Dive into the anxiety, the intensity, and the overall feelings around youth sports. In my latest podcast I give a short teaser (about 15 minutes) of thoughts on the topic. However, over the next four weeks we are going to do a deep dive.
Four weeks, four interviews, and a whole lot of thought. I’m excited to be on this journey with you and I pray that this topic influences you as much as it has influenced me.
Giving yourself permission to change perspective is saying that you no longer have to be defined by the past in the same way. You can change the way you look through the lens. The past doesn’t change, but the future can.
When Derick reached out to me about being on the podcast I wasn't sure what to expect.
I mean, the podcast is all about reclaiming the balance of faith and life: What would I do with a practicing atheist? Yet, in a rare moment of wisdom, I could feel God's nudge to lean in to what would certainly be a difficult conversation
You don’t need the church to share the Gospel, you don’t need the church to disciple & love your neighbor, and you certainly don’t need the church to do the right thing (whatever that right thing might be). My buddy Justin Gravitt talks about this concept in great detail in our last podcast. He goes on to say that one of the most important things we can do is to live into the ministry right where God has us.
It is certain that your life will encounter many unplanned twists and turns. From job loss to relationship change, to whatever else might happen life is full of moments that can absolutely wreck you.
The question becomes: What will you do when you find yourself face to face with the part of life you didn’t plan for? How will you prevail?
What if preaching isn’t really that important?
Think about it; most preachers/teachers spend ten or so hours preparing a thirty minute message only to have the congregation digest ten minutes (?) of the actual material. And the truth is we live in a content rich environment. Almost all the great communicators are accessible via the interwebs, and if you want to listen to some outstanding messages they are literally at your fingertips.
Do you ever have moments where you just aren’t feeling “it”? I don’t know what “it” is for you, but for me “it” is any number of arduous tasks that routinely face me on a daily basis. Budgets. Contracts. Basically, anything involving an excel spreadsheet. The hardest part of not feeling “it” is when the gray from Winter bleeds into the gray that becomes the early Spring. In those moments, the ones that feel like you haven’t seen the sun in years, my motivation to do anything productive is as ugly as old snow mixed with sludge from the street.
Do you ever feel the tug of life? I do. I know that every day there are any number of things that often feel like the most important thing. It’s almost like every scene I’m a part of (work, sports, non-profits, home, etc.) is the most important role I will play in any given day.
So, Connor turned thirteen last week and we decided to do something different. We decided that we would officially celebrate him becoming a man. Not because of something physical, emotional, or spiritual, but because as parents we believed that it is our job to usher him in to this next season. Will he still make boyish choices? Absolutely. Is he still growing? Absolutely. Will he still depend on us? I hope so. So, what makes someone a man? The choice to start acting like one.
The question becomes: What do you do when life serves you a big ol’ glass of resentment?
I think most of us have a common first response; pity party. Poor me. Why is the world out to get me? Type of response. And that is typical, but it doesn’t have to end there. You can cancel the pity party and begin to turn your old resentments into new realities.
