Focal Point 2022

Just last week as I was entering the grocery store, an older man was heading toward his car with a full cart of recently purchased items. Just by looking, this man appeared to be in his late 60s to early 70s. He had the biggest smile on his face and seemed to be enjoying life (as much as you can enjoy it with the price of groceries these days, but nevertheless…). Then all a sudden he propped one foot on…

I once heard a preacher say that his wife liked going to a coffee shop to drink coffee because, “she believes that coffee taste better if it costs $5 a cup.” It may not be true, but sometimes we consider something to be better or more valuable simply because of the price tag that is bears. This disposition might lead us to discount things that are discounted. We might miss the value of the inexpensive. In hopes of safeguarding us…

Have you ever seen a group of people with no sense of direction? I remember as kids my friends and I would run around our neighborhood building stuff, tearing stuff up, and wreaking havoc on the neighborhood. We had no idea what we were doing but we were having fun. I remember one time in particular, we put together a bunch of bikes. We would take the front tire off of one bike and attach it to the back tire…

Nearly 12 years ago, I was asked to write my personal code of ethics during my undergraduate studies. I have since required students to do the same. I have never published what I wrote, but I wanted to do so this week. Working back through these points was both challenging and therapeutic. My prayer is that I can honestly live up to this standard and that readers will be blessed by the challenges it presents. As the book of Job…