Devotionals

What does the British Army of the Second Boer War, the Russian Army of World War I and the French Army of World War II have in common?  They all entered battle unprepared.  Overconfident, in 1899 the British Army brought their outdated, colonial warfare techniques to fight against an army with modern rifles and artillery.  In World War I the Russians mobilized their troops [...]

“Patrol” is often referred to as the “backbone of policing” because it’s the foundational role of the job.  In the Patrol Division, each officer is assigned a geographic “beat,” for which he or she is responsible.  When a beat has more calls-for-service coming in than that officer can handle, those from neighboring beats are dispatched to pick up the slack. When I was on [...]

The 2001 Enron scandal involved sophisticated forms of financial fraud to artificially inflate earnings and hide billions of dollars of debt.  When exposed, it revealed that $2 billion of retirement savings by thousands of everyday workers was lost.  The CEO and chairman were fully aware of the potential harm of their misconduct, and they used their expertise to perpetrate the crime anyway. For good [...]

People react differently to change, and while some are more tolerant of it, even the most flexible can find themselves overcome with anxiety when they are life-altering ones.  Getting married, moving, starting a new job or losing a loved one are examples of those kinds of impactful life disruptions.  When change is imposed on you, it can feel like you have no control, leaving [...]

The words are frequently interchanged, but there is a difference between guilt and shame.  Guilt is related to actions.  When you violate God’s law (sin) you feel guilty (for good reason).  Because guilt is tied to actions, it can be resolved the same way.  Guilt motivates people to take action to seek forgiveness from others and to repent before the Lord.  Proverbs 28:13 contrasts [...]

I recently watched a childhood favorite with two of my grandsons, The Wizard of Oz.  In it, Dorothy and her newfound friends progressed to the end of the yellow brick road where they entered the bejeweled capital, the Emerald City.  Once inside, they were greeted with gleeful songs and sparkling smiles because, after all, it was home to the “wonderful wizard.” You know the story.  [...]