I once knew an engaged couple whose whole relationship seemed to depend on the fact that they were engaged rather than on the reason why they were engaged. The relationship itself was nurtured through their constant (and somewhat sickening) reminders to themselves and others of the greatness of the relationship they were in. When they met other people they talked about ...

A friend of mine once told me that when he moved into a new house as a kid that he tied all of his best toys on the back of his bicycle and rode around the neighborhood trying to attract friends. If you’ve started a new job or moved into a new community, you’ve probably learned from experience that people usually don’t come knocking on your door to get...

As long as Rachel could remember she wanted to be an attorney. While it was a little awkward to be the only kid at halloween carrying a briefcase, she stuck to her dreams until she passed the bar exam on the first try. If people thought she was driven during law school they would have been surprised to learn that she actually had another gear in the workplace; no amount o...

In the 1970 movie, Love Story, Ali MacGraw’s character says the now famous line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” It seemed to fit in the movie (if you like that sort of thing) but frankly, it doesn’t sound to me as if it was good advice. It must not have clicked with John Lennon either because he quipped, “Love means h...

I read that if you want to count to a million without stopping it would take you 6 days, 22 hours and forty minutes. If you want to count to a billion it would take you 31 years and 252 days. A Trillion? Forget about it. 3,170 years. What does this tell me? First, who sits around thinking about this stuff? and second, I’m not even going to try to count to any...

Remember the Palm Pilot? Still use one? Probably not. Why? Because the palm pilot has gone the way of other first generation technology devices and disappeared into the realm of trivia questions (What is a bag phone?). But just a half dozen years ago you could have thrown a rock into a crowd of ten businessmen and hit twelve PDA’s. Now just try to go and buy o...

I’ve not been to a high school reunion yet, but I don’t really feel like I need to go to one since I can see how much my friends have changed and how messed up they are in real time on facebook everyday. Since I wasn’t a believer in high school, not only do I wish that I could go back and have those years to do over again as a Christian, but I often th...

I once went on a week long trip to Daytona Beach with other college students during Spring Break—no, not that kind of spring break trip— it was with a campus Christian group! What I didn’t realize when I signed up for the week at the beach (or I blocked out of my mind) was the fact that we were going to walk up and down the beach and talk to students ...

One of the lessons I am trying to learn in parenting is to try and empathize more with my daughters when they are deeply distraught about something that I can’t quite understand. It’s tempting for me to think when the lost blankie can’t be found before bed or when the doll that they love was forgotten at a friends house that they just need to calm dow...

History shows us that no army will get far without supply lines that link them to more materials, ammunition, and fuel for the battle. I feel the same way if we’re going on a camping trip— we’re only staying as long as we have good food and dry clothes— after that, I’m out—which means we don’t typically camp! ...

No one has to twist our arms to speak about things that we value––we easily speak of that which we love. Just ask someone why they bought the car they just bought. Or where they found a deal on something they were looking for. Or their favorite sports team....

Looking around at the people surrounding me singing and swaying to the worship music, I felt like a complete failure. I felt that I must be missing something because I didn’t feel what they seemed to feel as people closed their eyes and raised their hands. I expected that they felt some great surge of energy or force that you are supposed to experience when you si...

Love has a limit, at least that is, if you are the NECCO candy company. Each year they make 8 billion of the small,chalky candy hearts to be sold on Valentine’s day. Each message of love can only contain a two line, 8 character message of affection for your sweetie. Over the years the messages and length have undergone quite a change—consider the piece of...

Doug O'Donnell defines the fear of the Lord in his new book, "The Beginning and End of Wisdom." ...