Tim used a book in class this past semester entitled, Crucial Conversations:  Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High.

The book is sitting here next to me on the couch, and after many weeks of hearing of what an "amazing" book this is, I guess I'm going to step out and read a business class textbook.

I'm not a business woman, so I probably won't be sitting in a board room involved in a big debate over assets and liabilities.

But I do believe God has called me (and you) to talk about some crucial issues in the days to come.

It's no secret that our world is in a not-so-good place.

If you think about it, Christians should be having crucial conversations every day.

After all, the stakes are high in this thing called "life."

I sometimes sit in teacher's meeting and as the presenter goes on and on about formative assessments and summative assessments and differentiation and all kinds of other teaching strategies, I feel my mind drifting to things like "In a hundred years, how much of this will matter?"

After all, I won't be around in 100 years and chances are, if you are reading this in 2012, you won't be either.

So, whatever strategy I'm using to try to get a student to read more proficiently is really just a temporary strategy to help them in a temporary world.

How do we get to a place where the conversations we are participating in are "crucial?"

Life-changing.

Eternity-changing.

Those are the conversations in which I want to be engaged, and yet they are often difficult to begin.

I'll let you know what I learn, because I believe Christians all over the world are being called to have crucial conversations daily.

II Tim. 4:2

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;

correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction.