Author: Higher Up IDEALS

  • The Marketing Mastery of Mr. West

    The Marketing Mastery of Mr. West

    Any organization that has endured the test of time would tell you that reinvention is the master key to longevity and continued relevance. Just ask companies like Apple, Coke, McCafe, I mean McDonald’s or even Polaroid or Kodak who are trying to get into the mobile phone accessory realm and you’ll see what I mean.…

  • Power Beyond Measure Part 4

    Power Beyond Measure Part 4

    We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. — Marianne Williamson One day my dad called me out of nowhere and invited me to visit him in Mississippi. He said he wanted to talk to me and that it had…

  • Being With God

    Being With God

    God is the ground of being, being-itself; who concerns us ultimately. Thus, God is our ultimate concern. — Paul Tillich I’ll be honest with you and say that on a weekly if not daily basis, I find myself wondering what good I am doing as a pastor. It’s not that I don’t appreciate what I do or the people with…

  • Mastering Your Greatest Weakness

    Mastering Your Greatest Weakness

    “Your greatest weakness is your strength overdone.” — Some Wise Person Whose Name I can’t remember. In a recent post, I reflected a little on being an 8 on the Enneagram. In it I mentioned briefly about 8s despising weakness in themselves and others. What I didn’t get into was examples of that in my…

  • The Journey and the Destination

    The Journey and the Destination

    If you google journey and destination quotes, you will likely come across plenty of words that express the idea that life is not about the destination but rather, it is about the journey. That wisdom sounds reasonable. Famed tennis legend Arthur Ashe said, “Success is about the journey and not the destination. The doing is…

  • How 8 Thou Art (Reflections on My Enneagram#)

    How 8 Thou Art (Reflections on My Enneagram#)

    For about 6 years now, I have known that I am a type 8 on the Enneagram, what is often referred to as the Challenger/Protector. Even before I had a name and a number to describe some aspects of how I show up in the world, I was aware of many of the dimensions of…

  • Brain Trust

    Brain Trust

    There is a reasonable chance that I am on the autism spectrum.  I have never written those words before. But, in the past few years, I have tried to leave clues to this possibility and have been openly sharing with some people that, when I was younger, family and some friends raised this possibility many…

  • Becoming My Father Figure

    Becoming My Father Figure

    Originally posted on It's All In Me – Poetry Blog: In a moment of self-reflectionI determined something sadPerhaps I will never have a childUntil I become the father I never had As a kid I’d approach different menAnd ask if they had a sonIf the answer they gave was ever “no”I’d ask if I could…

  • Lightworkers and the Unrelenting Voice

    “To the unrelenting voice in my head that will never allow me to stop.” These are the first words you will read in the dedication of retired Navy Seal and ultramarathon runner David Goggins’ best-selling self-published memoir, “Can’t Hurt Me”. In certain circles, Goggins has earned the reputation of being the toughest man on the…

  • Stop In the Name of Love

    Stop In the Name of Love

    If you had the power to end all of the violence in the world with a single action, would you do it? I imagine that most of us would say that of course we would. No one wants violence, right? It is just an unfortunate deterrent that we must use to prevent greater violence from…