Chip and Dan Heath are making interview/talk show rounds, being quoted in major print media, and swirling through great clouds of blogosphere talking about their book: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Ideas, business concepts, philosophies that make an impression, that grab hold and hang on are said to be “sticky.” (I guess ideas that don’t…
It’s All About God
If working at it is not the way to become the “living expression of God’s kindness,” then what is? Check out this parable of the Vine (by Bill McCracken and Toni Proudfoot), where we are branches grafted into Christ — the Vine: Only one thing is necessary,” said the Vine, “abide in Me. Let Me be your peace and joy.…
Artificial Fruit is NOT "Yummy in the Tummy"
Last year — 2006 — was my self-designated Year of Kindness: the 12 months during which I would make a sho’nuff, all-out effort to be kind. Not just to “be nice” to my family and friends (although God knows that can be hard sometimes), but to everybody I met. So how did I do? Well, I discovered two things. Here’s…
Shouts of Joy
A friend of mine has been helping her six-year-old daughter (let’s call her Alicia) memorize the Ten Commandments. After a few minutes of Thou-shalt-nots, the little girl asked in frustration, “Mommy, is there anything we can do?” Of course, you know that God speaks directly to and through mothers, sometimes when they don’t even know it. “Well, baby,” she said,…