Life Talk With Craig Lounsbrough

We tend to talk about positive thinking as opposed to negative thinking.  We associate negative thinking with depression, darkness and an overall pessimistic view of life.  Negative thinking can be our way to avoid failure, offset our defeats by setting them up to happen, and reduce our expectations to some point so incredibly low that anything that happens can't help but be a success.  We can certainly find great value in such a dynamic, but in many respects such an orientation is far too limiting.  While the idea of positive thinking is certainly powerful, it appears to miss a more fundamental and core principle that can be utterly life altering on every level of life.  This podcast explores the idea of positive thinking or just plain truth.  

We make decisions all day, everyday.  Whether those decisions are the redundant routine things that fill up most of our days, or those decisions are the seminal moments that alter our lives for the rest of our lives.  Some of the decisions that we make are conscious; choices that are the product of much time, rigorous thought, the balancing out of potential consequences, weighing the pro’s and con’s, performing analysis sometimes to the point of paralysis, and drawing on whatever our resources might be to make the best possible decision.  Sometimes our decisions are well researched,talked about, prayed about, stewed over, mulled over, poured over and turned over in our heads until our heads hurt.  It seems that the real truth of the matter is that the things that drive our decisions are much less about the reality of whatever those decisions are and much more about our underlying value system.  What drives our decisions is something much more core to who we are. The chemistry and alchemy of our decisions ari

Too often we don't take the time to really ask why we support what we're supporting.  We get swept up in some energizing movement, or we're utterly captivated by some cause.  Something feels inherently good and the premise that drives it appears sound.  We find that an army of people have raced to the forefront of this cause, or it's embraced as long overdue, or it appears right for the times. But in all of that, do we ask the larger questions?  Do we ask if there is some underlying issue that's bigger than the cause that prompted it?  Is there more here than just the excitement of the moment or the rallying cry of the population?  Do we proceed with a wisdom that will solve the larger issues, or will we just perpetuate all of those by running amuck in lesser things?  Change is needed.  But if it is not thoughtful change, nothing will change.

What do you say in the midst of crisis?  What do you say when everything is turning sideways and the world around you in roiling in some sort of perpetual chaos?  What do you say?  What do you say when the pain is overwhelming, the solution is underwhelming, and the path out of whatever this place is doesn't exist?  What do you say when the bottom drops out, the sky falls in, and we're left in a free-fall that's bottomless?  What do you say? There is much to be said in times such as these.  Much.  The problem is we don't think about it.  We get worn-down by worn-out platitudes, or the empty promises of a lost culture, or the propaganda of the various soothsayers that run rampant throughout our culture.  We mope around in the muck and mire of the anemic pablum of people who are more lost than we are.  But there are things that we can say.  Great things.  Healing things.  Timeless things.  Hopeful things.  What do you say at times like these?  Listen and find out.

Aldous Huxley pointedly pointed out that “most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.”  If you think about it, “infinite” is a rather extensive capacity and we‘re quite adept at utilizing that capacity to its fullest extent.  Taking things for granted means that they no longer garner our attention.  Out of their value to us they’ve lost their value.  Because of the fact they they’ve served us quite well and that they’ve served us quite consistently, we develop the sense that they’ll always be there, or that they’re just supposed to be there.  We assume that things occupy a place in our lives just because they’re supposed to occupy a place.  We make things something more like an entitlement or something we’d ascribe to the norm.  And so, we take things for granted. The incongruity of it all is simply that things that should demand our attention, or are at least deserving of it are ignored.  Gifts, talents and personal abilities are exercised day in and day out but aren’t

We get attacked.  That’s a reality of life.  Somewhere, at some time, someone is going to come after us.  We’ve going to get cut, clobbered or end up with an assorted collection of contusions.  Sometimes the intentions of those that hurt us are misdirected, and at other times they’re completely intentional.  Sometimes the actions of others are the stuff of mindless impulse and therefore kind of shot-gun in their intention.  At other times the actions of others are completely malicious, being viciously planned and savagely implemented.  There are times when the actions of others are based on an errant understanding of events or circumstances, being tragic mistakes and gross misfires.  At others times the intent is simply to hurt so the nature of the precipitating event is altogether irrelevant, other than being a product of cruelty and by-product of selfishness.  When these things happen, we naturally respond.  Yet, what does our response say?     Obviously we respond.  We respond to a whole bunch of things i

The question is not, "Am I passionate?"  The better question might be, "Am I passionate for the right things?"  There's a lot of passionate people in our world today, but often the passions are misguided and self-destructive.  People take up questionable causes and advocate for selfish positions in the name of 'passion.'  Voices are raised, positions are advocated for, and pulpits of all shapes and colors are pounded.  But 'passion' may not be productive.  And so, as we advocate for our 'passions,' we might ask how healthy and legitimate our 'passion' really is.  For many 'passions' result in our destruction, and we would be wise to make certain this is not the case with any of ours. 

Holding onto something?  Of course you are.  We all do. There are things that we feel are of great value, for whatever reason they’re of value.  Our tendency is that once we determine that something’s of value, or we’re told something’s of value, we tend to grab ahold of it.  The degree to which we grab it and the force of our grip on it is determined by how much we value whatever it is that we’re holding onto.  Because that’s the case, our grip can be something like a horrific steel trap, or it can be rather loose and supple.   What’s odd is that we don’t often think about how hard we’re holding onto whatever things we’re holding onto.  We presume that it’s a natural and normal thing to hold onto the things in our lives that we value or see as central to our lives.  We misleadingly assume that  once we’re in possession of whatever it is that we’re in possession of, we’re obviously supposed to always remain in possession of it.  We develop a kind of hoarding management mentality that naturally dictates that

Life has those lingering proverbial statements that seem timeless; those quips and quotes that have that some kind of message that’s just so compelling that you simply can’t ignore them.  Whatever they say, and there’s a bunch of them that say a whole lot of things, they say something that’s so core to us,or who we’d like to be that secretly we’d love to be able to live them out.  It seems that because they have something genuinely real to them they persist indefinitely because they’re indefinitely fresh and relentlessly applicable.  However, it seems that these timeless, proverbial treasures are so good that they’re too good to be true, or least too good to be achievable.  We’d really love to be able to actually do what they say and live like they suggest, but they’re pretty demanding and rigorous.  In fact, they’re sometimes so demanding and so rigorous that they seem a bit impossible.  Yet, they remain compelling nonetheless, like some precious gem just beyond our reach. Love Your Enemies The command to

What would the world be like if there were no love?  It's probably not all that unreasonable to say that without love, the world may not exist...at all.  Without love, mankind would likely destroy itself in all the sordid ways that love keeps us from destroying it.  Love is essential.  Absolutely.  Love embodies not only love, but a host of other principles and values that hold-the-line against our lesser urges and less than admirable traits. A world without live wouldn't be a great place at all.  And so maybe we should ask how we create more of it.  How do we enhance the love in our world?  How do we strengthen the love that exists, and yet expand the scope and impact of it far beyond what it is?  And while such notions often sound idealistic and the stuff of romanticized dreamers, what would actually happen if love were expanded?  What would happen if it took a greater place in our lives, our families and our communities?  What if?

It seems one of the oddest dichotomies. Life is full of strange and downright weird contradictions.  At many times in our lives, at many points both important and not so important we find ourselves pulled in two completely opposite, but equally compelling directions.  At times it seems that two entirely different people reside within us, each mesmerized and held captive by things completely contrary and contradictory; each aggressively vying for the thing that pulls them in opposite directions.  Of all of these kinds of moments, there is one that seems more vexing than the rest . . . and love drives it.  We all want to love and be loved.  There's a whole lot that we can do without.  As much as we'd love to do without love at times, we're simply incapable of doing so.  There's something woven through the very core of our tapestries that desires to both expel love out and draw it in.  We'd love to do it without fear or reservation.  We'd love to be wrapped init, immersed in it and enriched by it. We'd love to

It's over... but it's probably not.  It's not about something being over.  In reality, it's more about a negative attitude that thinks something is over when it's not.  We think that some dream is forever gone, that they'll never be another relationship, that our career objectives will always remain objectives, and that life will never fall in good places for us.  Often, we think something is over before we even start it, which doesn't make something over.  It makes something that was 'never started' to be anything but never started. It's over...but it's probably not.  Something might be over in one way, but it can be accomplished in another.  Something might have come to an unfortunate end, but that never precludes a new beginning.  Or something might not be over at all.  Rather, we're just too hesitant to press it forward for fear that we might not actually be able to manage success.  It's not over, so hang in there.

We all worship something.  For the strong and stalwart types among us, we probably find that statement a bit pathetic or at least somewhat unsavory at best.  For the more passive among us, that statement might make us feel more subservient and possibly more used than we already feel.  For everyone else that’s somewhere in the middle, it might resonate as slightly antiquated with a dusty touch of religious sentimentality. Regardless of where we fall or who we are, the concept of worship can cut against the grain and be seen as an action that undercuts our independence.  Worse yet, the whole idea or act of worship might usurp our independence altogether, which for many us is a rather frightening proposition.  Often we conceptualize worship as being something that demands our obedience and allegiance.  To many, worship suggests subservience and a kind of scripted groveling where we’re irreparably stooped and bent in penance or slavery to something.  To others, it’s an action that they sense is owed to something

As the old saying goes, integrity is defined by what you do when no one is looking.  It's a choice...pure and simple.  It's a choice to do the right thing regardless of the outcome for us.  It's realizing that we may pay a price to be people of integrity, but to 'not' be a person of integrity will cost us far, far more.  It's a lifestyle choice.  A choice of character; of determining the kind of people that we want to be and the kind of legacy that we want to leave.  It's about how we will live out these few scant years that we have to live and what our lives will look like at journey's end. Too often integrity falls to greed, or ease, or peer pressure, or the demands of the larger culture.  But a true person of integrity understands that to fall to these is to fall in ways that we cannot afford to fall.  So, be a person of integrity.  You won't be perfect at it, and there will be moments of failure that you will regret.  But it's not always about winning the battle as much as it is refusing not to fight it.

The concept of sacrifice seems more suited to novels or epic movies.  It appears more an ideal; a concept that when observed from a safe distance seems wonderfully heroic, deeply inspiring and chivalrous in a way that stirs up something powerful in us that seems to be forever held hostage despite the fact that it gets stirred.  Sacrifice, as we watch it displayed from afar, awakens some internal passion that chafes against our souls in its quest to be unleashed within us.   Somehow sacrifice seems to be something that is entirely right, that is likewise entirely lost.  There are those things that we believe exist yet are lost to mankind; the things we are ever in search of not because we are caught up in some sort of shallow fascination with them.  Rather, there are those things that we know to be authentically real whose absence must be remedied by their discovery.  There are those things that we are made for,yet which are entirely absent.   Sacrifice is one of those things.  It’s something that we know we a

I can't save myself.  I do not possess the resources to come to my own rescue.  I might be able to do a few things to keep my life moving, or weather a few bumps in the road.  I might be able to bypass some road blocks or side-step a few ruts.  And while I can maneuver enough to slog along at points, that is not saving myself.  When it comes to the need to be rescued from the disasters that befall me, or the times when my resources pale to the struggle within which I find myself, or the challenges that possess a power far superior to any that I possess...I cannot rescue myself from any of these.  And in the end, I cannot rescue myself from certain death and the consequences that follow.  I cannot rescue myself, and I am glad that I can't.  For then I am forced to acknowledge that something or Someone greater than me must exist who can save me from the 'me' that can't save itself.

Self-image is that perspective that we have about ourselves. It’s kind of like looking in some sort of mirror in order to determine what we look like.  We stand in front of these mirrors and try to figure out who we are, what we are and what we’re not.  We tilt our heads and squint, trying to make out the reflection of our heads, our hearts or whatever’s in there.  We are constantly coming back to these mirrors in order to figure out who we are and what’s in there.  Conflict brings us back.  A relationship gone bad brings us back.  A job loss, financial collapse, personal failures, the upheaval of mid-life crisis or some tragedy all bring us back.  These kinds of things make us question ourselves so we’re back in front of some foggy, squiggly mirror with squinted eyes trying to get our bearings again. Distorted Mirrors You’ve seen the mirrors that distort your image. Those can be the kind in the Fun House at the circus on antique mirrors aged and faded by time.  The image isn’t quite right.  Sometimes it’s cl

Time.  It's limited.  It moves without heeding our desire that it slow down or speed up.  It is not interrupted by the greatest joy or the most profound heartache.  Once it is spent, there is no redeeming it, elongating it, renewing it, or storing it.  It is a precious resource that we would be wise to use with wisdom.  And while we can't do any of those with time, we can pack many good things into it.  We can use it to change a life, restore a relationship, direct a wayward child, give a bit of time to someone who's lonely, or make a mark on the world that will carry on once our time is over.  Time.  It's precious.  But what we can do with it is precious itself.  And so, you might ask, what you will do with the time that you have.

  It would be pretty safe to say that all of us want to be successful.  We’re not stagnant creatures just milling about and burning time until we drop dead.  There’s something more intentional about us; something that responds to challenges and has a natural inclination to set goals, whether we actually achieve them or not.  We have a need to have a purpose; something that defines us as more than carbon-based life forms going through a series of meaningless motions on our way to the grave. We have a need to achieve, to conquer, to rise to great heights and soar.  It seems that being alive is not enough to justify our existence or lend value to that existence.  Rather, we have to make our mark and leave a timeless legacy that shouts that we were more than simply people who lived out our days.   This need to justify our existence naturally and most predominantly results in the need to succeed in some way.  To do that, we have to define success.  How do we know if we’ve succeeded?  What will give us a sense that

Hope is often deferred.  Today we see hope not only as deferred, but often as vanishing.  We had hope in a career, or in a marriage, or in a friendship, or in some dream that we had dreamt for years.  We had hope that certain promises would make the world better, or change the course of a life, a family, a community, or a nation.  We had hope that tomorrow would be better and that yesterday would be forgotten.  We had hope that our kids would grow up healthy, that the medical issues would be resolves, or the debt would be overcome.  But too often, hope is deferred.  Yet, hope in God is never deferred because God is hope.