Snapshots and Synapses

copyright ©2010 Mitchell Malloy ( http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/ ) What if a million dollars had been set aside for your use, but you weren't allowed to draw on it until you reached a point where you could responsibly handle it? And what if the "responsibly handle it" part meant that you had learned to use it in a way that didn't seek your own pleasure? What good could you do with a million dollars? If the money was spent foolishly, what damage could happen to you and your family? Is is possible that God has unlimited resources that He is just waiting to hand over to you, but He's waiting for you to reach a point where your own pleasure is no longer your pursuit? What if God cares so much for you that He withholds those good things that you are not ready to manage responsibly? What if we all sought the good of others over our selfish wants? What if we truly believed God was able to meet all our needs and even exceed our expectations? How would today's ac...

copyright ©2010 Mitchell Malloy ( http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/ ) Well, now that we have become an Obama nation (not quite the same as “abomination”) and as elections start to loom in the distance, I hear people saying: “how’s that hope thing working out for you?”. The last presidential election was, after all, centered on “hope” and “change”. But I’m not writing about campaign strategies or critiquing the performance of our statesmen. I’m focused on our need for hope as individuals. Where is the hope? I see and sometimes feel a great absence of hope as marriages struggle, finances crumble, and life-long vocations teeter. One co-worker of mine despairingly acknowledged current events and trends with a corollary statement of “might as well have a drink and not think about it”. In other words, find your drug of choice and pretend there’s no problem to fix. While I acknowledge that avoidance can be a valid short-term tactic, it’s a dangerous long-term strategy. Healthy organization...

copyright ©2010 Mitchell Malloy ( http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/ )   Now, I don’t know about you but I can be guilty of extreme reactions when it comes to “authority”. So the extremes are this: 1) resist authority or 2) yield to authority. But what about questioning authority… where does that fit in? Authority… the word evokes various reactions. For some people, the mere thought of “authority” is like a sound to arms… a call to resist… to rise up and fight… like John Cougar’s “I fight authority” lyrics. For others, it’s a proclamation to comply… to obey… to submit without considering the validity of the order. The academic discipline of Logic recognizes a logical fallacy: Appeal to Authority. The fallacy (or error in reasoning) manifests when a person concludes something similar to this: “[Authority Person] says this is true, therefore it is automatically true”. Religious systems can often appeal to an authority in providing answers: “the pastor said this, so it MUST be tru...