Past Featured Articles

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The Wrong Kind of Great
By Monte Wilson

8th Century B.C. It’s the same old story. Israel has once again gone off the reservation. Its leaders are corrupt. The poor have been kicked to the curb. The people are chasing around some new and shiny idols that are promising fewer commandments, shorter workweeks, and their neighbor’s houses. It's a redefining of good and evil, baby, where everyone can run around proclaiming his goodness while behaving like demon spawn. Can it get any better than this?

 

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The Battle for Self-Definition
By Monte Wilson

Once you label me you negate me.

--Søren Kierkegaard

I think one of the greatest and most critical battles for each of us is the fight for self-definition

 

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Life in the Valley
By Monte Wilson

He that is down needs fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.

--From John Bunyan's, The Valley of Humiliation

 

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Life in the Valley: Turning Humiliation Into Humility
By Monte Wilson

He that is down needs fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide.

--From John Bunyan's, The Valley of Humiliation

 

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You Expect Me to Do What?
By Monte Wilson

Expectations are produced by beliefs. Even the definition of the word suggests that this is so, for to expect something is to believe that it will or should take place. When you tell me that you are my friend, and I believe you, because I have certain beliefs regarding the nature of friendship, I will expect behaviors congruent with those beliefs. Conversely, if I have no expectations of you, then I have no beliefs regarding you or our relationship. It seems to me that one of life’s greater challenges is to pay attention to what our expectations are telling us about our beliefs.

 

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Our Ever Present Past
By Monte Wilson

The past is never dead. It's not even past. --William Faulkner, “Requiem for a Nun.”

The past is always with us. That past you don’t want to look at and deal with? It is haunting you and shaping you in unimaginable and unconscious ways. You look at your present life and say to yourself “it is what it is” without realizing that what is could have been different—a far more fulfilling life-experience—had you actually dug deeper and dealt with those past events which are still very present and alive. Still could go that way. You still could find deeper meaning and purpose in your life, if you would dig deeper. Most people never do, of course. They prefer closing the door on the painful past.

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Embracing Our Mortality
By Monte Wilson

No one can say confidently that he will still be living tomorrow. --Euripides

I have faced “certain death” on three occasions. Each time I was “dramatically changed” … until the drama of the event started receding into the past. Check that: it didn’t “recede,” as this would imply I was a passive bystander in the process. No, I consciously repressed it, buried it, and then hypnotized myself into a state of forgetfulness as to where it was buried. I preferred being cocooned and protected from the terror to being drastically changed in heart and mind.

It was an all too easy process for me: I can’t function normally if I am constantly facing and embracing death. Note the rationalization, “I have children to rear, bills to pay,” and the depersonalization, “death,” rather than “my death.”

Legendary Leaders: Haunted by Death
By Monte Wilson

Part of what makes up the mindset of a Legendary Leader is the commitment to leaving a legacy: an opus that says, “This is who I was; this is who and what was important to me.” Of course, to think this way means that they have come to grips with the reality of their mortality. 

The topic of death is pretty much non-existent, today. At best, we may speak of it conceptually but it is quite rare for individuals to fully face the reality that they are going to die.

The Cost of Your Dreams
Monte Wilson

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

In this life, suffering and sacrifices come to us no matter what: we might as well go through hardships that are preparing us for the realization of our dreams, rather than suffering hardships for … nothing.

Monte E. Wilson 

You and God

One of the most grand and mysterious assertions in all of scripture is that God dwells within us. Examples: "Christ in me, the hope of glory"(Colossians 1:27). "He (God) that is within you is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world" (I John 4:4).

Blessings and Prayers are Good Medicine
By Anne Daniel, RN, BSN, CCE, CPCE

After sharing a blessing of laughter or song with someone, how do you feel? How about a blessing of encouraging prayer directed towards someone in need, how do you know that it worked? Is the person uplifted, more positive and more connected to God, or maybe healthier? How does the other individual respond? Are we falling back on Hope or Faith when saying a blessing or prayer? Or, does blessing someone or praying for someone really work in helping that person heal? The medical evidence that blessings and prayer are beneficial for healing is irrefutable. Blessings and Prayers are Good Medicine.

Your Genius
by CV Doner, PhD

What do the following five people have in common?

A single mom is raising three children and working 40 hours each week. At least once a week she takes the kids to the park, McDonald'sTM and church and is taking piano lessons. She does all of this without the help of her ex-husband.

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