Inspiring, Touching and Encouraging Lives Through the Power of Words
“It is nothing more than a mere handful of thoughtful words unfettered by tarnished agendas, tempered by wisdom, ordered by truth, and arranged into simple syntax that have empowered ordinary men to do utterly extraordinary things. And I am thankful that I am an ordinary man who loves words.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough, M.Div., LPC
A Selection of Craig’s Speaking Topics
Abandonment – When People Make Destructive Choices
“Loss is the uninvited door that extends us an unexpected invitation to unimaginable possibilities.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
There are times when the best of our logic fails to understand the worst of other’s behaviors. It’s part of the oddity or maybe complexity of the human psyche that we sometimes make choices that defy any shred of reason or seem void of even the slightest hint of sensibility. More times than we can count we stand in awe of the choices that some people make, standing at some distance shaking our heads in disoriented disbelief and wondering what in the world they were thinking. There are times when we disagree with the actions of others as we would have made a different choice. But then there are other times when the actions of others rise above mere disagreement to utter astonishment as the apparent insanity of their choice’s eclipses something as simple as a mere disagreement. And that kind of thinking is most obvious and most painful when someone abandons us and we can’t make sense of the choice, or we abandon them in the same way.
This message is about how to understand abandonment, gain insights that help us manage it, and then tools to heal from it. It also includes cautions regarding the fact that we might have been abandoned at some point, but we must never forget that we have the capability of abandoning others as well.
An Intimate Collision: Encounters with Life and Jesus
“The cross unerringly exposes this stunningly marvelous and abruptly exquisite declaration that God will not let this single life of mine, with all of its grotesque maladies and pathetic filth pass into oblivion without unflinchingly declaring that my life carries a value worth the expenditure of His. And if I dare look upon the cross, I am utterly perplexed but wholly enraptured by the immensity of such a love as this.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Something is missing. Something of inestimable value is absent. Somewhere we distanced ourselves from God, or we diligently worked to force Him into some manageable box, or we rejected Him outright. And the power that should be infusing every aspect of our lives is absent. We stand empty when we know that we were not designed to be that way. There is an inherent hollowness within us that we cram full of an innumerable amount of things that only serve to enlarge the hole that we are seeking to fill. Something is missing. And that something is a fresh, robust, and entirely sweeping relationship with God.
This series of messages arises from the belief that people sense there to be a far greater reality to our portrayal of God and the Christian life than that which we have grasped. Something far more is ours if we can only find it, discover ways to effectively seize it, and then deeply incorporate it. This series is specifically designed to enhance the listeners view of God and then provide them rich insights to develop “An Intimate Collision” with the Creator Himself.
Being a Lamp That’s Lit
“I have repeatedly found that the darkness is often the thickest at the very moment that it is about to perish at the hands of the light.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
We are all a lamp. And as such, we have an incredible capacity to provide light in the very places where darkness is at its darkest. But while we are a lamp, are we a lamp that’s lit? Are we giving off the light that we were created to give off? For if we are a lamp unlit, we are a life un-lived.
We’re all lamps . . . every one of us. But how many of us are lit and burning and casting light, because it’s one thing to be a lamp, and it’s quite another thing to be lit because we don’t believe that we could be. If we walk through life being a lamp that’s not lit, we will live a diminished life and we will add to the diminishment of those around us. Craig discusses a number of points that help us to be the lamps that we never imagined we could be.
Deep Growth in the Grief and Loss of Life’s Seasons
“Starting over is an acceptance of a past we can’t change, an unrelenting conviction that the future can be different, and the stubborn wisdom to use the past to make the future what the past was not.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Loss happens to all of us. And in the loss we grieve. We grieve because we feel that whatever we lost was taken prematurely, or that the loss was unjust and cruel, or that we somehow thought that this thing or this person would always be with us. But if we focus entirely on the loss, we will never unearth the rich and entirely unique opportunities for growth that lay hidden in every loss.
Craig’s premise is that “there is great purpose in great pain.” That does not eliminate the pain. However, it grants our pain a desperately needed purpose. In this message he outlines ways to see a greater purpose in our greatest pain.
Purpose: Do I Have One?
“The reason my life has wandered to nowhere is likely due to the fact that the focus of the moment has dictated the destination of my life, when the destination of my life should have been dictating the focus of the moment.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Purpose. Is there actually such a thing, and if there is, do we actually have one? Is there something more intentional to life that just going through the motions? Is it possible that our existence is far more than simply our existence? The fact of the matter is, we all yearn for meaning. We all want to believe that we have a purpose that lends profound meaning to our lives in a manner that potently enriches and emboldens our lives. Purpose. Do we have one? Absolutely.
Craig lays out a convincing rationale for the existence of your purpose. He then discusses how to discover that purpose, seize it, and then effectively live it out.
Self-Esteem: The Five Big Lies
“We are always immeasurably bigger than the little person we’ve too often doomed ourselves to be.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Self-esteem is the accumulation of assorted beliefs that we have collected about ourselves. It’s the messages of others crafted and shaped into hardened beliefs about who we are and who we are not. It’s the collection of assorted perspectives that define what we see in the mirror at those times that we’ve brave enough to look into it. In time, these become the immovable reality of our existence. We arrange these many beliefs into some sort of piecemeal composite, much like a tile mosaic. They are the product of painful family dynamics, soured social occurrences, relational upheavals, career disappointments, financial failures, and other things that package within themselves some distilled message about us.
This message outlines five of the key lies that we often believe about ourselves and how to press those lies aside in order to discover the truth about who we are.
Taking a Stand – To Be Bold
“Bravery is not found in getting knocked down. Rather, bravery is found is getting back up knowing that you’re going to get knocked down again.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Not many people take a stand. Yes, we want to take a stand, but we also want to be able to stay in the good graces of everyone who’s watching us do it. We want to take a stand, but in doing so we don’t want to look too antiquated, or too outlandish, or too different, or too controversial, or too anything that might estrange us from everyone else. There’s an endearing degree of camaraderie that we want to maintain with the rest of the humanity. We might rub someone the wrong way, but we don’t want to rub too hard (if we have to rub at all). Too often, the need to exercise caution so that we don’t place ourselves too far outside of everyone else’s good graces overrides our core convictions. We opt to be seen as ‘right’ in the eyes of everyone else, rather than doing what’s ‘right’ in light of the situation. No, not many people take a stand.
Yet, we want to stand on the belief that great things are the product of ordinary people who are made great when they stand. We want to believe that one person taking a stand is more powerful than a thousand who don’t. This series outlines both the rationale for taking a stand and how to effectively do it.
The Battles: Choosing Wisely
“The most critical time in any battle is not when I’m fatigued, it’s when I no longer care.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Battles. We all have them. Many we create ourselves, but some are created by others or by circumstance. Whether those battles are in our marriages, our families, our jobs, our communities, or in our own hearts…we all fight battles. Rather than fighting the fact that our battles may be unjust or cruel, we would be much wiser to learn how to more effectively fight them. And one of the most effective parts of that battle is reframing how we view those battles.
Craig broadly outlines three different types of the battles that we fight, and then he provides five strategic ways to think about those battles in order to fight them more effectively.
The Crisis Of Our Choices
“To be careless in making decisions is to naively believe that a single decision impacts nothing more than that single decision, for a single decision can spawn a thousand others that were entirely unnecessary or it can bring peace to a thousand places we never knew existed.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
In times of crisis, we readily place everything in this convenient ‘us-versus-them’ category. It’s about some external force descending upon us with violent impunity. It’s about the sky falling in on us and the bottom dropping out from under us when we had done nothing but cultivate both. It is the classic perpetrator/victim scenario.
But what about the times when it’s not ‘us-verses-life?’ What about the times when we’ve contributed to whatever’s befallen us? What about the times where we’ve ‘set’ the stage with a dubious cast of characters that ‘set’ our lives on fire? What about the situations where we put the pieces in place that resulted in the outcome that eventually blew us to pieces?
This message outlines the power of our choices to render consequences both good and bad. That those circumstances are often the outcome of our choices and not some series of events or decision made somewhere else by someone else.
The Frightening Power of Great Things
“You are greater than you can possibly imagine, if you would only free yourself up to imagine.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
We all yearn to do great things. We all have grand visions and cherished dreams. But great things are frightening. Very frightening. And because they are, we tell ourselves that they’re not possible, or that we don’t have the resources to actually achieve them, or that they’re actually the stuff of the wide-eyed dreamer within us that we wish would go away. Yet, if we dare to press past the fear, the impossible may actually be quite possible.
Craig outlines four decisions to make in order to press our fears aside and then press forward to do great things in our lives.
The Self That I Long to Believe In – The Challenge of Building Self-Esteem
“You are greater than you can possibly imagine, if you would only free yourself up to imagine.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Low self-esteem reaches into every area of our lives. Its power and impact is not easily understated. A low-self-esteem can be frighteningly crippling, causing people to live horribly marginalized lives bent under the weight of self-hatred and perceived inadequacy. Much is said about self-esteem. However, this series is a combination of forty-one years of walking with a nearly innumerable number of people who found themselves bent under the weight of self-hatred. Over these years, I have written a large number of articles and blogs on this difficult and paralyzing issue.
This series is a thoughtfully expanded and enriched collection of this material, carefully and meticulously brought into a targeted and timely format. The concepts are unapologetically practical, speaking to people not in some theoretical format, for that does very little for hurting people. Rather, this series speaks into the darkness of their pain and the hopelessness of their vision for themselves.
To Believe in Something Better – The Rise Against ‘What Is’
“If I am to excel in this life in any manner that is worthwhile, I must understand that ease is not a lifestyle. Rather, it is the brief and very momentary gift that we are granted because we have spent the bulk of our time purposely engaging that which is hard.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Our humanity is ingeniously fashioned in a manner that it can handily break the realities that would seek to break it. Our existence need never be held hostage nor pressed into servitude to the sordid realities of all that is happening around us. Rather, we are able to stand in spirited opposition to those realities, and in the face of them we are capable of crafting brilliant and utterly resilient solutions that crush those realities by transforming them. We are dreamers and the authors of visions. We have the ability to conceptualize marvelous things and actually begin the act of crafting them even at those times when the presence of them or the hope for them is entirely non-existent. We are a powerful bunch vested with immense potential that exceeds even that which we understand.
This series outlines a number of critical thoughts and tested perspectives to help us break the negative pull of the world and grant us both tools and vision to believe in something better and then take steps to achieve it.
What’s That In Your Hand?
“It has nothing to do with who I am as compared to everyone else. It has everything to do with who I am in companionship with God.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
Our estimate of ourselves is typically an estimate that’s limited to what we ourselves can do with whatever or whoever we are. When it comes to that estimate, we can get rather arrogant at times, and in doing so, we can inflate that estimate. And at other times we diminish it because we’ve grossly under-estimated the full extent of our potential. Either way, our estimate of ourselves is held up solely against what ‘we’ can do with whoever it is that we are. But what if we were not created to be used by us, but by someone else? What if we are an instrument, that once placed in the hands of Someone else, suddenly becomes far, far more than the instrument itself? What if our true potential doesn’t really rest in who we are, but in what Someone can do with who we are? And what if that Someone is God? If that’s the case, we might be limited, but what we can do is not.
This message discusses how we can thoughtfully, effectively, and decisively put the whole of ourselves into God’s hands and become the instrument, the force, the agent for change that we never imagined ourselves being able to become.
What’s The End Game? – The Core of a Calling
“Mediocrity is a path cleared by fear, leveled by apathy and paved by comfort.”
– Craig D. Lounsbrough
If all that’s left is an endless litany of tasks accomplished and problems overcome, then the tally of our lives is the tally of what we got done. We suddenly find that we had lived out the sum total of our days bowing to the stale tedium of checklists. Life had burgeoned into a banally conditioned existence, mechanically pounding out prescribed tasks that we, or life, or circumstance, or others had penned on the reams that chronicled our life. We completed a bunch of stuff, most of which didn’t really matter at the end. Yes, it was impressive. But impressive toward what end? What is the summation of these tasks other than the completion of them? What did they change and what did they leave behind other than stuff that got done? And stuff getting done doesn’t thrill the heart or fill the soul
This series outlines how to ‘live’ life rather than just ‘do’ life. This series helps us to move from tedium to calling. From being a spectator to changing the world around us.
Additional Topics
A large number of other topic areas are available for review. Additionally, requests for specific topics are likewise welcomed. It is our intent to deliver to your audience the inspiration, insight, and life-altering material that will leave them healed, hopeful, and on a trajectory both beautiful and unimagined.
Contact Information
Additional Resources
Craig D. Lounsbrough, M.Div., LPC 19284 Cottonwood Drive, Suite 202 Parker, Colorado 80138 303-593-0575, extension 2 Email Address: craiglpc4@gmail.com Website: www.craiglpc.com
“LifeTalk”: A comprehensive resource to access all of Craig’s podcasts. Craig Lounsbrough’s Book Room: featuring video trailers and sample chapters of Craig’s books.
Craig’s Youtube Channel with over one hundred and fifty inspirational and timely videos.
Craig’s Background and Experience
Craig spent two years broadcasting in Christian radio and have published both nationally and locally. Twenty-one years ago, he launched a private, outpatient counseling practice in Parker, Colorado which has grown into a full-fledged practice providing counseling, coaching and consulting services to individuals, marriages, families, various businesses as well as church and ministry organizations. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, a Certified Professional Life Coach, an ordained minister, and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. At this time, he has completed the coursework (ABD) for his Doctor of Ministry degree in Marriage and Family Counseling.
Craig has written numerous published articles for a variety of Christian and secular magazines. Likewise, he has also published seven books to date that can be located on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or wherever books are sold. He has written over 4000 quotes that have appeared in a large number of Social Media sites, articles, blogs, books, websites, magazines and more. He has also developed a number of Social Media sites with over 500,000 combined readers a month. Finally, he created a weekly Coaching Blog, produces a podcast entitled LifeTalk on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio and Google Podcasts, and has a Youtube page with over 150 inspirational videos.
Craig Lounsbrough's Public Speaking Resource Page 