Corona has turned a lot of things on its head, like imagine seeing a 300-pound football player out there running Cross Country!

In Michigan, a local high school postponed its football season until the spring. The Cross Country running coach expected to get a few calls from players but was shocked when Royce Daugherty was the first football player to reach out.

He had two choices: Soccer or Cross Country. After consulting with his parent, friends and others he called up the coach and asked to join the team. “I like to compete, and with soccer, I’d have to learn all the new rules and everything, and I didn’t think that would be the move for me,” he said. “I thought cross country would be good for footwork for football and give me that competitiveness that I won’t have without football this fall.” This kid is impressive, not choosing the easy way out but stepping into a challenge to make it hard for himself!


But I think that’s the point when we have a vision of what we want to accomplish, people on the sidelines don’t really matter, we have focused straight ahead on our goals. We’re not letting the hecklers determine our success! Well done Royce!

I watched a great documentary last night "The Weight of Gold" about Olympic Athletes and for those that know me, you know how much I love the Olympics! But the subject of this documentary wasn't to celebrate their accomplishments or highlight how incredibly athletic they are. No, this documentary was focusing on a subject that is pretty crucial to all of us right now: Mental Health.

All the athletes featured in the documentary share of the years and years of work they dedicated to succeed at the highest possible level of their sport but when the village closes and the glory has faded, they're left with very little real-life experience and how empty life is. As a fan of the Olympics, I typically stand in awe of these athletes and just expect that they have their lives together when in reality, they're fighting the same fight a lot of us are on a daily basis.

I was reminded that those friends of ours that look like they've got it all together need the support of friends just like you and more importantly, they need the reminder of the hope of Christ. The hope that we have in Christ is the steady confidence that every single promise God has made to us, he will fulfill.

You know some fools. I know some fools. Shoot! I've been the fool a time or two.

But, foolishness isn't aspirational... understanding is.

"A fool does not delight in understanding, but only wants to show off his opinions." - Proverbs 18:2

Nothing worse than mistaking a stranger for someone you know!

I was out at Mardel's for Feed a Family and this lady came up with a confused look on her face so I figured why not make her welcome by saying hi. After I did, she still had this blank look on her face and said, "Where's Greg Laurie? I was told I was going to have a chance to meet Greg Laurie here." I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve but making Greg Laurie appear isn't one. I felt so bad!

Has there ever been a time where you went up to someone you thought you knew only to find out it was a stranger? How did you react?

While we may be complaining about having to wear masks or that our favorite restaurant isn't open for dining in, there are children in America facing a bigger problem that is affecting their education.

Have you ever heard of the term Digital Divide? I hadn't until today. Maybe you are aware of it and are facing that reality with the amount of virtual schooling that is taking place due to the Coronavirus. Honestly, before this morning, I thought "okay, kids are doing school from home. That must be tough on the parents having to manage that." This is true, but where I made a big assumption is assuming that everyone has internet at home. So many don't.

Here's the reason I share this with you: When we know about issues in our community, we know how to serve a need. I believe we have people right here in the KCBI community that are solution finders. I hope we can find a way to serve our children and make education not a luxury, but a certainty.

Seems like a rhetorical question right now but, feeling overwhelmed? I get it, sometimes it feels like the world is burning down. Here's a quick tip: turn off the social media or the tv.

I was in a meeting with the crew here at KCBI and I was just saying how out of control things feel right now and how emotionally drained people seem at the moment. But it was something that my buddy Doug from Middays shared that's stuck with me and I feel the need to share it with you. He said to put down the phone and look around the next time I was out and I would probably be surprised by what I saw.

So I took him up on it. I stopped the scrolling, I turned off the tv and I paid attention to the people around me. What did I find? Neighbors waving and smiling. People showing kindness at the grocery store. Generosity. Love. Compassion. This is real life. Thanks for the tip, Doug.

Have you ever played the game where you drive into a tunnel and see if you can hold your breath till you get to the other side? In the United States, that's pretty easy to do because you can usually see the light as soon as you go in. But have you tried that in a tunnel with no end in sight? I think about one tunnel in particular that I drove through that started in Austria where it was dark and rainy and I came out in Slovenia to a completely different forecast.

The reason I telling you about tunnels is that Corrie ten Boom, a woman imprisoned in concentration camps during WWII, said that "When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer."

I know that we'll have moments in our lives that'll resemble the darkness of a tunnel and we'll be tempted to just jump off this train of uncertainty. But what if instead we sat still and trusted our God who is engineering this life. Just like the time I went into that tunnel facing dreary weather, I came out to a whole new outlook. Let's trust the engineer.

Has it always been your lifelong fantasy to be a spy? Me too! And the good news is the CIA is hiring!

They've posted on Twitter this coded puzzle and if you are able to solve the puzzle you can click on the career section for a job! Even if you haven't always dreamed of being a spy, give the puzzle a try anyways!

If you have looked in the mirror or looked at a photo of yourself and hated what you saw, you're not alone. That image can make us feel shame or embarrassed because if someone saw that photo and thought it looked ugly, it would only confirm our self-doubt.

I was recently interviewed for a podcast and shared a story I didn't intend to share how I hated how I looked in my senior photos my hair was fluffy, I wasn't in a pretty backdrop like the rest of the girls I went to school with. I was in a basement with a ladder wearing carpenter jeans and had braces. I not only hated those photos but for many years I hated the girl that I saw looking back at me. We can be pretty cruel to ourselves, can't we?

As much as I hated those photos, I've kept them for all these years for one reason: That one day I'd be able to look at those photos and show that girl kindness. I'm really proud to say that recently I was able to do just that. I felt freedom and I no longer allowed those lies to be my identity. If you can relate to this at all, I wish for you that same freedom from the lies and the negativity you allowed yourself to be defined by. I hope you take those lies to God in prayer and lay them at his feet. I hope that you can stop being your own biggest bully.

I don't think it's surprising for you to hear that people are struggling right now, you may be in that group. Struggling with discouragement, stress, anxiety. There's a lot on our plates right now. If you're one of those people, I want to share something with you.

Experts and psychologists have recommended for us to start setting Compassionate Goals, that a term I had never heard till today. Compassionate Goals help us to strive to focus on helping others. Though I would never try to act like I understand your specific situation, I can appreciate that when we're tempted to feel discouraged it can be a boost to our demeanor if we can take the focus off of ourselves and shift that focus to loving and serving others.

If this idea is something you can get behind and you're wondering how you can show compassion to someone, KCBI has an awesome opportunity for you to do just that. Right now you can help feed families in need right here in the DFW by partnering with us to Feed A Family. All the information of where you can go to help can be found right here at the KCBI website!