Barnabas File

  "If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there”. —Lewis Carroll   "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else”. —Yogi Berra    We are far enough into the new year that most of our “new year’s resolution” have either taken hold or have been forgotten.  The beginning of the year is one of those pivot points that challenge us to stop, take inventory, and at least consider making changes in our lives.  Although we don’t often think about it, new year’s resolutions are a kind of goal setting.   The idea of setting goals often strikes fear in our hearts.  Most of us have been part of organizations that required us to set goals at one time or another.  Some of us didn’t mind so much setting goals as being required to!    In The How of Happiness , Sonja Lyubomirsky helps the reader to see goal setting as a path to mental health and growth rather than as a burden.  ...

"From this time many of his disciples  turned back and no longer followed him."--John 6:66, NIV I heard recently that a person approached the pastor of a church and said, "We are leaving the church.  We are just not happy here."  This struck me as rather odd.  Perhaps there were extenuating factors--not feeling welcome, not fully involved, etc. --but the idea that "happiness" should be the criteria for church involvement is rather bizarre.  In the verse above, it is clear that Jesus' teaching did not make some people happy. Don't get me wrong.  Everyone wants to be part of a congregation where she or he is accepted, loved, and engaged.  This does not necessarily mean that one leaves every Sunday feeling "happy."  One might leave feeling challenged.  As a result of approaching the Holy God in worship, one might come away with a desire to walk closer to God. One might leave with a different set of priorities.  As a resu...