Author Archives: Don Follis

Here’s my Sunday (9/08/2013) column in the Champaign-Urbana, IL, News-Gazette on “Agreeing and disagreeing in love”

In one of my tweets this morning I said:Isn’t part of agreeing/disagreeing in love accepting the inborn tension in conflict? I  pray neither for my success nor for you to change.— Don Follis (@donfollis) September 6, 2013Well, okay you say…  Nice in theory…”But what if I speak to you, in love, and you don’t change?”AsContinueContinue reading “Ah yes, learning patience, as we see such seemingly incremental change in ourselves, and others!”

My friend Pastor John Piippo is coming to my city Champaign-Urbana, IL, to speak on prayer September 20-21.  Here are a few words from John’s outstanding blog this morning:To work with purpose in life is to co-labor with God and his purposes. Here we are at the heart of true prayer, which is: talking withContinueContinue reading “Thinking about what you and God are doing together (September 20-21)…”

Clergy coach/trainer Val Hastings’ Top Ten favorite questions:What do you really, really want?What is the simplest next step?What is past this?Who can help you with this?What is your responsibility? Others responsibility?What is your belief about this?What are you most excited about?Where is God in this?Are things as bad as you say they are, or areContinueContinue reading “Good questions can elicit clear answers”

Do you ever think …* Why do I to condemn myself, saying, “Look at my stupid family.  There is nothing good about us.  No wonder we hate ourselves.”* Why do I justify myself, saying, “I am, after all, right!  So quit arguing with me.”* Why do I rely so much on my self-will, saying,  “IfContinueContinue reading “Let it go, friends. LET IT GO!”

We’re always sizing others up, and others are doing the same of us.  We do make a first impression.  Sometimes we make a lasting impression, for good or for ill.I was talking with a friend yesterday about sizing up people first and foremost in light of Paul’s challenge in Philippians 4:8. Philippians 4:8New International Version (NIV)8 Finally,ContinueContinue reading “How are you sizing others up these days?”

 Pastor Rich Nathan tweeted said this morning…The line between faithfulness &faithlesssness is this:do you see yourself as a steward accountable to God or an owner accountable to self?Writer Annie Wald tweeted …  The proud person always wants to do the right thing. But he wants to do it in his own strength, so he isContinueContinue reading “It’s not about us, is it?”

If prayer is “What God and I are doing together,” as Dallas Willard said, and my friend Pastor John Piippo picks up on and reiterates often, then I love how Eugene Peterson in The Message renders Ephesians 5:1-2.Just to give you a comparison, here it is in the English Standard Version:5 Therefore be imitators of God,ContinueContinue reading “Payer is watching what your daddy (Abba) does and imitating Him…”