During the thanksgiving holidays it dawned on me that I’ve known my childhood friend Wagner for almost 30 years. That’s a long time and yet, I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday at a youth camp in Jaboticabal, Brazil. But as I take inventory, I realize that I have been blessed with several life-long friends. The older I get, the more valuable people become to me. When you put people before position, profit or personal gain, it changes everything. As trite as it might sound, that’s what Jesus has asked us to do. This mindset allows me to have life-long friendships with people whom I just met. Really. Think about it. As I write this, I’m in Orlando, Florida with several Pastors and Church Leaders. Some of these men are my friends. We happen to be business associates as well, but first and foremost, we are friends. I’m…

God has a way to intersect our lives during the mundane to do something amazing when we least expect. I call these moments “divine appointments.” These are times when God places people, often the unlikely, in an intersecting path with our own, but the result is seldom what we anticipate. It’s usually something truly inspired. Unfortunately, I, for one, too often fail to see these divine appointments for what they are, and let them pass by unaware of their power to change lives, mostly mine. I travel a lot–frankly more than I want to, but it’s necessary to do my job. One of the things I enjoy about flying is the time it affords me to read , to write, or to just nap after a long day (I’m one of the few people who can sleep soundly in a plane). A few months ago I was on a flight…

Between worrying about the thunderstorms and getting up on time for the race, I was a restless man Friday night. But as 4:00 AM came on Saturday, I was up and getting ready for the longest, biggest race of my life. After all, the longest race I’d run before yesterday was the Boulevard Bolt–a five-mile run on Belle Meade Boulevard every Thanksgiving morning. To make things more interesting, six weeks ago, I had developed Achilles Tendonitis on my left foot and was told I might not be able to run at all. But after physical therapy, a slower training pace, I felt ready to go. My running team, Innerstrength, met under the pavilion at Centennial Park at 6 am for stretching, tattoos, group pictures and a pep talk from head coach Matt Royka. Lining up at West End Avenue with 30 thousand people was an awesome sight to see. It’s…