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Play Well

August 21st, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in Great place, Leadership, Simple, third space

Ever been to Lego World at Walt Disney Village?  It’s unbelievable.  There are kids everywhere dragging parents along as they build things from piles of legos, and beg parents to buy them another lego “thing”.  There are millions and millions of legos at Lego World.  These kids love to put legos together to make the “thing” on the box, or to make the “thing” that they see in their mind.  They work together, helping each other.

Starting with only pieces, these kids create their “thing” as they connect the pieces together.  Each little piece snapping onto another, interconnecting becoming part of a larger “thing”.  Sharing ideas, excited, laughing and enjoying each other’s company these kids build community, as they build their  “things”.

Tomorrow starts a new year at my church.  We will have a strong emphasis on building community this year.  Community within the walls and community outside the walls.  Building community is all about building relationships.  Bible Study is a great way for people of all ages to learn and develop through relationships.  God wants people to connect with others.  We are going to expect people to connect with members and non-members as they build their “thing”.

We will be looking at our Bible Study groups to see if they are connecting.  Some of the things we will look for are: are people sharing prayer praises and concerns for others, are they talking about how God is working in other people’s lives, are they getting together outside of structured times, are they serving together outside the walls in the community.

We know if someone is in your church for 3 – 6 months and they do not have 2 – 3 relationships they probably won’t be around for long.  A lot of lives depend on the success of our Bible Study legos.

The creator of legos took the first two letters of two Danish words meaning “play well” to come up with the LEGO name.  What he didn’t know was that one meaning of the word LEGO in Latin is “I put together”.  I believe that God wants our Bible Study to function like LEGOS.  Taking all the little pieces, connecting them together to make a bigger “thing”.  Something He will look at and say “I put together”.

Play well friends, someone’s eternity depends on it.


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Make love, not war

August 5th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Leadership, Simple

Back in the ’60s the world was in turmoil.  Our country was at war, (an un-popular war on many fronts), in a small country thousands of miles away, the economy was crazy, music was loud and rebellious, parents struggled “to parent”, children resisted parenting, anti-God sentiments were escalating, tolerance for everyone’s point of view was huge from a lot of people, and did not exist from others. It was a time of testing for everyone.  Some of us made it through without major scars, other friends of mine still carrying deep hurts from that time.

I think it was the beginning of people moving from one pace of life into the fast lane for many, many people.  A new pace of life was launched.  Faster and faster and faster.  Multi-tasking, 24/7, electronic leashes, helicopter parents, smart phones, www.whatever, it continues to consume us.

I read an article in the NY Times a couple of weeks ago that spoke to this life that many of us have adopted, or been sucked into, myself included.  I’m not as bad as I used to be, most of you know why, but I still am a fringe player in this crazy game.  The name of the article was Tweet Less, Kiss More.  It spoke to my insides.  Since most of you will never click over and read it, if I was to give you a link, here it is, copied in part.

“I’m not opposed to the remarkable technological advances of the past several years. I don’t want to go back to typewriters and carbon paper and yellowing clips from the newspaper morgue. I just think that we should treat technology like any other tool. We should control it, bending it to our human purposes.

Let’s put down at least some of these gadgets and spend a little time just being ourselves. One of the essential problems of our society is that we have a tendency, amid all the craziness that surrounds us, to lose sight of what is truly human in ourselves, and that includes our own individual needs — those very special, mostly nonmaterial things that would fulfill us, give meaning to our lives, enlarge us, and enable us to more easily embrace those around us.

There’s a character in the August Wilson play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” who says everyone has a song inside of him or her, and that you lose sight of that song at your peril. If you get out of touch with your song, forget how to sing it, you’re bound to end up frustrated and dissatisfied.

As this character says, recalling a time when he was out of touch with his own song, “Something wasn’t making my heart smooth and easy.”

I don’t think we can stay in touch with our song by constantly Twittering or tweeting, or thumbing out messages on our BlackBerrys, or piling up virtual friends on Facebook.

We need to reduce the speed limits of our lives. We need to savor the trip. Leave the cellphone at home every once in awhile. Try kissing more and tweeting less. And stop talking so much.

Listen.

Other people have something to say, too. And when they don’t, that glorious silence that you hear will have more to say to you than you ever imagined. That is when you will begin to hear your song. That’s when your best thoughts take hold, and you become really you.”

SLOW DOWN, SAVOR THE TRIP,…..TRY KISSING MORE AND TWEETING LESS.

If you like what you’ve read in this post, re-tweet it so others can share in the enjoyment.  Just kidding, try kissing instead.


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Evil Spirits catcher

June 22nd, 2010 | 1 Comment | Posted in Great place, Simple

Bottle trees go all the way back to Africa and Egypt.  The story is  that evil spirits come around at night, and then get attracted to the bottles and jump inside them.  When morning comes and the sun is up, they are trapped inside, so they can’t bother the world of the living.  I spotted this bottle tree over the weekend near Neptune Beach.  It must work because I saw no evil spirits in the neighborhood.


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Great read at the beach…

June 21st, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Great place, Leadership, Simple

Oh yea, we’re at the hospital having a baby.  Will have update later.


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Ron’s got it together…

June 15th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Leadership, Simple, no way, unChristian

Several years ago I made a friend in Michigan that has really challenged me to think,  rather than to take for granted a lot of things.  That friend is Ron Martoia.  Ron is now published and a frequent speaker-teacher at innovative conferences around the world.  He is one of the most well read and articulate people I have ever met, with a charismatic personality that make you love him.  Once again he is on the edge with a new publication,  ttTribe-Manifesto . While this pub contains a pitch to join a subscription learning community I think he is right on with a lot of his observations and conclusions.  Rather than give you a few “sound bites” I’ve included a link to his pub so you can read, enjoy and be challenged.  I think you will enjoy this introduction to Ron if you’ve never read or heard him, and if you’ve read him in the past, you’ll recognize this as another of his insightful works.

After you’ve read ttTribe-Manifesto,  feel free to comment and we can chat.


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A year of living dangerously…

June 15th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Leadership, Simple, third space, unChristian

Brief post to confirm that I’m back “on the grid”.  It’s been almost a year of living dangerously, trying to sort things out, hanging in there,  plan B, plan C, no jobs, five part time jobs, believing and living for a God that knows what His timing is and continues to bless and provide for our family.  So from a blogger’s perspective, I’ve been:

But I’m back. Look for my blog postings to be frequent, be things that will make you: laugh, cry, think, worry, be challenged, make you say WHAT?, and hopefully force you to be more engaged as a Believer in the context of the world we live in.  So let the games begin….


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Everybody needs one of these..

March 16th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Leadership, Simple

Do you have one of these:

Maybe you’re not sure what it is.  Does this look more familiar?

These are both pictures of generators.  Everybody in Florida wants one of these during hurricane season  because they can save your refrigerator  goods and help make life a lot cooler and get you past those electrical outages.

What I want to know is, do you have a generator in your life?  A generator, a friend that puts energy back into your life.  Someone that helps you weather the storms of life that can be dark, desperate, deep with despair.  Someone that can help you keep going or get started again.  Someone that isn’t only a 2 a.m. phone call person, but someone who calls you.

I have one of these generators in my life.  And when things are the darkest, he calls.  We get together. We have coffee. We talk. We laugh.  We cry.  We give each other advice.  We pray.  A true friend.

Do you have a generator?


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it depends on what your definition of is, is….

February 12th, 2010 | No Comments | Posted in Simple, no way

Bill Clinton  is following his heart doctor’s diet restrictions….


At least he got his procedure done before Obama Care.


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Enough said

February 9th, 2010 | 4 Comments | Posted in Leadership, Simple

george_bush_billboard


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Marketing genius

February 8th, 2010 | 2 Comments | Posted in Leadership, Simple, no way

Buzz, that’s what marketing Gurus try to generate.  Create conversation and excitement about their product-event. They want to have everyone talking about “IT”.  The Focus on the Family marketing folks pulled off what I think is the biggest win of 2010.  Everybody has been talking about “their ad” that is airing during the Super Bowl.  The most watched TV show of the year.  The show that charges more for its commercials than anyone else.  The show that creates all the buzz with its over-the-top commercials.

Everyone had an opinion.  News stories. People on the left, people on the right.  People in the middle. People who didn’t care. People who don’t like football. Gator Nation lovers.  Gator Haters. They were all buzzing.

tebow_sb

Then the commercial aired.  That’s it?  Did I miss something? Are they going to show more later?  Nope, that its.

Now the day after, there is more buzz.  It was too soft.  It shows Focus on the Family is slipping. It shows how sneaking “they are” trying to get people to their website. Blaa, blaa, blaa….

Great job marketing guys. To use another sports metaphor, I think you hit a home run.


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