About three years ago, we went to a non-profit fund raiser and bought a dinner for 8 in our home prepared by a private chef who had generously donated this auction item. We invited three other couples and reserved a night when the chef could cook in our home. We supplied the wine and the chef …
Belief and Behavior
For the past year, I have slowly read books by St. Augustine (354-430). I am now reading a couple of pages per day from his acclaimed Confessions, written in Latin between 397 and 400. His humble beginnings were overcome through his parent’s sacrifices to give him a classic education. He trained to …
SoulPurpose
I am in the final phase of life: retirement. I somehow made it through the initial stages of adolescence and early adulthood, an intense period of learning about yourself and the world around you. It is a period when a person develops individual and communal skills that hopefully lead to …
Volatility
I have been through a number of crises during my professional life. I was hired out of university into my first engineering position when energy prices were at record highs. All my university engineering friends found good jobs. Four years later, oil prices fell and a long energy recession went into …
Giftedness
We own property on Vancouver Island just north of Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. Our place is a little more than a mile south of Sidney, a small retirement community near the ferry between Vancouver Island and Vancouver. Last November, the royal couple, Harry and Meghan, decided to …
Dualism
Christianity began in a Greco-Roman world. The New Testament was written in Greek, the common language spoken throughout the ancient world. Like English today, Greek was the language of commerce, diplomacy, and scholarship. The Apostle Paul was able to travel and effectively communicate over an …
Build – Build – Build
This morning, I sat at my kitchen table and ate breakfast while reading the financial news. On the front page of the Wall Street Journal was an article by Soo Oh titled: Austin, Nashville Rank at Top of Hottest U.S. Job Markets (February 24, 2020). Since I live in Austin, this was no surprise! Help …
Running
I ran the Austin Half-Marathon on February 16th. It started and ended on Congress Avenue in front of the Texas State Capital. It was a humid Sunday morning with temperatures in the mid-50’s that rose to almost 70F by noon. The run began with a gradual uphill climb north toward Highway 71, then the …
Doing God’s Business
I graduated from business school, spent 34 years working in a business, and did hundreds of business deals during my trading years, both in the United States and in other countries. I have a binder containing hundreds of business cards and enjoyed adding value to the financial bottom line. But is …
Vocations during the Reformation – IIII
England settled into an uneasy truce once the monarchy was restored in 1661. The throne was not firmly established until 1689, when William and Mary were co-monarchs. The definition of vocation changed from the broader life stations (husband, mother, citizen, occupation) to mean exclusively a paid …