The premise of my blog as a whole is to investigate the human soul and discover how to live as God intended in spite of the chaos and conflict around us. Even secular people know that if we don’t deal with our inner world as human beings we will also never deal effectively with each other.

As this blog site states, we are exploring the importance of the soul and how to keep it healthy. Today, few think much about the soul, yet Jesus said that our soul is more important than anything else in our lives and should be protected at all cost.

The title of this article may seem odd, if not objectionable until you read it and understand why I’m writing it. During my lifetime as a Christian leader and pastor, I can’t tell you how many thousands of hours I have invested in trying to help people get freed from their past hurts. To help other pastors counsel well, I would recommend one of my favorite books called “Untwisting Twisted Relationships” by William Backus. He capitalized on helping people recognize the misbeliefs they have acquired over the years that hinder their present lives.

Have you ever wondered why God seems to bless others more than you? At times, I know I do. Sometimes it seems I put more effort and heart into seeking God than those around me yet they seem to get more blessings.  They seem to get more from reading scripture, more from being generous, more from prayer and just about any other Christian discipline.

Being honest, Father’s Day is somewhat lacking in comparison to Mother’s Day both in focus and expense. When I worked in restaurants in my early days of employment Mother’s Day was the biggest day of the year. Families would reserve spots in restaurants far in advance or they wouldn’t get a table. Father’s Day, on the other hand, was pretty much the same as any other day. If you look at stores that have things for Mother’s Day, they stock up early and do huge promotions whereas Father’s Day ….not so much.

Life has a way of challenging our ability to not only navigate but also manage life events. All of us desire a life that’s free of trial or at least with limited conflict or trouble. What we discover in life are troubles all around us, and it’s our job to learn to navigate through those challenges the best we can. We soon discover that often the challenges that come our way are bigger than our abilities. We either learn to discover the knowledge and wisdom that we need or we suffer for it. These troubles should encourage us to pursue knowledge and wisdom outside of ourselves before crisis or challenge come our way, but all too often we are not taught at a young age to do so. The basic principles of development are often very hard to correct through learning when someone is older. I know this by experience!

Reading through the Psalms, I find great encouragement in discovering how King David related to God. We need to read and investigate how others have followed God, and even more importantly, how God defined their relationship.

So much of Christian experience today is centered on the knowledge that God loves us and wants to heal our brokenness. As this is part of his intention, it often is short-changed by a lack of true experience.

Our world is so enamored by appearance that real value in things or people often gets overlooked at best and rejected at worst. The culture of “Advertisement” has fooled us and stolen the perception of what’s most valuable.

The cover picture for this article is from a new movie release about some men who decided to take the opportunity to do the courageous thing and challenge a terrorist on a french high-speed train. The possibilities of them dying was more than real, but the opportunity to make a difference was theirs to use or throw away.