The Value of Virtue

Modern society has rapidly replaced meaningful virtue embodied in people’s lives with vapid symbolism rooted in identity politics. Rather than encouraging individuals to aspire to self-improvement, higher purpose, and moral refining, the wisdom of the social media masses calls for universal validation keyed to their own perceptions of self-importance. The problem Patrick Moynihan described in…

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When Success Runs Amok

My senior year in high school I had the privilege of being the featured speaker at the Junior-Senior Banquet. I was certainly not the first choice for the role, and I was absolutely not the best choice. At the time, I had no intention of speaking publicly for a living. However, I accepted the challenge…

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The Pattern for Social Stability

The last few years American society has experienced a rapid decline in basic social stability. One by one, various cornerstones of morality and civility either have eroded beyond recognition through neglect or have been destroyed through the combined blows of political activism and judicial overreach. Competing factions on the social and political spectrum have grown…

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4 Principles of Good Citizenship

Election season increasingly brings an attitude of bitterness and division to a people barely clinging to the concept of unity. This rancor has seeped into the souls of Christians as well, creating a toxic atmosphere where some grasp at any and every cause to support and politicize as a desperate attempt to validate their own…

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7 Lessons Every Preacher Must Learn

From the moment preachers graduate from school and begin a work, they typically become the focal point of learning in the local congregation. The nature of the work necessarily includes the built-in expectation of advanced knowledge and the ability to communicate. The man of God must prove himself a man of character, ready to face…

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What Did You Expect?

Author and poet Maya Angelou famously said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” While this may seem harsh on the outset, so long as we allow people the opportunity to grow, change, and improve, the truth underlying this quotation has biblical roots. In fact, our problems in relationships, on…

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Resilience

The year 2020 has created such a downward emotional spiral that everyone keeps trying to guess what will go wrong next. January seemed to take forever, and then February added tension and whispers of problems. March brought the COVID-19 pandemic to our doorstep, and April ushered in all its consequences. Just when everyone had absorbed…

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Training Camp

Training camp does not evoke images of ease and comfort for anyone who has taken part in one. Paul “Bear” Bryant’s legendary training camp in Junction, Texas after he took the reins as head coach of Texas A&M included all-day workouts in 100 degree heat—without offering the now customary water breaks—followed by team meetings in…

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Something Worse Than Isolation

Isolation has a rich history as a theme often explored by authors, directors, and teachers. In elementary school I remember reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell about a young girl stranded alone for years on an island off the California coast. A few years later I read Robinson Crusoe, the classic work…

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Striving, Quarreling, and General Disagreeableness

In only six months, the year 2020 eclipsed the chaos of any other year in recent memory. It opened with the impeachment of a president and quickly pivoted to a fast and furious primary cycle, only to find COVID-19 furiously stalking the world and, through shelter-in-place orders, turning a robust economy into an economic catastrophe.…

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