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A siesta, or afternoon nap, has been a tradition in some cultures for years. The custom is rarer in the larger cities these days, but in the countryside, the best way to escape the heat is still the siesta. In the small community of Ador, a police officer reads an announcement every afternoon advising…

In Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, Sue Johnson writes, “Chronic obsessive overwork and burnout have become part of our culture. We think it’s normal.” —Jim L. Wilson Hold Me Tight, 213 Exodus 33:14 (HCSB) Then He replied, “My presence will go ⌊with you⌋, and I will give you…

Most people look for a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi and get annoyed if that service isn’t provided. A Canadian coffee shop tried the opposite approach. The Faraday Café was built to repel and jam cell phone signals and was the first such shop in the world to try and deliberately create a wireless “black…

Michael McDowell, a popular NASCAR driver took some time away from the social media before the busy racing began. He told his supporters on Facebook and Twitter that he would refrain from using social networking sites for thirty days as part of what he called a “social media fast.” McDowell says he got…

In his book, Leading on Empty, Wayne Cordoro writes, “Solitude is a chosen separation for refining your soul. Isolation is what you crave when you neglect the first.” –Jim L. Wilson Wayne Cordeiro, Leading on empty : refilling your tank and renewing your passion. (Minneapolis, Minn: Bethany House, 2009),…

Theologian Hans Kung wrote On Being a Christian, a 602-page theology of the Christian life, without a word about prayer. He was asked why, and he answered, in effect, “I forgot.” There was the publisher’s deadline, and the harassment he was receiving from the Vatican, and he overlooked prayer. Precisely.…

In Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash A Revolution In Your Life in Christ, Peter Scazzero writes, “For years I learned from leaders and consultants around the country how to lead a large, growing church. None of the training I received concerned itself with knowing myself. The problem was that…

In Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, Richard Swenson writes: “The marginless lifestyle and its resultant chronic time pressure are particularly devastating to Our relationships: to self, to family, to others, to God.” --Margin, Kindle Loc. 1097-98…

Workers in the United States get a handful of national holidays off of work, in general they have the fewest number of days to relax when compared with workers in others parts of the world. Even when American workers get time off, they tend to be on call or are required to check their e-mail accounts…

In Why Johnny Can’t Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers. T. David Gordon writes, “Every technological development has a cost that is well beyond what is expended in research and development. Every technological development has an opportunity cost because once we spend even part of our day using…

In Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, Richard Swenson writes: “Busyness is not a synonym for kingdom work-it is only busyness.” --Margin, Kindle Loc. 1176 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson Psalm 46:10 (KJV) “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be…

In the book, Soul Custody, author Steven Smith makes the case that believers need to choose to move toward a less busy and more disciplined life. Smith writes, ”Every single person who feels more dead than alive, more tired than energized, more burned-out than motivated, more unfulfilled than thriving…

The Center for Disease Control has released new studies indicating a third of U.S. adults sleep less than seven hours a night. As a result, many of them report trouble concentrating, remembering, and driving. In one study, results indicated about 35 percent of people surveyed in 12 states reported they…

In Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, Richard Swenson writes: “While standing at the hospital bed of a dying man, a pastor interrupted his prayer to answer his cell phone. A youth pastor reported that he loved his job and tolerated long hours well-until…

In Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, Richard Swenson writes: “In 1879, Thomas Edison produced the first electric light. If the clock broke up the day, the light bulb broke up the night. Illuminati was flushed with its presumed victory over yet another…

In Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives, Richard Swenson writes: “Even when progress does give us "leisure," the leisure is not leisurely. Instead, it is jammed with multi-tasking actions and expectations: watching TV while surfing the web while checking…

In Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a relentless God, Francis Chan writes “The priests of Malachi’s day thought their sacrifices were sufficient. They had spotless animals but chose to keep those for themselves and give their less desirable animals to God. They assumed God was pleased because they had sacrificed…

BUSYNESS In his book, Satisfy your Soul, Bruce Demarest writes, “For many of us, the problem stems from the fact that we have forfeited God in the busyness of life’s activities-even church work. A recent study of two dozen conservative Christians who left the church found that while most were actively…

In his book, Satisfy your Soul, Bruce Demarest writes, “Some of us keep unduly busy to boost our sagging egos, to ‘prove’ our worth, or to avoid aspects of our selves to painful to confront.” --Satisfy your Soul, 125. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson Our worth is not determined by what we do, but by whose…

DISTRACTIONS A Texas man says a low flying pelican and a dropped cell phone caused him to damage his expensive sports car. The man was driving a 2006 Bugatti Veyron (the fastest and most expensive production vehicle in the world) north on a frontage road about 35 miles southeast of Houston when the bird…

BUSYNESS "I do not mean to make an idol of health, but it does seem to me that at least some of us have made an idol of exhaustion. The only time we know we have done enough is when we are running on empty and when the ones we love most are the ones we see the least. When we lie down to sleep at night,…

SUBMISSION An unemployed New York man pretending to be a millionaire filed an income tax return claiming he was owed a refund of $1.5 million. Quick thinking on the part of his bank kept him from getting away with the scheme. Forty-seven year-old Benjamin Harris of Brooklyn, New York was arrested April…

BUSYNESS In Seeking the Face of God, Gary Thomas writes, “The sin many of us fall into s not that we shake our fists at God and defy Him to His face; that is the sin of unbelievers. Our sin is that we passively repel against God, filling our lives with so much noise and busyness that God’s voice cannot,…

BUSYNESS In his book, Satisfy your Soul, Bruce Demarest writes, “When our lies feel mechanical and driven, we are effectively closed to the grace of God. We may busily serve God but, ironically, the God we serve becomes a stranger. Our lives and Christian service echo with a haunting emptiness.” --Satisfy…

Who hasn’t ever found it difficult to find the time to pray on a regular basis? There is always time to pray when the chips are down, but on a regular basis? That can be more difficult. Well never fear! Now you can outsource your prayer life. For $3.50 per month at InformationAgePrayer.com you can have…