Pakistan – Day 3

To market, to market, to buy some fat rope…

I needed rope for a game that I’m facilitating on the fourth day of the conference, so we made a trip into the local market.  I don’t know why anyone would willingly escort me into town.  I attract a lot of attention, and I’m not sure all [...]

Fake It Till You Make It

Unless we are compelled to do something, most of us live life doing the things we feel like doing.  Happiness, comfort and pleasure are our main motivators during our non-working hours.  This approach keeps us firmly rooted in our comfort zones.
Unfortunately, the tricky thing about comfort zones is that they tend to shrink if they [...]

Naked Lobster

Ever thought about how a lobster grows?  Because of its rigid shell, the larger it gets, the more uncomfortable the lobster becomes.  Eventually, it has to shed its old shell in order to grow a new, roomier model.  This process is repeated multiple times (as many as 25 times over the first 5-7 years of [...]

R.U.T.S.

R.U.T.S.   The grooves that wear into relationships.  The kind of grooves that lock us into destructive patterns of behavior with those around us.
R.U.T.S. are related to the stories we tell ourselves about other people.  They are S.I.F.T. stories, not S.W.I.F.T. stories, and they are powerful.  R.U.T.S. are why you always end up in a fight [...]

Leaving the Cocoon

One day, a small opening appeared in a cocoon.  A man sat and watched as a butterfly struggled for several hours to force its body through the tiny hole.  But then, it seemed to stop making any  progress.
It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could not go any [...]

The Center of All Christianity

Someone asked me the other day where I was from before I moved to Thailand, and I told them that we had most recently lived in Colorado Springs, CO.  “Oh yeah,” he said, “isn’t that the center of all Christianity?”  He was making a joke about the number of Christian organizations based in Colorado Springs, [...]

The Elephant in the Room

Ever had the experience of having an “elephant in the room?”  It’s what happens when there is something big and disturbing that we all know about but won’t discuss.  We stress over it; we pretend it’s not there; we go to great lengths to maneuver around it… all because we don’t [...]

Reset the Zero

Believe it or not, heating water from -1/2OC to +1/2 OC (1 degree) requires 80 times the energy that is required to heat water from +1 OC to +2 OC (1 degree).  Why so much difference?  It’s because changing ice to water (-1/2OC to +1/2 OC) requires a change in state.  [...]

Response Time

What do these events have in common?
· A worldwide flood
· The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
· Wrestling with Jacob
· The burning bush
· The plagues of Egypt
· Bread from Heaven
· The march around Jericho
· The bronze serpent
· Balaam’s donkey
· Making the sun stand still
· The sign of the fleece
· Healing Naaman’s leprosy in the river
· Making [...]

“I’m going to make you an office you can’t refuse.”

In Thailand, the boss of an office is like a father to those who work for him.  Because of his rank in the organization and often his age, he is held in very high esteem, and whatever he says goes.  It’s a very hierarchical system – reminds me of The Godfather.
Since I moved here ten [...]