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Continue reading →: Election Reflection
“A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.” – James Freeman Clarke As campaign season ramps up with the major party conventions this week and next, you’re likely in one of two camps. The first camp is made up of those who are already weary…
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Continue reading →: Holiday Road
“A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it.” – Robert Orben How does your family take vacations? If you’re a dad, are you one of the dads who tells the kids, “We’re starting with empty bladders and a full tank of gas and we’re not…
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Continue reading →: Who’s In Control?
“If you do not believe that control is a major issue in your life, study the ways you respond when someone or something disrupts your plan for the day.” – M. Robert Mulholland We are creatures who crave control. We’re brought up believing that the more education we receive, the…
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Continue reading →: Challenges and Choices
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” – Stephen Covey Tom Schumm claims that brain cancer is the best thing that ever happened to him. In 2002, just five months after he was married, he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He…
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Continue reading →: Shhhhhh!
"I have often repented of having spoken, but never of having remained silent.” Abba Arsenius I had the opportunity and pleasure of spending two weeks in the desert. The desert is a sparsely populated place. There isn’t much water in the desert, so there aren’t many people there. Where they…
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Continue reading →: What If?
“Nobody has things just as he would like them. The thing to do is to make a success with what material I have. It is a sheer waste of time and soulpower to imagine what I would do if things were different.” – Dr. Frank Crane “If only…” “What if…”How much…
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Continue reading →: An Honest Lent
“Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scraping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say “No” to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own…
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Continue reading →: Lenten Self-Reflection
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he…
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Continue reading →: Jesus Wants to be Your Personal King
In some circles it’s not popular to talk about Jesus as your personal Savior, or having a personal relationship with Jesus. Detractors claim that the words “personal Savior” or “personal relationship with Jesus” don’t occur in the Bible. True. However, Jesus is a person and he invites us into relationship…
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Continue reading →: A Virtuous Life is a Happy Life
I’m struck by how many people arrive at mid-life and discover what they thought would make them happy has utterly failed. They pursued the American Dream only to find that it turned, not into a nightmare (at least that would be interesting), but into a ho-hum, boring, uninspired existence. So,…
Hello,
I’m Chris
Welcome to Flourishing Life, a space designed to help you pursue the abundant life God offers everyone. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (ESV). I’m convinced God created the world for flourishing human life. However, we’ve all contributed to the brokenness in the world and our own lives. Many don’t even realize a better way is possible. My hope for this blog is that you’ll discover the life God has always intended for you, the ones you love, and the world.
Flourishing Life 