Life Cartography is written by Charles Porter.

Category: listening

  • Please stop empowering Africans. And pretty much every else as well.

    Lets have a conversation about power. Who has it and who doesn’t? Empowerment as a concept is so ingrained in the leadership literature that to dare question is to invite scorn and reprisal. But first a story. As the leader of a multinational church in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I was privileged to work with […]

  • A genius parenting hack applied to business.

    I wrote yesterday about my dad’s accidental parenting genius. By asking his kids which movies he should see, my dad not only empowered us with decisions that impacted our lives, but also decisions that impacted his life. He trusted us to maintain his integrity. In business, it may be easy to empower employees to most decisions […]

  • 5 gifts that will revolutionize your marriage and your husband

    What do I get for the guy who has everything? Mother’s Day is a national holiday. Father’s day is a national disaster. To succeed at being a mom, you need to show up and love. To succeed as a dad, you’ve got to be much more. Provider, protection, fountain of wisdom, strong but gentle, bold […]

  • Jesus and the Naughty List

    My 4 year old was worried about the naughty list. Her, shall we say, “impulse control” is sometimes missing. After one little altercation in the car on the way to church, her little voice piped from the back row of the minivan. “Will I not get any presents for Christmas?” The frustrated father in me […]

  • Depression, Robin Williams and why Matt Walsh is wrong

    “Just get over it.” “Just let it go.” “Just snap out of it.” The tragic death of comedian and actor Robin Williams has brought to light once again the terrible battle that those who face depression fight. But as a Christian, what should I do with depression? Popular blogger Matt Walsh as usual has all […]

  • Jesus’s $7.2 million wedding gift. Or the overkill miracles.

    Overkill Generosity Today on the way to our place of worship, my son Riley had a meltdown. “I want to give an offering! I want an offering.” Now, before you take our your bully stick, we haven’t forced our kids to consider giving. They give because they want to, under no obligation from us. The […]

  • Why Customer services agents shouldn’t ask how they can help.

    A bad day had just gotten worse. My flight out of Springfield Mo had been delayed because of what I felt was staff incompetence. New FFA rules were blamed on the plane being delayed because ground crew needed more rest time. Instead of redeeming the time, the plane was only de-iced after we pulled back […]

  • Here comes the Boom! Why Leaders don’t pile it on.

    Leaders don’t “pile it on” When I was in kindergarden, we lived beside the elementary school playground in Pittsburgh, Texas. One of our friends from church, Benji* was on the team 7th grade football team. My brother and I used to like to watch practice. One day, realizing that he had a cheering squad, Benji* […]

  • Know thy neighbor

    This is a guest post by Linda Feriera. Linda blogs at http://livingintherightturnlane.blogspot.com. I strongly suggest you read her post on Boys will be Boys. You can also find her on twitter. Know thy Neighbor . . Growing up, my mother, just like most mothers, encouraged us to do our best in school, make right choices and […]

  • 5 good reasons to leave a church

    Today, I ran across this article. I agree with most of the author’s thought but it got me thinking. What would be a good reason to leave a church? Here are some reasons I came up with. You are sent out.  This one may seem obvious, but there are times that God has a plan […]