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Practice, Practice, Practice Creates Experts

In today’s excerpt – practice. Rather than being the result of genetics or inherent genius, truly outstanding skill in any domain is rarely achieved with less than ten thousand hours of practice over ten years’ time

“For those on their way to greatness [in intellectual or physical endeavors],
several themes regarding practice consistently come to light:

1. Practice changes your body. Researchers have recorded a constellation of physical changes (occurring in direct response to practice) in the muscles, nerves, hearts, lungs, and brains of those showing profound increases in skill level in any domain.
2. Skills are specific. Individuals becoming great at one particular skill do not serendipitously become great at other skills. Chess champions can remember hundreds of intricate chess positions in sequence but can have a perfectly ordinary memory for everything else. Physical and intellectual changes are ultraspecific responses to particular skill requirements.
3. The brain drives the brawn. Even among athletes, changes in the brain are arguably the most profound, with a vast increase in precise task knowledge, a shift from conscious analysis to intuitive thinking (saving time and energy), and elaborate self-monitoring mechanisms that allow for constant adjustments in real time.
4. Practice style is crucial. Ordinary practice, where your current skill level is simply being reinforced, is not enough to get better. It takes a special kind of practice to force your mind and body into the kind of change necessary to improve.
5. Short-term intensity cannot replace long-term commitment. Many crucial changes take place over long periods of time. Physiologically, it’s impossible to become great overnight.

“Across the board, these last two variables – practice style and practice
time – emerged as universal and critical. From Scrabble players to dart players to soccer players to violin players, it was observed that the uppermost achievers not only spent significantly more time in solitary study and drills,
but also exhibited a consistent (and persistent) style of preparation that K. Anders Ericsson came to call ‘deliberate practice.’ First introduced in a 1993 Psychological Review article, the notion of deliberate practice went far beyond
the simple idea of hard work. It conveyed a method of continual skill improvement. ‘Deliberate practice is a very special form of activity that differs
from mere experience and mindless drill,’ explains Ericsson. ‘Unlike playful
engagement with peers, deliberate practice is not inherently enjoyable. It …
does not involve a mere execution or repetition of already attained skills but
repeated attempts to reach beyond one’s current level which is associated with
frequent failures.’ …

“In other words, it is practice that doesn’t take no for an answer; practice that perseveres; the type of practice where the individual keeps raising the
bar of what he or she considers success. …

“[Take] Eleanor Maguire’s 1999 brain scans of London cabbies, which revealed greatly enlarged representation in the brain region that controls spatial awareness. The same holds for any specific task being honed; the relevant
brain regions adapt accordingly. …

“[This type of practice] requires a constant self-critique, a pathological restlessness, a passion to aim consistently just beyond one’s capability so that daily disappointment and failure is actually desired, and a never-ending resolve to dust oneself off and try again and again and again. …

“The physiology of this process also requires extraordinary amounts of
elapsed time – not just hours and hours of deliberate practice each day,
Ericsson found, but also thousands of hours over the course of many years. Interestingly, a number of separate studies have turned up the same common
number, concluding that truly outstanding skill in any domain is rarely achieved in less than ten thousand hours of practice over ten years’ time (which comes to an average of three hours per day). From sublime pianists to unusually profound physicists, researchers have been very hard-pressed to find any examples of truly extraordinary performers in any field who reached the top of their game before that ten-thousand-hour mark.”

Author: David Shenk
Title: The Genius in All of Us
Publisher: Doubleday
Date: Copyright 2010 by David Shenk
Pages: 53-57

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One Simple Question Can Change The World

A brief article by Dr. George Spaeth challenges all of us to ask and act on one simple question.  The question: What are you doing to make the world better?

Part of Dr. Spaeth’s  routine is to ask his elderly patients: What are you doing with your time now? It was disconcerting to him that the vast majority answered: “Nothing.”

This generated his follow up question to 30 of his elderly patients: What are you doing to make the world better?  2 of 30 took up the challenge and began to do something to make the world better.  A great change from their prior answer: “Nothing.”

Dr. Spaeth lists many websites that we can go to help change the world; here are a few of those sites:

American Red Cross (www.redcross.org)

Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org)

Mentor (www.mentoring.org)

Volunteers in Medicine (www.vimi.org)

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Under Pressure: The Search for a Stress Vaccine

Robert Sapolsky was my faculty advisor for my biology major in college.  He is a phenomenal teacher and lecturer.  He told all his classes not to be doctors, but to consider being a bench researcher because if you are able to create a vaccine, you will immediately cure more people than any doctor could help in their lifetime.  He is a world famous specialist on stress hormones.  This is an article about his research.  An article that reminds us that stress is a source of much of our physical, emotional, and mental hardships.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/07/ff_stress_cure/all/1

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Are Things Getting Worse-Politically etc?

This book excerpt was very eye opening to someone who hears a lot from friends and colleagues that everything is unraveling, that the political climate, the financial climate is in dire straights…  The past was better and brighter than the future looks….  Well, reading history opens our eyes to how crazy, horrible, and frightening the past events were…

In today’s excerpt – the deadlocked presidential election of 1876, during the nation’s centennial, pitted New York Democrat Samuel Tilden against Ohio Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. At stake was enough autonomy for Southern states to disenfranchise blacks – and massive voting fraud in states like South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana gave Tilden the electoral edge. President Grant armed Washington against rumored attacks, and the crisis was not resolved until March of 1877 in a deal that gave Hayes the presidency in trade for the tacit authority these Southern states sought:
“As the new year of 1877 dawned, the nation appeared hopelessly deadlocked.
Officially Tilden had 184 electoral votes and Hayes 165, leaving 20 votes up for
grab. Hayes needed them all; Tilden required only a single vote to be president. The framers of the Constitution had not considered such a situation, simply stating that the electoral votes should be ‘directed to the President of the Senate,’ typically the vice president of the United States, who ‘shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates and the votes shall then be counted.’ But who decided which votes to open and read if there were two [different sets of votes] – or, as with Florida, three sets? …

“Congress struggled to find a solution, remaining in continuous session into March. In January, each house appointed a committee to investigate the election. The House committee, dominated by Democrats, discovered that
corruption in the three questionable states meant that all three should go to
Tilden; the Senate committee, dominated by Republicans, concluded that fraud
and voter suppression in the three states meant that all should go to Hayes. This was not helpful. The House judiciary Committee then suggested the appointment of a joint special commission, which, after some very careful negotiation, led to a commission of five House members, five senators, and five Supreme Court justices. Originally the five justices were to be drawn from a hat, but Tilden killed that plan with the bon mot, ‘I may lose the Presidency, but I will not raffle for it.’ While Tilden and many other political leaders doubted the constitutionality of the commission, a consensus emerged that there were so many recipes for disaster that some resolution was required as quickly as possible, no matter how tenuous the legality of the process. Hayes and Tilden reluctantly accepted the commission in order to avoid a civil war. When one of Tilden’s advisers suggested publicly opposing the commission, Tilden shot back, ‘What is left but war?’

“Tilden’s fears found validation in the increasing calls for violence circulating
through the country. It was a time of rumors, disturbing and bizarre – and occasionally true – as well as loud demands for violence. Reportedly, President Grant was planning a coup, while Confederate general Joseph Shelby supposedly announced in St. Louis that he would lead an army on Washington to put Tilden in the White House. Hearing this latter story, Confederate hero Colonel John S. Mosby, the ‘Gray Ghost,’ went to the White House and offered Grant his services to help ensure Hayes’s inauguration. …

“Troubled by the professed willingness of his fellow Americans to take up arms
so soon after their devastating Civil War, President Grant prepared to defend the capital. Grant could call on only 25,000 unpaid troops, most of them in the
West, and had to tread lightly. He could not afford to alienate the Democrats,
but they gave every indication of deliberately weakening the ability of the federal government to protect its democratic institutions. Grant adroitly maneuvered his available units to send a message of resolve while not appearing aggressive, ordering artillery companies placed on all the entrances to Washington, D.C., the streets of which, as the New York Herald reported, ‘presented a martial appearance.’ Grant ordered the man-of-war Wyoming to anchor in the Potomac River by the Navy Yard, where its guns could cover both the Anacostia Bridge from Maryland and the Long Bridge from Virginia. Meanwhile, a company of Marines took up position on the Chain Bridge. General Sherman told the press, ‘We must protect the public property, . . . particularly the arsenals.’ There was no way Sherman was going to let white Southerners get their hands on federal arms without a fight, and his clever placement of a few units helped to forestall possible coups in Columbia and New Orleans.” …

“Members of Congress began bringing pistols to the Capitol, and in Colum-
bus, Ohio, a bullet was shot through a window of the Hayes home while the
family was at dinner.”

Author: Michael A. Bellesiles
Title: 1877
Publisher: The New Press
Date: Copyright 2010 by Michael A. Bellesiles
Pages: 38-41
Tags: Presidency, Elections

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Anti-Appreciative Inquiry

I have mentioned the concept of Appreciative Inquiry, the power of appreciation, and the effectiveness of positive psychology  in prior posts with plenty of supporting scientific and empiric evidence to support their efficacy.  But the sad truth is that our world is convinced that these things either don’t work or they are too hard to impliment.  These concepts are so foreign to us that they can be very hard to break old habits.

The typical Inquiry remains the dreaded yearly or quarterly employee evaluation.  This is the place where the boss critiques the employee.  We have all been ‘evaluated’, and we have all been found wanting.  Even if you receive a glowing evaluation, it takes only one ‘but’ to ruin it.  “You continue to do an amazing job, BUT you could improve in this or that…”  We are convinced that this negative feedback is essential and productive.  BUT if you are at all like me, I only hear the negative, and it burns into my heart.  I go sleepless for days stewing over my critique.  In fact, the negative causes me often to be counterproductive, frustrated, sad, depressed, discouraged, etc.
 
now in a parallel universe:
 
Your boss calls you into a room and gives you a list of sincere appreciation.  A list of blessings. A list of all the great things that you do.    Would your productivity go up? Would you work harder? Would you sleep well that night? Would you wake up excited to go to work the following day? Would you appreciate and encourage my co-workers and boss more? Would we all be more likely to smile, laugh, encourage, and bless those around us???

Now What?

What if we started to sincerely appreciate those around us? What if we took the time each day to choose someone to bless with words of affirmation? Can we all try this? I did.  WOW!  It almost brought the person to tears…it is THAT powerful.  If we all got into a rhythm of daily blessing those around us with words of encouragement, what might happen?? Please share with us your experience in trying this…

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Intimate, Eternal Marriage

I just heard of yet another divorce at work that unraveled by infidelity.  Marriage is tough, but the studies support that if you are in trouble, the worst thing to do is divorce.  Those couples who divorce are individually statistically doomed for loneliness, depression, anxiety, etc.  The marriages on the rocks that decide to make a run at staying together often do, and these married couples when asked 5 years down the line if they are happy usually say yes.  And they are very happy that they stuck it out.

What does an intimate, eternal, beautiful marriage look like?  How is it done?

A friend of mine’s wife wrote him a special praise message on her breast cancer blog, and it is a beautiful example of love for a lifetime and beyond.

“This entry is dedicated to my wonderful husband… In the words of my mom this past week ” Te ganaste la loteria con este hombre!” translation– ” You have won the lottery with this man” Not only did he sleep in the hospital with me both nights, waking up every hr and a half when the nurses came in to check on me, he came up with my medication schedule ( which I still don’t understand) , makes sure I’m taking them as directed, brought a little picnic table in our master bedroom so we can still eat as a family since I was bedridden for several days, he wakes the kids and gets them breakfast and ready for school everyday, drives them to school, missed his mens bible study because our daughter wanted to walk to school on “Walk to school day”, works from home because I asked him to, answers the phone for me, still works his insane hrs, helps get the kids ready for bed, took our daughter to the drs for a strange bump behind her ear, only to find out she had a fever, has been taking care of our daughter and her medication schedule for the last 3 1/2 days because I can’t risk getting whatever she has, slept in her room to get her whatever she needed throughout 2 nights and coached our son’s 3 flag football games today! Oh, and he had to bathe me twice because I couldn’t lift my arms! The guy is exhausted! I gave him 2 Tylenol pm’s, sent him to sleep alone in the office and pray he gets a full night’s sleep! He has been my knight in shining armor and I love him to death! God has blessed me with this amazing man!”

YES!

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Variety is Good for our Brains

Interesting information about study habits–overall theme: variety is good for our brains and our bodies.

In today’s excerpt – researchers have identified better ways for students to study, yet they often contradict received wisdom and have been ignored by the education system:

” ‘We have known these principles [for improved study] for some time, and it’s intriguing that schools don’t pick them up, or that people don’t learn them by trial and error,’ said Robert A. Bjork, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. ‘Instead, we walk around with all sorts of unexamined beliefs about what works that are mistaken.’

“Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are ‘visual learners’ and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. …

“Psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong. For instance, many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite. In one classic 1978 experiment, psychologists found that college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms – one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard – did far better on a test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room. Later studies have confirmed the finding, for a variety of topics. …

“Varying the type of material studied in a single sitting – alternating, for example, among vocabulary, reading and speaking in a new language – seems to leave a deeper impression on the brain than does concentrating on just one skill at a time. Musicians have known this for years, and their practice sessions often include a mix of scales, musical pieces and rhythmic work. Many athletes, too, routinely mix their workouts with strength, speed and skill drills. …

“In a study recently posted online by the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, Doug Rohrer and Kelli Taylor of the University of South Florida taught a group of fourth graders four equations, each to calculate a different dimension of a prism. Half of the children learned by studying repeated examples of one equation, say, calculating the number of prism faces when given the number of sides at the base, then moving on to the next type of calculation, studying repeated examples of that. The other half studied mixed problem sets, which included examples of all four types of calculations grouped together. Both groups solved sample problems along the way, as they studied. A day later, the researchers gave all of the students a test on the material, presenting new problems of the same type. The children who had studied mixed sets did twice as well as the others, outscoring them 77 percent to 38 percent. The researchers have found the same in experiments involving adults and younger children.

“This finding undermines the common assumption that intensive immersion is the best way to really master a particular genre, or type of creative work, said Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College and the lead author of the study. ‘What seems to be happening in this case is that the brain is picking up deeper patterns when seeing assortments of paintings; it’s picking up what’s similar and what’s different about them,’ often subconsciously.

“Cognitive scientists do not deny that honest-to-goodness cramming can lead to a better grade on a given exam. But hurriedly jam-packing a brain is akin to speed-packing a cheap suitcase, as most students quickly learn – it holds its new load for a while, then most everything falls out. …  [In contrast] an hour of study tonight, an hour on the weekend, another session a week from now – so-called spacing – improves later recall without requiring students to put in more overall study effort or pay more attention, dozens of studies have found.”

Author: Benedict Carey
Title: “Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits”
Publisher: The New York Times
Date: September 6, 2010

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Appreciative Inquiry

I am re-reading Dale Carnegie’s great book in which he points out that rule #1 in dealing with people is–never condemn, complain, or criticize.  Why? Because humans, no matter who they are or what they have done, believe that they are good and with equal confidence are convinced that whatever the issue is it isn’t their fault.

I also just finished Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. He points out that it is not our responsibility to change anybody (and as Carnegie has pointed out, you can’t so stop trying!).  We can, however, try and see them as God does (as a beloved son or daughter) and love them as God does (unconditionally).  By putting away our ‘judgmentalism and pride and loathing of other people’ and instead treat everybody ‘as though they were [your] best friend’, they will change for the better.

When organizations discover that they are having a problem, they get a team together to look at the problems and try to find a solution better known as problem solving.  About 10 years ago, a team of expert problem solvers were hired by a large corporation to come in to ‘fix’ their problems in hopes of increasing their production rates.  They found that after their problem solving their production rates actually went down instead of up.  Puzzled, they tried a different method.  Instead of looking at the problem and filling everyone with negative thoughts about each other and the organization, they looked at the positive.  They looked at all the things that worked well, and they focused on making them work even better.  The production rate soared.  This method is known as Appreciative Inquiry.

It has been thought that allowing and encouraging people to air their grievances about other people in the organization and list their complaints about others and the organization is the path to improvement.  This has been shown time and time again to have the opposite effects. It produces negativity, discourages others from working harder to make things better (why bother if you are only going to hear the negative from a select few?!), and it creates a work environment that is defeatist, negative, counter productive, and filled with cattiness and  pettiness.  So next time your organization decides to send out questionnaires to critique, or wants to create a work group to problem solve, I would hope we all can consider Appreciative Inquiry and the wisdom of Carnegie, Miller, and Christ.

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World War 2

I occasionally do focused study time on certain topics that capture my interest.  These brief studies usually last as long a a book or 2 or a lecture series.  My recent study has been World War 2-a very unikely topic for me to be interested in.  What have I learned?

Human nature is inherently corrupt, and as my friend recently said: “The Bible teaches 3 basic truths-Good is good; evil is evil; and God will redeem evil into good.”  I am re-reading Dale Carnegie’s great book in which he points out that rule #1 in dealing with people is–never condemn, complain, or criticize.  Why? Because humans, no matter who they are or what they have done, believe that they are good and confident that whatever the issue-it isn’t their fault.  I am also reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller who also points out in his funny way that we all think that we are so cool that the truth is that we are all fallen, flawed humans.  My study of WW 2 points out these truths in vivid details.

  • The character of the man matters.  “What I think of the GIs more than a half century after their victory was best said by Sgt. Mike Ranney of the 101st: ‘In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I’m treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, ‘Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?’  “‘No,’ I answered, ‘but I served in a company of heroes.'”-Stephen Ambrose  American Soldiers were all heroes. They came as liberators.  They are not without their own set of ‘issues’, but in general, this war was known as ‘the good war’ for a reason.  Interestingly when Ambrose interviewed the veterans, they over and over again told him that they did not fight so valiantly for God and country but for their buddies.  Relationships matter. Character matters.
  • Another example of character and incredible leadership principles: Eisenhower.  Eisenhower was instrumental in winning the conflict. He was a unique leader who lead by consensus, optimism, thoughtful reflection, decisiveness, and a charismatic smile.
  • In the lecture series that I listened to, it was pointed out that a black American soldier wrote a letter to the editor of The Yank (the most widely read American war newspaper) pointing out a story of inequality that may have gone on deaf ears if it were not for the war efforts.  A group of black American soldiers had to eat in the back of a restaurant while a group of German POW ate in the restaurant.  It was a story that crystallized the horrible practice of segregation and inequality.
  • The shear magnitude of the conflict was awe inspiring.  The Americans flew close to a 1,000 planes without radar in the middle of the night with less than 100 yards wing to wing to launch gliders and paratroopers behind Normandy enemy lines before D-Day.  The Russians attacked the Germans with over a million man army.  The casualties were astounding.  The Russians lost close to 20 million soldiers and civilians (10% of the entire population).  Trench foot and frost bite took out a surprising number of GI’s…..
  • Finally, I was drawn to this quote because it points out that our worries and troubles are fleeting, and they rarely every come to fruition.  And when/if they do, they are nothing compared to jumping out of a plane in the middle of the night behind enemy lines into the heart of Nazi Germany.

“Len, you’re in as much trouble now as you’re ever going to be.  If you get out of this, nobody can ever do anything to you that you ever have to worry about.”-Private Len Griffing of the 501st just prior to jumping behind enemy lines in the early morning hours before D-Day invasion

Books:

The Victors: Eisenhower And His Boys The Men Of World War II by Stephen Ambrose

The Rising Tide, The Steel Wave, and No Less Than Victory by Jeff Shaara

World War II: A Military and Social History Lecture Series by Professor Thomas Childers

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Healthcare and Treating the Common Cold with Antibiotics

I guess we all have to be hopeful that the government can do something productive now that the government has passed the healthcare bill. I came across an article that reviews the prescribing practices of 13 European countries that all have socialized medicine/universal coverage. One of the arguments is that reform will reduce cost and improve care. Unfortunately this is NOT true in many ways. This article points out that large % of doctors in these universal coverage countries continue to prescribe antibiotics to people with colds/virus, and their choice of antibiotic likely driven by reducing cost is amoxicillin which, if you were actually going to treat a bacteria infection, would probably not be the right choice–but it is cheap.

VARIATION IN ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIBING AND ITS IMPACT ON RECOVERY IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE COUGH IN PRIMARY CARE: PROSPECTIVE STUDY IN 13 COUNTRIES

Butler, C.C., et al, Br Med J 338(7710):b2242, June 27, 2009

METHODS: The multinational “Genomics to Combat Resistance Against Antibiotics in Community-Acquired Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Europe” (GRACE) study, coordinated in Great Britain, examined the relationship between prescription of antibiotics and outcomes in 3,402 adults presenting to one of 387 general practitioners in 14 European primary care research networks with acute or worsened cough and a presentation consistent with a lower respiratory infection.

RESULTS: Complete case report forms were available for 3,296 patients (97%), and symptom diary information was available for 2,560 patients (75%). Antibiotics were prescribed for about half of the patients overall (53%), but there was marked variability between the participating networks in rates of antibiotic prescribing (21%-88%). After controlling for baseline symptom scores and clinical presentation, odds ratios for being prescribed an antibiotic ranged between 0.18 and 11.2. There was, similarly, substantial variation in the classes of antibiotic prescribed. Median intervals to a patient’s report of feeling well and to resolution of all symptoms were 11 days and 15 days, respectively. Although there was a statistical relationship between initial antibiotic treatment and the speed of symptom resolution, symptom trajectories in the various networks converged after about one week, and the use of antibiotics accounted for only one-tenth of a percentage point difference in symptom severity scores.

CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate tremendous variability in the use of antibiotics for adults presenting to primary care with cough and an apparent lower respiratory infection, as well as a clinically insignificant effect of antibiotic treatment on resolution of symptoms. 22 references (ButlerCC@cardiff.ac.uk – no reprints)

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Life Principle #5: SMILE

I recently picked up Carnegie’s book AGAIN to reread AGAIN!  It is definitely in my top 10 books of all time.  It has amazing Christian principles.  His 5th principle is simple but powerful: Smile.  Smiling has shown to program and produce in the smiler a happier disposition through brain chemistry; smiling is also beneficial for the smilee as well…

This is principle #5 in Carnegie’s book,  How to Win Friends and Influence People, and Lowndes book,  How to Talk to Anyone also points out the importance of smiling.

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Top 10 Books: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Besides the Bible, I have read many books over the years.  A few have made it into the ‘top 10’ or well maybe the ‘top 20’.  This is one for the top 10.  A book with foundational Christian principles.  It can transform your life and relationships if you let it.

How to Win Friends and Influence People is an old book that I wish that I had memorized in high school! I have listened to it on CD several times now, and it continues to teach me key life principles that are also for the most part Biblical principles as well.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (I recommend the hardcover to allow for taking notes in the margins…yes, I am a GEEK!)

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Lost Coins

This sermon opened my eyes to a richer and deeper meaning to Jesus parable of the lost coins.  It turns out that in the 1st century women would wear a necklace of 10 silver coins around their neck if they were engaged to be married!  So the lost coin was not just any lost coin.  This was a special silver coin (1 of 10).  This coin was one that represented the love of her husband or betrothed.

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Part 1: Signs and Wonders in the Digital Age

Westernized Christianity can seem dull, and most of the time, Christians don’t appear any different than their non-believing counter parts.

My friend in the Middle East visited again this summer to super charge and challenge my thoughts on signs and wonders.  The Bible is filled with supernatural signs and wonders.  The western world teaches that these were only for the time ‘back then’ or explains these events away by claiming that people ‘back then’ were very naive.  These miracles never actually happened, were fancy analogies/examples of key teaching principles, or misunderstood by superstitious people back in the past.

What if these signs and wonders could be seen today?

This is the 1st of 3 sermons given by my friend from the Middle East.  I would love to know what you think….

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To Save A Life

The movie: “To Save A Life” is a powerful tribute to the power of choice, friendship, and God’s crazy love for us.  It is a great reminder that life is crazy, hard, and sad, but His light can shine through us to those in need.  It reminds us to look for all those God moments, those times when we can intervene by just being there–listening, lending a hand, lending our hearts, reaching out to the sad and lonely…

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Do Miracles Happen?

My friend in the Middle East has transformed his outreach to non-Christians by adopting the Acts/early church model of outreach:  He prays for people and they are healed.  The New Testament is FILLED with miracles, exorcisms, and other bizarre supernatural events that challenge our western, modern, scientific minds.  Here is a video clip of a miracle.  Is this real? What do you think? More to follow…