Encouragement for Life Blog

By: Dr. Andrew Spencer Searching the phrase “work-life balance” produces an avalanche of results. The recommendations provided to create a work-life balance vary widely based on the author and the outlet of publication, but the popularity of the question shows that it is a significant problem for many people. Among other mistaken predictions, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted an abbreviated work week …

By: Jacqueline Isaacs Should you wear a mask or face-covering while returning to work and your regular activities? While this seems like a question that should have a clear science-based answer, all it takes is a quick browse of your social media feeds to realize that well-meaning folks can disagree vehemently about how to answer the great mask debate. As …

By: John Pletcher Are you certain you are ready to go back to work? For many of us, the current season is full of great eagerness and anticipation. Perhaps you’ve been working from home, and now there is the potential of going back to the office soon. Perhaps you were furloughed over previous weeks, but now you are hearing the news …

By Jimmy R. Lewis Fighting for joy in the midst of a busy schedule is sometimes difficult even for strong, mature Christians. As a young professional in Washington, D.C., I have experienced and struggled with some of the pitfalls surrounding busyness. In a city and society that views busyness as a badge of honor, these struggles are inevitable, but succumbing …

By: Dr. Art Lindsley  In the many vocational interviews I have done over the years, I have heard numerous stories about difficult bosses and strained relationships at work. Even in the organizations working for the highest causes, the tone of the corporate culture does not always match the lofty vision of their group. According to Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal, this disconnect between an organization’s cultural values …

By Steve Lindsey Whether a book, the news, or someone’s facial expression, we all read things regularly in our daily lives. But have you ever considered reading your work? This type of reading requires discovering wisdom about what practices and principles best apply to your unique job. This skill of reading our job can lead to flourishing and prevent impoverishment. Mis-reading Our Work …

By John Lennox A Weighty Decision It is our heavenly Father who provides food for birds and clothing for flowers. We, who are more valuable to him, are therefore to trust him for the necessities of life. Anxiety and fear are real. Many years ago I was in Hungary and met a man whose demeanor impressed me greatly, a humble man of great …

By Hugh Whelchel But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. God has always been with us at work. And he wants us to be fruitful there as well as all the other areas of our lives. Yet, we often find it difficult. During …

By Dr. Art Lindsley “Climbing the corporate ladder” is a phrase frequently used in a negative way to describe someone who is selfishly advancing their career at the expense of others. Millennials, however, view rapid upward mobility as something to be desired and praised. According to Entrepreneur magazine, one of the most significant issues for this generation and, likely those following it, …

By: Dr. Art Lindsley If I were to take you in a helicopter to Afghanistan and parachute you into the middle of the country without a map and without knowledge of how to discern where one of 10 million land mines are located, how long do you think you would last? Being dropped into minefields without knowing how to avoid …

By Dr. Art Lindsley Our culture has a crisis in calling. We’ve been exploring this crisis, and how a biblical perspective on work can help us address it. A biblical view of work runs throughout all of scripture. We are given the cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28) in Genesis to use our gifts to cultivate the kingdom of God. Our work then plays a part in God’s plan …

By: Hugh Whelchel, originally posted on July 2, 2015. You wake up in the morning hoping your actions will have purpose. You want the work you do during the day to be affirmed, to be directed towards a meaningful end, and to have an impact on the lives of those around you. You want to lie down at night and …

Many of us often wonder what our true calling might be. We ponder what it is we can bring to the world, something that is uniquely “us.” We ask the questions “what difference can I make?”, “Am I significant?”, “When it’s all said and done, will my life have counted for something?” One of my favorite scriptures gives us some …

By Daniel Darling, originally posted August 20, 2018. Because we live in a Genesis-3 (fallen) world, we are tempted to think wrongly about our work in two ways. First, we can make our work everything: an object of worship and devotion instead of the good gift God created it to be. Our careers are often seen as a marker of …

By Hugh Whelchel, originally posted September 3, 2012. Recently I saw a bumper sticker that read, He who dies with the most toys wins, but he is still dead.   This must be a post-modern version of the late 1990’s original, which simply read, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” If bumper stickers are a reflection of the soul …

By Hugh Whelchel, Originally posted July 2, 2018 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. Declaration of Independence Former U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall challenged Americans, “May we …

By Nancy Cotterill, Claiming Peace http://www.uniteindy.org/claiming-peace/ I remember a book I read called The Poisonwood Bible in which a family of fiercely evangelical missionaries go to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They took with them everything they believed they would need from home, but find nothing but sorrow and loss in the cruelty of the African wild. Nothing works, people …

By Gary Stanton, Walking Where Jesus Walked – My Trip to the Holy Land Traveling all the way to the Holy Land and experiencing scripture come alive was a great confirmation of what I believe as a Christian. Being able to actually visit the locations of some of the greatest successes and laments of biblical history reinforced my faith of …

By Darrel Geis, More to This Life In February of 2014, I stood at my younger brother Alex’s side as he sadly passed away at the age of 48 due to complications from years of alcohol abuse. He had been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver that previous September, went through a detox program in October, and had been clean …

By Darrel Geis, The Greatest Birthday Gift Ever It was late in the spring of 2006, and my parents had come from their home in Pennsylvania to Cincinnati to visit my wife and me on the eve of my birthday. They hinted of a special surprise for me, and the next day we piled into their SUV and headed to …

By Darrel Geis, Live in the Moment It was the 2nd Sunday of Advent in 2003, and I was sitting in the back row of the sanctuary at North Cincinnati Community Church, my home church. On my left was my girlfriend at the time, who had flown from her home on the East Coast to visit me for the weekend. …

By David Kithcart, St. Valentine, the Real Story Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance. That’s what Valentine’s day is all about, right? Well, maybe not. The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn’t romantic at all—at least not in the traditional sense. Father Frank O’Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story …

By Hugh Whelchel, Why “Character Goals” Should Be Your First Resolutions How many of your goals are built around what you want to accomplish as opposed to who you want to become? The plans of the diligent surely lead to advantage (Prov. 21:5). In the mid-sixties there was a successful television series called Run for Your Life. Actor Ben Gazzara plays a …

By Darrel Geis, 7 Words That Changed My Heart One Christmas It was Christmastime in 1995, and I had organized a group from my church to go Christmas caroling. Using crudely assembled, photocopied song sheets, we ventured into the neighborhoods surrounding our church. In spite of the cold, more people showed up than expected, so afterwards, I dropped by the local …

By Drew Dinkelacker, Do Something Meaningful This Christmas We see the de-valuation of Christmas all around us. I willingly admit that I have spent more time and money on gift giving rather than personally preparing to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. It’s clear that the story of Jesus, as the central focus of Christmas, has been lost on many in …

By Darrel Geis, Shine Like Stars “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”   John 1:5 “Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” Philippians 2:15b In my January 2017 blog titled “Game Day”, I shared the story of the faithfulness of a handful of students involved with OSU Bible Studies to …

By Hugh Whelchel, Institute for Faith, Work & Economics “Overconfidence can lead to poor decisions. Ultimately, pride is our root issue and humility is the best antidote.” In a talk at Catalyst in 2009, Malcolm Gladwell tries to answer the question, “Why does confidence sometimes lead to bad decisions?” As an example, he tells the story of the defeat of Union General Joe …

By Dion Elmore, Prayers for America with Dr. Dave Butts With just a few days until we observe the 66th Annual National Day of Prayer, the chairman of the board of The National Day of Prayer task Force, Dr. Dave Butts shares a few thoughts on …Prayers for America      Protection “Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you …

By Darrel Geis, Who was Saint Patrick and why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? Q: Who was Saint Patrick and why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? A:  Patrick, whom almost everyone calls “Saint Patrick,” although he was never canonized by the Catholic Church, was born to a wealthy family in AD 387 in Kilpatrick, Scotland. His real name was …

By Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts, How Lent Can Make a Difference in Your Relationship with God Growing up as an evangelical Christian, I experienced Lent as little more than a joke. “What are you giving up for Lent?” my friends would ask. “Homework,” I’d say with a smirk, or “Obeying my parents.” Lent was one of those peculiar practices demanded …

By Darrel Geis, Game Day With my alma mater Ohio State having recently competed in the College Football Playoff, I was reminded of a memory from my college days in the 1980s that God used to plant seeds in my heart and draw me to Christ. Before every home football game outside of Ohio Stadium, students involved with OSU Bible Studies would pass …

By John Hartz, The Pair of Shoes As a small business owner I am constantly caught in the battle between the things I would like to be doing and the things my business makes me do. There have been so many books written on the struggle of the small businessman to move from working for his business to working on …

By Pastor Dax Welsheimer, God Desires Mercy Over Sacrifice When I introduced myself in the last blog, I mentioned I try to live my life through three different filters. I wanted to share with you in the coming weeks what each of those actually mean, starting with the first filter –“God desires mercy over sacrifice.” What does God desiring mercy over …

By Hugh Whelchel, Institute for Faith, Work & Economics: Over the last few months, I’ve talked to many Christians who fear they are living in a world that is spinning out of control – especially during a chaotic election season. They feel helpless, without the power to do anything about it. I like to share with them “Four Ways Christians …

By Darrel Geis, Jesus Loves Me This I Know Last fall I had the opportunity once again to serve as meals coordinator for Interfaith Hospitality Network, where we house, feed and provide clothing for homeless families displaced from their homes due to financial duress, usually caused by a significant illness, breakup of parents, or loss of the family’s main income source.

By Darrel Geis, What Was Your Big Rock in 2015? As we begin the New Year, it’s always appropriate to take a moment to reflect back on the previous twelve months, and thank God for his provisions and protection. What’s even better, though, is to intentionally “mark” a moment (or moments) where God made clear His purposes (i.e. through answered prayer …

By Larry Burkett, Crown Financial Ministries During a recent Sunday night service at a local church, a young minister shared a guideline for prayer handed down to him by an elder believer.

By Darrel Geis, Christian Character and Competence – Our Unique New “Trust” Filter I often hear advertisements from businesses that claim “we are a business you can trust”. Many say this, and, ideally, their claims are proven to be true. Everyone – Christian or not – prefers to work with businesses they can trust, but what “filter” can consumers use beforehand …

By Darrel Geis, It Was for Freedom “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. ” Galatians 5:1 If you plan on attending a sporting event or 4th of July festivities this summer, no doubt you will be asked to join in the …

By Darrel Geis, Have Compassion It was 1996, and a few Christian Blue Pages staff members and I attended the Promise Keepers men’s conference in Indianapolis, which was held in the Hoosier Dome, which was, at the time, the 60,000 seat home of the Indianapolis Colts.  The Blue Pages had secured exhibit space for the event as well in the Indianapolis …

By Darrel Geis, Follow Me And He said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 These are two of the most simple, yet profound, words that Jesus Christ spoke during his life here on earth. He spoke them to twelve men he chose as his closest companions, the people that would take the message of …

By Darrel Geis, Righteousness vs. Compromise Over my 23 years the Christian Blue Pages, I’ve had the opportunity to observe Christians – in hundreds of situations – taking a stand for righteousness in their businesses. In situations where compromising one’s values might be expedient and beneficial to the “bottom line”, or unnoticeable to a watching world, it is critical that we as …

By Darrel Geis, Bloom Where You are Planted I love sports, and earned a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Ohio State in order to direct that passion towards my ultimate goal — to be a sports anchor for a major network by 1999. But after two years working at a TV station at night and selling advertising for the Christian Blue Pages …

By Darrel Geis, Transform Our Life into Worship Years ago, my pastor at the time often reminded our church that, in following Jesus and living the Christian life, our goal was to continually “transform our life into worship”. I have been inspired and challenged by those words over the years. Transformation in our lives requires an intentional effort to enact change …

By Darrel Geis, Keep Christ in Christmas While our culture seems to be progressively removing any mention of Christ from the Christmas season, I encourage you to make a personal commitment to “keep Christ in Christmas” this year. One great and fun way to do this is to gather your family, friends, or employees together and go caroling in a neighborhood …

By Darrel Geis, Overflowing Thankfulness “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted  and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”  Colossians 2:6-7 NIV When was the last time you were overflowing with thankfulness? It often takes a life-threatening event flashing before our …