Author: Tim

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That is One Nasty River

There’s a story in 2 Kings chapter 5 we can all learn from.

Naaman was a great General, a mighty soldier, that his king viewed as a great and honorable servant. Naaman was a rich man, accustomed to walking the great halls of the high levels of society, and was constantly around the finer things of life. Unfortunately for him, he had a disease no amount of money could cure him of: leprosy.

He caught wind of someone in Israel who supposedly had the ability to perform medical miracles, and when he told his king about the prospect, the king facilitated his journey. Naaman brought an excessive amount of money and gifts to the land, ready to perform all kinds of bizarre rituals or to complete difficult quests for the sake of being healed. Skip ahead to when Naaman arrived at the prophet Elisha’s door, he expected to be received with the rolling out of the red carpet, then be given a personal ceremony where Elisha prayed and performed some kind of dramatic routine, then be healed supernaturally.

Instead he got something much different. Elisha didn’t even bother to meet him. He sent a messenger instead. “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”

Naaman was furious. Didn’t this prophet know who was standing here at his doorstep? The Jordan River was dirty and muddy, and there were far more prestigious rivers where he came from in Syria. He could have easily washed in one of those if that’s all it took! He stormed off in anger.

While he was still livid, his servants approached him. They said something to the effect of “hey Boss, not for nothing, but when you came here, you were prepared to do all kinds of elaborate or crazy things if this guy told you to. If he told you to do something easy, why not give it a try? What’s the worst that could happen?”

The text doesn’t really say how much Naaman deliberated over this; it just says he went down and did what Elisha told him to do. And wouldn’t you know? “His flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” I wonder sometimes if we make things too difficult. I think a lot of us know God can use us for mighty things if He chooses, but we don’t often think about the easy things or the small things.

One of my favorite lessons from the Bible is the idea of God saying “if you’re not faithful in the little things, why would I trust you with the big things?” What if, instead of looking for that big dramatic thing that happens infrequently, we focused on trying to be faithful and willing to do the small things on a regular basis? My worry is that we might spend so much time on the sidelines waiting for something “truly worthy of our standing” that we miss smaller opportunities God places in our path much more often. Let’s grab the opportunities that are already there instead of waiting for the ones that might come along further on down the road.

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Quick Hit: I Wouldn’t Have Paired Those Two, But it Worked

Little kids can be fun, man. Years ago I was playing with my youngest two, my son and my younger daughter. While I was in the midst of an intense Nerf shootout with my son, my daughter walked right through the hail of orange-tipped little blue bullets, serving me pretend soup. As I lunged out from behind cover to retrieve ammo laying on the floor, she brought me odd combinations of sides, asking me what else I needed or would like. Any time I asked for a spoon, a napkin, or anything else, she walked unafraid through the fire to get whatever was missing, all while my son tried to land kill shots on me.

It’s interesting to see how sometimes God will take people with hugely different combinations of spiritual gifts and interests and put them in a situation that weirdly works. You might find yourself teamed with others who can easily do things you find very difficult. Likewise, you could be the one to effortlessly provide the missing ingredient to an incomplete situation. Strange as it may seem, God saw it coming, and made arrangements for you to work together.

So the next time you find yourself partnering with someone with a totally different skillset and focus than you do, don’t focus on the weird; celebrate the variety of talents and interests, and that you get to be part of something that expands your horizons a little bit.

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Future You Will Thank You

Let’s get practical for a bit and talk about retirement. For some, it’s a long way off. Others may have already begun.

While finances certainly aren’t the only consideration, they’re often the most important factor behind any given individual’s ability to move into retirement. This post isn’t going to solve all your retirement problems, but it might point you to a unique opportunity that will help you years from now.

For most people, an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or a 401k through an employer are the most accessible ways of saving for retirement. That’s where you set aside a certain amount of pre-tax money from your paycheck into your retirement account. It saves you money on taxes right away (by reducing your taxable income), but you’ll have to pay taxes on it later. You invest it for years, and the balance (hopefully) grows, and then as you withdraw it from the account during retirement, Uncle Sam finally gets his bite at the apple.

On the flip side is something called a Roth IRA. This is a retirement account where you use money from your take-home pay (you’ve already paid taxes on it) to put in your retirement account. Your investments grow (hopefully) over time, and then when you need to start withdrawing money from that account in retirement, there’s no need to pay taxes on the withdrawals because you’ve funded the account using money that’s already been taxed.

Ideally you’d want a mix of both types of accounts as you approach retirement. Many people only have 401k assets. The tricky part about them is they’re a little misleading. Whatever balance you see in that account is not actually the amount you get to use for your expenses; depending on your tax bracket, Uncle Sam could take a huge bite (in addition to state taxes). One nice thing about a Roth IRA is that the amount you see in your account is what you get to keep (minus any fees from your administrator, etc.).

The biggest question then is: “should I invest in a 401k or in a Roth?” The mathematical answer is: it depends on when you’re likely to have the lower amount of taxable income; if you’re in the lower tax brackets right now (10-12%) and can afford to contribute to retirement accounts, pay your taxes now (use a Roth IRA). If you’re in a moderate or higher bracket right now and you expect to have lower taxable income in retirement, it probably makes sense to delay paying your taxes until you withdraw cash from the account (use a 401k or traditional IRA).

Early in this post, though, I mentioned a unique opportunity. Right now the U.S. probably has the lowest federal income tax rates we’re going to see for a very long time. With the amount of debt we as a nation are carrying right now, it actually doesn’t make sense that our income taxes are as low as they are. I personally find it difficult to believe I’ll ever see lower tax rates than what we currently have. If you believe politicians are more likely to raise future taxes than they are to lower them, you might consider doing what’s called a Roth conversion.

A Roth conversion is the process of converting pre-tax (401k/traditional IRA) retirement money into retirement money that won’t be taxed again. You’re essentially using a special maneuver to pay taxes on the money being converted, eliminating the need to pay taxes on that money in the future. You move the money administratively, and then you settle up with the tax man when you do your annual taxes by the following April 15th tax deadline. There are a few important things to keep in mind, though.

  1. Even though it’s for retirement, the amount of money you convert counts as taxable income during the tax year the conversion occurs. If you’re single and have $60,000 of taxable income, then you convert $10,000, not only is your taxable income now $70,000, but you’ve actually also elevated part of your income into the next tax bracket. For that demographic, income above $64,200 gets taxed at a higher rate. If you’re going to do a Roth conversion, keep an eye on what the conversion amount is going to do to your total taxable income for the year. You may want to strategically spread out the conversions over several different tax years.
  2. You should have cash on hand to pay the bill come tax time. Don’t try to convert a chunk and assume you’ll end up with a smaller percent of it because the taxes get withheld from it. It doesn’t work that way. It’s like any other reason you owe taxes come April 15…you need to pay what you owe, and you don’t ordinarily do it using retirement money. Only do a Roth conversion if you’re going to have cash on hand to pay the extra tax. If you’re in the 12% tax bracket, every $500 you can throw at a Roth conversion will get you $4,167. If you’re living in the 22% bracket that same $500 loses some oomph; in that bracket $500 will only get you $2,273. Before the tax rates we currently have, the 12% bracket would have been the 15% bracket (and you’d only have converted $3,333 rather than $4,167 for every $500) and the 22% bracket would have been the 25% bracket (netting only $2,000 instead of $2,273 for every $500 you spend).
  3. It’s probably not a good idea to convert 100% of your retirement assets into the Roth category. Even though you’d effectively have zero income to report to the IRS come tax time, the standard deduction still gives you some money tax free. For 2026, the standard deduction for single filers is $16,100 (and twice that for married filing jointly). If you spend the money to convert everything you’ve got into Roth assets, you’re foregoing an opportunity to get a free pass on that amount of taxable money. Married couples can take up to $32,200 from their 401k without paying any federal taxes, and then on top of that still have quite a bit of cap space to further convert additional assets to Roth at a low tax cost if they have spare cash on hand. Additionally, now through 2028, people 65 and older get an additional $6,000 deduction on their taxes. (You can also use charitable donations from your 401k/IRA to satisfy your Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs).
  4. This discussion is for federal taxes only; it doesn’t consider state taxes. States vary widely in their taxes, especially when it comes to determining whether or not to tax your social security benefits. Converting a big chunk of retirement money might force you to pay taxes on your social security when you otherwise wouldn’t have needed to, or increase your out-of-pocket Medicare costs, and that’s probably moving you in the wrong direction.
  5. Talk to a professional advisor/tax preparer to get the best advice on your particular situation.
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I’m In Over My Head (But This Time it’s on Purpose)

You gotta have fun at work, man. I know not every job is amazing, but it’s the people that make all the difference. You often spend more of your waking hours with your coworkers than you do with your own family. Might as well try to have some fun in the process, right?

It’s been awhile since I had this kind of fun at work, but back when I worked as a lifeguard, we’d spend the morning cleaning the pools, swimming laps, practicing rescue techniques, doing chemical treatments, straightening up chairs, mowing the grass, doing preventative maintenance, etc., and then we’d open the pool in the afternoons. But sometimes…we’d just plain goof off.

Right around that time, disposable underwater cameras hit the market. I think I grabbed one or two each year I worked as a lifeguard, and we usually came up with some wacky stuff. Pictures started out pretty generic and got more creative or complex over time. At first they’d just have one or two people in them, doing a stupid pose in shallow water.

Then we got more ambitious and brought in more people or prepared more elaborate setups. In the course of doing do, we learned a few things. We learned the best pictures came when the photographer didn’t let their own bubbles get in front of the camera. We learned the more people you were trying to pose, the trickier it became to get them all into position at the desired time. Some people couldn’t hold their breath very long, other people took such a huge breath that they’d start floating to the surface before the picture got snapped. We had two different pools, and we normally did pictures in whichever one had the better water clarity. If that happened to be the deep pool, we also learned it was tricky to get everyone all the way to the bottom and have them stay there for long.

I’m not suggesting you organize a pool party with your coworkers (I mean, unless you want to). I’m saying as long as you’re getting your work done, try to have a little fun in the process. Morale counts for a lot. The person you’re working with is probably not going to become your best friend, but if you can improve things from “bristling at the sight of them” to “getting along with them” or “laughing along with them,” your work day is going to go a lot better. Similarly, imagine how much better things would be if you can graduate from “counting down the days until retirement” to “eh, it’s not so bad” or better yet “yeah, parts of the job aren’t great, but the people make it alright overall.” Anticipating the drudgery of work will suck the life out of you. The whole equation changes when your workplace isn’t a place you dread.

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Happy 250th Birthday to the Good Ol’ US of A!

On Saturday we’ll celebrate America’s 250th birthday! I’m sure you’ve heard it, but let’s take time to recognize that we live in a pretty great place that’s the envy of the world, and it’s okay to spend some time celebrating this great nation.

I got a little curious about how old other countries are, and where the U.S. falls in that list. Without sounding too much like a book report, it turns out the average age of countries in the world is a bit under 160 years. If we listed all of the UN’s 193 countries by age, the U.S., surprisingly, is older than 170 of them.

Sadly, the percentage of folks who are proud to be Americans has been on the decline lately. While I’d attribute that to a variety of things, I think it’s time for a little reminder about some of the things that help make America special.

While there’s no single thing that sets the U.S.’s style of government apart from all others, there is a very important combination that helps distinguish it from others.

  • The U.S. Constitution (1789) is the world’s oldest written national constitution still in force. Many older countries have rewritten their constitution multiple times.
  • The U.S. has a more rigid separation of government branches than most nations, providing more stringent checks and balances on any one branch’s power.
  • We’ve got a strong Federal system in addition to independent State governments. The Federal Government cannot simply abolish or overrule certain aspects of State Governments. States have their own constitutions, legislatures, and laws that vary across state borders.
  • It’s hard to amend our constitution. There has to be very broad agreement to pass an amendment, (two-thirds of both houses of Congress or a convention called by two-thirds of the states, and ratification by three-fourths of the states). In addition to the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights, there have only been 17 other constitutional amendments since the Constitution was written.

This style of governance has proven flexible enough for the country to survive numerous peaceful transitions of power, a civil war, multiple government overhauls, various government shutdowns, natural disasters, two World Wars, a decades-long Cold War, and a host of smaller crises. The government is intentionally slow and demands broad agreement to take any action, preventing an erratic establishment of laws. So while it can move frustratingly slow, that’s part of the key to its flexibility and success.

What about the way this translates to the lives of everyday people?

We’re a Capitalist society. That means when it comes to earning money, you’re free to either work for an already-established business (the route most people take), or strike out on your own to provide goods or services you believe others will pay for (if you’ve got a good idea, have the means to do some prototyping, and are willing to bet on yourself, you have a potential pathway to building a successful business). The market is not forgiving or kind, but it leads to businesses that can adapt and provide things people are truly willing to part with their money for.

Obviously, we’re not perfect. It’s very expensive to buy or rent a place to live here. Political gridlock is at an all-time high while approval for politicians is at an all-time low. People believe their intense anger justifies the harming of other people or gives them permission to infringe on others’ rights. Any time you have people with diverse schools of thought, you’re going to have disagreement, and the scope, manner, and intensity of that discord manifests itself in different ways. We’re still the envy of the world. Other countries and other people want what we have. It’s very easy these days to find Americans who are dissatisfied with their nation, but you’ll notice it’s not so terrible for them that other countries become more appealing to move to.

We’re moving into a period in history where there are new challenges, new threats, and different types of instability in a multipolar world. It’s no longer the US vs. the Soviet Union; it’s varieties of alliances and “sometimes” partnerships that make governing more difficult and complex. That’s probably something that’s not going to get any simpler anytime soon.

In the meantime, let’s be grateful for the blessings we enjoy here in the U.S. We have clean, potable water in every zip code in the country. Americans have an extremely low chance of dying from starvation. Very high percentages of the population have access to hospitals, emergency services, the internet, cell phone service, reliable food sources, ranch dressing, and Amazon/Walmart delivery. It’s not like that in many places in the world.

We’re not perfect as a nation, but we’re blessed to live here. As we move beyond 250 years as a nation, let’s be thankful for each other, the freedoms and privileges we enjoy, and the fact that we get to argue about ideas rather than necessities. Let’s be tolerant of ideas we don’t always agree with, but not manufactured or manipulative rage. It’s okay to disagree, but it’s not okay to belittle the people who hold to principles differing from yours. Let’s return to having a civil discourse, criticizing ideas instead of people, intolerance of prejudice (sexism, classism, racism of all types, ageism, etc.), and working hard not only to get ahead, but to make your community and country better. If you’re American, the American flag should be something you can be proud of and be united behind. “United we stand, divided we fall.”

Happy birthday USA, and thanks for everything so far!

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It’s Not the Florida Keys…it’s the Delaware Keys!

When I was in high school I worked a few summers as a lifeguard at a Christian conference center in eastern Pennsylvania. Besides working at the pools, one of the things lifeguards at this place did was guide groups of guests in canoes down a few-mile stretch of a nearby river.

Whenever I went on a canoe run, I traveled light. No room key, no wallet, nothing I wasn’t prepared to go into the water with. Swim trunks, ratty sneakers, life jacket, rescue tube, paddle, and little medical fanny pack. A lot of people going on these trips seemed to think they would stay dry the whole time. Most people didn’t flip their canoe or fall in the water during a canoe run, but it wasn’t uncommon for it to happen. That’s why when we all gathered around to get ready to start a trip, it was kind of part of my routine to size people up and see what kind of personality they were going to be and if they looked like they were prepared to end up in the water.

On one occasion this dude showed up with an enormous key ring clipped to his belt loop. It’s like he was a cross between a janitor and a prison warden. I have no idea why the guy felt like he needed to bring it along on a canoe trip while he was on vacation. Since it was clipped to his belt loop though, I figured it was probably alright. After all, he must be willing to risk it if he was bringing it canoeing, right?

During the course of each canoe trip, we encountered two or three sets of rapids. When I say “rapids,” I’m not talking about huge whitewater, but areas where the water is turbulent. Sometimes the water was very shallow (less than a foot deep), and other times the water was probably waist deep but moving very swiftly and creating eddies and weird currents behind large rocks. In this case the guy with the key ring and whoever else was in the boat with him managed to flip the canoe in a set of very shallow rapids. It happened far enough in front of me that the pair had recovered and were righting the boat by the time I got there, but the guy started to panic when he realized his key ring was no longer attached.

For the people who know me, “compassion” is probably not in the top 10 traits they’d use to describe me, but I can assure you that I was even worse as a teenager. My job was to get these people safely from the start of the canoe run to the end of it. There were canoes from our group downstream who were getting further and further away from us at this point, and I was responsible for their safety, too, so I had to get moving. I rather callously urged the soaked paddlers into their boat so they could get moving again. As they begrudgingly got back in and set off again, it occurred to me that a heavy set of keys like that was probably going to sink pretty fast and not get pushed real far downstream on a rocky bottom. Since I had seen where they tipped over, I had a pretty good idea of where to look. As they paddled away, I took a slower pace, scanning the area for the keys. Yep, there they were. I scooped them up and I think I attached them to the rescue tube laying at the bottom of my boat.

I didn’t let the guy know right away, either. I waited until we were past all the spots where boats were likeliest to flip, then pulled up next to their boat and handed them over. He was hugely relieved, but he probably spent a good 20-30 minutes thinking he’d permanently lost his keys. (I would probably do it a little differently if I were going to do it again.)

Sometimes you’re going to be in a position that allows you to use your experience or knowledge to easily help someone who’s a little out of their depth. The expertise you bring can be such an easy thing to invest, but it can make a huge difference for someone who’s not operating in their natural element. Keep an eye out for the folks you can lend a hand to without even exerting much effort. You might be on the other end of that transaction sometime.

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Your Best is Your Best, Regardless of Scope

Every now and then God will call somebody to do extraordinary things and change the way people think. Many of these people end up being giants of the faith. Charles Spurgeon. Billy Graham. D.L. Moody. Jim Elliott. C.S. Lewis. Joni Eareckson Tada. Some live long, full lives of service, others endure great misfortune that God uses for His glory. God uses all of them for His purposes.

But what about us “normal” people? What about those of us who aren’t going to fill a stadium or hold a revival, or be overseas missionaries?

I’ve got two things to offer for those folks.

The first is that just because you don’t feel like you have a grand purpose right now, that doesn’t mean you never will. Ask for a way you can use your life and your talents to honor the Lord. If you haven’t found a calling and you want one, you should ask for one. Ask every time you pray. Pray for it all the time. Keep praying long enough, and He’ll show you what to do. (Just don’t be surprised when it’s something bigger than you expected, and once that happens don’t be put off by it.)

The second is that even though we can’t all be Billy Grahams, we can be faithful to what God’s asked of us. He asks different things of different people, and somebody else could very well have been called to do something cooler than what you’ve been asked to do. We rarely know ahead of time God’s reasons for doling out tasks the way He does. Some things are little, others are big. The important thing is that when God asks something from you, you endeavor to give Him your best and follow through on it, even if you don’t understand why He would ask it of you.

It’s also important to keep in mind that your role may not be confined to a single function. Your calling could involve one big thing, lots of little things, or something in between. Sometimes the thing God wants from you is surprisingly ordinary. Just show yourself to be reliable. If you can’t be faithful with little things, how can you be trusted with big things? Love God, be faithful, and show love to others, in that order.

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Something To Help Keep Your Head Above Water

I’ve done a lot of extreme/adventure sports in my life, and I’ve purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment over the course of my life. One thing I’ve never had to purchase, but never turned down when offered, is a life jacket.

It’s one of those things you forget is there until you need it. You might even forget what it’s supposed to do until it does it. During my outings I’ve been dumped out of a raft in whitewater, I’ve bailed out of a capsized kayak as I approached a waterfall, I’ve crashed dozens of times while trying to do a barrel roll on a kneeboard, I’ve crashed a canoe in the middle of a set of rapids so I could stop in a hurry to help someone, and once I was even trapped underwater with a tough choice while my boss was truly in a life-threatening scenario mere feet away.

In all of those situations, the lifejacket I was wearing pulled me toward, or kept me at, the surface. Even when I got thrashed around underwater and didn’t know which way was up, the life jacket got me moving in the right direction. As Christians, we need something in our spiritual lives that helps guide us and bring us in the right direction. Practically speaking, it’s a combination of reading the bible consistently, praying regularly, and listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. When you’re temporarily disoriented because of the craziness going on around you, those things start pulling you toward the way you’re supposed to go.

One more lifejacket story. In college during the long winter months, it wasn’t practical to go kayaking, so our “Paddle Sports” club held pool sessions twice a week. For those of us who went regularly, there were only so many things you could do in a pool with a kayak before you got bored. In our boredom, a few of us started tossing a diving brick (it was a hard rubber brick that weighed probably 10 pounds or so) into the deepest part of the pool and dove for it. That got boring too, so I put on a life jacket and tried to dive down to get it. The first time I made it a decent portion of the way down, but I had to kick and flail pretty hard to make progress and I didn’t quite get deep enough to get the brick. When I stopped flailing and just relaxed, the life jacket carried me gently but persistently to the surface. It was a neat contrast to be thrashing all your limbs so hard to go one way, then go completely passive and travel so easily to the surface. I was able to dive down to the bottom of the 12 and a half-foot pool and grab the brick, then float gently back to the surface, buoyed by the jacket. This, too, is like the Holy Spirit working in a life that pursues God. Even if you start going the wrong direction, you won’t be confused about it being the wrong way.

And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” – Isaiah 30:21

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Early June Iran Update – What’s Going On?

Did you ever see a couple that was fighting about something, but rather than address it head on, they just kind of ignored the issue and left the ball in the other’s court to resolve? Maybe they even made the issue a little worse to increase the pressure on the other partner? That’s sort of what’s going on with Iran.

Americans and Iranians don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. We killed a lot of their leaders and destroyed a lot of their stuff, so it makes perfect sense that they’re not going to be very agreeable to the terms we want them to accept. On the other hand, the Iranian regime is known to be into some pretty bad stuff. They’ve killed Americans. They’ve heavily sponsored terrorist groups. They’ve killed lots of their own people for protesting. I’m going to treat the “who’s right and who’s wrong” aspect of this whole thing as outside the scope of the post, and instead focus on where we are right now.

Going back to the fighting couple, if there’s no clear willingness to move on, outside forces are going to be the thing incentivizing somebody to make the first move. If they’re fighting about an upcoming party, for example, the strategy of not addressing the issue will only work for so long before one of the two gives in and says “okay, we need to make a decision here.” In this case, the one who isn’t in a hurry about the decision probably has a little bit of an advantage because the one trying to solve the problem is probably more anxious about getting it figured out. As a result, the one who’s not in a hurry can have a bit of an upper hand because time is working against the other one.

That’s what’s going on here. Both sides are trying to outlast the other one. They’ll even try to ratchet up the pressure in other areas to make the other side cave first.

Iran’s looking at the U.S. saying “Americans hate high oil prices. All we have to do is incite enough fear and the oil prices will stay high. Maybe we can even draw down their oil reserves. If we can do that, it’s just a matter of time until Trump caves because he knows he’s got mid-terms coming up.” It’s a solid strategy, and is why you’ll see Iran intentionally launch drones or missiles at ships or U.S. installations in the region. A couple of things working against this strategy is that even though U.S. gas prices are elevated much more than they were prior to this military engagement, it is the United States’ ability to export oil that’s keeping its domestic price from going even higher. (It’s not a perfect buffer, but it’s helping.) Additionally, while this would normally play havoc with the stock market, the past decade or so has been so rife with international tension (the word “unprecedented” has been used so much it’s lost its punch) that Wall Street is kind of shrugging this off and expecting things to eventually work out. Last week we set all-time records for the Dow and S&P 500.

The U.S., on the other hand, is looking at Iran and wondering “why haven’t they caved by now?” I don’t know what Trump and his advisors were actually expecting, but they probably thought Iran would have thrown in the towel already. Hats off to the Iranians…they’re tough negotiators. Here’s the tricky part. Both sides want to make it look like they’re willing to consider a deal, but the Americans unquestionably have the upper hand. Just like in poker, however, it’s possible to have a winning hand and still lose if your opponent can outplay you. At this point the actual “cards” held are not what’s driving progress, gamesmanship is. Iran knows it can only last a little while longer before having to agree to a deal on America’s terms. What its leaders are doing is kind of a pattern of appearing willing to deal, but then finding some excuse to lash out and stall. They’re hoping that the President and his advisors get so tired of this uncertainty that they’ll agree to something less than their full list of terms for the sake of saying we got SOME kind of deal to campaign on.

President Trump appears willing to wait them out. Think of the Iranians like an angry child; while they throw tantrums, Trump just needs to be gently persistent, knowing he’s getting closer and closer to the outcome he wants. Adding to the complexity is the fact that the smashed Iranian Government still isn’t fully functioning. The new Ayatollah, if he’s alive and has the use of his faculties, has to prove to the different Iranian groups struggling for power that’s he’s alive and in charge. For anybody over there who’s pushing for peace, there’s probably someone else who’s a hardliner trying to sabotage that peace, and will try to keep drone and missile strikes going. Like the parent of that flipped-out child, we have to be willing to absorb a few hits from them if we think they’re close to giving in. (It would be a much different story if we thought they had plenty of fight in them.)

In the meantime, what’s NOT helpful is all the pundits on TV trying to tell the President how to do his job. My guess is that the Iranians point to this coverage and say “look, even your own media is saying you should give up!” This adds pressure on our own government to rush to a sub-optimal deal. It would be great if news organizations stuck to reporting facts and context and kept their opinions to themselves. Twenty-four hours a day is a lot of air time to fill, and when you don’t have enough material, you fill in the gaps with stuff that’s maybe not so factual. Then people think that because a news organization broadcast it, it must be true (or it’s the majority opinion). Maybe news channels don’t need to operate around the clock.

All that to say, sit tight. Something will happen soon. Senate and Congressional primaries are happening pretty often now, so gas prices and inflation are about to become frequently mentioned issues. Iran’s economy is on the brink and basic utilities (water and electricity) are about to become even more important in the summer and can’t afford to be down for long. The pressure on both sides to make something happen is starting to build. We’ll have some kind of breakthrough soon.

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It’s Not a BAD Addiction, But it’s Still an Addiction

Every generation of college students has something that, looking back, tops the list of “Things We Wasted Time On.” For the guys of my era, the number one thing would probably be playing “Goldeneye.”

Goldeneye, for those who aren’t familiar, was a video game based on the James Bond movie of the same name. By today’s standards, the game is archaic and unrealistic, but back then it was pretty cutting edge and exciting (“It’s in 3D, man!”). It used the N64 gaming console, which enabled 3D motion rather than the Super Mario-era 2D setup, along with a first-person point of view. While the missions themselves were cool and followed scenes from the movie, the REALLY popular thing about the game was the multiplayer mode. You could have up to four players join in an every-man-for-himself battle royale where you could pick the setting, the weapons, and the limits. For whatever reason, this video game was cool enough for us to waste the better part of entire days.

There were a whole bunch of us who were into the game, but only one guy, Tom, owned it. We consistently packed into his dorm room. The two guys who lived there arranged their room to somehow squeeze a loveseat in the middle so they could accommodate players more comfortably. Tom had a huge TV (pre-flat screen, so it was huge in all three dimensions), the N64 console, and a whole bunch of the N64’s weird controllers. There were constantly multiplayer battles and tournaments going on in that room. I don’t know how the guys who lived there got any classwork or studying done. When both guys were at class or gone for the weekend and their room was locked, people would actually break into their room to play Goldeneye.

For awhile there, this game took over our lives. It’s all we could think about doing in our spare time. Sometimes classes got in the way of our Goldeneye time, so they had to be skipped. (You’ve got to have your priorities straight, right?) The TV was on in that room for pretty much the entire weekend, every weekend. Diet and hygiene suffered, and I imagine grades did, too.

Eventually the guys living in the room figured out they had to impose some restrictions on things if they were going to maintain their sanity. “Office hours” were imposed, but those quickly got violated and the boundary lines got blurred. Then Tom secured the game cartridge in his locked drawer, but he either wanted to play single player or someone always managed to talk him into taking it back out. What eventually worked was the two guys taking the “submarine missile launch protocol” approach. They took separate key components (like the cartridge and the console’s power cord) and locked them in their respective drawers. That way, both guys had to consent to playing before they got everything back out and anyone was able to play again.

Can you imagine being so hooked on something that you can’t cope with the idea of going a day or two without it? Maybe you know exactly what this is like. Maybe you’re struggling with cutting back on or cutting off something you know you need to get away from. You’ve maybe even given it a try, but found it’s too difficult to escape its orbit for very long.

As much as you don’t want to hear it, your fastest way to make progress is probably to ask for some help with your struggle. Someone else is able to see things you can’t, be strong when you’re not, and provide a helpful, steady hand when your resolve is all over the place. Remove yourself from the areas of temptation you’re struggling with, and intentionally impose obstacles that will make it more difficult to misuse the thing you’re thinking about.

(By the way, toward the end of college as we all explored different interests and moved out of the dorms, the Goldeneye craze died out. Sometime before we all graduated I went to Tom and offered to buy it from him. He sold me everything but the Goldeneye game itself, but I got its sister game, Perfect Dark (which had some of the same levels), and I still have it more than 20 years later. Every now and then I pull it out of mothballs and play for nostalgia’s sake.)