(h/t matt steen)

As some of you already know, I’m leaving my current place of employment and starting a new job next week tomorrow.

I’m indebted to NPH.   I’ve had the pleasure of working with some great people on some cool projects since 1996.

Thank you.

::fist bump::

Here’s some of what I’ll miss the most:

1. the yearly Sheridan’s frozen custard
2. an amazing health insurance plan
3. volleypong in the warehouse
4. BBQ lunches with @jlshultz
5. walking to the finish line
6. the best parking spot
7. the gurgle of doom
8. naming servers
9. stromboli day
10. a dark office

This quote from Ira Glass encourages me.

What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me…is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

I see irrelevance all around me.

It’s trending in my sphere.

Without a doubt.

Here’s a couple of excerpts from Maurilio Amorim’s post titled Legacy Christian Organizations and the Irrelevance Spiral  (You should read the whole thing.  It’s good.):

Most legacy Christian organizations in America suffer, not from a lack of vision and mission, but most of them suffer from a communication crisis. Often they know what their missions are and, for the most part, they know whom they are trying to reach. Their failure, however, lies in communicating with their target audience in way it can receive the information. After decades of existence the tendency in these organizations is to communicate their story, purpose, and mission in the language and images of their founders. Seldom I see a legacy organization change the way they present themselves in a format that reflects new societal values and attitudes while remaining true to their calling.

While I’m not advocating changing your heart to appeal to culture, I am a big fan of contextualizing your message so it’s heard and understood by society (emphasis mine).  Every successful missionary has learned this lesson: you must speak a language your culture understands and can response to.

The focus of his post is on Christian organizations, but I think it’s bigger.

In my opinion, contextualizing = building trust.

These principles apply to leadership.  If you only relate superficially with those you are leading, don’t expect them to follow you blindly.

These principles apply to friendships and marriages.  If someone doesn’t trust you, don’t expect them to be there for you in a time of crisis.

Your message must be built on trust.

Not analysis.

Not research.

Not personal enrichment.

Not saving face.

Not impressing people.

Trust.

Do you have the personal credibility with your audience?   If you don’t have it, stop expecting to be successful.  Gone are the days of blind loyalty and successful fear-mongering.

Here’s Simon Sinek on this very subject.   Awesome.

This seems like such a novel concept.  

Why don’t we get it?   What’s holding us back?

1. Watch cats play Patty Cake
2. Shoot a slingshot Gatling crossbow
3. Terrorize a telemarketer
4. Listen to John Daker sing
5. Tour a Google Data Center
6. Watch a sweet time lapse video
7. Listen to the Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk
8. Make an Awesome Button
9. Do animal impersonations
10. Watch a better western movie than Tombstone

Dear Adam,

Yoo-hoo.  Spriggs.  Hellooo?

1. That guy that called you a poser…  Well, he was actually right.  You won’t care about freestyle bikes in a few years.  At all.
2. Stick with that computer stuff.  It’ll bring home the bacon.
3. Get to know your dad.  He’s got a softer side.
4. Stop trying so hard to follow all the church rules.  They won’t get you there.
5. Be a good friend.
6. Get off your butt and work…until you’re sweating.  Get your work ethic on.
7. You are allergic to peanuts and pine trees.
8. So you think you have people figured out?  Just stop it.
9. You can’t fix some things.  Take a few steps in to reality, will ya?
10. 95% of the things you think are needs…yeah, they aren’t.
11. Don’t be scared of failing.  Take a risk. You have what it takes.
12. People will still snicker a little when you say you like Stryper.

Sincerely,

You

Your turn.

(h/t kevin keigley)

"If it's too loud, you're too old" -- Dee Snider, Twisted Sister

What are some practical ways to build trust between the following generations?

1. Baby Boomers (1946 – 1960′s) -> Generation X (1960′s – 1980′s)
2. Generation X (1960′s – 1980′s) -> Millennials (1980′s – 2000′s)

When/where do you draw the line?

Whatever it is, when is enough enough?

Follow up: How many lines do you have?

(image courtesy of nazreth)

• Plumbing is not for me
• Growing spiritually doesn’t happen outside of community
• Forgiving and forgetting isn’t easy, but it’s necessary.  It’s a sad state of affairs when you let someone from your past dictate your present demeanor.
• Listening and discernment can make or break a ministry.  If you aren’t aware of what’s going on around you can’t lead effectively.
• Car repairs: I hate them and they put me in a foul mood.
• Some things just don’t happen quickly.  Waiting is OK.
• It takes pain to grow.
• I’ve decided I don’t care about politics.  I’ll be an informed voter but I’m not going to waste any mental energy on it anymore. I have better things to do.

Time seems to stand still when…

• I’m in a hurry and I’m stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
• When I know I don’t have to get out of bed for anything on Saturday morning
• The day before vacation.

How about you?

Do you agree?

(image courtesy of blary54)

I gag every time I…

• am anywhere near bacon bits
• catch a whiff of chow mein

How about you?

(image courtesy of bayat)

I could eat my body weight in ______.

• Chocolate mini donuts
• Snyder’s of Hanover Garlic Bread Nibblers
• BBQ

How about you?

Someone close to where I live apparently forgets about the can of pop on the top of their car, like MULTIPLE TIMES A WEEK.

You would think they would notice how much Mr. Pibb they’re wasting.

Makes me want to set up a camera just to find out who it is.

Seriously.   Several times a week.

(img courtesy of riffsyphon1024)

• I want to be flexible and not stubborn, stiff-necked and stuck in my ways.
• I want to have the courage to say “I don’t know” and then earnestly seek understanding and knowledge.
• I want to be an encouragement, not someone who sucks the life and passion out of people.
• I want to be excited about the exercise of God-given passion and creativity.
• I want to listen, hear and understand what people are saying to me not just nod my head and then write it off.
• I want to be genuine and honest. I want people to know the real me not just my public face.
• I want to care about people with my actions not just my words.
• I want to view people not by outward appearances or by numbers and statistics but with the discernment of the Holy Spirit.
• I want to be approachable and friendly, taking time out for people even when it interrupts my schedule.
• I want to speak the truth in love, not just speak the truth.
• I want to people to have good, solid reasons to trust me.
• I want to let other people take the credit for something awesome.

So, how about you?

image courtesy of sxc.hu

I was thinking this morning about the importance of remembering.

I’m terrible at it, but it is so important.  (Check that.  Reality is this: I remember what I dwell on.)

How many times in the Bible were things established for the sole purpose of remembering what God had done?

God’s words to the Israelites after Passover, altars erected after a mighty acts of deliverance by God, the words of Jesus at the last supper with his disciples, the thief on the cross next to Jesus, etc.

I take lots of notes when I’m trying to learn something new.  The sole purpose is to remember what I’m learning.

Lord, help me choose to think back and remember the important things.

I’m not against science, education, gaining knowledge through study or being a professional.

Certainly.

But I think, as with most things, we can unintentionally make it our god.

Who do we think we are anyway?   I mean, really?

We need to be careful when we get to point where we think we’re experts.

I’m seeing arrogance and pride displayed everywhere.

• Religious professionals who staunchly defend their crap
• Professors who make crap up
• Legalists who heap the Jesus-plus-something-else crap on people’s backs
• The “…(let’s) make a name for ourselves…” Genesis-11-Tower-of-Babel crap
• Man-made global warming alarmists crap
• The corporate executives with zero accountability crap
• We politicians know better than our constituents crap
• Tiger Woods and his perfect public persona but his private crap

Pardon my French, but I think you can gather how I feel about it.

Lord help us.

The makers of hand sanitizer are making a killing right now, don’t you think?  That stuff is everywhere.

Surely it can be used for some other things, too:

1. In a pinch you can use it for wire pulling lubricant. They both have the same snot-like consistency.
2. Starting a campfire or satisfy your inner pyromaniac
3. Who needs the cold ones at the tailgate before the game anyway?
4. When I need to clean the whiteboard I always think hand sanitizer first.  not really.
5. Hair treatment?  I’ll pass, thanks.

when I was a kid I saved my money and bought a freestyle bike

a silver dyno compe with a rotor

it was sweet

my friend jeremy and i built sweet ramps with my dad’s tools

we…i crashed a lot

jeremy’s bike didn’t have a rotor, but his brakes worked better

i subscribed to freestylin’ magazine

i drew pictures of dennis mccoy

saw a freestyle bike show in a parking lot

amazing

i bought some sweet dyno fingerless gloves

and a vision street wear shirt

wore the t-shirt to school one day

the skaters called me a poser

i don’t think i wore that shirt again

and i started liking computers more than my sweet dyno

I think a lot about the sweet left-handed Rawlings baseball glove that my parents bought me when I was a kid.

It looked just like this picture.

It was not one of those cheap-o ones like I have now.

On rare occasions Dad and I would play catch in the yard.

Dad had a blonde colored glove.

It was cool, but not left-handed.

I let Eddie borrow my glove one time.

He was left-handed, too.

Never saw it again.

I’m still bitter about it.

Oh and Eddie’s sister was annoying.

I was up and about on Saturday morning earlier than usual. Poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the dinner table to do some Sunday School reading. The morning sun was pouring in through the window.

Ahh, warm.

I like this.

Then I had one of those back-in-time moments… Thinking back to all of those times in my younger years when I curled up on the floor to be warmed by the sun coming through the window.

The cat always knew where that spot was.

I wish I could do this more — just soak it in…

like every day…

like at the lake…

(creativemyk photo)

Pickled Peppers.

Who picks pickled peppers? Is anything pickled and still on the vine?

No.

Even if he picked them from the store, why would pickled peppers not be in a jar of pickle juice?

Makes no sense.  What a crock of a nursery rhyme, I say.

Cinnamon.

How is it that red-hots and Big Red gum have a “cinnamon” flavor, while the “cinnamon” spice is something totally different?

Grr.

Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

How can a wet drink be dry?

How do you justify advocating animal rights in a world filled with poverty and starvation? Joslyn DeGroot YPSILANTI, MICH.

Perhaps one of the most important things you can do for human beings is wean them off an animal-based diet. It hardens the arteries and runs up our health-care costs. The last thing a poor person can afford is a heart attack or cancer or a stroke. And that’s all linked to a meat-based diet. I think animal liberation is human liberation.

Uh-huh.

• Chlorine bleach — reminds me of the good ole days on the swim team in high school
• WD-40 — My childhood bicycles saw more than their fair share.
• Post-It Notes — Yeah, I know.  Weird.
• The coffee isle at the grocery store — I love the smell of fresh coffee beans.  Makes me want to pour a cup right now actually.
• Oatmeal raisin cookies — My wife’s, of course.

How about you?