“What’s new?” Sometimes it’s another way to say, “Hello.” At other times it’s a real question – it’s away of asking for a life update; “I’d like to know what’s been going on recently in your life.”

At times that simple question can be hard to answer. “There’s nothing new under the sun;” that’s what Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 1:9. He says that life is meaningless, a wearisome repetition of patterns and actions that have little deep meaning – “under the…

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?” Many of us know this opening line from the nursery rhyme, though we probably haven’t a clue as to what it is actually talking about. Whatever was specifically intended, it most certainly has some reference to growing “Mary’s” sphere of influence.

Most of us would like to build our effectiveness and sphere of influence. Clearly, being a contrary person will not be helpful – who wants to…

“Repetition, repetition, repetition – that’s the key,” said the strange elderly woman. As I was running this morning, a peculiar woman with a cane stopped, began to make unnatural gestures with her hands, looked into my eyes and kept repeating the above phrase. As I continued to run, I pondered her comment. “Is repetition really the key?”

I think there a few interrelated keys to growth and effectiveness in real life. They are revelation,…