About 15 years ago I had discovered the worst driving range in the country. It was in Utopia, Texas. Down here in Texas we call bad courses and ranges goat ranches. One day while I was hitting balls there, if you could call them balls, a gentleman drove by and stopped. He was the owner. His name was Wayne. To my recollection it was the only time I met him. I asked him what gave him the inspiration to build a driving range in the middle of nowhere. His answer floored me.
Read MoreI used to be a professor at the University of Kansas. It was an awesome experience that I will never forget. However, 12 years into it I felt the Lord leading us to give up tenure and to take a step of faith by starting a consulting firm—becoming an entrepreneur. My colleagues thought I was crazy. I had built one of the top graduate school sport psychology programs in the country. But God had other plans.
Read MoreI received an email soon after Netflix picked up our movie, Seven Days in Utopia. The production team had passed it on to me and crossed out the lady’s name so I will never know her nor meet her.
Read MoreI needed a word of encouragement. It had been a year like no other. In this past year our younger daughter had several major injuries that ended her Olympic dream a few months before the Winter Olympic trials, my wife’s father died suddenly and tragically,….
Read MoreI received a call one day from my colleague and dear friend, Dr. Rick McGuire, from the University of Missouri. It was back in the day when he and I were professors of sport psychology at our prospective schools. I was at KU. He was calling about a young mini tour golfer, Stan Utley, who he had been helping
Read MoreWhen I was 14 an evangelist showed up at our public high school. At a school wide assembly that morning where he spoke he invited us to come down to his crusade that night. It would be held at the Heart of Texas Coliseum, in Waco, Texas—a rodeo arena.
Read MoreWhen we decided to make our movie, Seven Days in Utopia, one of my absolutes was to have an actor who could really play golf. We did not want to make another golf movie about a professional golfer that was not believable.
Read MoreJust the other day I was invited to play golf and speak at our church’s annual golf tournament. The six campuses of this mega church in the DFW area gathered together to compete for the trophy that will be displayed for the next year at the church that wins. The course was packed.
Read MoreI had the privilege of preaching at 2nd Baptist Church of Houston a few years back. It is a mega church in Houston led by my friend Pastor Ed Young. They have several campuses and many thousands of members. After preaching several services at the main campus I was transferred in a van to the Katy, Texas, campus late Sunday morning for my final sermon. I had a wonderful time with the congregation. As I said my good byes, I headed across the highway from this affluent church to fill my truck with gas before driving back to San Antonio. I was dressed in my suit like most of the people there.
Read MoreI am not sure why but it just seems to be a place for personal revelation -- an epicenter of heavenly downloads. Something unexplainable happens as I sit among the majestic Cypress that line the shimmering crystalline Sabinal River. The Cypress needles are dressed in their elegant autumn red. The scent of a chimney’s first fire stirs the soul and awakens some ancient emotion. The feathery cirrus clouds hang high above the v shaped patterns of the ushers of change. The caress of the long anticipated north breeze breaks the hold of summer causing it to drift ever further south to the lower hemisphere. It’s a new season…
Read MoreWe moved 12 times by the time I was 12. I had gotten tired of making friends only to lose them. So I began to hang out with my dog, Lassie, each afternoon after school. That was all my heart could handle.
Read MoreIt was a Sunday evening in early February many years ago. I had gone home for the weekend. I was attending college at the time across town from where my parents lived so it was not a major trip home. It was a chance to catch up with my parents, get my clothes washed, and have a few home cooked meals. I had gone to church with them that morning.
A few months prior to this day I had seen a beautiful young lady sing at church.
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