In an online conference, author Rebecca Fogg recounted her horrifying experience: In a freak accident at home, her hand was partially amputated. She recovered, but the event led her to focus seriously on what resilience means. Resilience defined In the business world and general American culture, people colloquially define resilience as one’s independent ability to…
Author: faithfulontheclock
A Snowtado, Connection, and God
A couple of years ago, right around Thanksgiving, my family and I saw the first snow flurry of the winter. As I watched from my patio window, the white flakes got bigger. The wind picked up. Pretty soon, the flurry had turned into a bit of a storm. For a moment, I was impressed by…
6 Choral Works for When You Need Peace and Reassurance
In the professional world, we’re good at planning and creating visions. We dream about how things are going to be and talk about manifesting them through deliberate choice and action. But I know from experience life doesn’t always go according to plan. Sometimes, we can doubt whether the vision is going to become reality, and…
Be Wary of the “AI Is the Future” Line. Here’s Why
As a writer, I’ve been watching what’s happening with artificial intelligence (AI) pretty closely. I’ve seen many of my colleagues struggle. I’ve watched them get laid off as publications lean toward smaller teams that use AI tools to create content. But I’ve also seen how AI can assist. It can help people get organized or…
Waiting for an Advocate
Yesterday afternoon, I did something I almost never do — I went on social media and admitted that I was discouraged. I felt called to create Christian content, I said, but it’s been really, really hard. The difficulty isn’t in finding motivation. I have a sense now that, although God didn’t cause what I’ve been…
Professionals Have a Hire-Out Problem
When you log on to any social media platform these days, you’ll see that everybody’s putting up posts. Feeds are a churning batter of paragraphs, videos, images, audiograms, and slides. Everything is a constant barrage of lessons, experiences, insights, and the occasional photos of someone’s dog or lunch. Except it isn’t. The trend of hiring…
Feel Surrounded by Trouble? Here’s What to Do
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking my dog on the loop that goes near our complex. Nestled behind the complex next to mine is a low wooded area that holds a tiny man-made pond. Residents of my neighbor complex can look out and see all this nature instead of the road that’s behind…
When You Have to Fight, Focus on This Why
Anybody who knows me knows I’m not a big person. I top out at 4’8″. (OK, if I’m being COMPLETELY honest, it’s more like 4’7″, according to my doctor’s height tools. But shhhh.) There are more footstools in my house than I’d like to admit. So, I know a little something about not feeling big…
The Difference Between a Hypocrite and Someone Who Needs a Hand
Recently, as part of my attempt to reoriented my career path toward a lighter workload, I completed a values assessment with a coach I’d hired. The assessment asked me to rank specific values on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being very important) and then rank how I lived or took action toward those…
Where Does Qualification Come From?
Relatively recently, I put up a request for feedback on a Christian manuscript I’d written. I value the insights of others and want to be careful that I’ve interpreted the Word properly. I received a note back from one of my beta readers indicating that they would have liked to see credentials that proved adequate…