I’m not a morning person, and, I’m a glass-half-full kind of person. I long for Lent, a season that fits my demeanor best. Perky bubbly morning persons drive me crazy. Lately I seem to be surrounded by them and their kin. To my morning sunshine friends I offer “The Cynics Guide to Life” as a corrective to a saccharine frame of mind with a plea to please, let me have my third cup of coffee before telling me all about your pet’s unique personality and fascinating interior life.

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It’s been a while since we’ve had a GRACE Writes blog contest. Here’s a summer book contest for our readers and visitors. The first person to correctly identify the authors of four of the five works listed below correctly will win the book prize.

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Euphemisms have their use, but I suspect more often than not, it’s more helpful to call something what it is. We hear some euphemism so often we almost don’t recognize them as such. A half hour of watching the news will likely cover the following: passed away (died), fatal injury (death), fatality (dead/killed person), fence (wall), casualties (deaths and injuries), collateral damage (damage, death, injury to non-combatants and their property), promoting democracy (enforcing hegemonic rule), active defending (attacking).

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Scottish mystic Henry Scougal (1650-1678), author of the spiritual classic The Life God in the Soul of Man included the following prayer in that work:

“Good God! What a mighty felicity this is to which we are called! How graciously hast thou joined our duty and happiness together, and prescribed that for our work the performance whereof is a great reward!”

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Compared to other denominations and faith traditions, Baptists can be rather antinomian. Like many things religious, that can be a blessing and a curse. Dealing with other denominations on matters related to theological education and academic administration can leave me feeling caught in a bureaucratic twilight zone of Kafkian proportions. Faith traditions often have their own internal logic that makes little sense to outsiders. Seeking understanding from insiders inevitable yields mumbled talk about “tradition” followed by a coda of a shrugged shoulder that communicates a helpless “What can you do?” At those moments I prefer my free church roots that will as likely yield a response of “Yeah, sure, we can do that. Why not?” as a “We’ve never done it that way before.”

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We continue the series on basic concepts in Bowen Family Systems Theory (BFST). Today’s question: Does “thinking triangles” make leadership easier?

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