An incredibly scenic drive from Wenatchee to Leavenworth to Lake Wenatchee and back, provided an important lesson on service, and appreciating those who have their eyes on making others better.

When in Wanathchee, visit https://www.arlbergsports.com/.

As the world burns or turns, or whatever we are rapidly sliding towards, the real storm is the one few talk about. We are unmoored. We have created a society that minimizes the things that matter at the expense of the things that don’t matter. We are all complicit.

The great CS Lewis said, "Homemaking is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, mines, cars, government, etc. exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? The homemaker’s job is one for which all other’s exist."

We now seem to have this backward. A modern reality might be, “Consuming stuff is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do families exist for except to raise people who will consume and buy this stuff so large corporations and government can be safe in their homes. Consuming stuff is the one thing for which all humans exist.”

Thankfully, each one of us can be a solution. You can be a light to a stormy world. Together we can ride this out and show people another way.

Today, settling in to Olympia, Washington, I explored one of the best city parks you’ll ever stumble upon, Watershed Park. Watershed Park is a 153-acre temperate rain forest public park located in Olympia, Washington that supplied almost all the city's water from privately established wells in the late 1800s. I lost track at the 17th bridge.

Along the trail, I passed by a young man with an Olympia High School sweatshirt. I went back to my youth and couldn’t help but wonder what that cauldron would be like today.

https://www.olympiawa.gov/services/parks___recreation/parks___trails/watershed_park.php

I scanned my apple News app today. It sends me article from over 30 magazines and news sources. There was plenty of:

Building better abs

2 Tests of your golf swing\

Lower your risk of heart disease

3 exercises for a bikini model of 50

Today’s best gear deals

Most effective exercises to reverse aging after 50

Russian propaganda to intimidate the west

Elon Musk puts Twitter deal on hold

The arrest of cardinal zen marks a new low in Hong Kong

Biden Democrats’s inflation mess

How to decorate like a french Beauty magnet

Is it better to rent or buy?

Britney Spears loses her “miracle” baby

New York police respond to Buffalo mass shooting

MSNBC column claims homeschooling is racist

Not much, if anything, on family and faith.

But then I dug a little deeper, and in the Atlantic of all places, I found: “The Key to a good parent-child relationship? Low expectations”:

An improvement, but yet another example of family on a contractual basis, not the fundamental strength of our life. 

Want to be a true “radical”? Ready to be a true “punk” and counter-culture?

“We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone. ”

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values by Robert M. Pirsig

Focus on family, faith, and freedom, and let out your Eagle cry!

Family is your fortress. Don't be afraid to fight for it.

“A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair.”

Thomas Merton

The tornados that swept through the center of country have left at least 88 dead, over 15,000 structures destroyed or severely damaged, and current estimates on the cost are almost $4 Billion. There was a warning, but in that moment, nowhere to run.

The silent stillness that often come before a storm can make your skin pop as the barometer changes and the storm clouds begin to invade. The silence after the destruction, whether there is actually silence or not, cuts deep and clarifies. All is meaningless, all is temporal, life is priceless and so vulnerable.

Our spiritual life often follows a similar pattern. We are numb to the behaviors that destroy us. We are broken and overcome by fear and despair. We are left in an existential stillness that strips our ego naked and forces us to face all that matters – our relationships, our faith, our momentary existence.

My god, my god, why has thou forsaken me?

Silence

My youth is gone, my despair is total.

Silence

And we ask, where do we go from here?

Might I suggest moments like this give us an opportunity to create a life focused on meaning, simplified by fire, and fulfilled by relationship and depth.

Long talks. Long walks. Good books. Good food. An expulsion of excess and a rejection of the temporal.

What an amazing day of training the NYPD at their magnificent Queens training center.

A warm crowd with officers from incredibly diverse and interesting backgrounds. All of them were motivated to help their fellow officers and families live awesome lives.

A few things I loved about the officers I met:

• Frank and honest
• Proud of their community
• Most grew up there, had family there
• A depth of character
• Thankful and grateful

Great lessons on life that apply to all of us.

A walk through the neighborhoods of Queens, NY reminded me of all I have to be thankful for living in Indiana, and all those in NY have to be thankful for surrounded by the most diverse culture in the world. A walk of dichotomies, it left me with a smile on my face and hope for us all.

One of my favorite songs is the Eagles, The Last Resort. Written and sung by Don Henley, it is a stinging rebuke of our consumer culture. One of my favorite verses,

“Some rich men came and raped the land Nobody caught 'em Put up a bunch of ugly boxes And Jesus people bought 'em”

Greed, and those who preach against greed complicit in it.

You have the power to change your world today, or you can be complicit in the theft of humanity and things that matter.

Change your world means living intentionally. Whatever your situation, you can do that.

It might be becoming a priest.

It might be homesteading.

It might be going back to school.

It might be cutting back your lifestyle so you don’t need two incomes.

It might mean making faith #1 in your life.

But whatever you do, don’t become, or continue to be, one of those Jesus people who preach on Sunday but follow the rich men who rape the land.

Until next time, aim high, spread your wings, and keep your eyes on the things that matter.

This is life.

You are born into a family. One of differing degrees of function.

You grow up and are educated in some way.

You develop interests and hobbies.

You have triumphs, tragedies, and plenty of muddling. Hopefully more triumphs.

You work, you raise a family or you don’t.

You get old.

You die.

That is it.

So why not get real? Why focus on distractions? 

Our culture has become one of fantasy and when you get real, this culture gets threatened. Reality is dangerous.

Real heroes are all around us. Some of you might have seen the Chris Hemsworth movie, 12 Strong, about the Army Special Forces sent to Afghanistan after 9/11, the first in who worked with the Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taliban, from horseback!

This week in Texas I was honored to have one of the 12 in a class I was teaching and it reminded me of the heroes all around us. Remember them all, especially on this Veterans Day.

Recently, I went on a short journey, a sort of pilgrimage to the childhood home of Kurt Cobain in Aberdeen, Washington. Thankfully, it was all I expected.

I’ve been on the road, reflecting. The times are a changing. Who will be our Bob Dylan? Where are we going? I’m no great musician, but I have some thoughts. And I have some stories.

I was north of Seattle, at the Tulalip Casino speaking to a group of fire commissioners. I took a road into the Cascades, the Alps of America! It was an amazing drive along highway 20 through green valleys and soaring mountains.

On the way back, I stopped in Rockport, a small community of 109 and home to the Bald Eagle Interpretive Center and a great hole in the wall pub, the Rockport Bar and Grill. A good time ensued.

“No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.” CS Lewis from a Grief Observed

One definition or understanding of grief is: “Grief is the conflicting feelings caused by the end of or change in a familiar pattern of behavior.”

The end of something brings an unknown. Venturing into the unknown can bring fear. Fear can paralyze us in our grief, and keep us from something new that could help us out of our grief.

A recent spate of CS Lewis quotes on the internet made me think of this, and also the incredible amount of change and unknowns we have seen the last few years. It started long before Covid with political and social upheaval.

Operating from fear can bring out our worst evils. Living bravely, in spite of unknowns, can bring out our best. It is a choice we make time and again, throughout our lives. How will you choose?

Sometimes the only comfort one can find when hopeless is understanding that you are the not only one who has felt that way. Yet, even that faint bit of connectedness usually offers little reprieve.

Our community was rocked the last few days by the suicide of young man, just 15 and the son of missionaries. Many tears, much confusion and sadness, but thankfully, an outpouring of support for his family.

It’s a topic I speak on almost every week somewhere around our big country. Even with this frequency of addressing the topic, every life given up to this horror is poignant to me.

What would I have you consider? How do I address this? These won’t be easy words.

Suicide is the result of what I call lonely logic. Alone in your head, it seems like the only solution to your despair.

The greater the pain, the greater we feel isolated and alone. The harder it is to ask for help.

How well do you really know your family and friends? Do you stop to sit still and listen to them? Do you really take the time to know their dreams and struggles, their triumphs and sorrows, their disappointments and joys?

Who really knows you? Anyone?

Suicide is a disease of disconnectedness and its evil father, despair.

Don’t sit there. Be proactive. Relationships are suicide prevention. I’m not going to give you a Bible verse because I know what God wants you to do. He wants you to love each other. In a real relationship. Deeply.

I’ve met some remarkable people the last month traveling for Maine to Seattle and everywhere in between. They are people that will probably never make the news, but they are truly the best of us.

- His childhood one of abandonment, his mother an addict, he is a survivor and responder.

- Given away from his mother in the 8th grade, he was on his own at 16 and is now a Fire Chief with a family rich in love and achievement.

- In spite of incredible physical and mental hardships to overcome by him and his wife, they adopted 3 children needing a home and built a family of love and service.

Then today, I read an article about Peter Thiel, the founder of Paypal and a billionaire. The type of businessman both revered and reviled for many for his often contrarian conservative ways. At the end of the article it describes him in the following way:

Today, he lives in Vienna, Austria, with his long-time partner, Matt Danzeisen, whom he married in 2017, and now co-parents a baby daughter. Though he’s avoided the limelight in recent years, he is still feared by many. As anti-monopoly activist Matt Stoller told Chafkin: He’s “a nihilist, a really smart nihilist. He’s entirely about power — it’s the law of the jungle: ‘I’m a predator and the predators win.’ ”

Pondering this all, I was brought back to the basics by The Ancient Faith Bible. It is an edition of the CSB filled with narrative from Church fathers of the 1st to 4th centuries. A sucker for new bibles, I stumbled upon it in a bookstore on a break and couldn’t put it down. A volume of insightful commentary from long dead Bishops and monks commenting on the word of God.

And that brought me back to the place I always end up. It is all vanity, save Family, Faith, and Community.

The great Jimmy Cliff wrote:

Many rivers to cross But I can't seem to find my way over Wandering I am lost As I travel along the white cliffs of Dover

They are the lyrics of a beautiful and winsome song, the ode of a life traveler beaten down, but still moving forward.

It seems lately, I’ve been crossing a lot of rivers, from Seattle to Maine and now I’m somewhere in the middle in Wisconsin. Often weary, I keep traveling and I’ve experienced some magical things that keep me moving forward.

In Kitsap County, outside of Seattle I heard some amazing stories. Actually, some miraculous stories. A miraculous grocery store bailout and a well timed reading of –

Mark 11:23 “Truly[a] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.

There is a richness of life you can only find in listening to others and allowing them to reveal themselves. On a computer screen or phone, life can become one-dimensional, just an assortment of pixels. In person, in the presence of another, you are reminded of why the answer to life is living, is loving, is experiencing this world around us.

You have many rivers to cross. When we open our eyes and ears to other people with no other filter than our hearts, we find wonder.

For those who don’t trust America, this is a good reason why. We bomb aid workers so our leaders can act tough.

From the NY Times:

“President Joe Biden murdered an innocent family when the US military conducted a "righteous strike" on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought was an ISIS bomb that posed an imminent threat to thousands of people at the Kabul airport.”

“In a late Friday afternoon report, the New York Times reveals that "Military officials said they did not know the identity of the car’s driver when the drone fired, but deemed him suspicious because of how they interpreted his activities that day, saying that he possibly visited an ISIS safe house and, at one point, loaded what they thought could be explosives into the car."

“Times reporting has identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The evidence, including extensive interviews with family members, co-workers and witnesses, suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family.”

“While the U.S. military said the drone strike might have killed three civilians, Times reporting shows that it killed 10, including seven children, in a dense residential block.”

“Mr. Ahmadi, 43, had worked since 2006 as an electrical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a California-based aid and lobbying group. The morning of the strike, Mr. Ahmadi’s boss called from the office at around 8:45 a.m., and asked him to pick up his laptop.”

Why did we do this? To strike back at ISIS-K who killed our young Marines, a Navy Corpsman, and a soldier at the KABUL airport. But we did it blindly, and we lied about it. And this is why our actions must matter, and be more than statements. We must stand for what we believe.

New cars, especially popular new cars can be hard to find, and a long wait if you order. This has resulted in skyrocketing used car prices. But one manufacturer has been almost immune to the computer chip shortage that has plagued auto-manufacturers, Toyota. At a time where American manufacturers have experienced incredibly decreased production, GM at 60%, Ford at 50%, Toyota has led the world by staying at over 90% production.

How did they do this? They predicted the supply problem if chip production was ever disrupted, and they stock-piled computer chips. Pretty simple, huh?

As the article I was reading in Fortune magazine about this said,

“Unlike many of its rivals, Toyota essentially stockpiles chips. That’s a deviation from JIT, which dictates that supplies reach the production line only when they are needed. (Stockpiles occupy valuable space on the factory floor, as well as on the company’s books.) In practice, Toyota’s suppliers do the actual stockpiling. Like all automakers, the company relies on a multitude of components that contain semiconductors, such as smart displays or audio systems. Toyota requires suppliers of those components to maintain up to a six months’ buffer supply of chips dedicated to Toyota orders—just in case.”

Now why I do bring this up? Because we can learn in these uncertain times from Toyota. Identify what you need to “stockpile” and do so.

And it might not just be goods. How about stockpiling time with your family and friends? How about building relationships with people you’d need in a time of need. How about building your “spiritual” home for future threats to your faith?

When you are caught short-handed, it is too late to stockpile. We also tend to make bad decisions during times of crisis. We make short-sighted corrections that lead to worse problems. Just look at our responses to Covid.

Preparation is a common biblical theme:

Proverbs 20:4

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Proverbs 24:27

Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.

Luke 21:36

But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

Hebrews 11:7

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

You are what you love. This is why we can have a culture where people have many things they “love”, but their souls are being destroyed. We can be both “happy” and depressed. Searching for life, but filled with death.

I was reminded of this fact reading an article about video game addiction that mentioned a 2016 book by James K. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. It is about shaping a Christian life, and realizing, you are what you love, and often, we might not love what we think. Or I would say, what you desire and falsely love. And even if it is something that would destroy you, this desire shapes our hearts and who we are.

In the article I came across by Carmel Richardson for The American Spectator, for many of our young and not so young, it is video games. Especially young boys and men.

From the article:

“Gaming addictions are real and damaging, even beyond the well-documented: shorter attention spans, academic struggles, and a handful of basement-dwelling Call of Duty players who went off the rails. If those weren’t enough, gamers are also highly prone to depression, and increasingly, studies show strong correlations between gaming and suicide rates.”

“The demographic most hurt is young men. Statistically, gamers are teen boys, in the phase of life when they seek excitement most and are tempered by maturity least. Video games, which promise endless excitement, can be incredibly addictive to boys of this age. One 2020 poll, done by Michigan Medicine, shows teen boys are far more likely than girls to spend three or more hours gaming in a given day, and boys are twice as susceptible to gaming addictions in general than are girls. To say boys are the only ones to blame would be inaccurate, but certainly the problem affects them more than their female counterparts.”

The author’s main question, why do we allow video games to proliferate the young so unencumbered? Her implication and my answer, we all have our own “video games” and to limit the youth would mean to shine a light on our own “loves”.

When we are blind to what we truly love, we tend to see things the way we want to see them. In a culture where we can get so easily distracted from reality in a search to create our own reality, is it any wonder that we are so divided over data and facts that we cannot agree upon, because we see what we want to see?

This isn’t a rumor. It’s just taken a while for it to become public. As of today, there are six planes filled with American Citizens and Afghan interpreters at the Mazar Sharif Airport being held hostage. It is finally being reported by mainstream news sources such as CBS.

From a news report:

A satellite image that was released on Sunday reportedly shows six airplanes that the Taliban is not allowing to fly out of Afghanistan. The planes are supposed to be carrying American citizens and Afghan interpreters who helped the U.S. Military.

The satellite image follows a report from CBS News and remarks from a top U.S. lawmaker on Sunday that both said that the circumstances have effectively turned into a hostage situation.

“Multiple planes that are ready to take American citizens and green card holders out of the country are being denied permission to leave by the Taliban,” CBS News reported, according to congressional and NGO sources. An email viewed by the network said that the flights were cleared to land in Qatar “if and when” the Taliban agreed to let them leave.

A senior congressional source told the network that “the Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans.”

What has happened to America 2021 that this isn’t leading every news program? What has happened that our government so cavalierly has left these people on the tarmac? It’s enough to drive one crazy.

In our upside-down world, we just visited the community of St. Tikhons Monastery and Seminary in the rural community of South Canaan, PA, nested in the hills of the Pocono Mountains. To many people, the scene of family and kids all centered around church might seem crazy. But it isn’t. It’s probably one of the sanest things I’ve seen in years.

Counterculture and radical is a big family centered on faith and each other. Nothing crazy about it, just living as human beings were created to live, focused on the things that matter in life.

As the last American forces left Afghanistan and the Taliban took over the airfield in triumph, our commanding General, General Mackenzie thanked “our generous host nation” and expressed regret at leaving only about 250 Americans behind.  The generals leave us as they led us, as liars. The politicians even worse.

“General McKenzie is basing his “very few hundreds” comment on those who have gone through official channels to specifically declare they want to leave and who have demonstrated they are American citizens. But many, many more were either unable to go through official channels as they evaded the Taliban or could not sufficiently prove they were American citizens. If they couldn’t fax a passport to the Embassy, they weren’t counted, according to sources at the State Department.”

While General Mackenzie was desecrating the stars he wears with his lies and our last plane was leaving the Kabul airport and stranded Americans to the Taliban, this happened the same weekend in Chicago:

"Forty people were shot, four of them fatally,...."

Where is the critical examination of the policies State and Local government have executed for decades, and how it might have a part in this. After all, Chicago is run by one political party. If an honest news organization wanted to, it would be pretty easy to analyze a little cause and effect. But we are continually let down by a politically, and ideologically led media.

And as the generals, politicians and reporters lie, and people die.

In our information age, obfuscation can easily be achieved with an abundance of big language and impenetrable data. Want to hide your intentions or lack of a real plan, make it sound as complicated as possible. When someone can’t explain the general goals, principles, and concepts of something clearly, I get suspicious. This goes for plumbers, doctors, lawyers, you name it. Sometimes expertise hides incompetency or worse.

Here are some highlights of a segment Tucker Carlson did with war correspondent Laura Logan where she talks on this very issue:

“There are many things the United States could do right now to change what has happened and what is happening in Afghanistan, and they’re not doing it.”

“We don’t care about Afghanistan. We believe that Pakistan is the most important country in that region and they always will be.”

“What they want you believe is that Afghanistan is complicated. Because if you complicate it, it’s a tactic in information warfare called ‘ambiguity increasing.'”

“This comes down to the fact that the United States wants this outcome. Whoever’s in power right now, whoever’s really pulling the strings –- and I don’t know that –- they could do anything they want to change this, and they’re not.”

It is important to remember this in our own lives. When we lose focus, life gets more complicated, harder to understand, and it is much easier to lie to ourselves about what we need to do to change things. Focus allows us to avoid becoming charlatans of ambiguity ourselves.

The situation in Afghanistan shows the truth of the leaders and pundits so many people have blindly put their faith in. Before we evacuate US citizens and friends who have helped us, we close the airbase best situated to evacuate them and then pull out our military. The best minds came up with this!

As I mentioned on my last podcast, politicians DO NOT write the bills that impact our lives, lobbyists and staff members do it. Do you think one member of congress has read and understands the full text of a 1.2 trillion bill, or a 3.5 trillion bill?

PhDs and health care workers have some of the highest rates of questioning our public health response to COVID, yet if you and I ask the same questions, we are crazy, listen to the experts they say!

We live in a compartmentalized world where those in control of data can control its release and create the narrative understanding of it. This leads to decisions made by political views, and results like Afghanistan, or a country brought to its knees by a public health crisis as our cities burn and we become more and more divided.

Be relentless in your search for the truth. Ask questions. Request data. Beware of anyone who doesn’t like answering questions, beware of anyone who argues ad-hominem.

The Taliban are quickly taking over Afghanistan and returning to the power we took away from them 20 years ago. I am angry at our politicians and military leaders. I am more determined than ever to serve those who serve us, and to fight for the things that matter most - family, faith, and community.

A friend today on Facebook commented on how a recent death had made them reflect and decide to become more contemplative about life. I wondered, why does it so often take death to motivate us to examine our lives and commit to living deeply, if only for a moment.

There are many ways to begin a contemplative life, but here is one I find very poignant from a Russian Priest:

"Childlikeness is lost in life and recovered in holiness."

And from the good book:

Matthew 18:1-5 - 

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”

I grow weary and praying is hard.

John of Cronstadt advised:

"It is said that we soon grow weary of praying. Wherefore? Because we do not vividly represent to ourselves the Lord, Who is at our right hand. Look upon Him unceasingly with the eyes of your heart, and then, even if you stand praying all night, you will not grow weary."

"Our heart daily dies spiritually. Only ardent, tearful prayer quickens it, and makes it breathe again. If we don’t do daily pray with sufficient spiritual fervor, we may easily and speedily die spiritually."

No debt, fulfilling hard work, connected family and friends – all held together by a life of faith.

An easy concept. But in a complicated world, hard to execute.

How about some good advice on staying focused by a Gold Medal Olympian and out-spoken Christian, Sydney McLaughlin, winner and world record holder of the Women’s 400m hurdles.

After her victory, she said the following:

“Just trusting the process. Giving the glory to God,” McLaughlin said about her victory. “It’s all, this season, hard work and dedication. And [I’m] just really grateful to be able to represent my country and to have this opportunity.”

She gave up social media to focus on winning:

"I think when you have a lot of outside voices coming in, it can definitely alter what you have going on internally," she said, via The New York Times. "The more I can distance myself from that, the more I can stay as calm and as relaxed as possible."

She added: "A lot of that is outside things I can’t control and I just tried to minimize it. I stayed off social media, stayed in my room, talked to friends and family and stuck to what I knew."

Via The New York Times

A friend recently referenced an article by the far left Mother Jones on why Americans are so angry. I only refer to them as “far left” because they place the blame on Fox News. Pot, meet Kettle. In reality, they do not understand why most Americans are so angry.

I’ll tell you why so many Americans are so angry. It is because we have never been so lonely and isolated.

“The illusion that mechanical progress means human improvement ... alienates us from our own being and our own reality. It is precisely because we are convinced that our life, as such, is better if we have a better car, a better TV set, better toothpaste, etc., that we condemn and destroy our own reality and the reality of our natural resources. Technology was made for man, not man for technology. In losing touch with being and thus with God, we have fallen into a senseless idolatry of production and consumption for their own sakes.”

Thomas Merton

What are some practical things that bring true peace:

No Debt

Close Family and Connected Relationships

Good and Hard work

A Deep Spiritual Life

Healthy Living

I came across an article today on uncanceled.com about how the gradual replacement of physical cash with pure digital currency is not only erasing any degree of financial autonomy we may have, but it could be the last step in completely erasing any notion of personal privacy.

Technology is being developed that would scan your face as you entered a store, it would then access all of your financial and personal data, and that would determine what you were eligible to purchase. Can it get any more big brother than that? What if being “cancelled” on social media became being “cancelled” in commerce if you didn’t hold the correct political and social views?

We are closer to this than you may think. If banks got rid of cash in ATMs and Bank branches, cash would disappear very quickly and you would be forced to go all digital, and to carry whatever mark they want you to in order to buy and sell. Sound familiar?

We deserve it though. Our consumer society has been our downfall. It has taken our eyes off of the things that matter and has allowed us to be led by credit cards, interest rates, 401ks, and all sorts of shiny things. 

The best time to pray is when you don’t feel like it.

Swimming next to Lake Dixie Springs yesterday with my nine - year old, he asked me what I thought heaven was like. I told him I wasn't sure, and whatever I thought it should be like, someone else might have a different idea.

But isn’t that life? We think many things obvious to us should be obvious to others, but often, we are only looking for a reflection of the image we want.

Our forefathers intended to found a country where we had the freedom to determine that for ourselves. As we’ve been talking about bureaucracies this week, it is clear the danger they present, they want their vision to become ours. The same could be said for social media companies. Their owners foster group-think and that group-think becomes the standard.

To get the America you want, you must take control of the life you want. Make your day, from rising to settling for bed, a reflection of your vision. Mine – family, faith, and freedom. Most of the founders would have agreed. It is on that framework, I believe, we give people the largest framework to venture out and discover the best of themselves.

From the Wall Street Journal today:

“McDonald’s Corp. said its sales are surpassing pre-pandemic levels across the world as more of its dining rooms reopen and U.S. customers try new chicken offerings.”

But that isn’t really why their sales are increasing, later in the article:

“Busy drive-throughs and online sales have boosted McDonald’s and other fast-food chains during the pandemic relative to other restaurants.”

From the The Western Front yesterday:

"After over a year of providing to-go orders, running at half-capacity or shutting down completely, restaurants emerging from COVID-19 restrictions aren’t in the clear yet. "

"Washington state fully reopened June 30 and Whatcom County restaurants can now operate at full capacity due to Gov. Jay Inslee’s updated Washington Ready Plan. However, those restaurants continue to face staffing and supply shortages, coupled with a new highly transmissible COVID-19 variant."

Definition of bureaucracy from Merriam-Webster:

1a: a body of nonelected government officials, b: an administrative policy-making group

2: government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchy of authority

3: a system of administration marked by officialism, red tape, and proliferation

From New Yorker Magazine:

"With the approval of the government, a renowned sexologist ran a dangerous program"

“I didn’t think what was happening was good, but I thought it was normal,” one of the foster children recalled. 

"The experiment was authorized and financially supported by the Berlin Senate. In a report submitted to the Senate, in 1988, Kentler had described it as a “complete success.”

"Nentwig had assumed that Kentler’s experiment ended in the nineteen-seventies. But Marco told her he had lived in his foster home until 2003, when he was twenty-one."

Build your local community. Get involved locally at every level you can. Looking out for you, your family, and your neighbors begins right there where you live.

We landed in Mississippi after a traffic infested journey from Indiana. A quick evening of rest was followed the next day by a float down the Homochitto river, then a relaxing evening on Lake Dixie Springs.

The Homochitto river brought back exciting memories from my youth. I spent more than a few summers speeding along its banks on old-school 3-wheelers, the kind that were banned, and the kind that set your hair on fire with reckless fun.

The lake was a serene scene with kids playing and the sun setting. My son, Gabriel, swam by himself long into the night, joined briefly by his sister, but they were interrupted just as things were getting otherworldly with a good old-fashioned thunder and lightning southern storm.

On the river, more than a couple passing canoes and kayaks of family members said with a smile, “you don’t need much more than this.” I agreed.

Reading a comment from a listener got me thinking about judgment. And it begged the question, who is being the judge?

From Merriam-Webster:

Definition of judgment

1a: the process of forming an opinion or evaluation by discerning and comparing

2a: the capacity for judging

Definition of judgmental

1: of, relating to, or involving judgment a judgmental error

2: characterized by a tendency to judge harshly judgmental prigs

“Ad hominem: (of an argument or reaction) directed against a person rather than the position they are maintaining.”

The name-calling, attacking nature of current discourse is probably the most divisive part of society and communication at the moment. Verbal bullying at all levels, from school kids to national media outlets creates almost a daily powder keg.

As best we can, we must do our part to avoid this. We must separate the person from the position. This doesn’t mean we keep our head in the sand, merely that we do our best to listen, analyze, research, and then base our judgement on that. If we can’t convince someone with reason, attacking them only makes it worse.

In a world where we desperately try to avoid pain and struggle, and where self-satisfaction and pleasure has become a religion, how and where do we find God?

John Bunyan said: "No man, without trials and temptations, can attain a true understanding of the Holy Scriptures."

And the good book in 1 Peter 4:12 directs us:

"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you."

Walking the streets of Denver, one thing becomes clear: they smoke a lot of weed out here in Colorado.

I couldn’t help but ponder, what happens when you fill the hole of purpose with shadows of meaning.

In Denver today to teach a leadership class, I was three times confronted with the following, “a bag will cost you .10 cents.” This is thanks to a new law In the city and county of Denver, thanks no doubt, to transplants from California!

Can we do some remedial education on cognitive dissonance?

From Websters:

“the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.”

As reported this week, 41% of Baltimore public high school students failed to earn even a “D” grade point average. Twice the number of students than the previous year, distance learning during Covid didn’t work out so good.

The good news, the number of students with a B or better stayed about the same.

The lesson, personal responsibility is the most important lesson in life. And the most important factor in education isn’t money as we often hear. Baltimore schools outspend 97% of other large school districts. According to Forbes, that is almost $18,000 per student! Can someone give us that for our homeschool!

What a day in Alaska! Speaking to law enforcement officers, their families, and others who support law enforcement from around Alaska, we had a surprise guest - the Governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy.

I handed off the mike to the Governor midway through my talk and he gave a heartfelt message on how he and Alaska backed those in blue, and how they wanted and needed to do better. A very busy man, no one would have even thought, "Where is the Governor?" for an event like this, but he showed up because the lives of those men and women mattered to him.

He let them know that they were known to him, that the lives of them and their families were important. It was a lesson we all can learn from. I was honored to be part of the event.

A native Alaskan, a report that the United States has the highest percentage of single-parent homes in the world, and an important conversation in a coffee shop years ago made today quite a day in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Waking up at 3am to see light in the Fairbank's sky reminded me of an important lesson I learned while an exchange student one summer in Iceland. 

Sometimes to find clarity, you have to empty yourself.

Clarity can definitely be found in the light of a midnight sun.

Today is a traveling day as I head north to Alaska to speak. A beautiful and majestic land, it truly is the call of the wild and hearkens to freedom and possibility - at a risk of course. It is a brutal land where many big dreams have been crushed.

I overheard a conversation today on my first flight that is the opposite of that spirit. A young girl doing her best to live risk-free.

Go north young lady!

Our information age tries to fool people into thinking that if you are equipped with enough data you can live life with some sort of certainty. You can’t of course, and this inevitable insecurity leads to some very fragile people. But if you survive a journey into the wild, not only do you understand this, but you begin to thrive on the cold, hard reality of life and existence. Play it safe, you might just get paranoid. Head into the wild, you learn how to live and allow uncertainty to fuel your life.

Recently, I’ve lost quite a few pounds by skipping breakfast and watching my calories. As I progressed, my aches and pains receded, and my motivation increased. Just a lifestyle change made a huge difference.

Getting up early has the same impact. Get up early, accomplish something immediately, you will feel better.

As life gets more complicated, these are necessary conditions for living fully. Simple to explain, often hard to do, the benefits immense.

First Responders looking for life in the rubble of the Surfside collapse were told they could go home as the effort would now be focused on recovery. There would be no more survivors.

But the first responders didn’t listen, and they kept looking.

A member of Israel’s search team told families: "I ask you all to look into my eyes, and I promise you we did everything. No effort was saved."

Coming home for all these workers will be hard, for a long time.

And while different, coming home can be hard for you and me too. Leaving our worldly endeavors and crossing the threshold into home should be a liminal endeavor. We should refocus and commit ourselves to those precious lives that inhabit the dwelling.

Coming home can be hard. Make sure when you cross that threshold you take a second to reset and focus, the things that matter are counting on you.

There are almost 2 million first responders in the United States.

The total number of Active Duty, National Guard, and Reserve troops is about 2.4 million.

That is over 4 million men and women who serve and protect our nation and communities. In a country of about 328 million, that is about 1.3%.

Do not take them for granted. And never forget that it is usually the few who carry the heaviest loads. And most importantly, use their service to remind you that doing the things that matter is worth it.

Children are a mirror. Look at them, you’ll see the best and worst, of yourself. But if we are honest about what we see, we can make ourselves better people and parents in the process.

Actions speak louder than words.

The most important things are human interactions. Without this, we look for substitutes. And substitutes only leave us hollow.

The best dichotomy to cultivate in a family: I never want them to leave/I can’t wait to see what they do when they leave.

It was joyous to see an old school 4th of July being celebrated far and near.

Embrace our freedom and hold dear all the things that matter most - family, faith, and freedom. It was worth fighting for then, it's worth fighting for now.

I just watched a great Jordan Peterson video on how much of what is called “mental illness” is more accurately the result of people being overwhelmed by complexity.

This made sense to me as I have spent of much of my life trying to stay “clear and focused” in order to stay ahead of my own demons.

Focus is something we should be guilty about attaining because without it the complexities of life can eventually overwhelm anyone. And if we aren't intentional about doing it, we won't be focused.

“The only way to know life is by not ignoring life.”

Jack London in a letter to his daughter, Joan London, August 25, 1915

Walking the streets of another one of our desolate cities, I was reminded of one of my favorite U2 songs, Where The Streets Have No Name.

The scene that unfolded as I walked was both alarming and reassuring. Alone in a city park, I prayed and pondered what it all meant.

An incredible group of law enforcement officers from around Ohio reminded me today just what the following words mean:

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Live deeply my friends, and life is worth fighting for.

What a terrible tragedy, the Surfside, Florida building collapse at 1 in the morning while the residents slept. At this time, 4 people are confirmed dead with another 159 unaccounted for.

Life, and death, happens so quickly.

75, long white hair, skinny as rail - today over a tofu salad I witnessed a real-deal old hippie holding court with a young, wanna-be hippie. It was a sight to behold, and a surprising reminder of the things that matter.

As some in society slide into an abyss of debasement, take heart, you are not crazy.

Stand tall, keep moving forward, take heart that your eyes are on the things that matter and when the embers stop glowing, flowers will arise.

Bad news at the Indianapolis airport led to an unexpected journey and pleasant memories.

When you are focused on the things that matter, even disappointments can become happy accidents.

We are flesh and blood, purely organic creatures. The joy of shrink-to-fit Levi’s Jeans hearkens to the beauty of this.

They are not expensive, but when done right, priceless. Made of non-sanforized cotton, if you are careful they will fit you like nothing else in our age of petroleum produced clothing.

My method: buy yourself a pair about 2 inches longer than usual and 1 inch in the waste bigger than usual. Boil in water, let them sit for an hour, drip dry for 30 minutes, and then wear them till they are dry. It’ll take a few hours or more. Do this twice. Enjoy.

That 100% cotton is now part of you. Grab a sweet tea, sit in the evening summer breeze and stair across a green field knowing that you have about all you need to appreciate the things that matter. And maybe listen to a podcast of two!

One consequence of electronic, impersonal communication is that it is easier and more attractive than ever to create a straw man to argue with.  I will create a caricature of you, or maybe just lie, and then I’ll tear that image down. And worse, even though I’m attacking this false narrative, I act like I’m attacking the real argument, not the straw one.

Someone living in an echo chamber uses the straw man the most frequently. Live in a bubble where all your ideas are confirmed, straw men will start popping up everywhere. How do you avoid this? This is important to consider because we can all fall into this, even when we are well-meaning.

Today I will discuss a great resource I found for college students to avoid straw man arguments in writing papers. It is good advice for you and me, and it is also a great way to look at someone else's argument to determine whether or not they are relying on a straw man.

I've been preparing for a basketball coaches meeting today, the theme - God, Team, Fun – No “I” and managing expectations.

I think there are some lessons here for all of us.

On a long walk to Walmart from my hotel today in Savannah, Georgia, I came across a ditch with an interesting history. I’ll share that in today’s podcast. Driving, I would have never noticed, and I doubt many other people do.

It got me thinking, what else do I not notice? What life happens right under my nose? Where should I be looking?

We need true radicals! Now, more than ever!

Radical about family.

Radical about faith.

Radical about personally helping the poor and downtrodden.

Radical about visiting prisons.

Radical about living for the things that matter.

Can you feel it? Something is coming.

I hear this all over the country in my classes. There is a strong feeling that although we are exiting Covid, something else is coming, something bigger.

Today, we discuss what that might be.

Listening seems to be a perishing skill.

That might not be more apparent than a visit to your local health clinic. While the staff at our's is very nice, come in with anything outside of the box, you might as well start googling on your own. Ask for alternatives, you might as well start googling on your own. Ask them something not listed on their screen, you’ll see a “are you speaking” look on their faces.

But it’s not just there. With more information at our fingertips, people seem less inquisitive. I see this traveling as I steel glances at people’s “smart” phones and observe that most of their time is spent numbing their minds.

Listening is powerful. The secret to your relationship problems, family issues, business difficulties, might be as simple as shutting up and listening to someone.

James 1:19 – “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”

The Labor Department has released a report that US Inflation was at its worst since 2008, and it is rising. Pay attention, don’t be complacent for what may be coming. Use it as fuel to be proactive in all areas of your life.

From a Wall Street Journal article on the report:

“The Labor Department said May’s increase in consumer inflation was the largest since August 2008. The jump followed a 4.2% rise for the year ended in April. The core-price index, which excludes the often-volatile categories of food and energy, rose 3.8% in May from a year before—the largest increase for that reading since June 1992.

Prices for used cars and trucks leapt 7.3% from the previous month, driving one-third of the rise in the overall index. The indexes for furniture, airline fares and apparel also rose sharply in May”

Food makers said their costs are climbing at an alarming rate, prompting them to raise some prices. “The inflation pressure we’re seeing is significant,” General Mills Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Harmening said at a recent investor conference. “It’s probably higher than we’ve seen in the last decade.”

Yesterday, we remembered Jack London. His inspiration and his hard lessons. Today, a few short selections from the great writer to discuss and ponder:

“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

The writer, Jack London, hearkened to the call of the wild, but the wild might have gotten the best of him.

At the age of 13 he worked 12-18 hours a day in a cannery. He left that to become an oyster pirate. At 17, he signed onto a schooner and sailed for Japan. Along with some other incredibly hard jobs, he lived the life of a tramp shortly at the age of 17. After all of this, he returned to High School.

Then in 1897, at the age of 21, he joined the Klondike gold rush, and the experiences there would fuel his literary career. He began writing magazine articles and by 1903 he had published, The Call of The Wild, and was world famous. He was 27.

A lifetime of experience behind him, and what looked like a long successful life ahead of him, Jack London suddenly died at the age of 40. He’d had many sicknesses in his life, and he had become an alcoholic who relied on morphine for his physical pain. The wild had overcome the great American novelist.

My parents visited Sunday afternoon and we had a peaceful visit eating, walking in the yard, and talking about life.

My dad writes a regular newspaper column and we spent some time talking about one of his upcoming columns on how we take for granted many of the activities available in our local area. We look far away for “things to do” but if we would just be a bit more curious, we might be surprised what we find next door, so to speak.

Later that evening as I sat with my wife enjoying the summer breeze, I was reminded that home is what you make it. The greenest grass is that which you plant at home, wherever that may be.

An officer at recent class showed me a note he carried around with himself that went something like this, “Do my actions teach my children to be honest, dependable, and loving.”

We have more power to influence others with our actions than we might think. The way we talk to check-out people at stores, the way we react to strangers, the behaviors our family and friends see us exhibit every day. They all have some influence.

From Titus 2:7-8 “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”

Maybe carry your own note, “What I’m doing right now is an influence on someone.”

Today, we talk about something simple, yet profound.

When it comes to the things that matter, don't wait.

On today's Pilgrim's Odyssey, gun shots and cell phones in Charlotte.

My daily travel walk turned into a reminder that we lose sight of the things that matter at our peril.

In a recent interview with the UK Guardian, 90-year old William Shatner of Star Trek fame reflected on his life,

“Here’s an interesting answer!” he says perkily. “I’m glad I didn’t know because what you know at 90 is: take it easy, nothing matters in the end, what goes up must come down. If I’d known that at 20, I wouldn’t have done anything!”

It was clear he took his life’s triumphs and tragedies in stride and found understanding in his children and grandchildren that lived nearby. He also recognized the great dichotomies of life that in the end we must just accept.

No theologian, yet, life had brought him wisdom, he hearkened the wise words of Ecclesiasters:

The words of the Teacher,[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”

    says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

    Everything is meaningless.”

Ole’ Captain Kirk was truly spinning some words of wisdom we need to remember when life distracts us from what matters.

Somberly, with patient reflection, remember those who gave their lives defending our country, and the friends and loved ones impacted by the loss.

Find a time and place of peace today, and remember that we are able to live in the greatest country history has ever known because of them.

We are an isolated people. Alone, disconnected, this is where we are weakest.

To become connected requires intentionality. You must allow others to be known.

Ask yourself, when was the last time someone really wanted to know who you are?

When was the last time you took a true interest in someone else?

Connectedness requires good questioning and patient listening.

Today we remember Aiden Leos, tragically killed last week in a road range incident where the 6-year old was shot while he sat in his car seat.

Listening to his sister and mother describe the incident reminded me to focus on the things that matter, and encouraged me in my work. May our prayers be with them, and may Aiden's memory be eternal.

On a long drive today, I was reminded how our lives are either moving forward, or moving backward. The middle ground doesn’t last long, you eventually succumb to the latter, or decide to take part in the former.

Our world seems to be a battle between the two camps, 1) What can you do for me vs. 2) What can I can do for myself. One points fingers and looks back for reasons to justify what they want to be given, the other camp uses their hands to grab hold of what is in front of them and move forward. The power of momentum in either direction means that you cannot escape this battle.

Our faith is similar. You are either moving toward or away from God, there is no middle ground.

Days of Wonder are only as far away as a little gas money, your feet, and the will to live free.

Be a rebel, focus on the things that matter. Not the things social media, the news, and TV tell you that matter.

Police officers quitting and retiring at record rates. 

Rampant burglary allowed in our big cities.

Both are signs of our times, and you might want to pay attention.

Better yet, maybe a refresher course in Bible stories. After all, you might be living in one.

The official politicization of our military is upon us. It’s impossible for anything related to government to be completely apolitical, although throughout our history our Armed Forces have tried hard to be. Not any more.

The Pentagon, ordered by the new Secretary of Defense, will now screen members for their political views. The Pentagon is preparing to launch a program that will screen the social media posts of military members for "concerning behaviors" amid a broader crackdown on domestic extremism, according to a report on Tuesday. Of course, how “extremism” is defined is the true tricky widget.

The program will reportedly utilize keyword searches to identify potential extremist views. Officials are attempting to compile a list of keywords that would not violate freedom of speech protections. More alarmingly, it has been reported that a lot of this surveillance will be performed by artificial intelligence.

If this is allowed to stand, eventually the military will become the military wing of politicians to empower their political positions. Those who oppose these positions will be silenced or worse.

One needn't travel far to be reminded just what wild is, and how good it can be for the heart!

Wake up, get dirty, and don't be afraid to be yourself: all lessons my family learned today on a short but epic little adventure into the wild.

A little fear - Beware of Bears! - can be a good thing for a civilized soul.

What lessons are you passing down to those you love?

Are you intentional about it?

What a great legacy - passing down the lessons learned and strength found in our bumps and bruises.

But what happens when the lessons of the past are forgotten? Especially those on taking care of yourself during the worst of times. I think one reason the last year was so stressful was that in many ways we have forgotten how to take care of ourselves. Even in fundamental ways, and Covid has exposed our vulnerabilities.

I was given a ride in a friend’s new Tesla Model S and introduced to “Ludicrous Speed”. It was an exhilarating reminder that whatever our point of view, life changes fast, and you better be ready.

The Holy Land is literally blowing up. Rockets from Gaza into Israel, bombs from Israel into Gaza, Israelis and Palestinians fighting in the streets.

Whenever I see this violence escalate I’m reminded of a trip I took years ago with my father to Israel. One day I had coffee with an Israeli at a coffee shop in an incredibly quaint part of Jerusalem. Not long after we returned home to the United States, that same coffee shop was on TV having been blown up my a suicide bomber.

I met people on both sides. They were good, kind people. But if you get divided enough, it doesn’t matter how smart or civilized you might be, there will be violence.

Pray for peace both in Israel and here. The same storms of division that disrupt Israel are happening right now in our own backyard.

A pipeline is hacked and boom, 5 hour waits for gasoline. People are panicked. It reminds me of the beginning of Covid lockdowns and toilet paper panic buying.

A year of masks and lockdowns has created a neurotic culture. Culturally, we won’t find peace soon.

But how can you find peace in the middle of this storm, or any other?

These are truly heavy times. The medicine won’t be easy.

“Peace is liberation from passions, which cannot be attained without the action of the Holy Spirit.” St. Mark the Ascetic, born in 360 AD.

Are you willing to fight your passions - (self-love, gluttony, lust, love of money, sadness, fear, and pride) - to find peace, with the help of the Holy Spirit of God, in any storm?

You’ve been energized, hope is ringing in your ears, you are ready to make changes and move mountains! So where do you start?

You must create forward momentum, and to do that requires one step then another. Much will try to distract and discourage you, so you must stay focused. Focus is your mantra.

As the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, said:

"That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."

Or to put this type of focus in the spiritual dimension:

Matthew 17:20 - He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

One place you might focus this week, an act of gratitude toward's law enforcement. This is National Police Week, started in 1962 by President Kennedy.

Home from work, my wife asked me to walk down to the creek with her and our youngest, Julius. The weight of the world made me feel as if I had no time, but I had time. Thankfully, I listened to the better angels and took that walk.

My wife was sitting on a boulder overlooking the creek when I arrived and Julius was sliding down the mud bank into the water. The sun danced off the budding green leaves of the spring trees. We spoke little but laughed a lot.

The entire episode took maybe 15 or 20 minutes. A priceless small slice of the day. Why do I let them happen so infrequently?

I’m reminded of Ecclesiastes 4:4 - “And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

Julius is 4. What does he care about fame and fortune, the opinion of others? He cares about mom and dad, brothers and sisters, family and friends that loves him. Everything else is meaningless. Why can’t I remember that?

We are all vulnerable to a world in a turmoil, and a desire to judge and blame others. How do we understand and practice our faith in times crisis?

The great Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred by the Nazi’s, has some answers for us:

“In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best the object of pity…The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought that takes success for its standard.

Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.

The first service one owes to others in a community involves listening to them. Just as our love of God begins with listening to God’s Word, the beginning of love for others is learning to listen to them. God’s love for us is shown by the fact that God not only gives God’s Word but also lends us God’s ear…We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them.”

Lately, there have been many articles written about a workforce that doesn’t want to work. Especially, small local businesses can’t find labor. Our local newspaper did a long feature on all the local business limiting their hours because they couldn’t find workers.

One reason, the incredible unemployment benefits offered to people, encouraging them to stay home. Another reason, in a culture where the employer gets portrayed as the enemy, people feel entitled. When government then provides them all they need to live, and technology provides cheap escapist fantasies, you have created an environment that easily allows people to enter a sort of Matrix.

To fix this will take tough love. But do we have it in us as a country? We are so PC, the President in his National Day of Prayer message today didn’t use the word God. No doubt, he didn’t want to offend. It’s the opposite of tough. We are at risk.

As reported yesterday, Rolling to Remember, formerly known as Rolling Thunder has been shut down:

“You may remember the veteran biker group known as Rolling Thunder. They have since changed their name to Rolling to Remember.

They were planning to ride into Washington, DC on Memorial Day and end their ride at the Pentagon, as they have done for years.

The Biden administration denied event permits for the Rolling to Remember motorcycle ride held every year for the past 30 years in Washington, D.C., prompting outrage in Congress.

The charity event, formerly known as Rolling Thunder, is a Memorial Day hallmark in the city, bringing scores of veterans and others to the area to commemorate war veterans, including prisoners of war and those missing in action.

The Pentagon approved the permit in March and then rescinded the decision this week without any explanation, according to Issa and Rep. Ken Calvert (R., Calif.), who also criticized the Biden administration’s decision.”

This decision is hurtful to me because I love veterans and I love motorcycles. Motorcycles represent freedom, the open road, charting a course to somewhere over the horizon. Shutting it down is fear at best, partisan politics at worse. Either reason is a slap in the face to veterans who were willing to die for us.

If I were them, I’d ride anyway. Shut down the streets, fly your flags, gun your engines. Live free or die!

You might have heard about a police discovery in Houston of 90 illegal immigrants confined to a 2,300 sq. foot home.

It is estimated drug cartels make $14 million dollars a day smuggling people.

Why do we put up with it? Politics and money. Some people benefit from the votes, some people benefit from the cheap labor.

It’s the same for China. Why do we put up with them? Politics and money. They are in the pockets of our politicians, and we are addicted to cheap goods.

Our nation turns a blind eye to it all. How can we not ultimately suffer?

How do you respond? You speak up and you talk with your wallet.

Read an article today on Apple News about how some popular fitness trends fit the definition of a cult – Crossfit, Soulcycle, Power Yoga, etc.

Now “cult” is a broad word that can mean anything from devotion to someone who thinks they are Jesus to undying loyalty to a sports figure.

Let me suggest one definition today from Merriam-Webster and share a couple experiences I had this weekend:

“great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work ”

On Great Friday, we remember Christ dying on the cross and his last words, “It is finished.” It is a solemn day. God became man in order to die for us. To show us a way to life.

Yet, it is this death and day of despair, that brings us hope. A sacrifice that shows us what real life is. On the 3rd day he will rise from the dead and the trajectory of mankind will be changed.

It is a tough lesson, but whatever despair you may be facing, you can use it to find hope by turning to God.

As we are told in Mark 8:35 “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

It’s hard to give up a life where we cling to temporal things, just ask the rich man. But when we’ve been broken, in our despair, we might just find it’s the place we find real hope.

This prayer can be said anytime, but during Lent and our preparation for celebrating the resurrection of Christ, it takes on a special meaning. We prepare in humility, on our knees, being willing to see ourselves truthfully and our need for Christ soberly.

While this prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian dates back to the 300s, it is as timely to our human condition today as it was then.

“O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou, unto ages of ages. Amen.”

In a divisive world where your beliefs can get you ridiculed or worse, and the desire to point fingers and blame others is so easy to do, and terribly destructive, what can you do to change yourself and change others?

A Christian who spent at least 25 years of his life alone in the woods praying, and then after a severe injury he spent another 1000 nights on a rock praying might have some good advice for you. Our humble Seraphim lived from 1754 to 1833.

"Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved." Saint Seraphim of Sarov

What is a peaceful spirit and how do you acquire it?

John 16:33 – “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

I was reminded in a conversation the other day with a friend, that if we open our eyes and hearts, we always have something to learn from other people, even, and maybe especially, those of other faiths, beliefs, and creeds. In fact, if you aren’t willing to listen and learn, how strong is your own faith?

One such person I learned from, Thomas Merton, the great Roman Catholic monk and author.

“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them”

― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island

My wife made the mistake of trying to pass a pickup truck on the way home from church on a slow country road. She was met with lane blocking, crazy looks, and a middle finger. All for a van full of kids to witness. Later that night as we discussed her day, it brought up a lot of questions:

How thin is the line between civilization and anarchy? What historically has kept us “civilized” and what is happening to those barriers today? Family, Faith, and Community have been our historical strength and our historical barricade to chaos. What now?

In a world where meaning is found in labels and on bright screens, what happens when people don’t gain meaning from relationships with other people?

When you are walking on thin ice, how do you find solid ground?

The wise commentator on police use of force, Lebron James, got me thinking: almost nothing is scarier than when a celebrity or wealthy person describes the greatest country on earth as being on a fast take to Nazi Germany then bows at the feet of Communist China. If they can play this kind of mental gymnastics to justify selling their souls to evil while trying to burn down the greatest country on earth, what wouldn’t they do for their own self-interests?

As I’ve talked about on earlier Pilgrim’s Odyssey podcasts, we all are complicit in a way to the rise of Red China. We buy their goods, we encourage their slave labor, we elect politicians who get fat off of their lobbyists and contributions.

We are reminded by the good book often on what happens when you sell your soul for riches:

Matthew 16:26 - For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Hebrews 13:5 - Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Matthew 6:24 - No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

What happens when your master is China? You eventually love that master and hate those who stand against it. Now look at what you buy on Amazon, the things that fill your home. Who is your master? Or maybe it is food, or technology, or TV, or the Internet, consider what you love? What is your precious? And what should it be?

Law enforcement across the country is completely demoralized. Officers are leaving in droves and departments can’t replace them fast enough leaving them short-handed and stretched thin. Crime, especially violent crime, is up in the cities where they are leaving the fastest. At this rate, activists who want to see law enforcement neutered and defunded may get their wish sooner than later.

This exodus won’t end soon, and the results will be devastating. As this continues to develop, you might ask yourself, are you ready and able to live a little wild? Since the Civil War, our wars have been fought on foreign shores, our depressions short lived, and our riots relatively tame. But what is coming will be worse than anything we’ve seen on our home shores in sometime, and you might ask yourself, are you prepared?

I thought about this today as I spoke to law enforcement officers about suicide prevention, and after reading a post, accurate let me say, that said my family was a little wild. In a good way! We are wild and we are ready, are you?

I want to talk about something beautiful today.

Flying to Madison, WI where I’ll be speaking, I watched the Terrence Malick film, A Hidden Life. I will have more to say about this incredible movie in future podcasts, but today I want to focus on one important beautiful thing it exposes.

A Hidden Life depicts the life of Austria’s Franz Jagerstatter, a conscientious objector who was put to death at the age of 36 by the Nazis, and later declared a martyr by the Catholic Church.

This depiction of his life shows that true beauty is found in those moments few people other than ourselves and those close to us see. A dinner table of smiles, hands working together in the dirt, early morning in an empty church, children laughing, a thrilling motorcycle ride, lovers embracing, the smell of spring, and friends and family gathering.

It is real. It is deep. Yet, if you don’t slow down and focus, maybe you miss them. Maybe you even stop having them. A Hidden Life makes you slow down and watch what matters to a man who has lived a good life. As Franz is broken down in prison all he is left with is his faith and his memory of the moments that mattered. They fill his head as he approaches the executioner’s block. When our hour approaches, what will fill our head?

If you haven’t yet, spend an evening with those you love watching A Hidden Life. Nothing I’ve ever seen on film better wakens one to what really matters in life.

One of my favorite services of the year is almost 3 hours long and celebrates the life of St. Mary of Egypt. It reminds us of the joy of repentance, the fact that whatever we have done, however full of despair or shame we may be, God is waiting to welcome and comfort us.

There is no greater beauty than this one of an aged, naked women walking in the desert alone for over 40 years filled with the grace of God.

Faith born from incarceration is usually a deep one. It is a faith found in despair and down on your knees, right where God wants you.

The late Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and before that, aide to Richard Nixon, was one such person. He was introduced to Christianity by a friend who gave him a copy of CS Lewis’s "Mere Christianity" as his arrest was imminent. As he did his time for his part in the Watergate scandal, his belief in God grew into an unshakeable faith. Cultivated in his prison cell, he spent the rest of his life spreading the word to others, inside and outside the bars.

A recent article in Salvo magazine, spoke of Colson’s belief that faith needed to be “fermented” and that the best way to spread our faith was to live it and let others see it in our lives.

The article contrasted this with what our current church culture seems to do, a sort of “carbonation” hoping that a quick shot of excitement will boost someone into a deep and lasting faith. It’s what I call the "Six Flags over Jesus" phenomenon.

A better method is perhaps that of William Wilberforce who with his contemporaries worked for decades to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire. His work succeeded although he didn't live to see its success.

Live your faith deeply and patiently. Truly believe, we are not of this world when Christ lives in us.

Another Friday on fire – a shooting at an Indianapolis Fed Ex ground facility, a young man killed in a confrontation with Chicago Police, the Derek Chauvin/George Floyd trial winding down, more protests and violence in our cities, a vaccine pulled for potential side effects, pulling our troops out of Afghanistan (no doubt for the Taliban to soon take over).

In the midst of all of this, keeping our cool, thinking straight, making rational decisions can be hard. Staying on the track of following God and treating others as created by God even harder!

A few suggestions:

• Make time during your day to be still and pray.
• Read the Psalms.
• Force yourself to have a face-to-face conversation every day.
• Do not look at the news!
• Get outside daily with no technology and just walk.

A fire will burn until it runs out of heat, oxygen, or fuel. Don’t allow yourself to be the fuel for all the fires of our tragic days. Get out of the way, start a new path, set in motion a holy fire and give it the fuel to burn!

I just finished a Business Insider article on the impact of Covid on working at home. One takeaway, most larger companies, especially big tech companies, benefited greatly from it. Workers are more productive, they take less time off, and it saves the company money.

Before Covid the at-home work force was about 8%. The author predicts it will stabilize now at about triple that, say 22% or so, then continue to rise.

The biggest consequence of this according to the article, and not surprising given the wokeness of the Stanford based article, was that working moms would be more likely to want to work at home than men, but we couldn’t let this happen less disparities arise from the men who are more likely to go to the office and network. Their solution, we mandate equality and the amount of time worked from home. More and more control over people’s lives.

What the article didn’t address, and what is more interesting to me, is how this foreshadows where we are going as a society. Are we really going home? Or are we becoming more isolated and easier to control? Slowly, we are being turned into fuel for the Matrix, in our case, the Matrix of politicians and big business. We are their fuel, and their control over our lives is the matrix. Isolation makes us much easier to divide, conquer, and feed off of.

We think we know a lot.  But in reality, more and more of us know a little bit about many things that usually amounts to a lot of nothing.

We are fooled into thinking massive amounts of information means massive amounts of knowledge. It seems to me, it just increases the opportunities for people with real knowledge to fool those who think they are smart.

It is better to dig deep, and know the things well that lead to a better life.

I had a conversation recently and many assumptions had been made about the person in question we were discussing, and yet, no one making those assumptions had spoken with the individual to confirm what we were talking about. It was a bunch of gibberish.

This past weekend, I spent time with my mom and we talked about her childhood where most, if not all, of their food came from the homestead. And that was normal. Gardens, canning, chickens, cattle, smoke houses, etc., imagine the amount of practical knowledge to live like that!

In the spirit of digging deeper, there might not be better advice on communicating that James 1:9: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;"

Or in our data age – quick to research, slow to form an opinion, slow to judge others opinions. And don't be afraid to dig and live deeply.

Years ago I had the joy to stand where the Beatitudes were delivered. It was a hillside with amazing acoustics. How amazing to imagine being one of those listening to Christ that day. Then I had a jarring thought, "what if I actually followed them? Do I really try to live this way, or do I do my best to avoid living this way?"

Traveling the last couple weeks to Nevada and Texas, the reaction of people wearing masks and not-wearing masks seemed to shadow a dystopia. Nowhere more so than in airports.

During the summer, if you’d walk around an airport without a mask you'd get looks like, “Do you want to kill someone? How rude and insincere can you be?”

Now, whether in Texas where the mask mandate was dropped, or in Nevada or North Carolina where it still exists, there is basically no reaction. You could walk by someone wearing 3 masks and they’d look at an uncovered face with no concern.

Currently, it seems, for most people who regularly wear masks, it’s done, because well, that is what you do. Not out of fear or any real concern that not doing so is going to get people killed.

Which leads to the question, what else can we be talked into? And forced to obey? This might sound alarmist until you look at things like the growth of the surveillance state.

Which leads to a Wired article I just read about our surveillance society. An unparalleled ability to monitor people and make sure they are doing what they are supposed to. Security cameras, license plate readers, smartphone trackers, drones, not to mention every move on the internet and our computers, and soon they will be coordinated into one super system of surveillance.

As we’ve been talking about the last few podcasts, this is the opposite of being a little wild as were created. This is being tended into an electronic life-stock fence. It will continue to influence our lives and behavior, and will continue to divide.

Traveling this past week was I able to watch the Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Revenant for the first time. The story of frontiersman surviving a bear attack to exact revenge on the man who murders his son, it is truly epic. It is one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. While obviously Hollywoodized, it is based on the true story of Hugh Glass.

I couldn’t help but think about a podcast I did a few weeks ago on Henry David Thoreau’s essay “The Wild”. At the core of our nature, we are wild.

As Glass struggles to heal and survive abandoned in the wilderness after the bear attack, the screen jumps with life. Crawling through the dirt, escaping to snow caves, eating raw meat, fighting the French, the English, and Indians, he body surfs rapids and ultimately triumphs in a fierce and brutal showdown with his enemy. The entire time, life bursts from the action. Life, in its rawest sense.

Then I left that world of brutal truth as we arrived at the airport, and I was bombarded with the sniveling gossip and woke news of modern media and TV. If we ever descend into the wilderness for even a short term, watching the fragile egos of modern society will be quite a sight. And no doubt, savage, as the selfish consumers of matrix technology turn on themselves and others.

This past weekend, after the crew who filmed my wife and I’s interview on our love story were finished, they commented, "All your kids seem so happy. We’ve never seen that before." I credit wildness! As hard as it may be, and as much as it seems like wrestling against forces of nature at times, we’ve allowed them to explore, to wander, to dream, to learn from falls and scrapes, to see the truth in trees, and streams, and creation.

Don’t be afraid to be a little dangerous, maybe a bit reckless. Definitely get dirty. Enter the forest with nothing and feel what it is like to survive. You may never feel more alive.

The arbitrary and self-serving nature of two-sided national politics is a cancer that infects truth. There are not two sides to every issue. Politicians tell you what they need to say to get you to vote for them, then they follow the money.

If we continue to allow it to happen, we might as well replace the Liberty Bell with the lobbyist's briefcase full of cash. It would be a fitting monument to the current character of national politics.

Bart Ehrman is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although he is a go-to academic on Christianity, he is now an agnostic atheist.

A so-called expert on Christianity, he said the following in a Los Angeles Times Easter article:

“Billions of Christians around the world believe that on Easter, Jesus was raised from the dead and taken up to heaven to live with God. They also believe that when they die, their own souls will go to heaven. The great irony is that this is not at all what Jesus himself believed.

Jesus did not think a person’s soul would live on after death, either to experience bliss in the presence of God above or to be tormented in the fires of hell below. As a Jew of the 1st century, Jesus did not think the soul went anywhere after death. It simply ceased to exist with the body.”

Yet, what does the Bible record right before Jesus dies:

As written in Luke Chapter 23: 32-43:

"Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Bart Ehrman is a pure deceiver.

You should listen to my wife. She  makes miracles happen.

What a Saturday my wife and I had! We were interviewed for a documentary on Love Stories. With a little luck, it looks like it will be on Netflix!

One thing that came out during our interview, and afterwords talking about it, was that one of the primary mechanisms of long-lasting love is communication. It is the thing that allows the lustful love of youth to mature into a love where separate identities are intertwined and improved. A great relationship is truly jet fuel for life.

Communication is work. To call love a "journey of communication" is no cliché. It is easy to get completely overwhelmed by the day-to-day struggles and responsibilities of life that real deep conversation gets lost. And once it is lost, it is hard to get back.

But, to be married over 22 years and get lost in a conversation lying in bed is true bliss. You close your eyes and you and your love are ageless. Dreams can’t be imagined without the other. How precious are these moments. They happen because you battle through the dark moments, the tough times. As my wife says, “there is only way out of a tough child birth, birthing that baby. And there is only way out of a marriage, together. That has to be your level of commitment.”

If you are committed to your love, make conversation and time for each other a priority. Don’t be afraid to argue, be quick to forgive, and even quicker to listen.

In my leadership classes I begin by discussing what I think is the most important trait of leadership: humility. I don’t mean a personality style, I mean the ability to take responsibility for the good and bad, and to be honest about it. It means that your first move is never pointing fingers, it's always looking in the mirror.

In many ways, that is the first step to being a Christian, taking responsibility. As CS Lewis said in “God in the Dock”

“The greatest barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin... The early Christian preachers could assume in their hearers, whether Jews, Metuentes, or Pagans, a sense of guilt. (That this was common among Pagans is shown by the fact that both Epicureanism and the mystery religions both claimed, though in different ways, to assuage it.) Thus the Christian message was in those days unmistakably the Evangelium, the Good News. It promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy."

"The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”

In a world where many people seem to make a living looking for excuses for their circumstances, the reality of one’s condition can be an elusive quarry. It can become a sort of tyranny.

As Lewis goes on to say in "God in the Dock":

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

It satiates our ego to put God and others in the dock. Judgment is so easy. But the hard thing, the Christian thing, the human thing, is putting ourselves in the Dock. That is where the road to truth begins.

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."

Thomas Merton

"I love you not as something private and personal, which is my own, but as something universal and worthy of love which I have found."

Henry David Thoreau

Flying out to Las Vegas I listened to Scott Adams' Audio Book, Loserthink.

It is about learning the skill of thinking, and it calls those that violate the rules - both smart and dumb people - perpetrators of Loserthink.

One rule stood out, don’t think you can read people’s minds. Because you can’t. Mind reading leads to ugly judgments or worse.

In my class here in Vegas, an officer told a story of his own Loserthink that he overcame. As a young school teacher, he told his students to bring in a note from parents that they had completed their homework. One boy didn't do this too many days in a row, and he tore into him. Eventually though, he found out this boy was living without this parents, and taking care of his young 8-year old brother.

As we are reminded in Matthew: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

One reason this is important to remember, you can’t read minds. You don’t have good evidence. Before you judge, listen, ask questions, have a conversation. Otherwise, the only thing your judgement is damning of is you.

It’s not often you get to experience such a rare expression of your church’s faith. Yesterday, my family and others from our church community had the opportunity to visit the Kursk Root Icon at a small orthodox church, St. George, in Michigan City, IN, consecrated over 100 years ago by Saint Rapheal of Brooklyn. The church itself is filled with relics from St. Paul to St. Seraphim, Mary of Egypt and Joachim and Anna.

On September 8, 1259, a hunter noticed the icon lying on a root face downwards to the ground. The hunter lifted it and saw that the image of the icon was similar to the Novgorod "Znamenie" Icon of the Mother of God. Just as the hunter lifted up the holy icon from the earth, a strong spring of pure water surged up at that place where the icon rested.

With the help of friends the hunter rebuilt an old small chapel and placed the newly-found icon in it. When news of this spread, many came from Rylsk to this old chapel to venerate the icon and pray about their sorrows and needs. There the Mother of God healed all who came to her icon.

And yesterday, this amazing relic of our church history was with us in Indiana.

There are miraculous things all around us if we will only open our eyes and reveal our hearts.

The practice jerseys for the basketball program I coach, The Kash Eagles, is emblazoned with a screaming eagle with blood dripping from its talons and the phrase, “Get Some!”

Get some! A little wild, a little untamed. The phrase gets smiles and energy from the boys.

In his journal, Thoreau said the following:

"Whatever has not come under the sway of man is wild. In this sense original and independent men are wild—not tamed and broken by society.—Journal, 3 September 1851"

Life is too short to be completely tame. Looking for opportunities to be original and independent are good, an aimless walk in the woods is good.

One of my favorite people from the bible is John the Baptist. A desert dweller, wild, he was the one picked to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

Wild! I love it! Now go get some!

Henry David Thoreau in his lecture Walking or The Wild said:

“All good things are wild and free. 

I rejoice that horses and steers have to be broken before they can be made the slaves of men, and that men themselves have some wild oat still left to sow before they become submissive members of society.

Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man….”

Thoreau was on to something!

From a Today article: Modern science has studied walking and found that “There are many reasons to walk for exercise,” says Ann Green, M.S., past heptathlon world athlete, yoga teacher and fitness studio owner. “Walking improves fitness, cardiac health, alleviates depression and fatigue, improves mood, creates less stress on joints and reduces pain, can prevent weight gain, reduce risk for cancer and chronic disease, improve endurance, circulation, and posture, and the list goes on…”

One Stanford University study found that walking increased creative output by an average of 60 percent. Researchers labelled this type of creativity “divergent thinking,” which they define as a thought process used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. According to the study, “walking opens up the free flow of ideas, and it is a simple and robust solution to the goals of increasing creativity and increasing physical activity.”

Psychologists studying how exercise relieves anxiety and depression also suggest that a 10-minute walk may be just as good as a 45-minute workout when it comes to relieving the symptoms of anxiety and boosting mood.

Lots of benefits! But I think the best reason goes back to Thoreau. We all were born to be a little wild and free. Some more than others! Now go get you some walking!

An incredible amount of wisdom caring and listening to those at the end of their lives.

"Sitting at the bedside of dying patients, Tenzin Kiyosaki sees every day how regrets can haunt people at the end of life.

The former Buddhist nun works as an interfaith hospice chaplain for Torrance Memorial Medical Center in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, tending to the spiritual and emotional needs of people who have less than six months to live, and listening to their concerns.

When her brother, “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki, asked her what the dying talk about, she mentioned some of the common concerns she heard over and over. Kiyosaki shares them in her new book, “The Three Regrets: Inspirational Stories and Practical Advice for Love and Forgiveness at Life's End.”"

From Today News

I did not live my dreams.

I did not share my love.

I did not forgive.

Kiyosaki writes, citing a quote from Buddha: “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else — you are the one who gets burned.”

John of Kronstadt, a Russian priest who lived in the 1800s, said the following:

"The purer the heart is, the larger it is, and the more able it is to find room within it for a greater number of beloved ones; whilst the more sinful it is, the more contracted it becomes, and the smaller number of beloved can it find room for, because it is limited by self-love, and that love is a false one. We love ourselves in objects unworthy of the immortal soul – in silver and gold, in adultery, in drunkenness, and such like."

When I’m at my worse, that is exactly how I feel. Like I don’t have room for anything except for my own worries and passions. What a lonely place to be. If we can find room to love, the room gets bigger and we are not alone.

I’ve learned this from our large family. There has never been any sense of “there isn’t enough love to go around” it just seems to get bigger. There is always enough room for loving each other.

Our week in Springfield, MO for Homeschool Basketball Nationals has ended. As always, it wrung every bit out of us, the glorious and the heartbreaking. While ready for the season to be over, we can't wait for next year.

Lessons this week, as always, come from the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. We learn that life is journey of things we can control and things we can’t.

Do we grow from it, or do we fail to learn from these lessons?

Do the failures make us smarter and stronger, do we reflect on the victories and how we achieved them?

As I try to keep my eyes open to change and for my own opportunities to learn from mistakes, I always seem to go back to the the vision of life I had as kid. The world looked so big through the small lenses of a boy growing up in rural Indiana. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like when I was older, wiser, and richer. But for most people, the world only seems to get smaller. Why? They never learn to embrace the knowledge losses can bring us.

This week we’ve been talking about forgiveness, bravery, and doing the right thing.

Someone close to me just relayed, “I was so mad, I went to church to get over it. But it took effort.”

They were mad and overwhelmed and knew it was not a good place to be. But they went to church in the middle of the week, and it took effort.

"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to."

Overcoming anger, finding the heart to forgive, is a narrow way. It is a door that truly few will enter. But to live, you must enter. The biggest lock on the door is our own ego.

You’ve heard Proverbs 16:8 -  "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." But do we live it?

Ego and pride, not forgiving or being overwhelmed by anger, lead to destruction. Going through the narrow door, even if it means falling to the floor and crawling, leads to life.

We’ve been talking about forgiveness, and forgiveness can be scary. And very often, just doing the right thing is scary.

Let me tell you a story today about doing the right thing, even when you know just how much danger you are putting yourself in.

"Sergeant First Class, Jerry M. "Mad Dog" Shriver was a legendary Green Beret. He was a platoon leader with Command and Control South, MACV-SOG.  A joint service high command unconventional warfare task force engaged in highly classified operations throughout Southeast Asia. The teams performed deep penetration missions of strategic reconnaissance and interdiction which were called, depending on the time frame, "Shining Brass" or "Prairie Fire" missions.

On the morning of April 24, 1969, Shriver's hatchet platoon was air assaulted into Cambodia by four helicopters. Upon departing the helicopter, the team had begun moving toward its initial target point when it came under heavy volumes of enemy fire from several machine gun bunkers and entrenched enemy positions estimated to be at least a company-sized element.

Shriver was last seen by the company commander, Capt. Paul D. Cahill, as Shriver was moving against the machine gun bunkers and entering a tree line on the southwest edge of the LZ with a trusted Montagnard striker. Capt.Cahill and Sgt. Ernest C. Jamison, the platoon medical aidman, took cover in a bomb crater. Cahill continued radio contact with Shriver for four hours until his transmission was broken and Shriver was not heard from again. It was known that Shriver had been wounded 3 or 4 times. An enemy soldier was later seen picking up a weapon which appeared to be the same type carried by Shriver.

Shriver was never seen or heard from again. He was listed as missing in action. No trace of SFC was ever found." From Vietnam War Stories

Men and women like Sergeant First Class Shriver inspire me to overcome my fears. To face my demons and battle them. To walk into the darkness because it’s the right thing to do, knowing, that in this life, you are not always rewarded for doing the right thing.

May Sergeant First Class, Jerry M. "Mad Dog" Shriver memory be eternal. May you face your fears, find forgiveness in your heart, and live your life moving forward.

Yesterday, we talked about forgiveness and its power to free us, and its necessity for following closer to God.

Now, have you forgiven someone yet? Does your heart have any dark corners?

And it’s not just the good book folks.

Consider the following from Harvard Health:

"Forgiving a person who has wronged you is never easy, but dwelling on those events and reliving them over and over can fill your mind with negative thoughts and suppressed anger," says Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, co-director of the Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "Yet, when you learn to forgive, you are no longer trapped by the past actions of others and can finally feel free."

There are two sides to forgiveness: decisional and emotional. Decisional forgiveness involves a conscious choice to replace ill will with good will. "You no longer wish bad things to happen to that individual," says Dr. VanderWeele. "This is often quicker and easier to accomplish."

For emotional forgiveness, you move away from those negative feelings and no longer dwell on the wrongdoing. "Emotional forgiveness is much harder and takes longer, as it's common for those feelings to return on a regular basis," says Dr. VanderWeele. "This often happens when you think about the offender, or something triggers the memory, or you still suffer from the adverse consequences of the action."

Practicing forgiveness can have powerful health benefits. Observational studies, and even some randomized trials, suggest that forgiveness is associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and hostility; reduced substance abuse; higher self-esteem; and greater life satisfaction. Yet, forgiving people is not always easy.

How do forgive people you don’t think you can? The good book has some advice. Pray.

Mark 11:25

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Yesterday, we celebrated Forgiveness Sunday. It is the last Sunday before my Orthodox Church begins celebrating Lent and we enter our long fast.

The highlight is forgiveness vespers where we circle around the church asking forgiveness of each of other as we remind ourselves what God and Christ has done for us.

We ask: "Forgive me a sinner."

And then the reply: "God forgives, forgive me."

It is a powerful service. It is people you see every week all year coming to a deeper communion with each other as we ask forgiveness, and a time for family to heal and rejuvenate.

We go through our year, not always being our best. Coveting others, anger at others, selfishness. God forgives, but do we forgive each other?

Anger and vengeance distort.

We are reminded this day, from Matthew 18:21-22:

"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.' "

We want the spirit of God to enter our hearts, we want to follow a higher path. Don’t let that be distorted by a lack of forgiveness. Forgive, and forgive freely.

Here is an exercise. If you are single, write down where you want to be in 5 years? If you have a family, sit down with them and ask the same thing.

Next create a process to make it happen. Restructure your life if you need to. Plant seeds that will blossom later.

Coming out of Covid and with the flowers of spring right around the corner, get yourself focused on blooming, on living. Driving away for the training I was providing in beautiful Gatlinburg, TN I was lifted up. Live!

It is so easy get hung up on day-to-day tasks. The seasons of our life can seem to drone on as nothing but gray.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" Ecclesiastes 3:1

This reminds us, each day is an opportunity for renewal and growth. A chance to plant a seed and move forward.

Enjoy the weather, enjoy a country that is waking up after the last year, and use that energy to plant some seeds and spend a little time dreaming.

Nestled in the mountains of Tennessee, I riff on Psalm 1. Shall we be blessed, or shall we stand in judgment with the wicked?

If we delight in God, how can we ever falter?

Sometimes, doing the right thing means you have no choice but to step out into the unknown. On a long road trip this week, I was reminded of the many miles on the road that began my journey of speaking and teaching. I didn't know it at the time, but everything I do today was learned on those long and often lonely journeys, many years ago, stepping out to help veterans because something inside told me I had no other choice.

In John F Kennedy’s inaugural address he stated unequivocally:

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,”

Said by a war hero, to a nation of war heroes and the families of war heroes. A nation who had survived the depression, World War II, the Korean War, and were ready to move forward. But he and they knew how that was done, not by “government” but my people. Individuals willing to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

He didn't call us to cry out, “What are you going to do for me government?” Rather, he called us to our better angels, our values of service and heroism that bring out the best of us.

What would he say about the state of our country today. So many people screaming “SAVE ME!” The timid looking to be saved, crying out for a shepherd. One might say, an attitude that is the opposite of the American spirit.

How do we react? We react by echoing Kennedy and our brave forefathers and mothers - service, sacrifice, standing for what is good and right willing to pay any price.

Over the weekend we enjoyed a family movie, it was “Heaven Is Real” a 2014 film written and directed by Randall Wallace (writer of Braveheart) and based on Pastor Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent's 2010 book of the same name. The film stars Greg Kinnear.

I had always avoided the movie because I assumed it would be another cheesy Christian movie, and there had been questions over the validity of the young boy’s claims. Four-year old Colton Burpo claims to visit heaven during surgery for a burst appendix.

It was surprisingly well done, and did a great job of portraying the dad’s and others skepticism at the boy's claims.

It left me wondering, why don’t we see more movies like this? True family movies that reflect what most of America is, Christians, who live their faith. In a 2019 Pew Survey, 65% of American identify as Christians. Yet, where are they represented in the movies, in television, and in the news and media?

You can never forget, the people creating the content you consume not only don’t value what you believe, they want you to believe something else. They want your kids to believe something else.

I bring this up because sometimes it’s easy to think you're crazy when you hear messages that contradict what you believe and you have moments you go, maybe they are right.

As the movie ended I was reminded of a Bible verse learned long ago:

Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…."

Stand up for what you believe, be heard, know you are not alone. In fact, you are in the majority, by a lot.

I was listening to a radio show this morning and one of the guests said, “Why should I have to make the decision that family is more important than my career?”

The host understood the implications of that and followed with: “I think we can all agree family should be the most important thing in all our lives.”

She acted like he hadn't spoken. She had been raised in a family where career and school were more important than family and now she was a single-mom who wanted success in a very competitive career field, no matter what it meant to life at home.

They both became uncomfortable, and it was uncomfortable to listen to.

But it brought up an even bigger, broader point. What do we value, and how do we judge ourselves?

Is it by how much money we make? Our job title or job satisfaction? Is it all “me” centered?

Or is it in our faith, our family, our friends, our community?

There is a disconnect that has evolved over the last 70 years, really since WWII, where progress has led to fractured families and communities, meism, and a breakdown of things that matter.

This was a women who is smart and thoughtful. But “satisfaction” to her was a job that “kicks butt”. And it’s not just a women thing, it’s a people thing, a man thing. Is our value only in our titles and our bank account? If so, what does that mean and what will be the consequences?

My wife is re-reading the book “Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica” for the 3rd time. It is inspiring to watch her work through it again.

The book is a testimony to learning to live in the spirit, free of worldly influence. It is an aspirational work for our spiritual journey as we draw closer to God. It also offers a clear picture of why we suffer and cannot find peace.

More than a few passages from the book have impacted me over the years since reading it, but two stand out, one on humility and the other on the type of life we will choose to live:

“Until you have suffered much in your heart, you cannot learn humility.”

“Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek, and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts and can have neither peace nor tranquility.”

Have you suffered? Did it cause despair, or did it lead you to humility?

What draws your attention? Worldly, temporal things, or peaceful, kind, important things?

We all will suffer, and we all will have plenty of distractions put in front of us. How will we respond? What will we focus our thoughts, and ultimately our actions upon?

Yesterday, we talked a little bit about mass incarceration. While empathetic to those neglected and abused by the legal system, most did the crime. I do not want liars, thieves, and violent criminals in my family.

On the other hand, many of my heroes were rule breakers: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Daniel Boone, etc. If they saw injustice or things they believed were wrong, well, they wouldn’t always follow the rules.

What to do with my children, or myself? How do we navigate injustice?

Here is what Henry David Thoreau had to say about it:

“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?” – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth–certainly the machine will wear out… but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” – Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

A March 24, 2020 report on Mass Incarceration in the United States found the following:

"The American criminal justice system holds almost 2.3 million people in 1,833 state prisons, 110 federal prisons, 1,772 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,134 local jails, 218 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian Country jails as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.

Every year, over 600,000 people enter prison gates, but people go to jail 10.6 million times each year.  Jail churn is particularly high because most people in jails have not been convicted."

Worldwide, the US has 21% of the World’s prisoners, but only about 4.4 percent of the world’s population. How should we consider those who are incarcerated in our midst?

ISAIAH 61:1-3

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor."

And then in MATTHEW 25:34-40 we are reminded how we are to care for others, and the importance of remembering who they represent:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'"

The horrendous way we engage "the least of us" stains every part of our world. It is another evil we are complicit in that we try hard to hide our eyes from. Just like the sexualization and commercialization of our culture that everyone contributes to, church goers and non-church goers alike, the fact we haven’t done more to shed a light on our immense prison culture and its consequences on our entire society is shameful.

I had a great conversation this weekend with a young friend about his work on a suicide hotline. One self-depreciating, but powerful thing he said, “all we can do is talk. But it helps.”

It sure does. So many people don’t have meaningful conversations. They don’t feel heard or affirmed. It is lonely.

Our talk reminded me of my Uncle who once told me, “people want to be known.”

Think about it, who really knows you deeply? Who understands those thoughts you have that are guarded behind private eyes?

Psalm 19: 12-13 "But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.

Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.

Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression."

Freedom of soul and spirit requires being known. If no one truly knows you, there will always be a part of you that feels like it is living in secret. That is where the dark things develop.

You start with God, and if you are lucky, (and it’s worth the risk,) you have one or two others in your life who truly know you.

So much noise. Social media, news, radio, politicians, everywhere. Yet, I'm glad we live in a country, for now, where you are allowed to make noise. But there is a vicious rush to shut up people you don’t like, you don’t agree with.

As I like to do on issues such as this, I usually begin by going to our foundations. In this case, the First Amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The following from a young patriot is even more prophetic!

“In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech; a thing terrible to publick traytors.”

This was written by Benjamin Franklin at the age of 16! In 1722!

And then you see in Thomas Jefferson give a poignant warning. Beware of monopolies that can control. (See Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.)

“I will now add what I do not like. First, the omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly, and without the aid of sophism, for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury, in all matters of fact triable by the law of the land, and not by the laws of nations.”

Thomas Jefferson in a letter to James Madison, 1787

And one more from the great Benjamin Franklin:

“If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.”

Following the tragic Tiger Woods' accident and the impact it and other traumatic episodes in his life must have had on his psyche, made me think about us all.

Life is terribly temporal, which makes is so important to be grounded on the right things. That car on the side of the road could be us.

Focusing on the things that matter should be your mantra. Don't let too many days pass without taking a minute to reflect and recount how you are spending your time, who is getting your attention.

We are only here once. Every moment matters.

A couple of odd encounters with fearful hipsters took me back to my twelfth birthday. I was given my great-grandfather's double-barrel shotgun and allowed to wander the fields looking for something to shoot.

It was glorious, yet something I imagine the two young hipsters I met would be appalled by.

If you aren't getting a little dirty and a little stupid sometimes, you aren't living.

Yesterday we talked about Bob Dylan’s song, Every Grain of Sand. A beautiful testimony to how our pain and vulnerability might be the things that help us realize God is everywhere, in Every Grain of Sand.

This weekend reminded me of a similar concept, in our busy world slow down or you might miss the most important things of life.

My homeschool varsity boys basketball team was in our state Final 4. The first quarter went well, then we stopped doing the little things. Most importantly, we didn’t stop to look and anticipate. We reacted. I teach the kids to catch the ball and take a second to face the basket and look around. Put your head down and start dribbling to soon you miss opportunity and you head into trouble.

But isn’t that life sometimes? Put your head down and move too quickly, you miss things.

We need to time to contemplate, to breathe, to examine what is going on around us and make good decisions.

Matthew 6:6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you."

Mark 1:35 "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there."

And we don’t just need to find the time to stop, look, and listen for prayer. We need to do it for so many of the little things in life that are far more important than their size: a moment to laugh with a friend or loved one, time to read or listen to a favorite song, time to hug and hold the ones your love without a hurry to end the embrace.

Don’t rush, you’ll miss the little the things that often matter most.

You never know where you’ll find some grace filled truth. I found some last week in a Bob Dylan song that I had somehow overlooked from his 1981 album, Shot of Love.

Paul Williams said about the song: 'The song is about the moments in which we accept our pain and vulnerability and bow down (and are lifted up by) the will of God'.

There might not be more poignant words ever written in pop music. Enjoy these lyrics as we discuss on today's The Pilgrim's Odyssey.

"In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need

When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed

There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,

Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.

Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake,

Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break.

In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand

In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.

Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,

Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.

The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way

To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.

I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame

And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.

Then onward in my journey I come to understand

That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.

I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night

In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintry light,

In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,

In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.