In 1987 the suit-wearing, red-headed British sensation Rick Astley debuted “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It stayed atop the charts for months and became a music sensation. My generation loved it. Thanks to internet memes, Astley is enjoying resurging fame. Kids send a link that is mislabeled to a friend, and the link takes them to a short gif of Astley dancing. “You just got Rick Rolled,” the kids...
The road to change is a difficult, whether your circumstances were caused by your own choices or instead are a result of the actions and decisions of others. While nothing makes the journey “easy,” walking it out one step at a time with the support of your peers and a biblical community makes it achievable. In the support group curriculum Overcoming Addiction: 9 Steps Toward Freedom, counselor...
The concept of idolatry may or may not be familiar to you, so let’s make sure we have the same understanding of what the words idol and idolatry mean. Unlike the Israelites bowing down to worship a golden calf or carved image of wood or stone, in our culture an idol is not typically a statue. However, today’s idols are similar to the idols in ancient biblical times in that they are still...
When I was a sophomore in high school, I was on the cross-country team. For that one season only. It happened by mistake—it’s a long story. I was not very good. I usually finished the race somewhere in the middle of the pack. But I learned a lesson in my one year of cross-country that I’ve never forgotten. The course we ran for our home meets was in a local park. The path was a figure eight. We...
Some people start the new year with resolutions—hoping that the new year will give them an opportunity for a reset. You know—new year, new me. I’ve narrowed that down to just one word—and not really an aspirational word—just a word to describe what I expect the year to hold. The year after our son died the word was “arduous.” And that year lived up to its word—every day was a painful slog. The...
