Funnel or failure? You should be failing.

Posted in Stories
funnel or failure

Howdy! What follows is a blog post I wrote several months back. I had just returned from a campus interview for my dream professor job. I was certain I’d land it. But, they rejected me. Feeling dejected, I wrote this post. I decided NOT to post it at the time, because I thought it was a bit whiny. But, after reading it again, I see that there are some great insights in this.

And, not to mention, I landed an even better job just a few weeks ago.

Persistence pays off, my friends.

Enjoy! Read more »

When to give up

Posted in Stories
when to give up

I’ve seen a lot of failure lately. (And if you haven’t checked out my post on Shawn Smucker’s blog, please do).

In fact, I have actually written a lamenting post about how much failure I’ve seen recently. It’s still in “draft” mode because it sounded a bit whiny to me.

(Boo hoo, suck it up, dude.)

It’s been tempting to give up in so many areas. But I’m still here. Sort of. Kinda of.

Barely.

I’d better get to the story before I start whining 😉 Read more »

Are we afraid to hope?

Posted in Stories
FIRE_01

I almost healed a man once. Of Parkinsons. But it never happened. I never got the chance.

I was serving as a missionary in Kalamazoo Michigan. We were knocking on doors, soliciting converts and all that and stumbled upon a man. Let’s call him Rob. He was a short-ish man in his forties with bright red hair, a lean physique, and a crass sense of humor well-befitted to two emissaries of Christ.

Problem was, the guy had Parkinsons. Like, really bad. Every muscle in his body seemed to twitch when we spoke. He could hardly walk and when he did it was with an awkward shuffle. In order to listen to him, I had to place my ear within a foot of him. And even then, as deaf as I was (and still am), I struggled to understand him. Read more »