“The first duty of love is to listen.” Paul Tillich I spend a good part of my day listening to people. When someone wants to discover their calling, it requires them to thoughtfully recount their life story. And I am present to bear witness to their memories. It is exhausting to listen. And it is exhilarating. Since launching Destinyworks, I have had the privilege of listening to some of the most inspiring, heartbreaking and hair-raising...Continue reading...
A picture is worth a thousand words. All the theory about calling and destiny makes so much more sense when you see it in a picture. So, here you have one. A picture of a young woman, Cassie Anderson, who is taking the leap into her destiny! – Dave Rodriguez ” A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?” Proverbs 20:24 Four years ago, I stepped full time...Continue reading...
This morning I was thinking about death. No, I’m not ill, nor are any of my family. But the topic has certainly been front of mind lately. There’s the daily tally of COVID deaths I see every morning in the New York Times. The memorial service I’m conducting this weekend for a young lady whose life ended so tragically. The news of two horrific mass shootings recently in Georgia and Colorado. Finally, there’s this article...Continue reading...
I usually enjoy retrospectives – looking back to capture the essence of a season we’ve enjoyed or endured. Not this one, though. I have little interest in revisiting the heartbreaking images of mobile morgues, sobbing healthcare workers, violent US Capitol terrorists, and murdered defenseless black US citizens. Our emotional guardrails have been severely damaged, and we’ve lost our minds, more or less, in these past twelve months. Can we get them back? Thankfully the vaccine...Continue reading...
Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash It’s a time of resolutions. We are one year removed from the fateful beginning of The Year of the Pandemic in America. No more needs to be said about this year of our discontent. Thankfully there are signs of hope. The third deadly wave seems to be waning and vaccinations are taking hold. Maybe, just maybe, an end is in sight. Along with our changing fortunes come aspirations and...Continue reading...
A few weeks ago I was deciding on a book of the Bible I wanted to read in my time of daily reflection. I found the perfect part of the Bible to fit my mood, the book of Ecclesiastes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with that particular piece of scripture, let me summarize it with a phrase that recurs throughout, “Everything is meaningless.” Reading this poetry is the closest thing to doom scrolling...Continue reading...
A commonly held belief these days is that post-pandemic we will likely not get back to normal. Things will have been so fundamentally altered that relationships, careers, lifestyles, hopes and dreams will be, at least, modified. I wrote about this topic a number of months ago (which feels more like years ago). This season is no blip on our radars – it has been a game changer. Speaking for myself, I am in a huge...Continue reading...
I would hide when I heard him coming. My office was at the foot of the stairs down in the basement of the building in which I worked. I knew my boss’s footfall. So, when I heard him descending the stairs, I would turn off the light in my office, lock the door and cower. This man scared me. In the relatively short period of time in which I worked under him, he had effectively...Continue reading...
Photo by Paolo Bendandi on Unsplash Think about your grandparents. What images enter your mind? What feelings come over you? I imagine those feelings might run the gamut of emotions. My PapPap (Dad’s father) died when I was 3, but my earliest memory of any kind was fishing with him on the bank of the Allegheny River. He is more mythic in my mind than anything. My Nana, PapPap’s wife, instilled in me my love...Continue reading...
