When was the last time you watched a child simply play? Not in a uniform, not on a schedule, not under the watchful eye of coaches or officials—just playing for the sheer joy of it. Having never been an athlete or a parent myself, I may not fully grasp the tug‑of‑war adults feel in trying …
Category: Leadership and Culture
Climate Change
As an educator who teaches environmental health, I could easily present statistics and expert opinions about the physical well‑being of our planet. But that’s not the Climate Change I want to talk about today. Instead, I want to invite you to consider a shift far more urgent than melting ice caps or receding glaciers: the …
Troublesome Women
In my earlier post Here Comes Trouble, I talked about the good kind of trouble—the kind that might even have you humming along to that 1990s country classic, “T‑R‑O‑U‑B‑L‑E.” But when we look at Jesus and His disciples, “trouble” takes on a deeper meaning. It isn’t distress or anxiety; it’s a holy disruption—an interruption that …
A Thousand Cuts
How did I feel when my institution’s all‑male leadership left me sitting alone on the row behind them at the conference athletic meetings? I remember wondering whether they would want their own wives to experience that same awkward moment—standing alone, excluded from the row, rather than welcomed as respected colleagues among their peers. I shrugged …
Flourish Together
How do you know when you are trusting God’s timing and not your own? If hindsight were equal to foresight, the answer might come easily. But if I could see the future, there would be no need for faith—no need to rely on God. This Paradoxical Life often rattles my thinking and leaves me confused. …
Me-First Attitude
If you pose a question like, “What are your thoughts on the current college transfer rules?” you’re almost guaranteed to spark a lively debate about the state of intercollegiate athletics—especially on a campus where nearly 80 percent of students are athletes. Teach in a sport-related discipline, and the intensity rises: not only are most students …
Transplanted
One of the charming aspects of being an academic is that you are often surrounded by experts in a variety of fields and disciplines from healthcare to soil science! Like others on campus, I can be guilty of gushing about subjects I find intriguing, whether that involves the dimensions of wellness, Unreasonable Hospitality, or Appreciative …
Singles Conference
Evidently, this particular post needed more than three years of contemplation before coming together. That fact gives me hope that Silent Grief will one day be written too! Because the reality is that both of these topics related to Singleness need to be voiced and yet the words needed to articulate these intimate issues fail …
Second Mile Spirit
Imagine entering a college classroom and seeing three pairs of shoes lining the middle aisle between tables—men’s hiking boots, women’s running shoes, and children’s Spiderman light-up sneakers. As the class began, I asked for students willing to demonstrate walking in these shoes. Thankfully, Angie quickly volunteered, placing her feet in the men’s boots, she used …
Unreasonable Hospitality
Do you ever have random memories from childhood pop into your head? Obviously, something triggered the back recesses of your brain, but you really aren’t sure what caused the memory to appear? At some point in the tween years, Denise and I played hotel in our Munford home, using the wood-burning stove as the front …
Flourishing @ Life 