True Love

What is TRUE LOVE? The late Father James Keller, founder of The Christophers, put it this way:
Love delights in giving attention rather than attracting it.
Love finds the element of good and builds on it.
Love does not magnify defects.
Love is a flame that warms but never burns.
Love knows how to disagree without becoming disagreeable.
Love rejoices at the success of others instead of being envious.

Decisions

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage - pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically - to say 'no' to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside. The enemy of the 'best' is often the 'good.'

- Stephen Covey

African Proverb

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.

- African proverb -

Wisdom

All truly wise thoughts have already been thought thousands of times, but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Reason

I do not feel obligated to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.

- Galileo Galilei

Lesson from History

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

- B. C. Forbes

Achievements

I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith. What is faith if it is not translated into action

- Mahatma Gandhi

The Best Days

The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments

- Gustave Flaubert

The Harder Task

It is much harder to ask the right question than it is to find the right answer to the wrong question.

- E. E. Morison (1909 - 1995)

Researchers Develop Faster Ketchup Flow

An article in Time.com noted that ketchup flows out of a glass bottle at a rate of .028 miles per hour. That's slower than a Galapagos tortoise, which, according to the San Diego Zoo, zips along at a blazing 0.16 miles per hour, or almost six times faster than ketchup.
But impatiently tapping your ketchup bottle soon might be a thing of the past. Dave Smith, a PhD candidate at MIT, and a team of MIT mechanical engineers and nano-technologists have offered a possible solution to this ketchup flow problem. After months of research, Smith and his team developed LiquiGlide, which they define as a "kind of structured liquid [that's] rigid like a solid, but lubricated like a liquid." The researchers say that coating the inside of a bottle with LiquiGlide will cause ketchup and other sauces to slide out faster than a Galapagos tortoise. Smith claims that the sauce industry, which rakes in $17 billion a year, would love to get their hands on the invention.
The Time.com article concluded: "Let's hope some big [ketchup] companies bite. I'm tired of waiting five minutes for ketchup to land on my cheeseburger."
Possible Preaching Angles: This illustration shows the ridiculous level of impatience that sometimes exist in our culture--the desire to have everything we want (even spiritual transformation) right now.

Keith Wagstaff, "MIT Scientists Figure Out How to Get Ketchup Out of the Bottle," Time.com (22 May 2012)

Marriage Is Like a Formal Dinner in Reverse

Germans sometimes use a culinary metaphor for marriage, comparing the lifelong journey of marriage to a formal French or German dinner menu—except the courses are served in reverse order.
According to this analogy, marriage actually begins with the last course—dessert. There's a season of sweetness. But, sadly, the sweetness doesn't always last. Temptations and distractions often follow this dessert-like honeymoon phase. In a formal French dinner, the second course includes a seductive selection of cheeses. At times there are so many cheese selections that diners get focused on flirting from one plate to the next. The third course consists of a beautifully prepared salad that adds freshness and vitamins to the meal. The fourth and main dish is the red meat course, the long, substantial, satisfying and nutritious body of any good dinner or marriage. The fifth course consists of a light fish or seafood dish that can be fraught with dangerous bones. Finally, the menu of a marriage ends with an enjoyable tray of hors d'oeuvres. After decades of commitment, mastering all the earlier courses of marriage, a husband and wife are rewarded with the delight of remaining committed throughout the entire journey of life.
In the end, they've truly become one. The French might compare their union to the blend of two famous kinds of grapes—Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. When these grapes are blended together they become the mellow Bordeaux wine that is loved around the world.

Matthias Pankau, Leipzig, Germany, "50th Wedding Anniversary Mediation for Gillian and Uwe Siemon-Netto" (May 12, 2012)

Winners

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

- B. C. Forbes

Success

The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work. Many of those who fail most ignominiously do enough to achieve grand success but they labour haphazardly at whatever they are assigned, building up with one hand to tear down with the other. They do not grasp circumstances and change them into opportunities. They have no faculty for turning honest defeats into telling victories. With ability enough and ample time, the major ingredients of success, they are forever throwing back and forth an empty shuttle and the real web of their life is never woven.

- Og Mandino

A Test

I am a big believer in the 'mirror test.' All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there, that you've done your best.

- John McKay

Patience

Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.

- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)

Gifts

We have been miseducated about gift giving. We believe gifts must always bear a price tag or be given for a particular reason...The real joy in giving comes when we give what we have spontaneously...

- Iyanla Vanzant

Value

To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.

- Mencius, philosopher (c. 380-289 BCE)

Remembrance Day Thought

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children

- Jimmy Carter

Searching

In truth everything and everyone
Is a shadow of the Beloved,
And our seeking is His seeking
And our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there,
while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
"O Beloved, where is the Beloved?"

- Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273)

The Important Moments

Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these

- Susan B. Anthony

Two Steps

All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind.

- Stephen Covey

What Brings Life

Life energy flows when we create, or when we help another person's creativity flower by encouraging them in some way.
Think of the sense of joy and satisfaction that one can derive from the simple act of planting flowers, cooking a meal, writing a poem, solving a problem, painting a picture, dressing with flair, or doing your job to the best of your abilities.
Creativity brings us life, and by using our creativity we help bring the world into being

- Joan Borysenko

What is produced

The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires. Every thought-seed sown or allowed to fall into the mind, and to take root there, produces its own, blossoming sooner or later into act, and bearing its own furtive of opportunity and circumstance. Good thoughts bear good fruit; bad thought, bad fruit.

- James Allen

Great Things

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment; in these qualities old age is usually not only not poorer, but it is even richer

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Have You Been Praying for Armadillos?

Christian comedian Ken Davis tells the following story about waiting for a "sign from God." A Christian gets on an empty city bus, walks to rear, and sits down. Lord, he prays, if you want me to speak to someone about you, please give me a sign. At the next stop another passenger boards the bus, goes all the way to the back, and sits down right next to the Christian. The passenger asks, "Do you know anything about Jesus?"
The Christian excuses himself for a moment and slowly bows his head and once again prays,
Lord, if you really want me to talk to this stranger, I need just one more sign. Please turn the bus driver into an armadillo.
Have you been praying for armadillos?
Have you been waiting for a sign from God you really hope never comes before you get serious about following him?

Clare De Graaf, The 10-Second Rule (Howard Books, 2013), page 51

The Better Option

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt

Dreams

Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born

- Dr. Dale Turner

Aiming high

To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself, to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed

- Bernard Edmonds

Creativity

Looking to the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?

- Vincent Van Gogh

Perspective

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are

- Malcolm Forbes

Practice

I have always approached practice as a kind of proving ground, especially with rookies. They might have seen me on television, read about me...and might think they know what I'm all about...I want them to know it isn't gossip or rumours. I want them to know it all comes from hard work

- Michael Jordan

Measures

If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it

- Stanley Marion Garn, anthropologist (1922- )

The Greatest Challenge

Leadership is the great challenge of the 21st century in science, politics, education, and industry. But the greatest challenge in leadership is parenting. We need to do more than just get our enterprises ready for the challenges of the twenty-first century. We also need to get our children ready for the challenges of the 21st century.

- Jim Rohn

The Way Up

You can't fly a kite unless you go against the wind and have a weight to keep it from turning somersaults. The same with man. No man will succeed unless he is ready to face and overcome difficulties and is prepared to assume responsibilities.

- William J. H. Boetcker

The Best Teacher

It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.

- Samuel Smiles

Failure

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

- Denis Waitley

Permission to Remain a Child

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives

- Albert Einstein

The Finest Hour

I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline...I firmly believe that any man's finest hour - this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle, victorious

- Vince Lombardi

The Hardest Decisions

Dwight D. Eisenhower once warned John F. Kennedy that "as President, the only decisions you'll be asked to make are the hard ones. That's because the people working under you will keep all the easy ones for themselves!" That is true in any organization. Difficult decisions defy gravity. They travel uphill until they reach the person at the top

- Carmen Mariano

Where Evil is Found

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

A Gift Every Day

You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No none can take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you receive

- Dr. Thomas Arnold Bennett

From Failure to Success

It is important to acknowledge a mistake instantly, correct it, and learn from it. That literally turns a failure into a success. Success is on the far side of failure

- T. J. Watson (1874 - 1956) Founder of IBM

'White Elephant' Gifts Distract Us from Serving God

Gordon MacDonald shares the following story:
In ancient days when the king of Siam had an enemy he wanted to torment and destroy, he would send that enemy a unique gift, a white elephant, a live, albino elephant. These animals were considered sacred in the culture of that day. So the recipient of that elephant had no choice but to intentionally care for the gift. This elephant would take an inordinate amount of the enemy's time, resources, energy, emotions, and finances. Over time the enemy would destroy himself because of the extremely burdensome process of caring for the gift.
Our spiritual enemy uses the same strategy on us …. Let's say you buy season tickets to [your favourite sports team], but because you still have a lot of games to go to, you no longer have time to serve in some area of ministry. Or let's say you buy a summer cottage, but now you miss most weekend worship services between the beginning of May and the end of September. Or let's say you buy a health club membership to get in shape. You used to get up early in the morning to read your Bible and pray, but now you don't have time because you're working out before you go to work. Or let's say you buy a spot for one of your kids on a traveling sports team, and now you're too busy to join our community impact ministry as we serve the poor.
Are there white elephants in your life? Are you spending money on things that take your time away from God? The money isn't the problem; the activities aren't necessarily the problem; the problem is a white elephant "gift" that has pulled you away from God-honouring pursuits.

adapted from Jim Nicodem, "The Gravity of Greed,"

'Fast Food Culture' Promotes Impatience

In 1960 McDonald's operated 200 restaurants. By 2012 they had 31,000 restaurants. In 2012 there were more than a quarter-million fast-food restaurants in America, and on any given day one in four Americans will eat at least one meal at a fast-food restaurant. For many people around the world fast-food symbolises speed, efficiency, and convenience.
Sanford DeVoe, a researcher at the University of Toronto, wanted to explore if our "fast-food culture" was changing our lives in ways beyond just our eating habits. So DeVoe and another colleague conducted a series of experiments in which researchers subliminally flashed corporate logos for McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell, Burger King, Subway, and Wendy's. A control group saw other images but no fast-food logos. When the two groups were asked to do an unrelated task, the fast-food group tried to complete it much faster than the non-fast-food group. In another experiment, flashes of fast-food images made students less able to sit back and enjoy music. A third experiment found that people exposed to fast-food logos showed a greater reluctance for saving.
Based on these experiments, DeVoe has concluded that fast food helps us save time, but even just thinking about fast food restaurants make us live with more speed and less patience. DeVoe said, "Fast food culture … doesn't just change the way we eat but it can also fundamentally alter the way we experience our time."
DeVoe claims that the impatience promoted by our fast-food culture and mindset "stops us from smelling the roses."

Frank Partnoy, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay (Public Affairs, 2012), pp. 55-58;

Science Daily, "Exposure to Fast Food Can Make Us Impatient," (26 March 2010)

Mistakes

To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future

- Plutarch

Wisdom and Folly

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance

- Akhenaton

A Life Philosophy

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment

- Oprah Winfrey

Americans Show Increased Belief in Miracles

A 2012 article about Americans' belief in miracles summarized the following statistics gathered from recent surveys:
* 55 percent of Americans are "certain" that miracles happen (a 20 percent increase from 1991)
* 80 percent believe that miracles "certainly" or "probably" occur.
* 42 percent of Americans with no religious affiliation believe in miracles (compared to 32 percent from 20 years ago). In other words, the strongest gains in openness to miracles were reported by those who attend services infrequently.
* 23 percent of respondents said they had witnessed a miraculous physical healing and 16 percent said they had received a miraculous healing.
* 75 percent of respondents said they had prayed to God to receive healing from an illness or injury; nearly 85 percent had prayed for someone else's healing.
The author of the article concluded that the increasing openness to miracles "is not being driven by any one generation, but seems to be more of a cultural shift …. There's still a profound interest in spiritual things …. [As Americans in general] we are not in this uniform march toward secularism."

David Briggs, "Belief in miracles climbs in the age of Oprah," Association of Religion Data Archives (27 October 2012)

Mistakes

To err is human, to blame it on someone else is more human.

Lance Armstrong's Slide into Self-Deception

In 2001, Lance Armstrong made an anti-doping commercial for Nike in which he strongly disavowed using illegal drugs. In the commercial, Armstrong boldly states, "This is my body, and I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my [butt] six hours a day. What are you on?"
In 2006, during sworn testimony in a dispute over his $5 million bonus, Armstrong said he wouldn't take drugs because he had too much to lose. "(The) faith of all the cancer survivors around the world. Everything I do off the bike would go away, too …. It's not about money for me …. It's also about the faith that people have put in me over the years. So all of that would be erased." In October 2012, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tours de France victories and permanently banned from cycling and any World Anti-Doping Agency sanctioned events. Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, claimed that Armstrong's USPS team "ran the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping program that sport has ever seen." Tygart also said, "The USPS Team doping conspiracy was professionally designed to groom and pressure athletes to use dangerous drugs, to evade detection, to ensure its secrecy and ultimately gain an unfair competitive advantage …." It was a doping program "organised by individuals who thought they were above the rules."

sources: YouTube, "Lance Armstrong Nike Commercial (2001)," last accessed 9 October 2014; Sports Illustrated, "USADA to ban Armstrong for life" (24 August 2012)

Happiness

One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness - simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain

- George Sand (1804 - 1876)

Epitaph

Someone once asked me what I want on my epitaph when I pass away. Just the words - 'I tried.' That's what this game of life is all about. Trying. There's the tryers, the criers, and the liars

- Mickey Rooney

Foundations

I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy

- Anthony Robbins

Never Empty

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, directions, missions, and callings

- Abraham Maslow

Seeking Wisdom

In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth - teaching others

- Ibn Gabirol, poet and philosopher (c. 1022-1058)

An Unconfmrtable Balance

Life is part positive and part negative. Suppose you went to hear a symphony orchestra and all they played were little, happy, high notes? Would you leave soon? Let me hear the rumble of the bass, the crash of the cymbals and the minor keys.

- Jim Rohn

Committees

A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled. - Sir Barnett Cocks (c. 1907)
Committee - A group of men who keep minutes and waste hours. - Milton Berle
Committees have become so important nowadays that subcommittees have to be appointed to do the work. - Laurence J. Peter
You'll find no park or city any monument to a committee. - Victoria Pasternak

Politics

If I seem to take part in politics, it is only because politics encircles us today like the coil of a snake from which one cannot get out, no matter how much one tries. I wish therefore to wrestle with the snake

- Mahatma Gandhi

Listen!

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward, and we want to sit in their radius. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand

- Karl Menninger

Creativity

Creativity is so delicate a flower that praise tends to make it bloom, while discouragement often nips it in the bud. Any of us will put out more and better ideas if our efforts are appreciated

- Alexander F. Osborn

Perspective

De-program yourself. The news is not the news. It is the bad news. It is deliberately shocking. The more you accept it as the news, the more you believe that 'that's the way it is,' and the more fearful and cynical you will become

- Steve Chandler

A Key Choice

This may shock you, but I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude is that "single string" that keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there's no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me

- Charles R. Swindoll

What is needed

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Risk and Timing

Many risks fail because they were not taken in time. Too many risks are postponed until unnecessarily elaborate preparations are made. This does not mean that one should say, 'Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!' That is foolish and self-destructive...But don't sit back waiting for the perfect moment. It almost never comes

- David Viscott

The Traps We Make

No lions are ever caught in mousetraps. To catch lions you must think in terms of lions, not in terms of mice. Your mind is always creating traps of one kind or another, and what you catch depends on the thinking you do. It is your thinking that attracts to you what you receive

- Thomas Dreier

Another Step

All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing about a man is what he believes in the depth of his being. This is the thing that makes him what he is, the thing that organises him and feeds him; the thing that keeps him going in the face of untoward circumstances; the thing that gives him resistance and drive

- Hugh Stevenson Tigner

An Incredible Power

Imagination lit every lamp in this country, built every church, performed every act of kindness and progress, created more and better things for more people. It is the priceless ingredient for a better day.

- Henry J. Taylor

Do it well...

If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Traffic Cop Gives Tickets but Avoids Complaints

By the very nature of the business, L.A. County traffic cops receive plenty of complaints about their work. After all, most motorists don't think they deserve a ticket. Each complaint gets documented and placed in the officer's personnel file.
But, surprisingly, over the past 20 years, L.A. Sheriff's Deputy Elton Simmons has made over 25,000 traffic stops and cited thousands of motorists with traffic violations without a single complaint on his record. When his supervisor Captain Pat Maxwell started looking through Simmons' file, he was stunned. Maxwell found plenty of commendations but not a single complaint.
It was such a shocking story that a CBS News crew was assigned to follow Simmons in an attempt to learn his secret. First, they noticed Simmons' "pitch-perfect mix of authority and diplomacy" without a trace of arrogance or self-righteousness. Of course Simmons still hands out plenty of tickets; they just don't come with the standard guilt trip.
Here's how Simmons described his approach: "I'm here with you. I'm not up here" (he motions his arm up towards the sky). One thing I hate is to be looked down on—I can't stand it—so I'm not going to look down at you."
A driver who got a ticket from Simmons agreed. The driver said, "You know what it is, it's his smile. How could you be mad at that guy?"
"Apparently, you can't," concluded the CBS News team. "Time after time, ticket after ticket, we saw Officer Simmons melt away a polar ice cap of preconceptions. And his boss [claims] there's a lesson in there for hard-nosed cops everywhere."

adapted from Steve Hartman, "No complaints about this traffic cop," CBS News (21 September 2012)

Test For Indifference

Are you indifferent to anything but the will of God? Ask God to show you where you might be attached to anything other than God's will. If you are indifferent, thanks be to God. If not, don't judge yourself; just notice it honestly and with compassion. Ask: What needs to die in me for the will of God to find room in my life? What do I need to let go of in order to receive some new gift of God?

adapted from Pursuing God's Will Together, by Ruth Haley Barton, ©2012 IVP

TV Show Breaking Bad on the Dangers of Pride

The critically-acclaimed TV show Breaking Bad centres on the story of Walter White, a bored high school chemistry teacher who discovers that he has stage III lung cancer. Desperate to provide for his family, Walter decides to start manufacturing methamphetamine to create a nest egg. Initially, his goal is to make about $750,000; enough to cover the mortgage, college for both his kids and to cover any other major expenses that might arise over the next 20 years.
But as the series moves forward, the drama focuses on Walter's transformation from a frustrated middle-class American male to a drug kingpin and a cold-blooded killer. The central question of Breaking Bad Becomes this: What makes a person "Bad"? As the story develops we get a clear answer: at some point, Walter decided to become bad.
Specifically, Walter succumbs to the sin of pride. Initially, his pride was submerged under a thin veneer of suburban respectability. But as the show progresses, Walter's pride rises to the surface. In one of the show's most stunning scenes, Walter chillingly explains to his wife Skyler why he's the man in charge when it comes to Mexican cartels and the drug trade. He says,
Who are you talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? Do you know how much I make a year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly decided to stop going in to work? A business big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ goes belly up. It disappears. It ceases to exist without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're talking to. So let me clue you in. I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens his door and gets shot, and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks.
Walter is no longer the frustrated, somewhat bumbling and basically good genius of season one. He's changed, and we're encouraged to look at him the way Diane Keaton looks at Al Pacino at the end of The Godfather: "What's happened to you?" It's a mixture of horror, deep regret, and revulsion. It's a disturbing picture of the evils of pride.

Adapted from Jake Meador, "Evil as Depicted in Breaking Bad Mad Men," Critique (2012, Issue 5)

The Ultimate Victory

The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.

- Howard Cosell

Pain

When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilise them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope

- Henri Nouwen

Hidden Gems

Sometimes God's best plans are hidden in that inconvenient phone call that interferes with your routine, or in a conversation someone engages you in that makes you late for an appointment. Who knows - it could even be a miracle

- Joni Eareckson Tada

Asking 'Why' in the Wake of Parents' Divorce

Tullian Tchividjian tells the following story about trying to deal with the pain of his parent's unexpected divorce:
I remember going to see [the Christian counselor] Larry Crabb, who was [a colleague of] my father. "How's your mum and dad doing?" Larry asked.
"Larry, I don't know what to do. Seriously. I feel like my whole world has been turned upside down. I don't get this. It's excruciating."
Larry said something remarkable. He could see that I was trapped in the prison of Why, banging my head against the bars. He said,
Tullian, listen to me: The "why" is none of your concern. This is not your burden to fix or figure out. You are not responsible for your parents' relationship or their reputation, or even your own reputation. Those are in God's hands, and his ways are his, not ours. When it comes to God's will, the sooner you can get out of the conjecture business, the better. If you don't go to your grave confused, you don't go to your grave trusting. Painful as it is, this situation gives you an opportunity to show them grace, to love them in their brokenness in a new way. Which is precisely what Jesus has done for you and continues to do for you.
Larry preached the Gospel to me that day, and it made all the difference.

Tullian Tchividjian, Glorious Ruin (David C. Cook, 2012), pp. 122-123; See also the sermon series "The Gospel of Suffering—part one" and "The Gospel of Suffering—part two"

NFL Replacement Refs Show Need for The Judge

For the first three weeks of the 2012 NFL season, replacement referees took the place on the playing field of the regular refs. The team owners had locked out the regular refs because they could not agree on a new contract. The consequence of using college referees to judge pro games was predictable. The replacement refs missed calls, took too long to make the right calls, called too many fouls, and in the process made coaches, players, and fans furious.
The anger came to a head in the third week of the season. An angry Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, grabbed one of the replacement refs and was fined $50,000 by the league. And on Monday Night Football the game between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks was decided by a call on the last play of the game that was so clearly wrong the whole country was talking about it the next day. The media pointed out that because of the missed call, $150m changed hands in Las Vegas.
Confidence in the credibility of the game had been marred. Players didn't know what to expect on the field and worried about injuries. Newspapers routinely used the word "outrage" to describe the reaction from millions of fans. ESPN declared, "Let's cut to the chase—the replacement officials have lost control of the game." Even an NPR (National Public Radio) blog chimed in: "It's the talk of the nation today as fans beg for the league and its regular officials to settle their differences so that the 'real' refs can come back."
All because the rules of NFL football were not being correctly applied by the judges on the field. Lots of people care about football, and as a result they care about having judges doing their job correctly on the field.
Apparently, despite decades of ethical relativism, we still long for justice and fairness—even in pro football. There is right and wrong, and the referee's job is to assure that right prevails. If we care that much about judges in sports, giving order to our games, how much more should we realise the importance of having a supreme Judge who makes the correct call on the actions of people in this world. God has given his law to bring order to relationships, to business, to society. Without his moral law, and his judgments that uphold it, life is chaos, and everyone is miserable.

Gregg Easterbrook, "Losing control is refs' big blunder," ESPN Playbook (25 September 2012);
Mark Memmott, "Bring Back the Real NFL Refs!" The Two-Way, NPR's News Blog (25 September 2012)

Man Spends Rare Coins at Face Value

In 2012, a 19-year-old man from Washington state named Dakoda Garren was charged with stealing a rare coin collection worth at least $100,000. After Garren had completed some part-time work for a woman living north of Portland, the woman reported that her family coin collection was missing. Her collection included a variety of rare and valuable coins, including Liberty Head quarters, Morgan dollars, and other coins dating back to the early 1800s.
Initially, Garren denied any involvement, claiming that the police didn't have any evidence against him. But then he started spending the coins at face value, apparently unaware of the coins' worth. He and his girlfriend paid for movie tickets using quarters worth between $5 and $68. Later on the same day, they bought some local pizza with rare coins, including a Liberty quarter that may be worth up to $18,500. The news article reported, "Garren has been charged with first-degree theft and is being held in jail on $40,000 bond. Which, technically, is an amount he could easily afford if the valuable coin collection were actually his."

Eric Pfeiffer, "Man allegedly steals $100 coin collection, then spends at face value on pizza and a movie,' Yahoo! News (21 September 2012)

Anger

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world

- Mahatma Gandhi

Problems?

There is only one group of people who don't have problems and they're all dead. Problems are a sign of life. So the more problems you have, the more alive you are

- Norman Vincent Peale

Good Communication

You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel. You cannot translate that which you do not have. And you cannot give that which you do not possess. To give it and to share it, and for it to be effective, you first need to have it. Good communication starts with good preparation

- Jim Rohn

Success

Inspiration and passion usually go together. If you are going to try to persuade others to go with you, it certainly doesn't hurt that you've got very strong convictions about where you are going. Like Columbus did, for instance, to discover the New World. And, if you've got passion and conviction, you're more likely to be inspiring. If you're inspired yourself and you're passionate about something, you're more likely to succeed at it, and you're more likely to get others to come with you

- Ted Turner

Planning

I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change

- Jim Rohn

Joy

Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with a man's outward circumstance...A man living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a man in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy

- William Barclay

Wars

All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers... Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born

- Francois Fenelon

A Marathon... or a Sprint?

Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best.

- Michael Johnson

It's about to...

There are those of us who are always about to live. We are waiting until things change, until there is more time, until we are less tired, until we get a promotion, until we settle down - until, until, until. It always seems as if there is some major event that must occur in our lives before we begin living

- George Sheehan

Re-kindled

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light

- Albert Schweitzer

Life

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Into his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

- Emily Dickinson, from "The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson" (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company)