We all root for David, you know. The little guy, armed with only a sling and a stone, standing up to the big, bad bully named Goliath. David’s defeat of Super McMuscle Man is an iconic three-millenia-old metaphor for the struggles and battles we wage everyday, both personal and professional. All of us want to be the one who brains and beheads the giant and earns the praise of those we defended. If we’re going to use David’s most famous victory …

Before Disney officially crowned her as their newest Princess this past Saturday, Merida from the movie Brave (2012) had some work done, as you can see in the image above. New hair. New dress. Slimmer hips. Fuller lips. Larger eyes and lower neckline.  Over 130,000 have signed an online petition asking Disney to “Keep Merida Brave”, to let her come home from the spa and just be real. Disney never directly mentions why they turned a character based on its …

I’ve been fortunate to attend and speak at dozens of conferences, large and small, over the last two decades and have watched attendees display some pretty strange behavior:

I was performing my suburban penance a couple weeks ago – mowing the lawn for the first time this year – when our daughters catapulted themselves out the front door and sprinted full-speed down the block to catch the ice cream truck. It didn’t matter to them that the truck had a 50-yard head start. Or that they were Usain Bolt-ing in bare feet through grass clippings, anthills, spiders, and dead worms drying on the sidewalk. Or that one would …

I didn’t sleep last night. That’s because Iron Man 3 drops today and brings with it a paradise of summer blockbusters: Star Trek: Into Darkness, Man of Steel, Monsters University, The Great Gatsby, Now You See Me, The Wolverine, World War Z, and White House Down. I’m even looking forward to The Lone Ranger, even if it is Johnny Depp playing Captain Jack Sparrow playing Tonto. What summer movie are you most excited for? While you’re thinking about it, enjoy this …

Driving home from Tennessee last night, I listened to most of the book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream. It’s rocked my world and forced me to re-examine exactly how I relate to the stuff and souls in it. Dr. David Platt, the book’s author and pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Alabama, shared how he and his wife saved sacrificially in order to adopt a child from Kazakhstan. He went on to relate how his …

They’re called NDE’s – Near-Death Experiences. Those who’ve had them report a variety of sights and sounds, ranging from feelings of profound peace, visions of brights lights and a long tunnel, music, encounters with God, and seeing loved ones long gone. During an extended Barnes and Noble outing with the family this weekend, I read about Don Piper’s 1981 NDE in his book 90 Minutes in Heaven. His wasn’t the only tale on the shelves, though; he was joined by a four-year-old (Heaven is …

Anyone who has known me longer than 11 seconds is aware that I’m a massive fan of the TV show The West Wing…indeed virtually anything penned by the brilliant screenwriting talent that is Aaron Sorkin. And even though it isn’t a movie, which I’ve acknowledged before, the show had the look, feel, sophistication, and impact of one. It’s been a long week for you, I’ll bet. Take 4 minutes to enjoy a well-deserved break and some space-based inspiration.

This is the view from the Stage Terrace in the Hilbert Circle Theater, home of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. These 50 seats, stretching along the back and sides of the main stage and regarded as the best in the house, afford their occupants an enviable view of the artists below. But a report in the Indianapolis Star last week stated that the director of the ISO, Krzysztof Urbanski, has barred patrons from sitting in those seats during his performances because …

When was the last time you received a really good compliment? If you can’t remember, you’re not alone for two big reasons: It’s harder for us homo sapiens types to keep the good stuff in the memory banks for very long because of something called negativity bias: our hard-wired tendency to react stronger to, and remember, bad stuff instead of good. Most of the times, the compliments we receive are very general: “You rock!” “You’re awesome!” “Keep up the good work, dude/dudette!” They leave us …