J.R.R. Tolkien's 40-year Journey to Excellence

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, did not initially set out to write fantasy novels and create an entire world that he called ...

Kill Weeds by Growing Healthy Grass

A few years ago, marriage and family expert Greg Smalley noticed weeds sprouting up amongst the healthy grass in his yard. Smalley went to a hardware ...

Mythbusters: You Can Teach Old Dogs New Tricks

In 1523, an English animal trainer named John Fitzherbert said, "The dog must be trained when he is a whelp, or else it will not be [trained]; for ...

'Fast Food Culture' Promotes Impatience

In 1960 McDonald's operated 200 restaurants. By 2024 they had 41,822 restaurants. BY 2027 they plan to add another 9,000 locations. In 2024 there ...

Field Goal Kicker Learns from His Greatest Misses

On August 31, 2002, Phil Brabbs, a placekicker with the University of Michigan, lined up for the most important field goal attempt in his career. With ...

Japanese Students Outlast American Students in Persistence

In standardized math tests, Japanese children consistently score higher than their American counterparts. While some assume that a natural proclivity ...

Russian Comedian Discovers American Grocery Stores

When the Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff immigrated to the United States, he said that the thing he loved most about America was the grocery stores. He ...

God Moves Us Deeper into the Gospel

God does not move us beyond the gospel; he moves us more deeply into the gospel, because all of the power we need in order to change and mature comes ...

People Don't Change, Even After Heart Surgery

An article from the magazine Fast Company began with the following paragraph:

Change or Die. What if you were given that choice? What if a well-informed, ...

Honest Feedback Restores a Leader

Bob Merritt, pastor of the Eagle Brook Church in Minnesota, writes movingly about what he called his "ministry meltdown" (although his "meltdown" ...