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:

“I have a dream…”
If your default historical horizon is biblical, your search presents Joseph as “The Dreamer” whose life became the basis for more verses in Genesis than Abraham, Isaac, or his father, Jacob.

For decades, my travels had put me in overnight spots that ranged from cushy to chaotic. We had stayed in some of the world’s best hospitality environs, and we had also been in places where UN Peacekeepers were sleeping in the next block. Four years ago today, I woke up with a familiar conscious reaction:

New: not existing before; made, introduced or discovered recently, or, now, for the first time; just beginning and regarded as better than what went before. For the next few weeks, we’ll all be shaking the holiday dust off our tongues. Standard greeting, at least until the Pro Bowl: “Happy New Year!” Everybody wants new; it’s