Thinking Upward Blog

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Heart Rot

My property is blessed with beautiful trees. But trees get old, like us. We became concerned about one, more than 100 feet high, leaning lovingly towards our house. Time to take the old oak down. I called my friend, Joseph Lampkin,...

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Thursday, January 8, 2026

New Year’s Plans?

A dear friend had the best stories. One’s about a fellow considered the smartest guy in town. Successful in business, he was enlarging his warehouse since he’d outgrown the old facilities. He was at the point in life where it was...

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Thursday, December 25, 2025

Shopping For The Ages

I know. A few of you did your Christmas shopping during last January’s clearance. Your gift wrap—featuring Santa in Hawaiian shirts—was 75% off. For good reason! The majority of us, however, still like shopping closer to the event, with the sparkling...

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Thursday, December 11, 2025

The Happening Place

If you weren’t familiar with North America, wouldn’t it be a bit disorienting to discover that North Carolina is in the south and South Dakota’s in the north? Our geography may be a curiosity, but for one country it’s a...

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Thursday, November 27, 2025

How’s Your Oughtobiography Coming?

Last Saturday I headed to Jackson for a hospital visit. It was a glorious day as I traversed the verdant hills of the Mississippi countryside. But my mind was momentarily preempted from the beauty by the name of a friend of...

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Thursday, November 13, 2025

Beautiful Feet

Jaffa, biblical Joppa, sits atop a hill jutting out into the sapphire Mediterranean, Israel’s ancient seaport and historic gateway to the world. Restored today, Old Jaffa’s cobblestone alleys wind past buildings older than America. Filled with art galleries and restaurants, the...

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Thursday, October 30, 2025

The Root or The Fruit?

My home in Michigan was locked in the icy grip of winter. I, on the other hand, had happily escaped for a few weeks to the tropics. One free afternoon, I was making the rounds with a gardener friend. He...

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Thursday, October 16, 2025

A Life Of Purpose Or A Noble Lie?

Some years ago, I was invited to speak at a girls’ school in the picturesque town of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. I could tell the students were very sharp and fully engaged.  As I presented to them the reasonableness of Christianity, there...

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Thursday, October 2, 2025

The Better Missionaries

Under a cloudless azure sky, my friend Sandy and I were sitting in a 13’ Boston Whaler. It was riding on a gentle swell in the turquoise Caribbean, far out beyond sight of land.  He and I had come to preach...

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