Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

      Watching Jeopardy the last few weeks has been exhilarating. Amy Schneider won 40 total games, which puts her in second place for all-time wins. What's even more impressive is most of those wins came from runaway games. Her knowledge of a myriad of topics was inspiring, and her buzzer speed was excellent. Before her loss last Wednesday, I thought she could have easily overtaken Ken Jennings' amazing winning streak from 2004. You would think that every fan of the show would have been cheering her meteoric rise to game show stardom, but that wasn't the case. The reason: while she may be female now, she was born male.     In a previous post , I discussed some of my thoughts about transgenderism. While I may not agree with it, that doesn't mean I didn't want Amy to keep winning. I appreciated her good gameplay even though I don't agree with her choices. Being transgender didn't negate the fact that she was an excellent Jeopardy contestant.    ...

     This summer, Mom and I did some cleaning around the house. One of the things we found was an old CCM magazine talking about the upcoming book and CD set chronicling the 100 greatest songs in Christian music. While the article hinted at some of the songs featured in the countdown, we were really curious to see the entire list. While we could find the track list for some of the CDs, we couldn't see the entire list without reading the book. We had to use an inter-library loan to get it, but it was worth it to be able to uncover the mystery of which songs made the list.     My parents and I really enjoyed reading the book and seeing the choices that the editors made. Some of the songs on the list came as no surprise. (Among the top five were " Awesome God " by Rich Mullins, " Jesus Freak " by DC Talk, and " I Can Only Imagine " by MercyMe.) Some of the songs I knew well, but not their original versions. (I've sung " Soon and Very Soon " ...

"One by one we will call for a ceasefire One by one we will fight for a better end One by one we can rewrite the headlines We're standing side by side Ceasefire" ~ For King and Country, " Ceasefire "     As probably all of my American readers, and maybe even some international readers, already know, George Floyd died in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25 after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Since that day, protests have taken place in cities across the country, and even some places in other countries. Most of the protests have been peaceful, like the one here in Wichita, Kansas last Saturday. Unfortunately, many others have not been. While I grieve this senseless tragedy, I don't think violence is the answer.     One reason I feel this way is because the violence of the protests can easily overshadow the reason behind them. Almost six years ago, Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, Missouri. The weeks that followed were filled with pro...

Last month, I hosted a Compassion Sunday at my church. For all my readers who don't attend my church and those of my church friends who couldn't be there that day, I wanted to share a bit about my sponsorship experience and what I like about Compassion International. My Experience as a Sponsor I began my sponsorship experience on October 28, 2012, at a For King and Country concert. As Luke (one of the members of the group) shared his family's experience being Compassion sponsors, I felt called to help. When he asked who was interested in becoming a sponsor, my hand immediately shot up, and a volunteer handed me a packet. Luke told us where the table was, and that we could choose another child there if we wanted. The thing is, I didn't want to. The moment I saw Momo's picture, I knew I was meant to be his sponsor. In the seven years since I have been amazed at how much of a blessing it has been. Each time a letter arrives, I open it as soon as I can, eager to re...

"The time has come to make a choice, and I choose joy."~" Joy "-For King and Country Ever since I got a link to the music video for this song, I loved it. Not only are the costumes and setting of the video fun, but the song itself is as well. I sometimes struggle to be joyful when I hear about all the things happening in our world, and this song was great at encouraging me that it is not only possible, but also freeing. In pursuit of the kind of joy mentioned in the song,  I joined the Faith Gateway Defiant Joy online bible study led by Candace Payne (aka Chewbacca Mom) and Mandisa. Each week of this six week study had a Joy Lab, which contained one or more activities to do to help cultivate joy in our lives. These challenges ranged from finding old pictures of ourselves to carrying around rocks for an entire week. (The pictures were to remind us of times in the past where we were joyful, and the rocks were to represent the struggles we face that weigh us down a...

"No one ever wins when the goal is to settle the score."-For King and Country, " Ceasefire " On August 12th, there were two protests conducted in two separate southern cities. Both were concerning a hot-button issue in this country, and both had the potential to make headlines, yet only one did. The reason why is quite simple: one protest ended violently, while the other remained peaceful. The one that actually made headlines was of course the one in Charlottesville, Virginia. A white supremacist group was protesting the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee when they were met by counter-protesters. Insults began to fly between the two groups, which led to fists flying, kicking off a domino effect that ended with a man driving his car into a group of people, killing one woman and injuring many others. The white supremacist group was blamed for what happened, and while I agree that they were at fault for their actions, the counter-protesters were as much ...

2016 was a bit of a roller coaster year for me, with glorious highs interspersed with terrifying lows. Fortunately, there were more highs than lows. Here in no particular order are the highs and lows of the past year. HIGHS: Spending time with Jojo: Jojo is my cousin Jessica's 18-month-old daughter, and due to scheduling conflicts, I didn't get a chance to see her at Thanksgiving or Christmas last year. However this year, I got to spend a great deal of time with her at both holidays, as well as during her dad's birthday party in September. Since she was older at the time I got to know her, I was able to build a better and more lasting relationship with her that will only grow as she gets older. My summer job: This summer, I was the chauffeur/activity supervisor for Ally and Kira, two of my friend Katherine's granddaughters. Throughout the course of the summer, I took them to camps, to the pool, to the park, and to church activities. They taught me how to use ...

Earlier this summer, I had a can of Sprite that was part of its "Obey Your Verse" campaign. However, the verse it was telling me to obey was "Me, I'm supa fly, supa dupa fly," which is not only unintelligible, but also not something that could be obeyed. In looking more into the campaign, I found that most of the verses chosen were this way. While the artists were chosen because of Sprite's history with working with hip hop artists, some of the verses chosen leave a lot to be desired. That got me to thinking about lyrics of some of my favorite songs that not only can be obeyed, but are worthy of being obeyed. Here are some examples: Hawk Nelson, " Sold Out ": I'm sold out I'm no longer living just for myself Running after Jesus with my whole heart And now I'm ready to shout I am sold out I'm sold out With every single step that I take now With every drop of blood left in my veins I'm gonna be making it count I am s...