broken | Heartstone Journey

How To Take Charge Of The Mediocrity In Your Life

Have you said or heard any of these before?

I hate my job. I hate my life. I hate my choices. I hate my future. My relationships suck. Fill in the blank ______. Come to think of it…I hate everything!

Do you find yourself in any of these places, right now?

The big question staring those who find themselves in these places is…why don’t we change? We put so much energy and effort into complaining about our current circumstance, but we put none into changing it. We convince ourselves that this is hand we’ve been dealt and the conversation stops there. It’s never going to get any better and we drag these anchors around with us where ever we go!

Have you ever asked yourself how did I get here? or how did I become this? Have you ever really taken a deep dive in to reality of your life and wondered how you’ve become so bland?

We are so desperate for life but we are so afraid to live! So what do we end up doing?

Why Gender Reassignment And Altering Pronouns Won’t Change Who Bruce Jenner Is

By now most people on the planet have seen the picture of the “new” Bruce Jenner on the upcoming cover of Vanity Fair. As a Dad who is raising a son to be man, the very idea that culture is praising Bruce Jenner for his so-called “brave” and “courageous” decision is such a foreign idea to me.

I remember Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon in Montreal Canada in 1976 making him the male athlete of the year — the guy got on the Wheaties box! When I look at the upcoming cover of vanity fair I see a man plastered with makeup, hair extensions and wearing who-knows-what-that-is. His entire persona has been artificially altered by hormone pills, Photoshop, and plastic surgery.

What happened?

There’s a tremendous amount of buzz in the mainstream media and social media spaces, but here are some items that caught my attention. The White House said that President Obama believes Bruce Jenner’s transition into Caitlyn shows “tremendous courage.” Bruce Jenner’s “female” alter ego Caitlyn got over a million Twitter followers in four hours. Wikipedia has already gender altered the history and lifestyle of Bruce Jenner. Caitlyn Jenner will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPN Espy’s this year.

Really?

There are so many thoughts swirling around in my head right now, but I want unpack some of them as I feel they are very important in the conversation of today’s culture.

Why The Story Of Louie Zamperini Should Have Been Titled ‘Broken’

Went to see Unbroken with some of my band of brothers and wow what an inspiring movie. If you really want the full impact of what this man went through, I highly recommend the book by Laura Hillenbrand.

I want to start by acknowledging that the movie ‘Unbroken’ based on Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling biography Unbroken is incredibly inspiring. What pops off the screen is Louie’s grit and courage. His sheer grit alone was awe inspiring — the likes of which not many men could ever hope to exhibit. Jesus tells us to love our enemies and Louie shows us through his brave example of true belief and courage that forgiving your enemies is possible.

Here is a quick summary of the movie before I take a deeper dive with my thoughts.

Why All The Questions About Ferguson Are Perfectly Answered Through Jesus Christ

If you turn on the TV or do any surfing on the Internet you will run into a story surrounding the events in Ferguson Missouri. The nation watched as many in the town of Ferguson reacted with outrage and disappointment, when the prosecutor announced that officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

I am not weighing in on the justice or injustice of the events surrounding Ferguson, I am writing about a deeper issue of humanity.

Honestly, I never understood how the color of someones skin defines that person. Never understood the anger of the Black Panthers in one direction and the anger of the KKK in the other. While the modern race problem has economic, political, and social implications I believe its primarily a moral and spiritual problem.

Jesus loved without discrimination, without looking at our worthiness.

—Tim Keller

Parsing through all the news narratives and ambient conversations on social media, I wanted to highlight the words New Orleans Saints tight end Benjamin Watson shared in the national conversation on race, racism and policing in America.

In a thoughtful commentary that was liked on his Facebook page more than 800,000 times and shared more than 450,000 times as of November 30th, Watson explained that he chose to write down his thoughts on the Ferguson decision after news broke Monday night.

Here are those thoughts and more…
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Why Choosing Life Is Braver Than Ending It!

It was a beautiful Autumn day in New England as I started my daily commute up Interstate 89 in New Hampshire. Pulling out of my local Cumberland Farms to fuel up on some coffee, I decided to tune into some morning talk radio. Hitting the dial landed me right in the middle of a conversation about Brittany Maynard.

Brittany Maynard is 29 years old and was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, just a little over a year after her wedding. After a diagnosis of six months to live she decided to move to Portland Oregon, which is a state that allows euthanasia in certain circumstances, to get a prescription that would allow her take her own life at a time of her choosing.

On November 1st of this year, a few days after her husband’s birthday, Brittany Maynard plans going to kill herself. With the help of a doctor and a suicide pill, she is going to end her life.

“I will die upstairs in my bedroom that I share with my husband, with my mother and my husband by my side, and pass peacefully, with some music that I like in the background.” -Brittany Maynard

As heartbreaking as this story is, suicide is not the answer!

Taking another sip of my now lukewarm coffee, I remembered a time in my life when I was at the very edge of giving up on life. My place of desperation was not from a terminal disease, but from falling into a dark depression of life’s failures and loosing everything.

I remember the moment well. Here is an excerpt of that moment from my book Heartstone.

How To Take Charge Of The Mediocrity In Your Life

Why Gender Reassignment And Altering Pronouns Won’t Change Who Bruce Jenner Is

Why The Story Of Louie Zamperini Should Have Been Titled ‘Broken’

Why All The Questions About Ferguson Are Perfectly Answered Through Jesus Christ

Why Choosing Life Is Braver Than Ending It!

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