I have dozens of passports, and I need to renew them constantly. No, I’m not James Bond or Jason Bourne. I don’t fly from country to country using alternative identities to evade the NSA, CIA, or MI6. I just love people. I enjoy meeting, understanding, encouraging and helping them. And for that I need a
Becky looked forward to her wedding with a mixture of excitement and sadness. Mark was the man of her dreams, and she was thrilled about becoming his wife. But there was another man she had thought about many times over the years, and his memory brought mostly pain (all names have been changed). Becky’s father,
Here is a question I am often asked during RW seminars: “My four-year old daughter has a habit of lying to us about her sinful behavior. For example, if we find her standing near a wall covered with crayon marks, and she is still holding crayons in her hand, she will still deny that she
There are three things you and I were never designed to experience: illness, death and rejection. That is why these experiences feel so foreign and hurt so much: they are utterly contrary to what we were made for. When God created the world, everything in it was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Illness, physical death and
A young Christian couple came to my office just before Easter one year and asked me to mediate the legal issues of their divorce. The wife had been unfaithful, and their relationship had been shattered. They had argued, excused and blamed for a couple of weeks and finally given up hope that they could ever
How would you feel if God enabled you to use simple relational skills you learned at church to solve a million dollar problem for your employer? That’s exactly what a woman named Diane did when she stepped in to resolve an employee conflict that had stumped her company’s president and human resources professionals. The joy
One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was to ask my mother and my mother-in-law to give up their car keys. Doing it with each of them on the same day (since they both lived with us) was especially difficult. Our moms loved running their own errands, going out for lunch and driving to
At last he had his chance. Clutching his prepared statement in his hand, Mark sat down in the front pew, ready to get even with the elders (all names have been changed). Six months earlier they had refused to support his promotion to senior pastor. They had stood silently by when Mark was slandered in
As pastor Kent drove home from our peacemaking training, he had no idea how quickly his new skills would be put to the test. He had barely walked through the door when his wife informed him about a conflict that was dividing their small town. Three high school football players had been suspended from the
Most families struggle far more with relational challenges than they do with academic training. The relational challenges of day-to-day life can easily eclipse educational issues, sidetrack lesson plans and even strain marriages. Conflict can also infect churches, Sunday school classes, homeschool co-ops and study groups, where differing personalities, priorities and theological emphases can sow seeds