Stuff I Learned Yesterday

In 2017 I received an email from a podcast associate of mine named Shawn. I reached out to Shawn to learn more about the mission and determine how much I could donate to make maximum impact. Shawn was great with answering my questions, but the conversation didn’t go as I expected. Rather than simply taking my money, Shawn repeatedly emphasized that the best impact I could make was not in purchasing multiple stoves and floors. Inste...

You could say that nobody steals Thor’s thunder. He is the god of thunder, after all. But perhaps he’s the only one who is immune to having their thunder stolen. It took me years to see this fault in myself. To be honest, I’m still not convinced I’m capable of realizing that I’ve stolen someone’s thunder until a great deal of time has passed. That scares me a little. And that’s the lesson for today. If you’re like me, you love the ...

As we stood there on the shore of San Diego Bay taking in the sights of Comic-Con, Clint looked at me and asked, “Darrell, why do you do all of this?” I took a moment and gave him an answer I wasn’t happy with then and I’m not happy with now. I told him that I enjoyed being around the celebrities and learning about all the new stuff that’s coming out on TV this season. He looked at me with a dissatisfied expression. I’ve thought a ...

The Bible has a lot to say about God and his attributes, and it’s easy to understand how some of these passages can be interpreted to paint God into an image similar to that of Oz. But is that accurate? Just as Dorothy and her friends learned the truth about Oz when they pulled back the curtain and had a face to face conversation with him, I think if we dig in and pull back the curtain a bit today, a better understanding of God’s c...

Certainly the fact that we have the capacity to think signifies our existence. However, I’ve seen too many people who think they don’t exist because no one seems to notice them or acknowledge them. Honestly, I think deep down all of us need someone to affirm us in some way in order for us to feel like we exist. Thus, “I am thought of, therefore I am.”

The post 647- I Think Therefore I Am appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Enter...

I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with people about NMX 2015. Nearly every conversation I have about it includes someone declaring, “That was the best event ever!”  Why? Surround yourself with a group of friends that will encourage you, stick with you, help you see your blind spots, and give you that necessary encouragement on those hardest of days. Otherwise, you might give up when all your dreams are just outside y...

Marriage is not easy. Adding kids into the mix makes it even more challenging. It’s not surprising that between two-thirds and one-half of all marriages in the US end in divorce. This week Kari and I will celebrate 26 years of marriage and we are as happy and as solidly connected as we’ve ever been. Here are what I believe are five key ingredients to a successful marriage, plus a bonus ingredient.

The post 645- Ingredients of a Hap...

The word gospel simply means good news. For many of us when we hear the word gospel we think of good news that Jesus came and died to pay the penalty for our sin and provide a way to reconcile us with God. That is indeed good news! That is gospel. We often hear gospel messages about Jesus, but we don’t often hear about the gospel message that Jesus himself preached. Is it possible that we’ve missed the real message of Jesus?

The po...

Small moments can become unknown investments which make ripples decades for decades. Don’t underestimate the impact a small moment can have on someone’s life. Be engaged and authentic. Make the time count. Take time to let someone know when they’ve impacted your life in a positive way. Kind words are like honey—sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.

The post 643- Ten Hours Maximum appeared first on Golden Spiral Media- Enterta...

There are two women who still inspire me today. They remind me that no matter where you are in life, no matter your financial situation, no matter what difficulty you’re going through or mountain you’re on top of, you are never too good to treat someone with respect and even offer them something extra to brighten their day, and you’re never too poor to be able to find someone who needs help more than you do.

The post 642- It’...

In 2019, my daughter and I attended San Diego Comic Con together. It was a week of highs and lows as she got to drive a boat for the first time, a memory she still talks about often. Cons are a great place to take your kids and create great memories. When I talk about the benefits of going to cons, I’m not just talking about comic-cons. The con in comic-con is short for convention, but there’s another word that is often used for th...

The resurrection is everything. Paul put it this way, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” After all, if a man who claimed to be God, received worship as if he were God, forgave sins claiming he had the authority of God, claimed that he would die and three days later be raised from the dead, and claimed th...

Tiana is so inspiring. Rather than looking at the loss of her father and her fellow chef as a reason to quit, she let it propel her to be even greater to honor him and the dream that they shared. Her work ethic is uncompromised. When others try to derail her or get her to take time off, she refuses. She stays focused on her dream, works hard, puts in the extra time and effort that she knows it will take in order for her dream to co...

I love this podcast. In so many ways, I am the most boring guy in the world. I work from home. I don’t go out of the house much. I wear the same 6 or 7 shirts in the winter and another 6 or 7 shirts in the summer. Most of them are blue and some form of plaid. I like routine, sometimes to a fault. I have a spreadsheet for everything, and my life is pretty much consistent day in, day out. The only thing special about me is that I’ve ...

How many of us go to work every day to jobs that crush us and eat away at us. How many of us have bosses that yell or toss out insults? Maybe they are driven only by results, never pausing to think or care about the well-being of those in their employ. It can beat us down emotionally, psychologically, and even physically. Success comes in the preparation, and the preparation comes by communicating. Communication brings understandin...

It’s not fun to be exposed whether it’s related to your receding hairline or your personal sin. Trust me. I know about both of these all too well. We humans do a pretty good job of convincing ourselves that we have our moral act together. We have a sin problem, every single one of us. And God is holy, morally perfect. Jesus teaches that the only way a perfect God and a sinful person can be reconciled is if we choose to humble ourse...

A wise person once said that fools buy things they don’t want with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like. This is the adult version of bungee jumping to try and be like your step-brother. Stop basing your decisions on what you hope or perceive to be the opinions of people who don’t even care about you. Base your decisions on those closest to you and put your focus on those people. Sometimes the change in focus wil...

We’ve seen it depicted in countless ways for all of our lives. Families torn apart by a variety of things, most of which can be summed up by failing to be present. I will always be grateful to Sammy for teaching me this valuable lesson at such a young age: wherever you are, be there. It helped me establish boundaries that have protected my marriage, my family, and my career. Boundaries are incredibly important. When we fail to hono...