Jim Daly

Are You Afraid to Die?

As a subject of conversation, death is an uncomfortable topic. Should it be?

Some of us are more intimately familiar with it than others, but it’s ultimately a reality that touches everyone. Having just survived a harrowing motorcycle accident and been spared serious injury, I’m sure you can appreciate the fact that this topic is on my mind.

In that context, let me take you back to something written by John Donne (1572-1631). Donne was both an English preacher and a prolific writer who lived at a time when church bells would regularly peal out across cities as part of funeral proceedings.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith

I Crashed My Motorcycle

I’ll admit it, I’ve had better days.

I crashed and flipped my motorcycle two days ago while riding with some friends on the west side of Monarch Summit. We were up near Gunnison, Colorado enjoying the trip when my world turned upsidedown—literally. In the process, I shattered and dislocated my left ankle and tore several ligaments.

Friday morning, the day after the spill, Jean and the boys asked me how I felt. “Like I just played in a game of tackle football,” I told them.

Continue ReadingTopics: Focus Events Tags: events, staff

One Father Too Many

The Obama administration is actively changing the cultural norms of our country. Equally troubling, the nation’s chief executive is doing so at the expense of our most vulnerable—the rising ranks of fatherless children.

I’m disappointed President Obama has marred an otherwise noble initiative designed to raise awareness of, and offer solutions for, father absence with a political tip of the cap to advocates of homosexual parenting.

This past Sunday, the 100th anniversary of Father’s Day, within the traditional White House proclamation, the president included a single incendiary sentence that not only undermines the unique and complementary roles of mothers and fathers, but also one which science simply does not support.

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, homosexuality, marriage

Your Money and Abortion

Would it shock or anger you to learn that your tax dollars have been paying for abortion, albeit indirectly, for years? Wait until you read some new figures just out this week in a report published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

During this past winter’s highly controversial debate over the universal health care bill, Focus on the Family and CitizenLink, along with other numerous other pro-life groups, fought passionately, though ultimately unsuccessfully, to prohibit the legislation’s inclusion of federally funded abortion coverage.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: policy, pro-life

No-Fault Parenting

One of the treats about being a father and having children is the chance to watch yourself grow up all over again. Have you ever thought about it that way? I certainly have. Admittedly, life in 2010 is drastically different than it was in 1960s America when I was a boy, but the essence and wonder of childhood are primarily the same. Or is it?

There are many days when I catch a glimpse of Trent and Troy doing something that ushers me back 40 or so years.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: discipline, kids, parenting, pop culture

Is the Good Life Good Enough?

Are you living a fulfilled life? Are you content where you are?

Those always seem like good questions to ponder, but I think they’re especially relevant in light of the recent news concerning Al and Tipper Gore’s marital separation. Please stay with me here. I don’t read the gossip columns nor do I spend time reading the tabloids. But I do try and make sense of the times in which we live and, as such, I’m always processing what I see and hear.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: divorce, faith, family, parenting

The Rest of the Story

Does this scene sound somewhat familiar?

A young, married, pregnant woman is admitted to a hospital. She is in pain, but not quite sure what is happening. Early labor? Perhaps. Complications associated with the pregnancy? Maybe. After some tests are conducted, the diagnosis is made: Appendicitis.

The frightened woman is relieved and treated. But at the end of the surgery the doctor advises that her baby is likely to be born with a disability. Why? A consequence of the treatment which had been necessary to save the pregnant woman’s life.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: pro-life

John Wooden’s “Woodenisms”

I offered some reflections in yesterday’s blog on the life and legacy of the late John Wooden, college basketball’s most celebrated and successful coach. Today I’d like to share with you some of Coach Wooden’s most memorable and pithy sayings.

What I appreciate most about them, however, is that I know they’re not simply borne of clever or creative thinking. Rather, they’re the product of the coach’s daily Bible reading.

Each one of these is worthy of memorization.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, pop culture

They Called Him Coach

John Wooden’s death last week came just four months shy of his 100th birthday. The legendary UCLA basketball coach, affectionately nicknamed the “Wizard of Westwood” for his record setting 10 championships, had been officially retired for 35 years. Remarkably, he remained active into his late 90s, regularly attracting huge crowds wherever and whenever he showed up.

But why? What was his allure? Why did he remain so popular? In an age and culture that is so quickly and easily drawn to the cool and hip, what was it about John Robert Wooden, someone clearly not cool and hip, that remained so attractive and tantalizing to audiences all over the country?

Continue ReadingTopics: Current Events Tags: events, faith, news, pop culture

My Greatest Need

What’s your greatest need today? Is it finding a job? Avoiding foreclosure? Getting married? Identifying one friend who cares enough to listen? Hitting a deadline? Learning how to corral an incorrigible two-year-old? Loving a spouse who is emotionally distant? Perhaps having faith that God will return your prodigal son or daughter safely home?

There’s a fascinating story in the Bible about a man who was paralyzed who thought his greatest need was to be healed. As you’ll see in a moment, in a way his story is our story, too.

Continue ReadingTopics: Family and Home Tags: faith, family