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Burnout Proof Leadership: Shift Your Identity, Develop New Skills & Leverage Workplace Tensions to Unlock your Next LevelBehind the Scenes of Polarity Intelligence: A Conversation with our Book Coach about Essential Leadership SkillsIn this episode, we invite you to an engaging conversation with Dr. Adele Booysen, an esteemed book coach and editor.Adele Booysen is a coach, book editor, and writer with over 30 years of experience in various countries, including South Africa and Taiwan. She has worked in various roles involving writing, editing, photography, and leadership development, and has co-written and ghostwritten several books, including one that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.We focus on details of our collaboration, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of our book, "Polarity Intelligence: The Missing Logic in Leadership."...
2024-01-1037 min
Blue Thread LifeEaster 2020 | Jesus' CrucifixionWhat is good about Good Friday? Listen to today’s reading and decide.
2020-04-1011 minBlue Thread LifeEaster 2020 | The Last SupperIf you were to be at the table with Jesus and his disciples on the night he was to be betrayed, where do you imagine yourself sitting? Are you scooting as close as you can get to hear what Jesus is saying and to ask him the questions burning in your heart?
Those in the room were celebrating the Passover meal. In case you’re not familiar with the stories in the Bible, or in case you need a refresher, here’s a quick overview:
The Old Testament follows the adventures and history of one family, the f...
2020-04-0909 minBlue Thread LifeEaster 2020 | You Will Know the Truth… and the truth will set you free.
That statement of Jesus has been used in ways that don’t represent the original intent. Listen to today’s reading, where Jesus talks about who he is, how how know that truth shall in fact set you free.
Place yourself in the shoes of the political leaders. Who do you think Jesus is?
Next, think like a Pharisee or one of the other religious leaders of the time. What would your feelings be toward Jesus?
Finally, put yourself in the shoes of Jesus’ disciples...
2020-04-0808 minBlue Thread LifeEaster 2020 | Who Is This Man?Since it’s Holy Week, we ponder the gravity of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Today’s reading and prayer is centered around the questions people had about Jesus. Was he a political leader? Was he the savior that the Jewish scriptures had prophesied would come? The one they have been waiting for?
Today, consider, who do YOU say Jesus is?
2020-04-0705 minBlue Thread LifeEaster 2020 | Coming Down the MountainSince it’s Holy Week, we ponder the gravity of Jesus’ death and resurrection. For us, the natural progression is life to death. In Christ, it becomes death to life! Today’s reading and prayer is centered around the fears we might have around asking Jesus certain questions. While Jesus spoke a lot about the fact that he was going to die and rise again, the disciples were afraid to ask him what he meant by “being raised from the dead.”
What area in your life can you ask Jesus to bring back to life today?
2020-04-0605 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 42If you're having a hard day, may this psalm encourage you today. "Why are you sad, O my soul? Why have you become troubled within me? Hope in God, for I will praise Him again for His help of being near me." This reading is from the NLV translation.
2020-03-0105 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Ruth 4The past four days, we’ve been hanging out in the book of Ruth. Today, we’ll see how God’s hesed, his loving-kindness, not only transforms the life of Naomi, but will have future repercussions, even in your life and mine.
My invitation to you today is to listen for how God worked to restore Naomi not only through one person, Ruth, but also through Boaz.
Who might be a Naomi in your life? And a Ruth, or a Boaz?
Consider reaching out to those individuals today with a quick note, thanking them for thei...
2020-02-2810 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Ruth 3Who says the stories in the Bible are boring? In today’s reading, we find Naomi working on a strategy to convince Ruth to propose to Boaz. You might remember from the reading two days ago that because of the loss of her husband and sons, she had become no-one in the eyes of her culture.
In the process of grief, Naomi discovers God’s loving-kindness, his hesed. Discovering God’s hesed, author Carolyn Custis James points out in Finding God in the Margins, frees Naomi "from being self-absorbed in grief to focus now on Ruth.” This quest is neit...
2020-02-2710 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Ruth 2Yesterday, we started a journey along the dusty road between Moab (modern-day Jordan) and Israel where three women were walking back to the land of Elimelech, the late husband of the oldest of the three women. Perhaps you were able to envision yourself on the road with them, listening in as Naomi urged her daughters-in-law to Moab to see if they could start over, if they could find husbands again and thus gain respect in the eyes of their people.
We learned that finding a husband and then bearing sons for that husband was considered the main r...
2020-02-2709 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Ruth 1When it comes to the book of Ruth, the way the story has been told for years was that there was one hero in this story: Boaz, the family member who saves Ruth and her sad mother-in-law.
But then I read Carolyn Custis James’ The Gospel of Ruth and later, Finding God in the Margins, and I started seeing this short book in the Bible through fresh eyes.
James points out that Naomi is a “female Job.” In the patriarchal culture in which she lives, Naomi’s role is to provide sons for her husband. But then Eli...
2020-02-2610 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Hosea 11Hosea is one of several prophets in the Old Testament who warned God’s people of exile. We might think that messages about Israel’s exile don’t pertain to us thousands of years later. In the literal sense, they might not.
But you and I still face exile as a human condition in that we return to situations from which we may want to—or need to—escape.
Hosea 11 is a message of hope for the future, a clear reminder of where God has brought us from and his care for us.
May you be...
2020-02-2507 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Matthew 5For today’s reading, I’d like to invite you to travel with me to a hillside in Galilee, where a large crowd is gathering. People have been gathering from near and far to catch a glimpse of Jesus, the man who’s been the talk of the region because of the miracles he’s been performing.
Find a patch on the grass or on a smooth rock where you can make yourself comfortable. Imagine the sun beating down on you. Feel the breeze that brings respite. Sense the roughness of your robe and your leather sandals. Your fee...
2020-02-2405 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Mark 10:46-52If Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?", what will your answer be? Today's reading is from the CSB version.
2020-02-2304 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Romans 12:1-2Today’s focus is a reading of Romans 12:1-2 from The Message. “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.”
Or as author Floyd McClung once told me, “Go do [all] that with God.”
2020-02-2204 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 121Psalm 121 is one of my favorite psalms for the truths that it holds. Today’s reading is from the Passion Translation. May it provide you with courage for whatever lies before you.
2020-02-2103 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 136"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His loving-kindness lasts forever." Today's reading is from the NLV translation.
2020-02-2006 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 86"Lord, bend down to listen to my prayer. I am in deep trouble. I’m broken and humbled, and I desperately need your help. Guard my life, for I’m your faithful friend, your loyal servant for life. I turn to you in faith, my God, my hero; come and rescue me!" Today's reading is from the Passion Translation.
2020-02-1906 min2020-02-1802 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 37How simple life would be if good things happened to good people and bad things to bad? But that's not how life works. You or I could eat well, run marathons and never smoke, and you can still end up with a rare cancer.
Truth is, life is hard. Stuff happens. Which is why Jesus taught about the upside-down kingdom, where “You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought."
This psalm responds to t...
2020-02-1709 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 55"Give all your cares to the Lord and He will give you strength. He will never let those who are right with Him be shaken." Today's reading is from the NLV translation.
2020-02-1606 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 42"As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for you." This is simply a reading of Psalm 42. Background noises provided by the birds of Belize, right outside my former home office.
2020-02-1501 minBlue Thread LifeDaily Reading | Psalm 73"Who do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you. My flesh and my heart will fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
2020-02-1405 min