Rejection. Not a word most of us like. Yet rejection is a big part of life; isn’t it? If I ever have the chance to speak at a high school graduation ceremony, I will talk about rejection. Which is one reason why I’ll never be asked. Because seniors want to hear about opportunity and success. […]
With the help of my Tacoma 4X4, I helped some people get unstuck yesterday, including two of Canyon’s finest. It’s a frustrating thing being stuck. You’ve got important things to do, and you have the resources to do them. Except for one small problem. You’re stuck. In the snow, in debt, in an illness or […]
Received good news from my partner Clark yesterday. The Wednesday night class he’s teaching at FUMC Midland went well. Were doing Lesson 3, which, among other things, looks at my struggle with fear in the novelette. Wrote Clark, “They shared openly about their own fears. Talked a lot about the walking/playing on water scene and […]
For those of you not in the Texas Panhandle, we’re having a major snow storm this morning, and I’m remembering the blizzard of ’57. It may still be the area’s most deadly storm. Killed 10 people, most in automobile accidents, and, I think, some folks froze while stranded in drifts. And what drifts they were, […]
Do you promise too many things to too many people? I see that hand. Been reviewing student research topics this week. The biggest problem? Lack of focus. You can’t write about world hunger in a 5-7 page paper. You can address lack of nutritional meals for children in Amarillo. Lack of focus is a problem […]
C. S. Lewis once said that grief feels a lot like fear. Mine is feeling more like guilt. Today is my little sister’s birthday, the seventh she has celebrated in heaven with Jesus. And I’m feeling guilty. Guilty that my life is going on without her. Guilty that there are whole days, sometimes weeks when […]
Will send my 1301 students outside today. I give them 15 minutes to write all the observations they can. Winner gets a prize. Many will write down 75 or more. It’s an exercise in creativity. Creative people see things others don’t see. Scratch that. Creative people see things others don’t notice. Noticing things. Guess it’s […]
Placed a lot of books in people’s hands this week and am anxious to know how they respond. Of course, I may never know. Been writing long enough to know that you hear from only a small minority of your readers. I’ve heard other authors say they write for themselves. They are their primary audience, […]
“Give us this day our daily bread.” I would have asked for more: “Give us this day groceries for the week.” Because I’m a planner. I don’t like uncertainty. Don’t like the pressure it brings. Don’t like the anxiety, the worry. It’s a neat story, the feeding of the 5,000, but, if I had been […]
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a good story is worth a thousand sermons. I’m referring to C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, the children’s stories that changed my life nearly 20 years ago. At midlife my Christian faith had grown stale and perfunctory. I served God and others because I was […]