The Caffeinated Christian

A few nights ago I watched the final half hour of the Kennedy Center Honors.  The Kennedy Center website states the following about how the honorees are chosen, “The primary criterion is excellence, and artistic achievement in dance, music, theater, opera, motion pictures, and television is considered.” Before I went to bed that night I spent some time reading the Bible and reflecting on the idea of excellence in my craft, preaching.  While preachers do not preach for the accolades of an arts guild, there should be no less concern for excellence.  As ambassadors of The Kingdom our aspirations for excellence in what we do should be exponentially more. Excellence in preaching requires that we be prepared and powerful . There should be a passion in our process from preparation to delivery, a thirst for excellence, an attention to detail.  Like a gifted songwriter who makes a deliberate choice with every word, our desire to communicate effectively should be not less, but again,

In the new year we often commit ourselves to reading.  If reading is part of your resolution, please consider my book  #TheWalk that was released last October.   #TheWalk is a great choice as your first book for the new year. Why #TheWalk ?  January is a month of regret and resolve.  Our regrets often give birth to our resolutions.  The 7 pounds I gained from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day has served to make dieting a top priority in my life.  While weight, reading, saving, and time considerations often dominate the top of our list, there should also be some more lofty goals somewhere in the mix.  Instead of only considering what we may lose, save, or manage, how about considering some things you would like to finish, start, or even create? It is difficult to be different.  If you want your situation to change, you must change.  The failure to be different is what usually trips up our resolutions.  John Maxwell said, " You'll never change your life until you chan

Over the weekend I made one of my rare visits to the cinema.  Sightings of Sasquatch, a chupacabra riding a bicycle, or Nessie doing the backstroke at Loch Ness are as likely as sightings of me at the movies.  Why?  It costs too much, people eat pop corn like horses feeding from a trough, and the whole thing takes too long.  Our most recent selection, Into the Woods , sported each of these dreaded elements of the cinema; a $50 family price tag, a family of stallions with a barrel of endless pop corn seated just behind us, and a 2+ hour runtime.  Apparently we have lost the art of telling a story in less than half a day. My synopsis of Into the Woods : your favorite childhood fairy tales in a rugby scrum beneath the trees.  My wife called it Les Miserables Disney style as nearly all of the dialogue of the seemingly never to end movie is sung.  I imagine it will be one of those movies that I don’t particularly enjoy while everyone else on the row may be giddy as girls about it.