An acquaintance and I were talking about our Thanksgivings yesterday. The conversation went deep quickly. He talked about having multiple families at his house for the holidays. Around the Thanksgiving table, they began to talk about what they were thankful for. My friend encouraged the table to move beyond “passive gratefulness,” the obvious things we are thankful for (a beautiful sky, a nice day), to push into “active gratefulness,” where you have to work a little harder. He explained to me that “active gratefulness” includes seeing the good even in bad times. It requires work on our part to see these things. We talked about how it is interesting that two people can have…

Person A: “Umm, I’m not sure he understands.” Person B: “Oh, he doesn’t understand.” Person A: “What?! How do you know?” Person B: “Have you told him what you are thinking?” Person A: “Well, no, but…” Person B: “Then he doesn’t understand.” Remember, no one can read your mind. If you do not open your mouth and communicate, then people do not know what you are thinking, how you are feeling, what your expectations are, or what you want or need. This is true with your spouse. This is true with your friends. This is true with your co-workers. This is true at church. This is true at home. This…

Today I’d like to start a conversation on “community.” I say “start” because I know this is a tough subject and no one is going to be changing their stance or current circumstances after one blog post. Recently I was participating in a particular event with church people. We were being asked to do some touchy-feely stuff, the kind of group activity that makes many stay away from church people. Just saying. I don’t really remember the point of the exercise (I know, I’m a bad Christian), but towards the end we found ourselves locking arms with the people next to us. Lucky for me, on one side was my wife and…