http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=81424&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Nobody needs to tell us we're hypocrites; we know it better than they do. During those times, our whole life seems wasted. We wonder if all that's left to us now is "playing out the string"; quietly slipping in heaven's side door without hearing the words we long to hear: "Well done, good and faithful servant. In other words, we're paralyzed by the myth of perfection.

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=80947&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

No one comes away from a meeting with Jesus unchanged...and that's good, because no one comes to God unless they're first changed by Jesus.

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=80469&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Changing the world is a tall order, but it's on the to-do list of nearly every thoughtful person on the planet. But change is possible. This mother passed the formula to her son as they said their goodbyes.

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=80279&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

We cannot adequately explain the hardest moments of our lives. We cannot soothe all the sorrows that regularly beset us, or the sorrows of those whom God has placed around us. We cannot wave a magic wand and fix the distresses we see besieging those we love, those we work with, those we know. In our hardest moments, our best efforts are feeble...our best words are hollow.

Except...

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=80052&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Thomas Alva Edison opened the world of music to millions when he invented the phonograph, but his near-deaf state sentenced him to...biting into a piano or phonograph...allowed the vibrations to reach his inner ear, making it possible for him to "hear. Imagine the hunger behind his willingness to dent his dignity so.

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=79735&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

It is no accident the century after the Enlightenment saw more deaths by genocide than all of history to that date. Humankind separated from God is humankind separated from its moral compass.

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=79468&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

In a work world that values efficiency and action, that places great emphasis on busyness and productivity, that wrestles to squeeze the most out of every action, one of the byproducts is often loneliness. It's a disease as prevalent in the senior reaches of a firm as it is in the bowels of the operation.

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=79335&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Christians were created to be in the world without being consumed by it. In fact, we're not simply bit players in the drama of nature, work and life; we're the part of Creation around which all else flows.

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=79204&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Anything that distracts us from complete dependence on God becomes an immensely destructive force in our life. In today's culture, the biggest culprit is work. In a total reversal of what God intended, we've managed to make work the place where we're least aware of God. Genesis teaches us work was intended to put us in touch with Him!

http://madetomatter.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=0&view=post&articleid=79059&link=1&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

Rarely are the lines from trial to triumph marked by straight lines; more often they are zigzags and loops---along trails littered with our tears---over obstacles that mark us with bruises, scratches and scars as we nevertheless press on.