We all face it eventually. The moment when life doesn't go as planned and circumstances blindside us, when we're forced to confront something we never saw coming. It might be a job loss, a death, a diagnosis, or any number of things that shake the foundation we thought was solid. When tragedy hits, we have a choice in how we respond to it. And that choice, even more than the tragedy itself, is what defines who we become. When tragedy strikes, we typically respond in one of tw

If you've been around long enough, you've encountered temptation, trial, and tragedy in your life. It's no coincidence that the very first chapter of human history includes all three: temptation entered the world, trial followed the yielding to that temptation, and from that moment forward, the human experience has been marked by tragedy. But God used the ultimate tragedy to provide a permanent solution to our trials and temptations. The same pattern that brought destruction

A friend of mine has a son who's a senior in high school, and this young man loves football with a passion. So when an injury sidelined him recently, his world felt like it was crashing down on him. After a preliminary exam, the doctor delivered what felt like a death sentence: he was concerned this young man would never play football again. No official tests had been run yet. No comprehensive evaluation completed. Just a quick look and a devastating opinion that a seventeen-

Perfectionism stems from shame. The educational philosophy of our modern society is to scold and shame children when they make a mistake. Because most of us adults have gone through the school system, this philosophy carries into business as well. If you make a mistake, you get in trouble. You are shamed so many times for making a mistake that you develop intense anxiety about “getting it wrong” which leads to perfectionism. Perfectionism says, “If I get it wrong, bad things