Instructions in the wilderness
After several posts on conflict in the wilderness, I continue to work with the idea that the wilderness experience has important and far-reaching implications for us. The wilderness is a place of...
Faith & Family Business
Wilderness conflict with outsiders
August 11, 2025
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...
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...