1960s], we weren’t allowed on this part of campus.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Because,” she said. “The administration believed that if students were allowed to be here, they would–you know–get into [sexual] mischief.”

Time out for a minute. If you’re not familiar with Rochester College, allow me to give you a brief history. Rochester opened in 1959 as North Central Christian College. The name changed to Michigan Christian College...

I will vote for the next president of the United States. Deciding this is easy.

This time, because of who is running, I may even campaign for a candidate. Deciding to do this is hard.

What is a struggle is finding a way to be a peacemaker in a time of war.

Jesus Christ said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Gospel of Matthew 5.9).

I wonder if we could say this another way and it still be true: “Do you want to know how to identify people whose DNA matches God’s? Look for the people who are out there making peace. ‘Like father/like son’ and ‘like mother/like daughter,’ as they say.”

I wonder if I could take it even further and the meaning still be true: “God is not looking for a good fight. God is not making war. Humanity is building one hell of an arsenal. Human beings seem to really like their big guns. God has no such arsenal. God doesn’t...

Get more done today until you reach exhaustion…or receive with gratitude the beauty and love and wonder of life until you reach elation.

Punish your body for not looking like it belongs on a magazine cover…or love your body for all it does to cover for you while you go about your life.

Work your way up to being the boss so you’re finally alone at the top…or work for joy and love so that more and more people want to draw near to your glow.

Earn a million bucks someday…or live like a million bucks every day.

Get a prestigious school to confer a master of arts on you…or master the art of living and loving (at a fraction of the cost).

Buy a house in a trendy neighborhood…or make a home where family, friends, neighbors, and total strangers want to visit again and again.

Write a New York Times bestseller…or live a life that your children and grandchildren will talk about long...

“There you go again.”

Accusing words.

Familiar words?

In whose voice do you hear them?

A parent’s? A spouse’s? A boss’s or preacher’s or teacher’s?

Your own?

“There you go again. You’re never going to change.”

“All you’ll ever be is a _____________” [fill in the blank: big talker, creep, dimwit, disappointment, faker, fat slob, failure, flake, slut, user, etc.].

Have you heard this?

If you’re like me, you’ve heard it a dozen times in the last hour.

Every cookie I eat, every deadline I don’t make, every hour I waste on social media, every project that isn’t perfect, every task I don’t cross off my to-do list, every woman in yoga pants I ogle, every workout I skip.

Jesus Christ came to show us that the great test of our lives is not to cross off our to-dos and make our deadlines, eat right and exercise, and keep our imaginations dry and sexuality sterile.

It’s the...

Can you be seen in your bedclothes? Un-made-up? Un-prepared? Un-rehearsed? Can you be seen this way without excuse?

Can you say something that may be misunderstood and let it hang in the air without further explanation?

Can you write a blog post and not revise it a hundred times (or even just two or three times) before clicking “Publish”?

Can you make a public mistake without self-deprecation?

Can you do any of this and still feel OK? Still feel pretty good about yourself without deflecting your natural reflex for embarrassment into criticism of the people you imagine are silently judging you?

That last sentence needed revision and I’m letting it go. Does this make sense? No? I’m letting that go, too, without explaining myself further.

What’s the point?

The question is not: How lovable are you?

The question is: Will you let yourself be lovable?

You can’t be truly lovable...

I did a quick count this morning and found:

“Do not worry” appears in the Bible nine times.

“Do not fear” shows up in the Bible 14 times.

“Do not be afraid” is refrains through the Bible 81 times.

Scripture records God and his spokespersons say “Do not be afraid/fear/worry” at least 104 times.

My parents started reading the Bible to me before I was a year old. Forty years of faithful daily study of Scripture and this week(!) it finally occurred to me that “Do not be afraid/fear/worry” is a divine commandment.

I added the “ment” to “command” for emphasis.

I would say “Do not be afraid/fear/worry” is in the same league as “Do not commit adultery/lie/murder/steal/etc.” (Ten Commandments kind of stuff).

None of those other commands get nearly as much airplay as “Do not be afraid/fear/worry.” I have to say it here: The “Ten Commandments” kind of commands may not be in the same...

That moment when you recognize: The person who wronged you is now being wronged BY you.

You discover a rupture in the membrane between pain and rage.

It’s one hell of a cocktail now.

It used to be that you hurt most of the time.

Now, all of the time, you’re dreaming up ways you can make her hurt.

It used to be that you meekly paid for his sins against you.

Now, you fantasize about ways to make him pay.

If you at least keep a guest room for God in your soul, you will eventually awaken to how you are slowly changing into the person who wronged you.

Our thoughts become us. The more you think about the person who did you wrong and the more you think about the wrong they did, the more like that person you become. You focus so much on the worst features of that person that you become a monstrous caricature of those features.

You arm yourself with your anger.

You know you’re...

Are you anxious? Scared? Worried?

What’s the worst that can happen?

Write it down. Read it aloud to The Divine.

Be still. Listen.

Enjoy what happens next.

Each day, I give myself a “happiness” score on a scale of one to ten.

It’s subjective. It has everything to do with how I feel as the day ends. I don’t think much about it. The number just comes to me. Then I make notes about the day (nutrition, productivity, sleep, weather, what I spent my time doing, etc.).

Here are a few random observations:

The more productive I am, the less stress I feel. It’s not necessarily about checking off things on my to-do list as much as it is doing important work when I’m supposed to be doing it.

The more time I spend on ESPN.com or social media, the less productive I feel (even if I’ve worked hard that day).

The more stress, the less happiness at the end of the day.

Except…

A stressful day can end up feeling like a very happy days if…

I started the day giving thanks to God and listing all of the good things in my life from the past 24 hours.