A lifetime Las Vegas resident and father of three grown children, Don spent 15 years as a licensed psychotherapist and speaker in private and hospital practices. Prior, he was part owner of an award-winning family advertising agency. Having fallen into addiction to crystal methamphetamine several years ago, losing everything to the drug, he has been clean since 9/4/11 and more sober about life with each passing day. The stories and content of this site are the accumulating epiphanies of his journey into sobriety, shared here to inspire others, especially those who remain embroiled in addictive battles of their own. LifeMeansSoMuch, the song title by Chris Rice (and you are highly encouraged to download it on ITunes or YouTube,) is the lyrical inspiration for the content of this site. Don is currently a life coach, author, speaker and manager at a non-profit, HopeLink of Southern Nevada.
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not affordability of housing or food, not their defense budgets.
In times of volatility with near infinite security variables in the balance, the nations whose plurality keeps Christ at the center of their flourishing will prosper.
Not in worldly assets,
not in peace through strength, not even in treaties of peace crafted between embittered rivaling nations.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand.
All glory to the One who has enabled nations of freed men and women to sing, speak, and have their being fixed not on things of this world but on the one to come.
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.
Matthew 12:1-2 NIV
Ok Karen.
The shift from living by the strict letter of the law to living by grace must have been difficult. Still is for some.
Busybodies are on watch 24/7 aiming to catch you in violation of what they claim you profess as your faith.
Entangling you in their arguments may be their goal, but without a relationship with Jesus themselves, they’ve no authority to report you to.
Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?
Matthew 12:9-11 NIV
There were over 600 laws that governed every minutiae of Jewish behavior and still do, and everyone was a Karen looking for reportable offenses.
When Jesus came, he freed the people of Israel from the law and established a kingdom ruled by grace and mercy according to each individual’s faith.
A personal relationship with Christ is the key that unlocks the door to legit freedom and focus on the purest purposes of God for his creation.
Avoid the entanglements and pray for the Karens who are missing out on life ruled by a God of grace, mercy, and loving one another as Christ loves.
Speak to your own Manager on behalf of Karens everywhere. God knows they need it.
There are uncounted pockets of missing persons in wait for the chance of being found.
A generation of lonely and mostly forgotten, abandoned by family, underserved and unacknowledged by society, making do with less than any human being should.
Few with the mobility to seek help and all living their golden years like a scrap of aluminum foil. While they dream of somewhere else, they’ve no place better to be.
They eat what they can on twenty bucks a month, pay their rent on time often at the sacrifice of air conditioning, and wear the same broken glasses they bought back in the 1980s when times were different.
And with few friends if any to talk with about their struggle, they are unable to muster a lasting living audience.
They’ve neither owned nor operated a computer, plow their walkers along highways in the heat of the day hoping to return home safely, and if so, with a bag from a food bank to satisfy their hunger affording them more than one meal a day.
And each day they fall further into the pit.
They are medically fragile, unemployable, and marks for thieves, schemes and scam artists. They’ve few if any assets, raises in income, and no awareness that this kind of life is not normal.
Yet despite it all, they are the kindest most generous generation of friends anyone could ever have.
They want no pity, seek no justice and pray relentlessly for the best for others.
They are society’s almost buried treasures still longing to be found and cherished for their patriotic, colorful, enduring life stories and the touch of someone’s hand who may listen and understand so that they themselves will never end up this way some day.
So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.
Matthew 10:26 NIV
Omniscience. An attribute of a God who is all-knowing.
Lately, God has revealed to me times and events of my life I never before knew existed or had forgotten, probably because they were too painful.
I wasn’t actively seeking these revelations, but somehow they seeped out into my consciousness and to rebalance my mind and heart, I’ve had to man up and deal with them.
Sanctification is an ongoing path for believers who choose to be open to the stuff of our past and a God who is all-knowing and omniscient.
He never gives us more than we can handle at the time (1Cor 10:13) but trust that for those he loves he will reveal what is hidden as we are becoming found.
If I was a younger man, I would use more commas than exclamation points, make pregnant pauses mean something more in conversation and ponder longer the silent moments I was dealt.
If I was a younger man, I would take up causes that mattered most, view my future the least and risk much more for what I believed.
If I was a younger man, my contemplations would be richer, reflections clearer, and conversations more indelible.
As a younger man I would spend more time writing poetry, longer notes on greeting cards, and make more calls to those I love for no particular reason at all.
My friends would be closer, my enemies further, and my heart much softer as a younger man. I would listen to older men more, memorize better quotations, create more memories, and remember more of what was most important.
Everything I’d do would be taken down a notch or two, time would be much more precious, and life would boil down to a single purpose. And I would do it today instead of tomorrow, look at the big picture, and take more snapshots on the way.
The clock would pale in significance and my “I” would be much less important than my “you.”
As a younger man, my gains would be more intangible, my virtues more apparent, and my focus more intense. I’d play more, give more, and say more thank you’s to complete strangers for their unacknowledged acts of valor.
I would pet more puppies, take longer walks, and pause a few more times to see smaller things around me in bigger ways. And I wouldn’t be afraid to cry.
I would be an older soul in a younger body, chasing more inventions, reading more genres, and blazing more trails for younger men to follow.
I would scour the dictionary for just the right word, enter more contests, and share more of my winnings with strangers.
I would edit less, listen more, and use smaller words to say the same things to more people so they could understand the wisdom of men much older than them.
And maybe then, the younger men would see the value of using commas more, exclamation points less, and the perfect power of a pause.
After performing so many miracles, Jesus discharged his apostles to serve the world.
Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32-33 NIV
Their call was as distinct as black and white.
“Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Like Kermit, Christian life is not an easy existence.
It’s against the flow, certain to hurt, and widely unpopular. Just like the gospel itself.
Pain, rejection and discomfort is a friend to no one. But it’s part of taking up your cross.
This world grows colder to receiving our message everyday. People want gray areas over absolutes. Some still think being a good person is enough without accepting what the resurrection clearly demands.
It’s easy being gray. But every shade of gray is lukewarm spittable (Rev 3:16)
If you won’t stand 💯 for something, you might just stand or fall for anything.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
Matthew 9:10-12 NIV
Contrary to popular opinion, lightning doesn’t strike a church you walk into. God welcomes you as you are with open arms.
The real issue rarely discussed however, may be that some over-schooled believers remain unnecessarily slow to mature, still wanting milk over meat and not taking up the difficult tasks of the cross.
Let’s call it an unwillingness to wean.
The church needs to step up and challenge people to step out. Graduate into the ministry into which you’ve been trained and called.
Get off the teats and into the streets.
It’s not the healthy who need doctors, it’s the sick.
He failed to resurface, lost the life he knew and was never the same again.
Each of us is given one or two moments in a lifetime to dramatically change course if we want it bad enough, having vision to recognize the opportunity and the courage to act upon it.
This world would have us believe that succumbing to the shallows is the only safe existence.
Never venturing into unknown waters, we risk dying without discovering our purpose or knowing the endowment of an internal superpower that equips us to see beyond the drivel of the commonplace and into the extraordinary world of the unknown.
For too many, the price is too high, but for the priceless few fortunate enough to heed the call and take the leap, turning back becomes an unconscionable act certain to imprison us forever by the if onlys.
Deepest changes cost every cent you own, the allocation of your wealth to those with none, then makes you perform acts of enrichment upon the lives of others.
So don’t fall into the lie that goes no deeper, reaches no further and leaves you like a child on the beach afraid of the water… because I once knew a man…
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:33-34 NIV
Statistically, 85% of things we worry about never come to pass.
But that won’t stop some people from trying to beat the odds.
Worry pays the premiums we owe ourselves for being better than everyone else.
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Matthew 6:27 NIV
Worry is a thief.
It steals your future time and energy on its quest for a one-off moment of glory only you appreciate.
Your now is suffering.
Because you have ignored the lesson, living happily in the present has become unbearable.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 NIV
Stuff.
2 years after giving away 80% of my possessions to live lean in my tiny 1b/1ba home, I’ve since accumulated more stuff than I should.
Fortunately, I’m not attached to any of it. If it all burned in a fire, it would be inconvenient but not heartbreaking.
65 years have taught me that what matters most isn’t stuff. It’s the intangibles.
The yearnings on behalf of my family and friends , the desire for good to prevail over evil, for the remaining personal adjustments of mind, heart and behaviors that will leave permanent impressions long after I’m gone.
These are the intangibles that drive the last 15-25% of my time on this earth.
They can’t be stolen or destroyed because neither their pursuit nor value can be measured by any earthly yardstick.
Treasures are no longer hunted like prizes of youth.
Treasures lie in what pumps from your heart through your veins and brings precious life and love into a darkened world.
