Wilderness conflict with outsiders
My last two posts dealt with conflict in the wilderness experience — the times in our lives when we are in an emotionally difficult, disorienting, even depressing phase of existence, often...
Faith & Family Business
A wilderness conflict of the spirit
August 3, 2025
One of the markers of a wilderness experience is conflict, which, as I mentioned in my last post, can take several forms. Sometimes conflict occurs around your changing role within the family...
A wilderness full of conflict
July 27, 2025
My last reflection contemplated the time before the wilderness phases of our lives, when a physical, spiritual, psychological, family, or business issue prompted a journey through a difficult or...
Life before the wilderness
July 20, 2025
My first reflection about our wilderness experience defined the wilderness as a difficult, inhospitable, disorienting, and sometimes even dangerous place we pass through on our way to something...
Our Wilderness Experience
July 13, 2025
Between October of 2024 and April of 2025, I reflected on Moses, his call to lead the Israelites, and his experiences bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. They were headed toward the promised land...
Hope as a bridge between faith and action
July 6, 2025
My last two reflections explored hope in the context of families in business. First I looked at hope as a part of our character: born in trials, shaped through perseverance. Then I wrote about how...
When hope isn't working
June 30, 2025
Last week I wrote about the virtue of hope. Beyond being just a wish, hope is shaped in our character through perseverance. To paraphrase Paul, hope becomes a part of who you are based on where you’...
Hope as a character trait
June 23, 2025
Family businesses are remarkably rewarding. The chance to pursue your entreprenurial instincts, to be your own boss, to work alongside family members, to make a difference for your employees and...
Land as legacy
June 15, 2025
I don’t often write about a specific industry in this newsletter, but many readers know I work with family businesses in agriculture. On June 5, the theologian Walter Brueggemann died, and it...
Breaking the cycle of negative family interaction
June 8, 2025
While I’m working on my next series about “wilderness” in the family business, I’m posting a few popular reflections from the past. For much of of 2022 I wrote about King David, and this week I’m...