I want to write a couple of blogs on transformation. I have friends who ask frequently: “Do we really see lives changed anymore?” Answer, “Yes we do…provided we’re intentional about it.”

My friend Robert was a professional bowler with a bad temper problem. I don’t know the details, but I know he did some time in county jails. That was then. This is now. Robert is 68. He got married just last November, and he and Heidi are happy as clams. As Robert reminded me:

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the LORD. (Proverbs 18.22, NKJV)

Robert and Heidi

How did Robert get from there to here? Here’s how he tells it in a recent FaceBook post:

When I said Bob and I are long time friends let me explain. We go back 17 years to when I was a member of Springs Rescue Mission’s faith based New Life Program of recovery which ministered to the addicted and broken hearted with the healing power of the Gospel of Christ. Part of our “programming” was a mandatory 6am. Bible study at 1st Presbyterian Church downtown in the Springs. Bob Ewell (retired USAF, and longtime member of The Navigators) was one of the men who led the Men on Target. These men came alongside us when we most needed it, modeling what a man’s Christian life looked like. Many of them became our “mentors” including my Mentor James M. McKelvey. These men helped change the trajectory our lives, from who we were, to lives transformed by becoming new creations in Christ. All those 4:30 am. wake ups were brutal, but I never left a Bible study without feeling great. I’m proud now to be a Springs Rescue Mission New Life Program Alumnus, with a brand new life.

Robert was in the Springs Rescue Mission’s 12-month residence program whose aim was transformation. One of the tools they were using back then was our Tuesday, 6am, Bible study, the goal of which also was transformation. Supervision, accountability, practical teaching, serious Bible study, modeling and mentoring all worked. I’m proud to be Robert’s friend.

I’ll share another story Monday about transformation in a more conventional environment. Stay tuned.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12.2, NIV)

That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4.20 – 24, NIV)

Our Reading Plan has us back in the Psalms. Today we begin Book IV.

A Prayer Of Moses the Man of God.

LORD, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. (Psalm 90.intro – 2, NKJV)

God is permanent. We are temporary:

You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers…

We finish our years like a sigh. The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. (Psalm 90.3 – 10, NKJV)

Sounds very much like Ecclesiastes 12.

So Moses closes with a prayer:

Return, O LORD! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil.

Let Your work appear to Your servants, And Your glory to their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90.13 – 17, NKJV)

“Establish the work of our hands.” A good prayer. Jesus said:

You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15.16, NKJV, emphasis mine)

I have room for only one more Ecclesiastes blog before those of us in the reading program are back into The Psalms, Book IV, which begins with Psalm 90.

Today, highlights from Ecclesiastes 11 and 12

Most people apply this to investing – have a diverse portfolio:

Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. (Ecclesiastes 11.2, ESV)

Here’s a word on the importance of taking action. Take action now! Take action in a variety of situations.

He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap…In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. (Ecclesiastes 11.4, 6, ESV)

Don’t wait until you’re old to serve God. And old age comes, make no mistake. The Preacher paints a vivid picture of old age:

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

• before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, [Eyes dim? Need cataract surgery?]
• in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, [Not as strong anymore, are we? Not as straight either.]
• and the grinders cease because they are few, [Lost your teeth?]
• and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut— [Some don’t get out much anymore.]
• …the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, [Gray hair, hard to walk, no libido?]
• because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. [“The body without the spirit is dead.”] (Ecclesiastes 12.1 – 8, ESV)

The importance of teaching and writing…writing well:

Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. (Ecclesiastes 12.9 – 11, ESV)

Don’t complicate things. Hang on to the few, simple things that you know.

My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. (Ecclesiastes 12.12, ESV)

The conclusion?

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12.13, ESV)

Amen.

Ecclesiastes 9: an example of “wisdom under the sun” that’s wrong, uninformed by God’s revelation:

The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t. It seems so wrong that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. Already twisted by evil, people choose their own mad course, for they have no hope.

There is nothing ahead but death anyway…The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. Whatever they did in their lifetime—loving, hating, envying—is all long gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth. (Ecclesiastes 9.2, 3, 5, 6, NLT)

After death nothing? Not quite: Jesus said the rich man will be held to account:

Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to sit beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet. The rich man also died and was buried, and he went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side. (Luke 16.22, 23, NLT)

Other revelation supports life (and judgment) after death.

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9.27, 28, NLT)

In the middle of this, a piece of not bad advice, not because there won’t be a judgment but because we should make the most of our life:

So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this! Wear fine clothes, with a splash of cologne! Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil. Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. (Ecclesiastes 9.7 – 10, NLT)

There certainly won’t be work or planning here on earth after death.

The Apostle Paul tells us there is certainly a resurrection and he ends with the same application as in Ecclesiastes 9: make the most of your time here:

For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15.53 – 58, NLT)

Yesterday was Labor Day, and I wrote about the importance of all kinds of work and all kinds of workers. Here’s an example: what image comes to mind when you think “computer programmers”? What do they do? What kind of contribution do they make?

Of course, what I’m doing right now wouldn’t be possible unless some set of computer programmers wrote the code for WordPress which runs on the internet, made possible by other programmers. Their work is everywhere. Cars, appliances, watches, phones,…

But I was struck by an unusual application, unknown to me, while reading a story from UCHealth. “Greeley father of three survives sudden cardiac arrest at parent-daughter basketball event thanks to AED and CPR.”

AED and CPR. We all recognize CPR, and most of us have seen AEDs hanging on the walls of public spaces.

The UCHealth Story’s subtitle is:

What started as a fun school basketball game turned into a life-or-death emergency — and a powerful reminder of how critical AEDs can be.

The article opens:

A few months ago, the 38-year-old Greeley dad of three was running down the court at a parent-daughter basketball game at a school gym. The next thing he remembered, he was being transported to the hospital after suffering — and minutes later being saved from — a life-threatening cardiac arrest.

The article continues:

Dave had experienced a ventricular fibrillation arrest, a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm that starts in the lower chambers of the heart. Instead of beating steadily, the ventricles quiver and lose their ability to pump blood through the rest of the body, cutting off its supply to the brain and vital organs.

Without emergency treatment, sudden cardiac arrest can lead to brain and organ damage — or death — very quickly. With each passing minute, a person’s chance of survival decreases by about 10%.

To save his life, Dave needed immediate defibrillation, an electric “shock” from an AED, which stands for automated external defibrillator. When someone experiences ventricular fibrillation, shocking the heart, along with CPR, is the only way to restore the heart’s regular rhythm.

Fortunately, there was an off-duty firefighter, Alonso Gallardo, in the crowd, and someone brought him the AED while he was checking on Dave.

While someone called 911, a school staff member ran to get the portable AED mounted outside the gym door and got it to Gallardo, who had rushed to Dave’s side. While Gallardo’s daughter performed hands-only CPR, the firefighter removed Dave’s shirt and placed one of the pads on his upper right chest and the other on his lower left chest.

The AED provides voice commands with step-by-step instructions, instructing users on the exact steps they need to take as the machine reads and analyzes a patient’s heart vitals within seconds. It also advises bystanders on whether to continue CPR.

“You don’t touch the patient, but let the AED advise you what to do,” Gallardo said.

As the defibrillator analyzed Dave’s heart data, it told Gallardo to defibrillate, or shock him, by pressing a button, and to continue with CPR. The AED instantly monitored Dave’s response to the shock, and after a minute, it announced that he needed another shock.

“After the second shock, he regained consciousness and started to breathe and move around, so we stopped what we were doing and let him breathe on his own,” Gallardo said.

Did you catch it? I had no idea… The AED gives you voice instructions on what to do. It told Gallardo to shock the heart and continue CPR. A minute later, it told him to shock the heart again.

This machine was not built by doctors! It was built by engineers and programmed by the same guys who taught Alexa how to talk, play music, tell you the weather, and other trivial things.

Amazing. All kinds of work. All kinds of workers. God bless computer programmers.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2.10, ESV)

I always enjoy writing for Labor Day because I value work in its myriad forms.

Here’s something I heard the late economist Walter Williams share on the radio. He said:

You go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of bananas. How many people did it take to get those bananas from, say, Brazil to your grocery store?

Think about it…

People called in with various guesses. I remember someone saying, “Twelve.” Nope…

Finally, someone said, “Thousands,” and Walter Williams said, “I’ll give you credit…

It’s MILLIONS.

He explained:

Someone had to plant the trees the bananas came from and tend them. Someone had to pick them. Someone had to make the box they put them in. They no doubt rode in a truck to the shipping dock. Someone had to make the truck…and the tires for the truck. Someone had to drive the truck. Someone had to build the road. The bananas were loaded onto a ship. Someone had to make the ship. The people who built the ship no doubt wore shoes. Someone had to make the shoes…and on it goes.

Millions of people so you could go to the store built by workers and staffed by workers. You drove over there in a car built by workers.

Praise God for the miracle of work. The Bible opens with God…at work.

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 1.31 – 2.3, NKJV, emphasis mine)

One fun thing about being in Estes Park is the wildlife encounters. (Usually fun. Benji, the dog, and I were confronted by an angry deer after he barked at her fawns. No photo documentation, sadly, June was too busy watching us from our cabin’s porch scared out of her wits. Anyway, Benji and I survived unscathed.)

A few days later I went to the country store where a herd of elk made their appearance. And make no mistake, they are big…

“Guys, let’s cross the street and pose for a few pictures. The parking lot is crawling with tourists.”

[Jesus] was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him. (Mark 1.13, NLT)

We closed yesterday’s blog, day 2 of sharing from Sahil Bloom’s essay from August 20, 2025, with

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting… Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning… (Ecclesiastes 7.2 – 4, NKJV)

In other words, there are more lessons in a funeral than in a wedding! And Sahil speaks to that in the essay we’ve been looking at: Live Like It’s The Last Time. He writes:

Shortly after publishing my book, I was asked by a journalist why I had chosen to include such gut wrenching stories of love and loss. Of a wonderful woman named Alexis Lockhart who had lost her son Jackson just after his 20th birthday. Of a soulful man named Erik Newton who had lost his wife Aubrie when their daughter was just two.

My answer was simple:

To create ripples.

You see, through pain, tragedy, and loss, there is light. It shines through from that darkness. A blinding insight. A clarity. A flash from the other side.

These stories have the power to shine that light on your path. To show you the way. To change the way you live.

Sahil loops back to the story that inspired the essay: Wade Lytal, who lost his 8-year-old daughter in the Texas floods of July 4:

Sitting at my desk, writing this piece, I feel an immense gratitude:

That the ripples I hoped to create were real. That a young father in Texas took the stories to heart. That he loved with every ounce. That he had no regrets. That he lived like it was the last time.

And I feel an immense privilege: to be able to share this story. A story of love. Of loss. Of a family in the throes of grief who need our love right now. Of a beautiful little girl gone far too soon.

Of the ripples that her light will create in the world.

They’ve already created one in mine. Last night, my son crawled into bed with us at 1am and woke me up. I was tired and had an alarm set for my usual 4am wake up.

I wanted to tell him to go back to bed, but as he cuddled up next to me, I stopped and said these words in my head:

There will be a last time he crawls into bed next to you. Live like it’s today.

Again,

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting… Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning… (Ecclesiastes 7.2 – 4, NKJV)

Yesterday I shared the incredible story of how Wade Lytal, the father of one of the recent Texas flood victims reached out to thank author Sahil Bloom for encouraging him to spend more time with his family. The father, a believer, was being salt and light in the world. If you missed that blog, please read it now. I’ll wait…

The message that Sahil wrote, the message that helped that father, was simple:

He didn’t know it was the last time. But he lived like it was.

Sahil continues:

Writer and philosopher Sam Harris once said, “No matter how many times you do something, there will come a day when you do it for the last time.”

There will be a last time your kids want you to read them a bedtime story. A last time you’ll go for a long walk with your sibling. A last time you’ll hug your parents. A last time your friend will call you for support.

All of the things we take for granted today are things we’ll wish we could go back and do.

There’s a last time for all of it.

You won’t know when it’s the last time. But you can live like it is.

There’s wisdom in that, echoing themes from Ecclesiastes, that Sahil also touches on in his essay. I’ll share them tomorrow.

In the meantime, you can contribute to a fund in Wade Lytal’s daughter’s memory.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting… Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning… (Ecclesiastes 7.2 – 4, NKJV)

Too good not to share…

Sahil Bloom started his August 20, 2025, blog with this:

There are certain moments in life that feel etched into our memory. The pivotal turning points. The experiences or events that have a distinct before and after in how we approached the world.

Cruelly, we often don’t realize we’re living one of those moments until after the fact. We look back on it and say, “ah, yes, that was important!”

Well, last week, I had one of those moments—but I knew it right away…

Sahil got a letter from a guy who had read his book The 5 Types of Wealth. (I have it, but, sadly, I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.)

Mr. Bloom, I wanted to write you and thank you for the book you recently published. I was one of the 27 fathers that lost their daughter during the tragic flooding of Camp Mystic. I read your book a few months ago and it really gave me a clear perspective on how to be a more involved father in both of my daughter’s lives. Being a college football coach it is easy to drift away and only focus on my career but the way you explained the real amount of time we have with our kiddos really struck me. I am so thankful your book helped wake me up and cherish those last few months I had with my daughter. Again, thank you for being willing to share your story with the world and I want you to know it made a lasting impact on my life. – Wade Lytal

Sahil writes:

I read it aloud to my wife, our son nearby playing with his dinosaurs, and we both immediately began to cry.

To have suffered such an unimaginable loss—and yet, to have the grace, presence, and spirit to send a message like that—I knew this man was different. I knew I had to meet him.

Last week, I pulled up to a small lunch restaurant in San Antonio and sat in the courtyard. It was about 10:45am, but the August sun was already beating down. A young man came around the corner and entered the courtyard, a warm smile masking his tired eyes. We had never met, but it didn’t matter. The two of us hugged like old friends, a bond forged through his vulnerability.

For an hour, we sat and talked over a simple meal.

• About his daughter, Kellyanne, a beautiful 8-year-old with a heart overflowing with kindness and a bold, courageous spirit.
• About loss. The struggle. The indescribably painful waves of grief.
• About faith. The church. The community who had wrapped them in love.
• About identity. The questions about never being the same again. About accepting that the same is no longer an option.
• About fatherhood. Being a pillar of strength for his wife and second daughter. Showing up for them as his duty. His responsibility. And most of all, about time. The time he had cherished with Kellyanne. The memories he had created with her. The precious moments. The lack of regrets because he knew he had been present in those last few months. He had really been there.

Sahil shares the obvious application to this story, the point he made in his book, and I will save that for tomorrow.

I want to write about our opportunities to be salt and light. What drew Sahil to want to meet Wade Lytal? Sahil lives in the northeast, a non-trivial distance from San Antonio. But he took the time to meet Wade in person and among the things they talked about was “faith…church…[his Christian] community.” Sahil answered the question (above):

To have suffered such an unimaginable loss—and yet, to have the grace, presence, and spirit to send a message like that—I knew this man was different. I knew I had to meet him.

It was a “holy moment” for Wade to write to Sahil. And it became a chance for Wade to be salt and light to Sahil.

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matthew 5.13 – 16, MSG, emphasis mine)

Do everything readily and cheerfully…Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night. (Philippians 2.14, 15, MSG)