As Pastor Tommy Nelson explains, injustice in our world seems out of control. Do you ever wonder what kind of God could sit back and watch criminals freed on technicalities and the innocent sentenced to a death penalty?  Do you ever question how the King of the Universe could withhold a baby from a loving Christian couple while hormonally charged teenagers get pregnant after a one-night stand? But is instant justice the answer?  Do we truly want God to mete out judgment after every moral infraction? After all, what happens when we slip up? Solomon explains that a life well lived is ..read more

Several things came together for this particular post.  First, when I completed my review of Linda Hill and Kent Lineback’s Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader on the first year anniversary of my job with Space Center Houston, I reflected on the many great bosses I’ve had over the course of my career. Second, since the month of March is designated Women’s History Month, we celebrate the courageous women who have helped our Nation build a fairer, more just society. As this year’s Presidential proclamation puts it, “Throughout history, the vision and achievements ..read more

A consistent—and perhaps reasonable—question that is commonly asked is this: “Why do bad things happen to me when I love God and am trying to do the right thing?”  In the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon shows that no matter how you slice it, the sovereignty of God lies behind everything that happens.   The existence of evil is one of the great philosophical problems of all time: How did evil come into existence from an all-holy God?  Pastor Tommy Nelson explains that Solomon’s four themes in this chapter are as follows: God is wise; God is mysterious; enjoy today; a ..read more

On February 27, 2023, I started a new role as Vice President of Human Resources for Space Center Houston—following a 30-year Federal career in Human Resources, mostly with NASA.  In honor of my first anniversary, I thought it was appropriate to summarize Linda Hill and Kent Lineback’s Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader. If you were a high performer in your work before becoming a manager, you may find the journey into management particularly difficult. Because of previous success, stars are understandably reluctant to give up the attitudes and practices they thi ..read more

This has been quite a month. On January 25th, Jennifer and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary; and we celebrated her birthday just last week.  Jennifer is an extraordinary woman (see my previous posts on “Jennifer: A Leader After God’s Heart”; 4 Leadership Jewels from my wife, Jennifer; and my family life). So, it’s appropriate to turn our focus to twelve extraordinary women of the Bible, and what God wants us to learn from them. All these women ultimately became extraordinary not because of any natural qualities of their own, but because the one true God whom they worshiped is gr ..read more

In the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon pursues intellectualism.  In this second chapter, he moves to hedonism and on to materialism.  Pastor Tommy Nelson argues that this is the same pattern followed by many college students.  In their Freshman year, they pursue intellectualism.  As Sophomores, hedonism.  Then, as juniors, Materialism.  Hopefully, they, too, learn that none of these pursuits will lead to “a life well lived” (the title of Nelson’s book on Ecclesiastes). According to Hebrew scholar Walt Kaiser, the term “better” should not be in Ecclesiastes ..read more

In 1987, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner were scheduled to present about leadership at a two-day conference following Tom Peters—a leading management guru at the time. Academics at Santa Clara University, Kouzes and Posner decided to focus on individual leadership skills and the challenges that take place to “make extraordinary things happen.” Following the presentation, they published The Leadership Challenge—a blockbuster business book that has sold over two million copies. On the 25th anniversary of its publication, they released the fifth edition of the book. In 2010, Kouzes and Posner publis ..read more

As we consider The Question of the Ages this month, Whitney T. Kuniholm—President of Scripture Union/USA and former executive vice president of Prison Fellowship Ministries—pushes us to consider The Essential Question: How You Can Make a Difference for God. Most people want to make a positive impact with their lives—through education, career, family, service to the community or through accomplishing some notable goal or achievement. Human beings seem to have a built-in longing to make their lives count for something more. The philosopher Plato reportedly described the human as “a being in sea ..read more

As noted in The Question of the Ages (link to blog post), Solomon’s quest for meaning in life starts with intellectualism.  This reminded me of John Maxwell’s book How Successful People Think.  I received this book from fellow John Maxwell Team member Randy Stroman in August 2014 when I attended the John Maxwell certification event in Orlando. As John Maxwell puts it, “A person who knows how may always have a job, but the person who knows why will always be his boss.”  Consider these six steps to become a better thinker: Expose yourself to good input. Read books, review t ..read more

In wrapping up this year’s study of the Spiritual Disciplines, the last one focused on the corporate discipline of Celebration.  It’s a good reminder to pause and celebrate—especially as we close out another year. 2023 was full of significant changes and new experiences for me personally and professionally, and we had a lot of family fun along the way! Stay tuned to the end of this post, where participating family members reflect on their Word for 2023 and how it impacted their journey this year. Click here for my 2023 Year in Review The post 2023: The Year in Review appeared first on Ou ..read more