By all accounts, Mabel is not wealthy. I met her some years ago. Her stature is small, and her speech is slow if not brusque. I’m quite sure that she’ll never build a big organization. Her skills to manage people are limited. As a fundraiser, she defies the rules. She doesn’t have a great website, full-color brochures, a catchy tag-line, …
It’s one of those funny stories really. He’s a short man. And he’s despised. He knows it too. He’s a tax collector. He tells himself that he’s just doing his job, and if he collects a little extra, well, so what? After all, the people are mean and ugly to him—he sees it in their eyes and hears it in …
She stood. She stood, but her husband sat while the worship singing took place. Now that’s not unusual. Sometimes the standing and singing can get a little long. Some will sit down for a bit of relief. But there was something different with them. She swayed with the music with her hands raised. He sat—almost immoveable as if in pain. He seemed to want to …
I’ll admit it. I’m pretty stingy when it comes to my time. My days are full. My calendar is tight. I call it efficiency. I wonder if this is the way it’s supposed to be? Proverbs 11.24 says “The world of the generous gets larger and larger” (MSG). The Apostle Paul understood this verse well. He travelled a lot. He visited a lot of places, …
My mother is 87 years old. She grew up during World War II—in Japan. During the war, she had to run through the street of Japan to find the nearest bomb shelters. They had their house burn down during the war. As a result, all of her family heirlooms are gone. She doesn’t have a photo of her mom or …
On January 12, 2016, David Bowie passed away at the age of 69. He died after an 18-month battle with cancer. In his will, Bowie requested that his remains be taken to Bali and be cremated there in accordance with Buddhist rituals. Despite declaring himself gay in 1972, Bowie was married twice. His first wife, Mary Barnett, gave birth to …
Have you been wounded in your life? We all have. Somewhere along the line disappointment, small and large, has entered our lives. Some of that wounding is like a sword thrust. Other times it’s more like a gradual awakening. I’ve worked with many families where they’ve separated because of some incident or unkind word or deed that occurred long ago. …
Why be generous?
Sometimes people ask me, “Why do you write about family legacy?” When people think about family legacy, they tend to think about rich people, money and cumbersome estate documents. But that’s not what legacy means. My own father died of cancer when I was 12. I wasn’t allowed to see him. He died in an era where children weren’t allowed …
Mother Theresa said it: If you give away what you do not need, it is not giving. Each year, groups like the Salvation Army receive approximately $5.1 billion dollars worth of donated articles, mostly clothing. A sad fact about this giving is that much of it may well end up at the landfill. Why?
