Consider the time you looked at the moon and actually considered the profound miracle of existence, of the perfect symmetry and balance of the Universe that things float and remain in the space-time continuum so consistently and how one-in-a-million it all is.

That’s when it becomes my challenge to hold up a mirror, as kindly as possible, and help them see what they can’t see, to give them freedom (not just financially).

There will always be problems, always be tweaks to make or lessons to learn or habits to create.

But there will only be one today, one present moment like this one.

Communities are people bonded together not so much over who they are as much as who they are trying to become.

What if your darkness, brokenness, frustration, and difficulty were meant to be dark fibers woven into the beautiful tapestry of your life?

But what I learn, with every passing cloud that floats overhead, is that when our eyes are on Him, through it all, it is well with us.

In Christianity, Jesus came to die, not so you and I could bore ourselves to tears every week, but so we could live in the overflow of His glory and experience joy unspeakable—in the good times and bad.

But faith isn’t the safety net underneath our brains, to catch us when we fall; it’s the window through which we look when we think about anything at all.

We are afloat in this sea of knowledge, but we take it for granted. We have access to all of it, so we don’t feel the need to enjoy or experience it.

My point is this: commerce is a means of grace and a means of flourishing and making life more livable.

This is what happens when you cram an indefinably large and complex universe into a narrow, materialistic worldview. Some leakage happens.

That pernicious evil is common to mankind and it seeps in, not through immorality but through our treasures and blessings, and it seeks to strangle the child-like joy within.

But I think the reason writers write is to help the reader connect his specific problem with the bigger picture, to remove the blinders that automatically descend on us all so that we are equipped with what ancient scholars call vision.

We impress ourselves with things that aren’t actually impressive, so in order to impress others we have to take our prized possessions and sacrifice them to get clear again.

And yes, decision-making is a skill, like driving, but it’s not something you can “get.” It’s something that “gets” you.

We are all like rocks skipping across the surface of life, trying desperately to slow down and enjoy it and relax, but as soon as we do, we slip below the surface and forget what we were made to do.

I can tell you from experience that farm-raised birds are are lazy and don’t really enjoy flying, even when you kick at them.

This is my 94th column and I am just now saying this, but thank you for spending your limited time engaging your mind with mine on a weekly basis.

Well I have a son now, and I’m afraid you’ll be hearing a lot more about him. Tying into last week’s column, I have been thinking a lot about love.