Forgiveness: A Lenten Reflection

Many of you know my son attends Christian Brother High School, an all-boys Catholic School in Memphis. As a protestant, it's been an interesting experience for him and a blessing for our family too. Each day during Lent the school sends out a daily reflection with commentary from teachers, staff, alumni and friends. All have been excellent but yesterday's caught my attention given the topic was forgiveness. Ah, forgiveness. It's what we encourage others to do and ask for from others when we've messed up or offended someone. It's also that incredibly difficult process we struggle with when someone has done something to us of such major proportion that we justify our decision not to forgive as righteous. It sounds and feels good but as I read scripture, that's not what Jesus commands of us. In discussing this very issue over lunch with a friend yesterday they asked if we were expected to forgive even when the offending party has never asked for it or for that matter, believes they've done nothing wrong. I encourage you to read the message below but in my interpretation of scripture, my response was "yes." We are commanded to forgive even when forgiveness is not sought. [...]

By |2015-03-11T23:47:11-05:00March 11th, 2015|My Blog Post|Comments Off on Forgiveness: A Lenten Reflection

What Would Jesus Do With Donald Sterling? Forgive and Tell Him to Sin No More

Donald Sterling, the embattled owner of the Los Angeles Clippers professional basketball team, received a lifetime ban from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Tuesday for making racist remarks in a recording with an alleged mistress. Sterling was also fined $2.5 million and pressure for him to sell the team is intense. But I wonder, would Jesus have taken the same action as the NBA?

By |2014-04-30T13:08:06-05:00April 30th, 2014|My Blog Post|Comments Off on What Would Jesus Do With Donald Sterling? Forgive and Tell Him to Sin No More

Politico Coverage of My Story

Today's on-line edition of Politico contains an article that profiles me four others who endured sex scandals during our time in public office. When I was contacted by the reporter last week I was a little hesitant in responding because news sites and reporters are often times looking for "sensationalism" when they report and write on stories like these. I know - I'm a reporter. But I remembered standing next to this reporter when we both covered a prayer breakfast in South Carolina back in January and after speaking with her, decided she would write a fair and objective article and she did. Now that I have met several people (both men and women) who have gone through similar experiences, I am curious how they have handled the intense pressure we all had to endure. And since I've finished my book I don't turn down opportunities to talk about forgiveness and how learning what it really means has changed my life. Here is the link to the article. The bottom line to me was two-fold. First, all of us have said, done and thought things we don't want on the front page of the newspaper. But when you fall short [...]

By |2012-05-21T12:38:05-05:00May 21st, 2012|My Blog Post|Comments Off on Politico Coverage of My Story

Book: The Four Laws of Forgiveness

I haven’t written much lately about my manuscript, but I am close to completing the final chapter on forgiveness. Writing this chapter was more difficult than I imagined – not because I haven’t forgiven those I needed to – but I want to convey the process of forgiveness in the proper prospective. It's been a challenge. In the meantime, I’ve had some phenomenal conversations with people who have gone through similar experiences as mine, some of whose names you would recognize if I listed them here (but I never will). Others are not famous or well-known, but had to deal with the same issues. There stories are no less important that someone who is well known. Recently, one of my colleagues at The Christian Post, Alex Murashko, wrote a piece on Brad Johnson, a Southern California pastor whose affair was exposed how he had to learn forgiveness all over again. You can click here to read the story. The book is titled, The Four Laws of Forgiveness: How to Forgive Yourself and Others, and is available on Amazon. You can find it here. My experience in writing has taught me that it’s not the specifics of my story that is [...]

By |2012-03-11T10:01:02-05:00March 11th, 2012|My Blog Post|Comments Off on Book: The Four Laws of Forgiveness

The Fall to Forgiveness: A Once-Tainted White House Aide Restored by Christ

In 2008, Tim Goeglein was at the pinnacle of success for a then 44-year-old politico. A journalism major who used his communications skills to fine tune the messages of Members of Congress and eventually the President of the United States, he had indeed arrived until he began committing one of the biggest sins in public life – secretly using the work of other writers without attribution. It is called plagiarism and in the world journalism and politics, it seems an unpardonable sin. The fall was swift and painful. That’s because Goeglein not only was in the White House inner circle, he was the face of President George W. Bush when it came to dealing with evangelical leaders nationally. The event attracted the sharpest of criticism from gleeful enemies and the White House could not defend itself. Nine out of ten who fail in this way never recover, either in public life or in personal relationships. Yet Goeglein is now vice president of external affairs for Focus on the Family, just celebrated his 20th wedding anniversary, and enjoys the trust of most of his former colleagues, include the former president. In his new book, "The Man in the Middle: An Inside [...]

By |2011-11-22T17:03:12-06:00November 22nd, 2011|My Blog Post|Comments Off on The Fall to Forgiveness: A Once-Tainted White House Aide Restored by Christ
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