When The Wood Is Wet
Just because a thing is hard doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.
Outdoorsmen
Admittedly, I am not really what you would call an “outdoorsman.” I don’t “go fishing.” I don’t “build a tree stand and then get up at three in the morning to sit in that tree stand so I can maybe shoot an elk.” That is not to say that I can’t or that I won’t do such things.* I actually spent between 2-10 weeks of every summer since I was 8-years-old at boys’ wilderness camp up in the Adirondack Mountains.** I learned and enjoyed all kids of outdoorsy skills. I spent weeks at a time hiking the High Peaks or canoeing the Allagash River. It’s just that those kinds of things never became lifelong hobbies for me as they do for so many.
All that is to say that I was not totally out of my element when I went on a short vacation with my family to the mountains of Northern Georgia earlier this week. We rented a cabin with my brother-in-law, who incidentally does fish, and his family, and we enjoyed the peacefulness of a riverside retreat for a few days.
It was rainy or overcast for much of our time there, but Mr. Sun made an appearance on Wednesday and allowed us to spend most of the day basking in his warmth along the river. Because this was the first night where it wasn’t raining outside, we decided to finally attempt to build a fire for the requisite S’more roasting. Continue Reading…
When It All Seems Worth It
My kids are now 6 and 8, which means they have been playing recreational sports for a few years now. For a while they alternated seasons between soccer and baseball, but after experiencing the craziness of two Little League schedules last year*, we coerced the kids into sticking with soccer this Spring. When they first started playing team sports, I claimed that my schedule was too hectic for me to volunteer as a coach, so I settled for simply showing up and sitting on the sidelines for all the practices and games.
…and complaining about what the coaches could be doing better…
So finally my wife, who is a genius and also is beautiful, said to me, “If you think you can do better, why don’t you just coach? You go to all the practices anyway!” And then she also said very affirming things about how I would be good at it and all.
She was right. I was making excuses. I needed to just suck it up and coach. So, when we moved to Kentucky last year and my kids registered for Fall soccer, I took the plunge and volunteered to coach my daughter’s U-6 team. I showed up to the requisite meetings, I picked up a few practice cones and a mesh ball bag from Wal-Mart, and jumped in.
I was immediately amazed at how difficult it is to keep a group of six children (ages 4-6) focused on the sound of my voice for more than 10 seconds at a time. We dribbled the ball, we ran around cones, we chased each other, and we were a remarkably unimpressive team. But I think we were having fun.
At least, I think most of us were having fun. Continue Reading…
Why Wait? (part 2 of 2)
Last week, I wrote a post about patience and the fact that God works even in the waiting. If you missed that one, you can read it here. Today I want to follow up a little bit more…
I am a dreamer, notsomuch a planner. I tend to be a spur-of-the-moment, don’t-have-to-have-everything-worked-out-in-advance kind of guy. I love dreaming up possibilities for the future and talking about things that could be, so whenever I start actually taking steps towards turning these dreams into reality my focus is usually on my image of what the endgame actually looks like. And I can dream pretty big, so my idea of a preferred future is usually pretty awesome.
But how often has the “future” actually turned out like I dreamed up and prepared for? That happens about as often as I weave living room drapes from the hair of a unicorn’s mane.* And yet, between the dreaming and the fulfillment of a dream, amidst all the requisite waiting and planning and waiting that comes with moving forward, I too often find myself at a point of frustration. Inevitably, however, God steps in at some point in the process to remind me of the fact that His plans are so much greater than mine; that He can dream up a whole lot more than I can.**
So you know about this coffee house/teen center project that I have been working on for the past 18 months. Well, it has taken a whole lot longer to come to fruition than I ever imagined. By some original estimates, we are 12 or 14 months behind schedule. Honestly, there have been points during this process where the waiting has become almost unbearable, yet I have been powerless to make anything move faster. I already explained the perspective God gave me a couple weeks ago: the fact that He works even in the waiting. But there’s more. Continue Reading…
Why Wait? (part 1 of 2)
Ok, so I need to confess. Recently I have been pretty impatient about stuff. And the impatience quickly turned to frustration, which gave way to ungratefulness, and pretty soon was teetering on cynicism. And that’s not me. I’m not the cynical, ungrateful, impatient type. Except apparently I am.
Typically, I am self-aware enough to realize when something is not right in my heart, and I am able to step back and make some adjustments. But I was having a difficult time doing that recently. Things are different now*, but I want to reflect for a moment on the past couple of months.
Here’s the deal: I was hired by a church to run a unique ministry – a coffee house business and a community teen center all rolled into one. Yeah, I know – It’s awesome. Except for one fact: it isn’t open yet. In fact, it has been about a year and a half since I started this job, and I still haven’t been able to actually do my “job.” Don’t worry, I’ve been cool with that. See, I’m new to the whole “running-a-business-and-starting-a-teen-center-at-the-same-time” thing. I had plenty to learn when I started the job. I still have plenty to learn.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have been productive. I have had time to plan and own the vision for this project from the ground up. I have been able to collaborate with a number of people on the design and construction and vision on every aspect of this ministry. I have been able to invest in a community of people that I absolutely love. I have learned many new things, I have honed many skills, I have researched many details, I have built websites**, I have built many relationships…
…but I just want that coffee house to be open. I want our teens to have a place to go. Now. Continue Reading…
When The Viral Man Falls
By now, we all know about Invisible Children and their Kony 2012 campaign. If you don’t, you are probably also not reading this blog right now…
As of this moment, word is now spreading – just as virally as the initial video, I’m sure – that IC co-founder and the man behind – or, rather, at the forefront – of the video that is currently teetering just under 80,000,000 views on YouTube was arrested in San Diego on charges of disorderly conduct. You can read more about those happenings here.
This has undoubtedly been a very difficult week for the folks at Invisible Children. A week ago, the organization, which has gone largely unnoticed by mainstream media and the general public for nearly a decade, suddenly – and some would argue ingeniously – thrust themselves onto every screen in the world.
The support for their cause was instantaneous and almost hysterical. The criticism followed immediately in step and was, in most cases, harsh. The stone-throwers came out in full force, aiming at their rationale, their financial history, their organizational structure, their motives, their plan, their past, and even their children. To be sure, some of the criticism that has come in the last week probably has merit; the plan for justice that IC has helped set in motion is most-certainly not perfect; there were likely some short and long-term effects of their campaign that they did not – or could not – prepare for.
Regardless of the concerns surrounding Kony 2012, both valid and irrational, I never once questioned the heart for justice and life that the people of Invisible Children have. And therein, I think, lies the thing that we need to remember most right now: Invisible Children is a bunch of people. They are men and women who have dedicated their entire young adult lives to the cause of freedom and justice for a people who, as the world goes, have no voice.
My Greatest Social Media Fear
A Family Meeting
At Christmas time a couple years ago, my extended family took some time for a “family meeting” while we all together for a couple days. The topic of discussion was this: “Should our family as a whole have some kind of collective social media policy regarding the kinds of information we share about one another; and, if so, what should said policy be?” Or, as I referred to it: “Will Facebook slaughter our children?”
The idea arose because in a fairly large family, we span the entire spectrum of social media usage. Some of us* use, or at least engage in, everything out there (Facebook, Twitter, Path, Google+, Instagram, Oink, Foursquare, etc…). Others have not yet strayed beyond email. Most fall somewhere in between. By and large, the biggest concern my family members shared was privacy issues. There were concerns – perhaps very legitimate ones – about unwanted persons knowing too much about us – especially our kids. Fair enough.
My worry, however, is not really that I will accidentally share too much; rather, it is that we will become numb to information. Take, for example, the hyper-sexualiztion of our culture right now. A couple nights ago, my wife turned off the TV in disgust when a commercial came on trying to sell us a hamburger by showing a barely-clad lady rolling around on top of a car.** When sex sells everything – which it does these days – we become numb to it. Which is why commercials and every other kind of media seem to get more and more risqué.
Make Kony Famous
I first heard of Invisible Children a few years ago though a former student of mine. @AlexInvisible was a talented, passionate young man when he graduated high school, so I was not surprised when his internship with the organization turned into a full-fledged mission. I had the chance to catch up with Alex in San Diego a year ago and heard from his own mouth the excitement about what Invisible Children had managed to do in bringing to light the atrocious crimes against humanity committed by the LRA in the country of Uganda.
If you have a Facebook or Twitter account, no doubt you have seen the Kony 2012 video from Invisible Children pop up in your streams at least a dozen times in the last 24 hours. Honestly, I am amazed by what they are doing. I love that people passionate about justice are smart and resourceful and committed enough to utilize popular media streams and global social connectivity to effect change, from the grassroots level up to the highest level of government support. We saw this last week with the release of the Twenty Seven Million song and music video – the rallying cry of a movement that seeks to abolish modern slavery and human trafficking.
The Make Kony Famous movement is even more impressive and holistic and focused in their approach. I will leave the details up to the story tellers themselves, but suffice it to say that these guys know what they are doing, and they have truly created a movement that will change the world: not only does this wave have the potential to bring about justice in a specific case, but it will quite possibly create a radical shift in the way change is effected from here on out. Continue Reading…
