Loud Mouth in the Balcony Blog
Life from a more heavenly perspective
Did you read that intriguing Chicago Tribune story about six young black male students who were visiting our beautiful city from prestigious Washington University in St. Louis? Two of the young men were officers of the University’s senior class council. One of them, class treasurer Regis Murayi, had arranged in advance for nearly 175 of …
Continue reading “What is the most important word in your vocabulary?”
Did you read that intriguing Chicago Tribune story about six young black male students who were visiting our beautiful city from prestigious Washington University in St. Louis? Two of the young men were officers of the University’s senior class council. One of them, class treasurer Regis Murayi, had arranged in advance for nearly 175 of …
Continue reading “What’s the most important word in your vocabulary?”
This morning a facebook friend, frustrated by his results from an obviously important endeavor, wondered how many times he should keep trying before he writes off the effort as a failure. The overwhelming response from his fb family was that whatever he was trying to do wasn’t working because it wasn’t supposed to: We concluded …
I read an inspiring story in this Sunday’s Chicago Tribune about Derrius Quarles, a Chicago teen who leverages his inner power in an extraordinary way. Derrius’s father was murdered when he was four years old. His mother was addicted to drugs. He and his older brother were shuttled from one foster care home to another; …
Continue reading “Is Your Life Purpose-Driven or Purpose-Given?”
Once we understand that purpose is woven into every strand of the fabric of our lives, anger, frustration and victimization seem inappropriate responses when unpleasant and unexpected circumstances appear. If life worked the way some motivational maxims teach us, we’d never have unexpected circumstances; no one would ever be disappointed or pleasantly surprised. We’d be in total control of everything that happens. Witnessed anyone with that experience lately?
It’s prudent to think before we act, and prudent to think before we react. If we show up and exhibit our best effort and our highest-selves, and things don’t turn out the way we desired, it doesn’t mean we failed. It only means that the outcome we expected or desired wasn’t the best one for us—at least not at that moment.
> A spirit of uncertainty has wafted into our personal space, our nation and our world. It has surprised even the most positive of thinkers, and has made the fearful even more apprehensive. Amid reports of foreclosures, plummeting housing values and unemployment figures, an article in Sunday’s New York Times claims that millions of jobless …
A spirit of uncertainty has wafted into our personal space, our nation and our world. It has surprised even the most positive of thinkers, and has made the fearful even more apprehensive. Amid reports of foreclosures, plummeting housing values and unemployment figures, an article in the New York Times claims that millions of jobless Americans …
Friends periodically share bits of wisdom from their e-mailboxes that they think will make me shout, “Amen!” One of my recent favorites came from my friend Jean Hill, who passed along a post from life balance expert Mary LoVerde’s “Words of Wisdom” newsletter. In it, Ms. LoVerde recounted the experience of meeting U.S. Airways pilot …
C’mon now, we’ve all had crazy moments. Some of them might have been crazier than others; but all of them had one thing in common: They did not reflect the God in us. So who are we to get mad or judge somebody else’s crazy?