Category: Series Summaries

Reflections on the Value of Friendships: Year 4 of GodBuddies

As has been my practice the last few years, I write a post that reflects on and summarizes my writing for the year for this GodBuddies blog (these links take you to Reflections on Year 1 of GodBuddies, the “Upside-Down” Year 2, and My Journey through The MANual: Year 3). This year’s reflection is about my series, New Year; New Types of Friends, in which I suggest men should reflect on and evaluate the value of their friendships. Evaluate not just for the value of friends to your life, but also for the value you add to theirs.   My plan was to write posts that describe the many aspects of friendships and provide real-life examples of friends who helped each other through thick and thin. I also wanted to address the question I get most often, “What is the difference between being a good friend and being a GodBuddy?” 

Read More »

Reflections on My Journey through The MANual: Year 3 of GodBuddies

Throughout this year, I’ve been on a journey through The MANual, my NIV Bible for Men. Each week, I wrote a GodBuddy post containing lessons from a book (or group of books) of Scripture. These lessons are written primarily for men but many are certainly also applicable to women. In this final post of the series, I share my reflections on this journey. I hope it encourages you to take the same journey at some point in your life. (When you are ready, here is a page with links to all posts so you can easily access any lesson).  Why Take This Journey? At the beginning of the year, I challenged you to join me on this journey through the Bible primarily to help you. But it also was to help me! Over the years, I’ve found it difficult to stick with a Bible reading plan or devotional book for

Read More »

Reflections on an “Upside-Down” Year 2 of GodBuddies

This year was certainly one we will remember for decades. In many ways, it was “upside-down”. I pray it also caused enough change that people reassess their priorities and return to what’s most important in life. As I reflect on my second year of writing for this blog, I’m even more convinced that men need God Buddies to help them through tough times like these. So here is my annual reflection on helping men become better men, A Year Like No Others This year’s coronavirus pandemic certainly helped us realize that no one should do life alone. Even though we were asked to stay away from others, isolation caused problems for many people. Our socially- and physically-distanced life behind N95 masks forced us to slow down, take care of ourselves and our loved ones. We needed to invest time in our most valuable relationships. This unprecedented year also showed why

Read More »