Live Life Better - Exploring how faith, family, and business work together.

Recently I sent an email to a mentor of mine worried about where my life was going.  I would characterize it as a quarter-life crisis. A lot of that stems

from what’s known as your “calling”

I’m not going to discuss “how to find your calling” on here, or anything like that. 

Instead, I want to share why “calling” should be something that frees you.

Ezekiel 2:4-7The Message (MSG)

3-7 He said, “Son of man, I’m sending you to the family of Israel, a rebellious nation if there ever was one. They and their ancestors have fomented rebellion right up to the present. They’re a hard case, these people to whom I’m sending you—hardened in their sin. Tell them, ‘This is the Message of God, the Master.’ They are a defiant bunch. Whether or not they listen, at least they’ll know that a prophet’s been here. But don’t be afraid of them, son of man, and don’t be afraid of anything they say. Don’t be afraid when living among them is like stepping on thorns or finding scorpions in your bed. Don’t be afraid of their mean words or their hard looks. They’re a bunch of rebels. Your job is to speak to them. Whether they listen is not your concern. They’re hardened rebels.

Calling, faithfulness, whatever, is about being faithful in whatever situation you’re in.  Ask yourself the question “How can God use me where I am, right now?”  The success of your calling isn’t based on results…it’s based on obedience.

Refugee: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

The Syrian refugee crisis has long since faded from the incessant 24/7 news cycle, but that doesn’t mean the crisis is over.  Whenever I read the news, I try to interact with it not as a Republican or Democrat, but as a Christian (yes, you can be a Christian and be either one).

So what does the Bible say about refugees?  how should that impact our national policy?  Thankfully, you’ve got 38 news channels that can cover both of those questions.  Instead, for us, I wanted to share a little bit about someone who we don’t traditionally think of as a refugee.

I never thought that I would actually become hurt by the church.  In fact, I preferred the term “disenfranchised.”

But what I discovered was that there was more to “church” than I realized.

I realized that:

• Being hurt by the church is a very real possibility…because of “who” the church is
• There are many stories of people who were hurt by the church and left the faith.  I’m going to share a story of someone who had every right to leave the faith, but continued on
• My commitment to Christ is much more than personal

Thanks for journeying with me during this episode.

If you’ve listened to this podcast for any amount of time, you know that I am passionate about marriage.  That’s why I’m excited to share a conversation I had with a good friend of mine — a blogger, fellow homeschooler, dedicated husband and father, and now, published author!

During this conversation, we discuss two of the seven rings (the Wedding RING stage and the RestoRING stage).  I know you’ll find this valuable, and it’s exciting to be able to share this with you.

Click here to find out more about Jackie, and pre-order his new book, The 7 Rings of Marriage

There has been a lot of discussion about what makes a man a man. On one side, there’s the camp that says a real man can change car tire, grow a beard, and chop down a tree.  There’s another camp on the other end of a spectrum that says a real man is something someone identifies as.  And of course there are people all along the spectrum.

With this list, let me inject some fun and (what I think) common sense.  Because if there’s one thing for certain, a real man operates out of love and respect.

But you’ll need to listen to this episode to find out more.

Which item on the list cause you to pause?  Because that item is one to focus on intentionally improving.

"Barriers to entry."  That's a term that I first heard in a business class during my freshman year of college.

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But this term applies to more than just business; it applies to our faith as well.  In this episode, I explore what the barriers to entry are to a relationship with Christ, both man made, and God ordained.

Question: What barriers to entry do you see to a relationship with Christ?

It’s 2016, and a season of resolutions, goals, and new beginnings.  I’ve got plenty of my own goals, but what I want to share with you is not something for 2016, because I think a quick review of this past year will help all of us have a good 2016, including:

• The one constant I experienced in 2015…and hope to experience in 2016.
• What I stopped, and what we started.
• How my training in the Marine Corps helped get me through 2015, and how that translates to my faith today.

Live Life Better is back, and I’m grateful for your continued support during my hiatus the past few months.  I’m doing this in a much more sustainable fashion, which allows for many other things…but more on that later; I think Loretta will have fun weighing in on all of that!

Take care,

Philip

I’ve touched on the topic of work/life balance before and provided tools and strategies to achieve the elusive goal of a balance between work and life.

Tools and strategies are useless, unless you know what to look for.  You can’t repair a flat tire if you don’t know where the leak is.  In the same way, you can’t perform any corrective action regarding your work life balance if you don’t know what the baseline indicators are.

Thankfully, if you’re married and with kids like I am, there are 3 Indicators of a healthy family life…and they’re all built in to the family deal.

I could fill this entire post with all of the changes, but just to clue you in…I’ve just recently switched jobs, my wife is 5 months pregnant, and my grandfather died.

Lots of changes, to be sure.  And a lot of the time, it creates problems in our relationships.

But I’ve found two constants during this period of changes and transitions.  What are they?  Listen on to find out.

What does that mean for us a Christians?  And what does that mean about how we do “church”?

There are a myriad of reasons why the church may be getting smaller (in the US at least), and what we can do about it.  No doubt, by the time you read this, there will be plenty of people voicing their opinions and providing what they deem to be the best answers.

My goal with what I’m going to share with you isn’t to provide a new “model” so that the old one can quickly fade into memory.  Instead, I hope you can hear my heart behind the thought; that you can understand we’re all working on the same goal: to share the love of Christ everyone one we meet.

The more barriers we can remove to that, the better.  Even if it means the barrier is the church.