Let me lead off with a confession/reveal: I have no significant link to Irish forebears. Both of our daughters were given names with an Irish lilt (Shannon and Erin), but the only “green” in our family comes out on St Patrick’s Day, if at all. Was St. Patrick’s Day – last week – meaningful, for you?

Let me lead off with a confession/reveal: I have no significant link to Irish forebears. Both of our daughters were given names with an Irish lilt (Shannon and Erin), but the only “green” in our family comes out on St Patrick’s Day, if at all. Was St. Patrick’s Day – last week – meaningful, for you?

Solomon is a reliable source of wisdom. According to God, he was the wisest man ever (that, from the Only One Who has known every man who ever lived). Catch Solomon before his late-in-life decline – attributed to too many wives who did not share his faith in Jehovah – and his insights are still helpful.

What are your plans for the rest of the year? I’m thinking about putting together a very special travel opportunity for a select group of friends: I’m on the lookout for an island with tropical weather and clean beaches, with no airport or reliable internet coverage. All screens would be banned, but books would be welcomed.

Jesus said it to his Twelve Apostles – at the Last Supper, in the Upper Room – but His charge to them became His charge to us, through 20 centuries: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” (John 15:16). Have you been “chosen and appointed?”

Are you getting started in any relationships that you hope become a continuing engagement? Here’s a coaching suggestion: avoid beginning any statement with “In my opinion…” and, second: resist the temptation to ask the question: “What’s your opinion?” Why might those be deal-killers?

George Bernard Shaw wasn’t being complimentary when he observed: “He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” Given the choice between those conditions, it’s better to know nothing than to think you know everything.

George Bernard Shaw wasn’t being complimentary when he observed: “He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” Given the choice between those conditions, it’s better to know nothing than to think you know everything.

If you’re a football fan, this is a big week in your annual calendar. It’s the kind of “got to” that makes adjustments to many of the other steady commitments that define the rest of your year, which step-aside to make space for the epic exception.

So: who gets to call themselves “Christian?” There were no brand consultants offering their counsel to the early generations of the Jews who had become part of the belief movement that had been dubbed The Way: