Men, if there was one word that would have defined my early self image it would have been “nice.”  I prided myself in being nice.  As an ENFJ, who is a two on the enneagram, I was compulsive about my being nice.  Some of you who have a different core compulsion can’t relate.  Part of the motivation for becoming…

I watched the Super Bowl Ads at my son Kurt’s home.  The next day we left, driving to South Padre in Texas for two weeks, so I can only share some impressions. I kept coming back to Ecclesiastes 1:10-11 (The Message).  “There’s nothing new on this earth.  Year after year it’s the same old thing.  Does someone call out,…

Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, was s tough, demanding coach, who brought the best out of  his players.  But he also cared for each of them.  He pushed them to reach their potential as men and football players .  He also saw the need for pro football players to care for each other as a team. He talked…

The 2017 Women’s March on Washington, D.C is history.  Many women were able to vent their collective discontent regarding more than just women’s rights.  Madonna was the public face of their anger.  A movement was launched leading up to the march called the Pussyhat Project.  The website at the time declared, “We love the clever wordplay of ‘pussyhat’ and ‘pussycat,’…

As many of you know I live in the northwoods of  Minnesota.  I am a fair-weather Minnesota Golden Gopher fan.  We recently got a new coach.  You may have heard of him.  He is P. J Fleck, formerly of Western Michigan,  one of the hottest young coaches in college football.  He is really energetic and innovative.  He is  known for his motivating phrase, “Row…

Workers preparing for the presidential inauguration have taped over the name of the company – Don’s Johns” – that has long supplied portable restrooms.  The name apparently strikes too close to home for the organizers of the inauguration of Donald John Trump.  Workers have placed blue tape over the company name on dozens of portable…

Men, how well are you doing with your New Year Resolutions.  Here is a quote from Mark Galli, editor in chief at Christianity Today, that is a good reminder that our resolutions can cause more harm than good if we don’t have the right perspective.  “This is a paradoxical reality that has been exploited effectively by…

You have probably heard enough about the” safe spaces” created for students on university campuses, who feel so traumatized by the social unrest that they need a safe  space to deal with their emotional responses.  Called “snowflakes,” they  behave as victims, unable to cope with the cultural wars.  Recently, universities have begun creating safe spaces for young men to deal with their “toxic masculinity.”  As one curriculum stated,…

Judy and I belong to an Evangelical Free Church (The Lighthouse) in our small town that provides us with a great fellowship of believers who are committed to extending the kingdom of Jesus in the midst of the coming darkness.  We feel blessed to be a part of what God is doing in our community.  We…

Madeleine L’Engle’s poem, “After Annunciation” speaks of Mary’s vulnerability.  “This is the irrational season/When love blooms bright and wild/Had Mary been filled with reason/ There ‘d have been no room for the child.”  The virgin birth of Jesus – when God became a man, being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a…