Rising Leader, New– Song for December. Listen => Mother Mary, Ordinary (on Mary’s, gentleness, courage, strength and trust) What are we to do with fear? God chose a simple teenage girl from the countryside to be the mother of Jesus. While still betrothed to be married, the angel Gabriel came to her in a dream: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with…

Rising Leader, New– Song for December. Listen => Mother Mary, Ordinary (on Mary’s, gentleness, courage, strength and trust) The moment is now. God needs you to spark a movement that, in some small way, will change the world for the better. It will take work; you’ll need followers and resources. But more than anything else, it takes love. How do you spark a movement? Soul by…

Rising Leader, New– Song for December. Listen => Mother Mary, Ordinary (on Mary’s, gentleness, courage, strength and trust) Climate change… war… threats to democracy… racial strife… poverty… hunger. The crises of our time are beyond easy answers. It’s so easy to inch past the crash scene, rubbernecking but not stopping to help. Alarmed but unmoved. If “not my problem” echoes in our minds, our hearts are…

Rising Leader, New– Song for November. Listen => The Prisoner (on service, and the power of God’s grace) What is grace? My wife describes it as “that which God does within us, without us.” Grace is God’s undeserved favor and His ever-guiding hand. God grants us His grace because of who He is– not who we are. But then it turns to us to respond. Will…

Rising Leader, New– Song for November. Listen => The Prisoner (on service, and the power of God’s grace) The Bible says God created heaven and earth in just one week. Quite a week! But what happened the week after that? God kept on going. Our Creator kept on creating. Out of the past and into our now, God’s creative power sustains– a continuous rolling thunder of…

Rising Leader, New– Song for November. Listen => The Prisoner (on service, and the power of God’s grace) God willing, eventually the day will come when the desire of your heart will rise, at last, to meet the call of your soul. When it does, good leader, you will take up your mantle and step out into the great beyond. As you do, you will bring…

Rising Leader, New– Song for November. Listen => The Prisoner (on service, and the power of God’s grace) When I was seven years old, I dreamed of becoming a professional football player. Quarterback sounded good at the time. But I had a small body with small hands, and wasn’t particularly fast or agile or accurate. That dream died young. A few years later I found a…

Rising Leader, Song for October. Listen => Prayer of St. Francis (on responding to God’s call) Have you received and accepted God’s call? Good. Now the real work begins. For the past nine years, I have coached technology company CEOs. Most are backed by venture capital– a form of investment that is high risk / high reward. A number of the CEOs I coach…

Rising Leader, Rising Leader, New– Song for October. Listen => Prayer of St. Francis (on responding to God’s call) Let’s work backwards. What happens when we die? As a Catholic priest, Father Brendan McGuire has often been called by families of the dying to offer last rites. Over the years, it has been his privilege to be at the bedside of “well over one hundred…