The majesty of snow.

This Florida boy always gets excited when it snows and boy did it snow!  I was thinking that snow is one of those things that is either good or bad based on your circumstances.  It was great for me because I got to work from home, but not so great for those with the 7 hour commutes or those who had to spend the night outside.

But if you're dressed warm enough and have your car parked safely in front of your house, it can be a wonderful thing.  I always try to do something special with the snow.  This year I went on a run around Green Lake.  At first I wasn't very excited as it was bitterly cold and windy with snow falling down all over the place.  But the moment I got to the lake, I was so glad that I did.  "Majestic" was the only word that came to mind.  The beauty of nature and man flowing seamlessly together to a perfect scene.  The lake was pristine and I almost had it to myself.  It was an incredibly peaceful run and reminded me once again why I love this city and living where I do.  It was as if this was a confirmation that this is where I am suppose to be.

Of course, halfway around, my knee that has been bothering me started acting up again and I had to walk.  It was a damper on a near perfect scene.  But even walking (and frustratingly muttering about my knee), it gave me more time to soak up the scene.  At the end, I threw my hands up like Andy DuFrain did when he escaped from Shawshank and praised God for such a magnificent creation.

Amen

This old gelapi

I recently bought a new car from a friend who is moving to Boston.  I bought it because my last car was a lemon and this new car will be a lot more reliable.  I also got a great deal on it because the hood had some minor cosmetic damage from a fender bender.  If you know me, this type of thing doesn't bother me one bit.  I drove an 82' Caprice classic in high school that was called "The Boat", "The Godfather", and "The Brown Bomber".  It also had no AC in Florida among many other problems.  My recent lemon actually had the back window duct taped on because it had collapsed!

I bring this up because twice in the last week I've had mechanics who saw my car in a parking lot offer to fix the hood on the cheap and one of the guys told me that it was going to fly up on me.  I politely told them "No thank you".  It got me to thinking about cars and how anal we can be with them.  I've seen people take up two parking spots, drive around parking lots for a carefully selected space, and getting upset over the slightest scratch or dent.  Why do we make such a big deal out of these things?  At the end of the day, it's just a car!

I think of two stories that I've heard relating to damaged cars.  The late Randy Pausch (of "The Last Lecture" fame) tells a story where he had bought a brand new convertible.  He was going to take his niece and nephew for a ride and their mother was telling them how they had to keep the car pristine.  At the same time, he was pouring orange soda on the seat because the car was just a thing.   On the way home, the boy wasn't feeling well and he threw up in the car.  I was also listening to an interview with the Car Talk guys from NPR.  One of the guys was talking about his gelapi.  He told the story of how a lady hit him.  He rolled down the window and asked if she was alright.  After she told him that she was, he told her not to worry about it and drove off!  How much more freeing is that?

The people we all know and most of us love

We all have those people that we see all the time.  Maybe we know their name -- maybe we don't.  They typically have a smile on their face and are eager to make acquaintance.  Busy folks typically brush on by to something more important; a passerby on occasion will stop by to have their day brightened for just a bit.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately.  The corner of West Paces and Northside Parkway was made famous as the corner of Robert the rose guys for the better part of 20 years.  This man stood on this corner almost every night and took such pride in selling flowers.  I never had occasion to buy flowers so never stopped to chat.  I knew people that did though, and he would carefully describe the best way to cut and store the roses as if they were a rare bottle of wine.  Sadly, Robert recently passed away and Atlanta lost a piece its heart that day.

But Robert isn't the only one of these people in my life.  Others have been sprinkled throughout my experience to remind me of what life is really about.  There was Edward, the real change guy, who faithfully sold homeless newspapers for years outside the Brooklyn Safeway in Seattle.  He always told me, "Have a nice day, sir" despite never having bought a newspaper from him.  In my office building, there is Dallas the security guard although I don't think he could stop a crime if one were to occur.  This man in his 70s faithfully graces the doors every day and knows everyone's name.  He has the same phrases he always uses like "going topside" or "they're waiting on you".  If you ever stop to chat, you likely won't be leaving for 20 minutes and will feel like you're being rude when you finally leave.  This kindred old man will surprise you with the occasional profane word and endear you with stories of his wife.  There's Johnny, who is stationed by the light on the exit ramp as I drive to Church.  I have never seen anyone smile so freely -- even though he has little in the way of possessions.  He's an avid Tech fan and always gives me "the rock" during our brief 45 second conversations.  He scrapes by on the kindness of those passing by, but on Easter morning he shared with me how he was helping those less fortunate than him.

I really wish I would have stopped just once to talk to Robert and become a minor player in his legacy.  Maybe I've finally learned that hurriedness is rarely as important or as necessary as it seems at the time.  Perhaps taking a few moments to be blessed will more than compensate for arriving a little late.  And just maybe, I will learn to treat others as these have treated me.



R.I.P Robert



http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/buckhead-mourns-robert-the-425926.html

Sometimes the losers are remembered more

I've been meaning to blog for a few weeks now, but time has a way of disappearing on me.  All that to say that I apologize if this post is a bit dated.

I am talking of course about Butler's epic near miss of winning a National Championship!  It was the perfect underdog story in the perfect city and it even had the whole Hoosiers thing going on.  But alas, real life often doesn't follow the script of reel life and a half court heave that climaxes a fairy tale script painfully misses by mere inches.

All is not lost though.  I think this is one of the rare occasions where the loser will actually be remembered more than the winner.  For whatever reason, a loser sometimes captures our imagination whether we identify with them or they have an epic collapse or they show the heart of a lion.

I think of Jean Van De Velde or Greg Norman whose names have become synonymous with gargantuan collapses.  I think of Andy Roddick at last year at Wimbledon who left everything he had on the court and remade his image in the course of a few drawn out hours.  I think of the one loser who may capture these qualities more than any other story.  I was listening to the story of Julie Moss in the 1982 Iron Man.  She was a 23 year old College Student who just did the race trying to get a degree.  Amazingly though, she found herself winning by 20 minutes in the run.  At the end of the race, her body just gave out on her in a fashion that is painful to watch on video.  After competing for 11 hours and being 30 yards from the finish, her body just gave up on her.  She was passed for the victory, but yet she was determined to finish.  In a remarkable display of courage, she crawled to the finish to win the hearts of millions.  Yes, sometimes we learn more from the losers and remember their story.  Hollywood be damned.

Video of her finish:
http://www.livevideo.com/video/4FE1ED0A9D254E39A0EE2405DAE105F5/julie-moss-1982-hawaii-ironma.aspx

The Lord's Prayer

My maker

Blessed be thy name

Thy message carried out

Right here, right now

My provider

My atoner

Thou tempts me not

My deliverer

To thine be the glory

Talking to Strangers

I have an amazing Fair Trade Coffee shop in my apartment complex with an amazing view of the river.  The baristas are all really fun folks and the atmosphere is fantastic!  Given all these things, I spend quite a bit of time in the coffee shop.  I don't believe I've ever approached someone I don't know, but I've had a few people come up to me.

One day I was working from the coffee shop and a lady came up to me and complimented me about how hard I had been working.  The irony of the situation was that I had finished working for the day and I think I had been checking ESPN.com.

Another time, I brought the book "Celebration of Discipline" in with me because our small group is going through it.  I actually wasn't reading it as I was on my laptop.  A guy who was meeting there with a prayer group came up to me out of the blue and asked me, "How is God working in your life?".  It caught me by surprise (I also hadn't realized that he had saw me bring in the book).  I was thinking that was a pretty gutsy question to go up and ask a complete stranger.  It took me a few minutes to come up with an answer, but then we had a really good conversation.  He asked if he could pray for me and I ended up praying for him as well.

It got me to thinking about risk taking.  I wish I was so bold as that.  I saw a video for a local Church here where the person was traveling to Church for a service.  Along the way, they traveled on the subway and walked on the streets.  All the while, captions would pop up over the various people he passed saying things like "lonely" or "going through a divorce".  The point being that we are constantly passing people all the time who are dealing with things and we never interact with them.  I'm a decently social person, but I never approach strangers; I usually avoid talking to people on planes.  I saw that video and thought "great video" and then of course went on with living my life the same way I always had.  Perhaps I need to be a bit more open to talking to strangers.

Church across divides

I was in Seattle a little over a week ago and I got to walk the halls of UPC again.  UPC is a Church that I spent 6 years at through College and after College and is a place with many memories.  A great thing about UPC is that you can show up on any day or any night of the week and there is always so much going on.

While I was there, I noticed several posters around the Church advertising for Lenten small groups.  The campaign was very well done and consisted of various people within the Church holding signs describing characteristics of small groups.  As I walked up a stairway, one in particular caught my attention.

 "Small Groups are intergenerational"  -- Don & Cool guy

I have been involved with two very large Churches -- UPC and a Church here in Atlanta.  Large churches tend to get very segregated across age and marital status.  I know that when I first returned to Seattle from Ireland, I eagerly sought out the Young Adult group and my biggest priority was connecting with people my age.  However, during the last couple of years, I have become more and more convinced that the Church needs to cross divides.  A cool thing that use to happen at the Young Adult group is that a group of 55+ year olds called "Second Wind" would come and bring deserts every once in a while.  As a result, I developed a friendship with a man named Lee.  I had a conversation with Jon Epps (the UPC young adult leader) while I was in Seattle where his vision was very much along these lines.  It was cool to see UPC taking on these divides.  The high schoolers, college students, and young adults were all attending the same Church service.  Students do work for elderly populations with the Church.  Small groups are being formed across ages.

Martin Luther King Jr. famously said that Sunday mornings was the most segregated hour of the week.  The body of Christ is made up of people of all nations, all races, all ethnicities, all ages, all abilities, and all backgrounds.  If we are missing this in our Church experience, we our missing out on a wealth of experiences and relationships.  That is one of the reasons I am excited about my current Church.  I attend service with and know older generations, children, married couples, lawyers, teachers, students, etc  We also held a joint Ash Wednesday service with a predominantly African American Church which just felt so right.

Compassion

As some of you already know, I am an Advocate for Compassion International.  For those of you who don't know, Compassion is a Christian child sponsorship organization that provides healthcare, supplemental food, education, etc. to children in the poorest countries in the World.  My favorite promotional video is this one: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=180351094789

Last night, Compassion put on a special event here in Atlanta that I was very fortunate to be a part of.  They began with the stories of two different teenage girls: the first one raised $40,000 for a program in Kenya and the second was raising awareness and funds for malaria in Africa.  Very inspiring stories.

However, the main speaker for the night was Ricmond Wandera, who is one of the four individuals featured in the video link above.  There are no words to describe the magnitude of his story.

His father was murdered in Uganda when he was 8.  Richmond, his mother, and his six siblings were forced to moved to the slums because they couldn't pay the rent.  During that time, many of his friends died of malaria, diarrhea, and other preventable deaths.   Fortunately for him, he was enrolled in a Compassion project in Uganda where he was sponsored by a 15 year old girl.

After being sponsored, he was singled out for his leadership qualities and became a part of the Leadership Development Program (LDP) where he was able to get a Bachelor's degree in Accounting while being mentored.  He graduated first in his class.  He became the youth leader at the Church that he use to be a sponsored child at.  He is currently one of four LDP graduates who was selected for a special scholarship for a Master's degree at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.  He currently promotes Compassion and plans to return back to Uganda to be a leader.

He shared that sponsorship changes 3 groups
1.  The sponsored child
2.  The sponsor
3.  The Body of Christ -- he shared how his mother and all 6 of his siblings became a Christian as a result of the act of this one 15 year old girl

I get to do concerts and events from time to time.  Last year I heard the musician Shaun Groves speak on Compassion.  He talked about how his family had decided to move to a smaller house and move from two cars to one car and lived simpler.  It was incredibly convicting to me.  I knew that I should give up my monthly cable bill.  I loved watching Mike and Mike in the morning on ESPN, but that was money being spent that could be going for something way better.  When I thought about it rationally, I knew what the right thing to do was, but I still wanted to hang on to a comfort.  So it took me a couple of months, but I ended up doing it.  It's easy to pretend like it's some great sacrifice, but hearing stories like Richmond's only emphasizes how little I know about sacrifice.

As an advocate, I have an amazing opportunity to present to different groups on what is Compassion is about.  If you know of any group at all that would be open to having a presenter, I would love to come and talk about Compassion.  If you're in another city from me, I can find someone who will be able to come.  And even if only 1 child becomes sponsored as a result, that is at least 1 more life that is saved.

Playing in the snow...

I get excited by snow -- maybe not as excited as I use to when I would drop anything for the nearest snowball fight (I did grow up in Florida after all).  While work and other sorts of grown up obligations make it more difficult, I still make a point to enjoy the few snowfalls I get in some manner.

Today, I decided to go down to Piedmont Park to enjoy the snow.  The wind chill was brutal, but I bundled up and went for a stroll; there is something so beautiful about a new snowfall.  After I had wandered around for a bit, I came across a hill that several people were sledding down.  I stayed and watched for a while.  I thought about how much fun it would be to enjoy something like this with someone else.  It is so much more fun to let out that inner child when you have someone else to enjoy it with.  Given that I was by myself (and that I also didn't have a sled), I just watched.

There were two groups that caught my attention.  The first was two young girls, who I assumed to be sisters, who were sliding down together sitting up on the same sled.  They were laughing and having so much fun.  The second group was a father and his young daughter sliding down together.  He was face first on the bottom of his sled while she rode on his back.  These two groups made me think about being a father.  I want to be the father who doesn't get upset about icy roads, but seizes the opportunity to go out and have a fun afternoon with his daughter.  Those are the memories that you don't forget.  The two girls just seemed to capture childhood so well.  Sometimes life is just about having fun and laughing and nothing more.

Well, I didn't come to the park to just muse about life and fatherhood and whatever else; I came to enjoy the snow!!  I continued walking and started throwing snowballs at inanimate objects.  I marched onto the fields at the park that were already speckled with snowmen.  I got on my knees and started making a snowman.  It then occurred to me that he needed arms.  And then I thought it would be pretty fun to put my beanie, scarf, and sunglasses on him.  I hate to brag, but it was a pretty sweet looking snowman!

I don't ever want to forget to make these moments a part of my life.  In fact, these moments are usually the only things I remember later on.  I barely remember any of my classes, but I do remember flapping my arms and squawking loudly like a hawk in Red Square.

"In the short term it would make me happy to go play outside. In the long term, it would make me happier to do well at school and become successful. but in the very long term, i know which will make better memories." -- Calvin and Hobbes.

Breaking down the barriers

It seems to me that God has really been working in my heart.  There are far more examples than I can cover in this blog.  A few weeks ago, I was riding on MARTA to the airport.  It is not uncommon to have a homeless person stand up in a car and make a speech for money before moving on to the next car.  On this day, I pulled out my Bible to do some reading.  A homeless man sitting across the way from me saw this and got very excited.    He started motioning and pointing towards my Bible with a sense of joy in his spirit.  He came over to me and handed me a piece of cardboard saying that he was deaf and homeless and needed some money to shower and get a place to stay.  He even mimed like he was showering.  Being put on the spot, I took a few moments and decided to pull out my wallet where I found a $1 bill and $5 bill.  I'm ashamed to say that my mind flashed to an email exchange I had with another person where I mentioned giving a homeless person a $5 bill.  Because of this, I gave him the $5 bill.  Again he got very excited and pointed up in the air towards God and then he came over and gave me a hug.

Later, after I had gotten off the train at the airport, a woman came up to me.  Her and her friend had been sitting down the car a bit facing me.  I was very bewildered as she tried to give me a $20 bill.  She said something to the effect that I had been very gracious to the man and that she had been moved by it.  She kept on insisting that I take the $20.  As I tried to object, she told me to give it to someone who needs it and she left.

Last night, I had the incredible privilege to join a group from my Church to bring and eat dinner with the men of Trinity House Big Bethel.  This is a shelter and rehabilitation program for men on the streets -- many who have come from a background of alcoholism and drug addiction.  I have rarely seen such joy and warmth and service that I saw in these men.  Special things are happening here!  At the dinner, we all went around and shared our stories.  After each of us said our name, the whole group would say "Hey [insert name]!"  And then the evening concluded with the Power Clap, which was full of awkward dancing.and great laughter.

As much as I hate to say it, stereotypes plague my mind.  As I looked for a parking spot before dinner, I suspiciously eyed the men loitering on the street.  God is trying to teach me that people like these are no worse than any other person that I encounter.  They are loved by him and can teach me much.  We let fear and stereotypes consume us and we put up barriers up to try and protect ourselves.  What am I protecting myself from?  If God is on my side, whom shall I fear?  Slowly, he is chipping away at my heart of stone and teaching me the value of love and relationship to all I encounter.

The last couple of weeks, I've carried around that $20 bill in my pocket as a somber reminder of that day on the train.  To look at it is to see my judgments of people and the barriers that are still in my heart  I'm not sure what I am going to do with it, but perhaps it will be used to break down some more barriers.

What's your story?

I have this friend Sara Toguchi who is one of those people who can only be described as one of a kind -- you just have to know her.  One of the things she often does when first meeting someone is asking them "What's your story?".  It is always rather blunt and comical and usually puts the person on the defensive.  It is remarkably efficient at cutting out the small talk, but it also inadvertently draws attention that we all have a story.

I just finished the latest Donald Miller book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years and it blew me away.  It's the best Miller book I have read -- yes, that means better than Blue Like Jazz (gasp).  I really liked the Publishers Weekly review:  "Readers who loved Blue Like Jazz will find here a somewhat more mature Miller, still funny as hell but more concerned about making a difference in the World than in merely commenting on it". 


The book is all about story and about how we are all living a story.  The only problem is that many of us are leading a boring story that isn't going anywhere.  He offers the following definition: "A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it".  I really like what he had to say about conflict in the great stories.  "Somehow we realize that the great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are actually in.  We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller".


He goes on to talk about how our stories can be about wanting a Volvo or being a couch potato or we can instead look for the epic stories full of memories, meaning, and relationships.  Learning about story led him to pursue three different stories: riding a bike across America, finding his father, and one about a girl.  Eventually he comes across what he calls his epic story, which was starting up a program called The Mentoring Project that provides mentors for boys without fathers.  This is a program that is being run through local Churches nationally. 


And so that is the challenge for us.  Our story can be about nothing in particular or we can strive to find greater stories in our lives.  It won't be as easy as plopping on the couch in front of the t.v. -- in fact, it probably won't be easy at all.  There will be conflict and hard work and plenty of distractions.  But think about your favorite stories: books, movies, whatever...the best stories are never easy for the protagonist.