By: Jenny Dooley on March 22, 2023
I tell myself stories. They are usually harmless assumptions about why people do, say, or believe certain things which are confusing or cause me distress. The stories can be positive or negative. When telling myself a story I usually try to make it a good one. I recognize my storytelling arises out of uncertainty, my…
By: Mathieu Yuill on March 22, 2023
My best game of golf was one I played alone. On vacation at a cottage we had rented for the week, I went into the local town and played a round of 18. The course is a typical municipal course, each hole is fairly straight, the sand traps are easy to navigate and there certainly…
By: Kim Sanford on March 22, 2023
The evidence is mounting. The conclusion is clear: we are likely to misread reality. We’ve read about this through various lenses. Be it admitting our errors (Kathryn Schulz’s Being Wrong) or the risk of developing cancer (Chivers and Chivers How to Read Numbers), we must face our own misperceptions and just general lack of ability…
By: Cathy Glei on March 21, 2023
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7 The more I read, the more confused I think I am becoming. I was asking my husband all sorts of questions and sharing quandaries in my thinking; not sure that any of it was connecting. My system…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on March 21, 2023
I think of the things that I have been wrong about; it is a list that is longer than I care to admit. But let me list a few. I was wrong when I thought that me and my best friend in second grade would be friends forever, we are not even Facebook friends. I…
By: John Fehlen on March 20, 2023
Years ago, like in the early 1990’s, I read a book that was “all the rage” called “The Day America Told the Truth.” After a quick internet search for it, I was reminded that it was written by a then relatively unknown James Patterson, whose books have gone on to sell over 425 million copies,…
By: Tim Clark on March 20, 2023
“I hope this book will show you what a varied and extraordinary place the world really is” [1] Some families are sports families. Some are music families. Others are into animals, or the outdoors, or food. The Clarks are film people. Movies are something we all love, so every year my family settles into our…
By: Jennifer Vernam on March 20, 2023
For me, there was one pressing issue which surfaced in our reading this week. This was the discovery of our resistance to clearly identify (and deal with) our delusions due to our fear of losing community. It was concerning, but also articulated something I have sensed to be true, and this gave it language. In…
By: Dinka Utomo on March 17, 2023
Freedom comes when we start to allow people to see not only the glossy image but the mess as well -Simon P. Walker- Looking good and impressive is something that many people like. That’s why many people will try to conceal their past and background. Many people don’t like their true identity to be…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 16, 2023
John 13:35 says: “This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” One another shows up 100 times in the new testament of the Bible, and Love one another 18 times. What a powerful commandment. As I read Simon P. Walker’s “ˆLeading out of who you are: Discovering…
By: Russell Chun on March 16, 2023
In the movie “Shrek,” the ogre Shrek has an interesting dialogue with the donkey. He describes himself as person with layers – essentially an onion. Walker’s book, Leading out of Who You Are[1], is a bit like peeling away at the layers of one’s leadership personality over time. Like an onion. Residing with the “comb…
By: Todd E Henley on March 16, 2023
My father passed away in 1969 when I was three years old, leaving behind me and my younger brother. In 1999, I reflected back on my childhood and discovered something I had never noticed before. For 18 years my mom cooked dinner for me and my brother Troy and we would sit at the dining…
By: Adam Harris on March 15, 2023
A few weeks ago, I attended a community luncheon that revolved around mental health awareness. The goal was to break stigmas around psychological and emotional health issues and provide more resources for churches in our area. During the event, some pastors and members in the community shared their experiences of rejection and shame for experiencing…
By: Mathieu Yuill on March 15, 2023
Lately I have been working on saying nothing. I am chatty, I know that. I like to have conversations, I enjoy asking questions and engaging people in dialogue. I also enjoy being asked questions and sharing my responses to ideas or suppositions; the chance to insert my opinion is insatiable. This is my front stage…
By: Esther Edwards on March 15, 2023
My one-minute gaze into Nelson Mandela’s prison cell had a profound impact on me. That neatly folded prison blanket represented the dailyness of Mandela’s life for 27 years. The consequence of not folding a blanket to perfection in the prisons he was kept in would produce a severe beating. A leader who had already…
By: Kally Elliott on March 15, 2023
“Our task, as human beings, as human leaders, is…to grow up, to learn, through the experiences we are given, who we are – what it means to be courageous, what it is to serve, what it is to be loved and to love, what it is to be real, what it is to be fully…
By: Pam Lau on March 15, 2023
“Am I really what others say of me? Or am I only what I know of myself? . . .Who Am I? This one or the other? Am I this one today and tomorrow another? Am I both at once? Before others a hypocrite and in my own eyes a pitiful, whimpering weakling? . .…
By: Jenny Dooley on March 15, 2023
My missionary career began as a 23-year-old new wife and mother with a fresh university degree in hand. My dream to minister overseas came sooner than imagined. While excited to be heading to Jakarta, Indonesia, I lacked confidence that I was prepared for the work ahead. Nothing magically changed on the 36-hour journey between Seattle…
By: Cathy Glei on March 14, 2023
Using Food stamps, gathering government commodities and collecting pop cans for extra funds were just a few of the regular survival strategies in my family. I grew up in a low income family. However, I had two parents who loved God, were devoted to one another and loved their children. My dad, a highly intelligent…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on March 14, 2023
At the beginning of my second semester at Berkeley, my friend and I were invited to attend a leadership training. We were newly selected leaders of a campus student organization that worked with high school students of color to assist with applying for admission into UC Berkeley and providing retention services after admissions. The training…
