Tag: encouragement

  • Solving the Mystery

    Solving the Mystery

    Sometimes, less is more.

  • Broken & Available

    Broken & Available

    This past week I saw a billboard by a busy highway that the strong Oklahoma winds have almost toppled. A wooden post on one end snapped, leaving the sign almost folded in half. As my wife and I drove by, I noticed part of the word “Available” on the broken portion–flapping in the breeze. “Oops,”…

  • Green Bananas and the Faith to Ripen

    Green Bananas and the Faith to Ripen

    My blogger friend Betsy from At Water’s Edge recently shared the story of a cancer survivor who buys green bananas. It’s his way of showing faith in the future. Sitting at a round table discussion the other day with several other administrators, we talked about the rising and falling tides of public education. I told…

  • Motion Activated

    Motion Activated

    During a break at a leadership conference, I took a walk inside an attached gymnasium. It was dark, but there was ample sunlight coming in from some high windows. Walking the perimeter of the basketball court, I noticed a row of lights overhead. As I passed under an individual fixture, it turned on. It was…

  • Stages of Grace

    Stages of Grace

    A vase with two carnations sat on the restaurant table where we ate lunch after singing at a nursing home. As you can see, one flower was a fresh bright pink, but the other one was dried up and shriveled. Both appeared to be the same type of flower, yet at different places in their…

  • The Answer to a Forty Year Question

    The Answer to a Forty Year Question

    Bobby and I were good friends back in middle school. We were early morning running buddies and partners in teenage boy pranks. At some point, he suddenly moved away and I never saw him again. Fast forward forty-something years later, I attended his uncle’s funeral—a man who was a mentor to us both. Someone told…