Stories & Articles

Reader, Today’s podcast is what its title describes, Our Past Helps Us Understand Our Present. You can listen to it on two levels.The first is the investigative work I did to locate my birth father. It was an energizing exercise to start with very limited information about him. Then overcoming various obstacles in tracking him down. More importantly, there is the role God played in guiding my search and the unusual way he used one particular day of the year, April 4th, to reveal his loving...

Hi Reader, If you missed last week’s podcast episode #215 you can listen to it when you click here. I read from a section of my book, THEM about a conversation I had with my mother that began was I was ten years old, and that took 30 years to complete. It had to do with getting information from her to help me track down my birth father. Some people will think, “Why bother? It’s in the past and it’s not going to change anything.” I wish it was that simple. Historian David McCullough describes...

Reader, A number of years ago my friend Bill got me started down a path that eventually brought closure to a troubling part of my life. It wasn’t something he intended to do; it just happened. And It’s the subject of today’s episode, no. 215 of You Were Made For This. It’s about adult children trying to resolve an issue from their childhood with their parents. Click here to listen in. Until next week, I wish you all the joy that you can wish.* John Certalic You Were Made for This is the...

Hi Reader, I may have mentioned this before, but I think it would be fun to do a weekly podcast about interesting quotes. Quote the quote, then talk about it. For example, I recently read a book by Mary Pipher, Letters to a Young Therapist. Each chapter is a letter to the author’s niece who is a newly minted psychotherapist. As one with decades of experience in their shared profession, Pipher offers up nuggets of wisdom she’s learned along the way. I didn’t get the sense she's a person of...

Reader, One of the things I enjoyed about writing my book THEM in 2016 was coming up with a quote to put at the top of the page for each chapter. I love it when other authors do this. Here’s the quote I found that encapsulated the theme of chapter one of the book: The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much. - Germain G. Glidden Today’s podcast episode is about how to do what the quote describes. I tell two stories from the book that give examples of putting the quote...

Reader, I was surprised by the amount of reader reaction to our blog post of January 24th. It’s the most we’ve ever received. Joy From An Unlikely Source” was about the death of Herb Kohl, former owner of the NBA Milwaukee Bucks and United States Senator for 24 years. He passed away at the end of 2023 and I shared some of the tributes paid to him. The stories people told about him personify what I say at the end of each podcast episode, “spread a little relational sunshine with the people you...

Hi Reader, Sports journalists often write about what to watch for in upcoming sporting events. Articles like “5 Things to Look For In the 49er’s - Chiefs game” were common leading up to the Super Bowl earlier this month. Today’s You Were Made for This podcast uses the same format, “Five things to Watch For In Your Next Conversation.” Click here to listen in to episode 213. You’ll hear a few things you may not have heard before that will help deepen your relationships. Until next week, I wish...

Hi Reader, If you’re new to our You Were Made for This podcast you should know that a new episode drops the first and third Wednesday of each month. The last episode was no. 212 which aired last week, “Little Things We Do Matter the Most to People.” For the Wednesdays without a new episode, like this one, you will find an email/blog post. For example, today I thought you might be interested in how our podcast is encouraging people. Hopefully it’s encouraging you, too. Here are three recent...