You’ve met people like this. You may have even had a few of them as fellow students in college. You know the ones. They are the students who ask inconvenient questions of the professor that calls for complicated answers and explanations. Those are the fellow students that always seemed to throw off the lecture and send the class into disarray! I even had a seminary professor who told our class that if…
OK, more like “Gray Friday” since the retailers have been bombarding us with ads and “special prices” for days now, even opening earlier on Thanksgiving Day to garner more sales. But today marks the “official” beginning of the holiday gift buying season. And it is a perfect icon of our society and what we value. On the one hand, we really have succumbed to such a consumerist mindset that the Pavlovian trigger…
From Orthodox on Purpose to all our friends, may you discover that becoming grateful, learning how to allow gratitude to overwhelm disappointment and bitterness, and entering into a life of gratitude is the antidote for most of life’s problems! A Blessed Thanksgiving to all. Through the prayers of the newly canonized St. Porphyrios grant us peace in a Eucharistic life. Here is the link if you would like to see the presentations…
Secrets and intrigue seem to make for good movies and great gossip. The recent uproar about our own government and it’s efforts in internal spying continues to generate much interest and fascination. There’s even a story out now that a recent person who shared a great many “secrets” concerning the NSA work has a “doomsday” file he’s holding on to to insure he isn’t arrested or attacked! Hollywood is just screaming for the…
Do you know what a dichotomy is? Exactly, it is when we set in stone what appears to be two opposites. You know, like good and bad, healthy and unhealthy, up and down, you get the idea. But there are some dichotomies that are false. We separate what isn’t suppose to be separated. In fact, in a false dichotomy we actually do real harm to the true meaning of both of the…
There have been a few times in my life when I had just the right words to say in a situation. There have been times when I was in the right place at the right time. And there have been times when I have worked on a project over an extended period of time and watch as it achieves the goals we had set just at the right time. Yeah, I know,…
Well, that ought to get your attention! The truth is it isn’t love if it isn’t free. In fact, love presupposes freedom. Without freedom, there is no possibility of true love. As an example, we have jus started our new class for those wanting to know more about the Orthodox Faith. Every year after our annual church festival and after we have done so many church tours, we invite those who have…
You’ve seen them. They rush around and work their fingers to the bone all the time doing a million things at once and accomplishing amazing things because of their industrious nature. You’ve also seen them when they notice others aren’t nearly as “busy” as they are. Not all of them, but enough to make this story hit home, they will “point out” that “so and so isn’t helping nearly as much as…
There’s an old saying “figures don’t lie, but liars figure!” In many presentations I’ve made, I’ve used statistics to buttress my points and drive a point home for an audience. But I am constantly wary of statistics since they are often so easy to manipulate into supporting the conclusion you’ve already made. Let’s face it, most of us go seeking affirmation for the things we already believe. But here I go anyway!…
Actions have both consequences and motivations. The consequences may be unforeseen and the motivations may be a mystery, even to the doer, but without a doubt, they always exist. The challenge to me is will I own up to both my consequences to my actions AND observe and scrutinize my motives? Because I am never going to break the pattern of behaviors that keep me from becoming who I really am without…
