You Were Made for This

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 55 where today we talk about the solution to the most dreaded relational virus that has plagued human beings since we first walked this earth. Self-centeredness. Listen in. Show outline Episode 54 last week was about a newspaper article where the writer talked about "'ME-ism' as a serious problem spreading across the land." Namely people too absorbed in their...

Hello and happy March 4th to everyone who is listening in real-time today, March 4th, 2020. If you haven't yet decided where you want to march forth today on March 4th, I have a suggestion for you at the end of the show. But before we get into today's topic, the greatest obstacle to our relationships, a listener from South Carolina asked if I would explain what he called "my strong reaction to the...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 53 where today I talk about an "inconvenient truth" concerning relationships. I like this term first coined by Al Gore about his view of climate change. Regardless of your view of Al Gore's comments, there are also inconvenient truths about relationships. Today's episode is about one of them. If you have ever spent any significant time around children, do you...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 52 where today we hear how listeners are applying the content from this podcast in their daily lives. At the end of most podcast episodes I often mention that it would be helpful to hear reactions from listeners to the content of that day's episode. I am especially interested in how listeners are using what we talk about to transform their relationships into t...

Welcome to episode 51 where today we consider a hidden benefit of good relationships. A benefit I bet few of us have ever considered. Not too long ago I was on the search team for our church looking for a new worship director. Part of the process, as you can imagine, is interviewing candidates, and the way we did it was to schedule initial interviews over Skype with them. One night our team was in...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 50 where today we consider three reasons for why relationships are worth the work they take to grow and maintain. Before we get into this, I know some of our listeners aren't aware of my private email list I use to send a brief email every Wednesday. It's my Every Wednesday email that offers an insight, thought, or tip to find more joy in your relationships. T...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 49 where today we consider the importance of sacrifice in our relationships. In episode 48 last week, I made the case that chapter 12 in the Book of Romans is to my way of thinking, the most relational chapter in the whole Bible. There is much we can learn about relationships in the 21 verses of this passage. It all starts with the first verse in Romans 12, wh...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 48 where today we start Season 3. It's so good to be back! I'm generally a person who's comfortable within my own skin. I've never been very good athletically. I'm OK with that. I'm not very good at fixing things. I like to say it's because I don't have the right tools. I never buy tools, and don't accept them as gifts, because if I did, I couldn't use that as...

Show notes Hello everyone and welcome to episode 47 where today we revisit the Christmas story from the perspective of Mary, and how the birth of Jesus affected her relationships, because his birth affects our relationships as well. I don't know about you, but for me there are lots of things that tire me about Christmas. Reindeer, wrapping paper, lighted Santa Claus figures on neighbors' lawns, st...

Show Notes We know all too well that the our relationship with the real meaning of Christmas is so easily lost in the cultural trappings of December 25.  It's  become more a holiday than a holy day. The real meaning of Christmas is found in our relationship with Jesus in the simple, in the ordinary, which is what today's episode number 46 is all about. To that end, I have a few resources to help w...

Show Notes Hello everyone and welcome to episode 45, where today we look at 7 relationship lessons found in the greatest Christmas movie ever made. I never, ever, in a hundred million years, ever want to be known for exaggeration and hyperbole. So it's going to be a challenge for me to reign myself in when talking about the wonders found in It's a Wonderful Life! , that 1947 Christmas movie classi...

NOTE: The show notes you see below were for the very first episode, which appeared on November 28, 2018. It's all still true. But a more recent updated version for reasons to listen to this podcast can be found by listening to Episode 139: Why Should I Listen to This Podcast? Thank you for joining us in today's inaugural episode of You Were Made for This - Transforming Your Relationships into the...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 44, the last in our "November to be thankful" series. I'll have links to the other 3 episodes in the show notes below. Carol pointed out to me that some listeners may not know what the "show notes" are and where to find them. "Show notes" for each episode are notes to myself, reminding me what to include in the episode. It's not a transcript, and not exactly a...

Show notes My greatest fear about aging is finding myself living an increasingly narrow life. I see it in my 96 year-old mother-in-law. The memory care and assisted living facility Elda lives in is full of people whose lives have narrowed considerably, and are a shadow of what they used to be. And it's not just with the elderly with their ever-increasing physical limitations. I see some people my...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 42, where Friday the 13th falls on a Wednesday this month. This 13th of November in the year of our Lord, 2019. I hope you're not superstitious; instead, this is a month to be most thankful. Later this month, at Thanksgiving dinner, like a lot of families, we go around the table and everyone shares what they have been thankful for this year. The expressions of...

Show notes Hello everyone and welcome to episode 41. Last week, we waved good bye and said see you next year, to October, the month that makes me smile. This week, we welcome in November, the month that makes me thankful. It's the month we remind ourselves of blessings in our life we often have the tendency to forget. November is like our favorite-out-of-state relative who arrives once a year on o...

Show notes Do you ever feel out of place in a group, where you just don't quite fit in? I know I do from time to time. In today's episode we'll talk about how to deal with this kind of relationship with a group or organization, where we feel like a square peg in a round hole. Of all the weeks in the year to tackle this topic, the last week of October is, in my mind, the best time of the year to do...

Show Notes In last week's episode 38, I shared listener responses to the question I raised in an earlier email to our listeners about the verse from Hebrews 10:24, "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works." My question was HOW do you do this, which elicited some great responses. Another one came in just the other day from a missionary I'll share in just a minute...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 38, where today I'll be sharing responses from several listeners to a question I posed in my September 19, 2019 weekly email. The question was about the Bible verse from Hebrews 10:24, where the writer of the Book Hebrews says, Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. My question was HOW do you do this? HOW does anyone motiv...

Have you ever been in conflict with someone that just gnawed at you day and night? Where you did everything you could think of to try to solve the conflict? Where you may have talked to the other person to resolve the matter, but it goes no where. Where it's so perplexing and you just can't figure out how things got to where they are now? Stay tuned and I'll explain an easy-to-understand 2-step pr...

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 036, Investing in Relationships . Before we get into this topic with two guests I interview on today's show, there are a two quick items I want to mention. First off, for those who would rather read the content of each episode, you can do so by reading the show notes that accompany each program. Just scroll down below whatever podcast player you use, and you'l...

If you've been a regular listener around here you may recall a few episodes back in episode 32, I talked about how we were made for relationships. And one characteristic of a fulfilling and life-giving relationships is that it has an element of transcendence to it. I'll have a link to that episode in the show notes for any new listeners who want to check it out. Transcendence, as I mentioned in ep...

A few weeks ago a friend and listener to the podcast asked me in the lobby of our church, WHERE do you get your ideas for your podcast? Others have asked the same thing. For me, they come from being observant and curious about what God exposes me to. I look at ideas for the podcast, blog, and emails as manna from heaven. God presents me with a circumstance, and I just try to be observant and curio...

I can't seem to get last week's episode #32 out of my mind. The one where I mention that if we know what we're made for, it will answer the question, what am I here for? What is my purpose in life? I made the case that we were made for relationships, using the acronym T.H.I.S. , to describe how in more detail. Relationships that: T-Transcend our natural inclination to focus on self, that H-honor o...

Hello everyone and welcome to Season Two, and episode 32, What am I here for? What is my purpose in life? It's great to be back with you after a summer off from podcasting. I enjoyed the weekly blogs, certainly, but I enjoy the podcasts even more. To get season two rolling, I want us to consider an important question people will sometimes ask, namely, What am I here for? What is my purpose in life...