Try not to laugh while you watch

Try not to laugh as you watch.
Leave a comment and tell me if you were successful.

Resistance and Victimhood

"The acquisition of a condition lends significance to one's existence. An illness, a cross to bear... Some people go from condition to condition; they cure one, and another pops up to take its place. The condition becomes a work of art in itself, a shadow version of the real creative act the victim is avoiding by expending so much care cultivating his condition. A victim act is a form of passive aggression. It seeks to achieve gratification not by honest work or a contribution made out of one's experience or insight or love, but by the manipulation of others through silent (and not-so-silent) threat. The victim compels others to come to his rescue or to behave as he wishes by holding them hostage to the prospect of his own further illness/meltdown/mental dissolution, or simply by threatening to make their lives so miserable that they do what he wants."

- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art page 27

Hope from Coke...

I've met this guy...

Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

(Thanks to Brandon)

Rob does it again.

I love this post from my friend Rob. There's so much power in this little story.

I really thought Tom (my boss and workout partner at a gym) would share my excitement, not get angry. And the worst part was, I didn’t understand what he was so upset about.

It all happened some 25 years ago when I found my very first deer antler in the woods. You may know that a difference between horns (think bulls) and antlers (think bucks) is that animals with antlers drop them each year in the winter and then grow new antlers again in the spring. Animals with horns, however, keep their horns all year around.

Knowing this, every winter when I went in the woods I looked for dropped deer antlers. Given all the time I spent in the woods watching deer and learning their habits, you would have thought I would have easily found an antler or two. But even after years and years and years of looking for them, I never did (part of that is that animals like squirrels and mice eat deer antlers on the ground as a source of calcium).

Finally, when I was maybe 23 years old, I found one (and, ever looking, I haven’t found one since until this year, when I found two!). Finding that antler was one of my life’s great thrills, the culmination of so much time, effort, and tightly focused seeking. Immediately I thought of my little brother, who I would take hiking with me one day every week. “I bet he’d love to find an antler,” I thought to myself.

With that in mind, I put the antler back down in the woods, hiked with my brother to that spot, and then let him “find’ it (he didn’t know I’d found it first). Well, it was telling Tom this story that got him so worked up. “You ruined that for him,” Tom said. “He didn’t spend years longing to find an antler. He hasn’t spent years searching for one. He has no context in which to fully appreciate the accomplishment, and by your making it so easy for him, he never will.”

I was so happy with myself for giving my treasure away to share my joy with brother. Why couldn’t Tom understand that? I didn’t get it.

I do now. There are things that are not ours to give, no matter how desperately we might want to do so. There are things we cannot give, no matter how much we might wish we could. And when we do give them, the danger is not that our gift will not be appreciated or fail to meet our desired ends, but that it will take something even more precious away from the one we seek to love.

I think parents in particular would do well to remember this. We all want to make life easier for our kids, and often have the means to act on our desire. But the truth is, in the end we might just be doing the opposite.

Link

Leadership for the Rest of Us

I'm leading a Learning Lab here in Tulsa April 27-29. If you connect with a much of what I write about regarding leadership, moving beyond a CEO approach and nurturing a sense of engagement with your community this will be a good experience for you.

Here's the link.

Let me know if you have any questions: 918.407.1545

Mark

You must watch this video on the economy

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Pt. 2

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Chances of getting a tapeworm

(thanks to Marko)

Bob Hyatt on Video Venues Part 2

I love this part at the end.

And the community that, for instance, pays the tax of listening to a slightly less coherent message, or one with a less-than-Rob-Bell-mind-blow factor, or slightly less entertaining/engaging than Mr Driscoll, is making an investment.

They invest in the teacher they are being taught by. By engaging, listening, giving good feedback (both encouraging and constructive) they help that elder they love, that elder who loves them and is doing his or her best to explore God's Word with them, to learn how to do it better and better.

And in so doing they invest in the future. The future not just of that elder, not just of their community, but of the Church as a whole as we all benefit by more and more people exercising their gifts, gaining mastery in how to do what God has gifted and called them to do.

To me, video venues are at their heart, miserly. They are a symptom of a church who refuses to pay the community tax and invest in the future. They (along with mega churches and even personality-based smaller churches) try to parlay the gift of one or two people into something bigger and bigger, and like short-sighted Americans driving bigger and bigger Hummers say: Who cares about the consequences to future generations? I got mine.

Please understand: I recognize that the vast majority of those engaged in video venues have, at their core, a passion for seeing people come to know, love, and follow Jesus. I get that. And I even get that God uses the silliest of methods to bring people to Him. I'll bet I could even find someone who has been saved through the Evangecube.

But just because God honors our silly methods occasionally doesn't mean we shouldn't look for better ways, perhaps less silly, perhaps ones with fewer unintended consequences.

Link

N.T. Wright on the Bodily Resurrection

(thanks to Todd)

Shane Hipps interviews by Rob Bell

(Thanks to Zach)

America less Christian..

I saw this article this evening. It states that America is less Christian than 20 years ago. I'm not sure this is news. It was interesting that the article pointed to a rise in individualism as part of the cause. Again, not really news.

Here's my take.

The article is extremely generous. It's worse than this.

Why?
Because in growing segments of the evangelical church there is fundamentally no difference between the individualism of those who deny being Christian, and the individualism that many evangelical churches preach. This will not last because it is empty. An individualism, me first mentality, wrapped in the language and ideas of Jesus, isn't the way of Christ, because it makes Jesus an accessory and the programs of the church a way to keep my kids out of trouble and help me become a better educated individual. So Bible Studies and programs fill our calendars, and we sit in pews of large churches, and maybe watch our pastor on a screen, while we learn more about Jesus, then we walk out as isolated and alone as we were before.

There has never been a time in history where church has been done better for the individual. Ever. Attending a church with more choices for me and my family. A cafeteria from which I can consume.

It's not done getting better for these churches either. They are still on the upswing and will be for the next 3-5 or so years. But after that they will collapse under their own empty weight.

don't hear me wishing the death of churches. I'm not. I'm simply stating what I see.
Church leaders are free to make their own choices about what kind of churches they are leading and building. They will also have to live with the consequences of life after the bubble bursts. And it will.

All this to say, the article is understating the issue.
the problem for the evangelical church is that it will read the article and think it demands more of the same from them.

But there's more to the story...and there are good things happening in the church as well. I believe the best days are ahead of us and the more I work with church leaders around the country the more encouraged I am by their resolve to think outside of this individualistic, american faith. The risk of breaking off of this american gospel doesn't seem to be one denomination or movement. Southern Baptists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Churches of Christ all have leaders workout out what leadership looks like. It seems to me additionally that all of our hands are dirty in this too. We are all effected/affected by this. This should bring humility to lives, not judgement.

I have a lot more to say about this and there are certainly some flaws in my thinking, but this is what I thought of when I saw the article.

What do you think? To you see hope? How do you read the article?

I cry every time and I don't know why

My friend Rob mentioned Joshua Bell playing his 3.5 million dollar violin at a subway station in DC recently and it reminded me of this video. Joshua normal makes $1,000 a minute while he plays. Here he made a grand total of $32 and one 7 people stopped to watch(out of over 1,000)

The original article is here.

Here's my favorite part.

Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, was asked the same question. What did he think would occur, hypothetically, if one of the world's great violinists had performed incognito before a traveling rush-hour audience of 1,000-odd people?

"Let's assume," Slatkin said, "that he is not recognized and just taken for granted as a street musician . . . Still, I don't think that if he's really good, he's going to go unnoticed. He'd get a larger audience in Europe . . . but, okay, out of 1,000 people, my guess is there might be 35 or 40 who will recognize the quality for what it is. Maybe 75 to 100 will stop and spend some time listening."

So, a crowd would gather?

"Oh, yes."

And how much will he make?

"About $150."

Thanks, Maestro. As it happens, this is not hypothetical. It really happened.

"How'd I do?"

We'll tell you in a minute.

"Well, who was the musician?"

Joshua Bell.

"NO!!!"

The tears start for me (and again, I don't know why) when the lady with the white bag stops to listen. What kind of beauty do we miss everday walking by?

Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy

I love this. Louis CK on Conan.
You must watch this.

Friday Youtube Video #2

I'm finding taking 20 minutes to record a video on Friday mornings pretty relaxing and a good way for me to process things in my head. I do one take. So if a phone rings, so be it. So here are more meandering thoughts from me on a screen. Let me know what you think.

Rob's Urinal Confessional

God works in mysterious way and in mysterious times. Rob tells his story here. I've included it below.

It reminds me of a Waterdeep lyric.
"In the gas station bathroom by the condom machine, I heard the word of the Lord. He said take off your shoes, this is holy ground too. you know I came for the sick and the bored.

Most every night at church there are several meetings going on at the same time in different parts of our buildings. Often at least one of those meetings will be a group from the community around us, such as scouts or AA.

I generally make it a policy to get to church half hour or so early for my meetings. That way I can hang out and chat with people I might not otherwise have a chance to meet.

That’s what I did last night. I talked with a few folks, and then decided to make a quick stop in the men’s room before going to my meeting. There was a young man in there who I had not met before; as it turned out, it was his first time at the church.

“Are you a father?” he asked, seeing my collar.

“Yes,” I answered.

“So do you hear confessions and all?”

“Yes.” Surmising from the heavy smell of his breath which meeting he was here to attend, I added, “I often hear confessions for people in AA as part of their fifth step.”

“So will you hear mine?” he asked with some desperation.

“Sure,” I said. Before I could add "Would you like to go to my office?" he launched right in. And so, feeling rather awkward but not wanting to interupt, I heard my first confession offered while standing in the men’s room.

As it turned out, he didn’t have much to confess. Mostly what he did was just pour out his pain, which was considerable. When he was through, I prayed for him and we went to our respective meetings.

I have said it before but I’ll say it again. These are suffering times. People are hurting in a way right now in a way that I have not seen in my lifetime (other than in our relief work following Katrina). Pay attention. You never know who—or where—someone might need a little help.

Amusing to me

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

A Party in Limbaugh

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Night #2 of U2 week on letterman

The Roots

There is no band on late night TV like The Roots. period.

Years and years ago it was a casual jimmy fallon interview on streets where he mentioned a little known band he'd been listening to and couldn't get enough of. The White Stripes.

Jimmy Fallon will be great at this, if we give him enough time to figure it out.
The Roots, are a brilliant pick for a house band. brilliant.

Calvin and Hobbes wow.

wow. what do you think of this?

(Thanks to Brant)

I can hear it.

Created by Train Horns

My kids thought it was painful.
"Ahgh turn it off" is what they said.

Khrusty Brothers Part 2

not the greatest recording ever. in fact it's down right bad. but their music is so good.

Khrusty Brothers

I'm a fan of Craig Groeschel

Just for the record, I'm a fan of Craig and while I don't completely understand what he's doing, or why he's doing it, I'm a fan of the guy.

Just want to be clear on that.

Mark Jackson reviews Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors

A healthy church doesn't need a youth pastor.

As a former youth pastor (nearly 13 years of lock-ins, cold pizza & egg-in-armpit relay, along with some amazing spiritual moments in the lives of youth & their families), that statement hit me upside the face. And since I preached through Luke 6 and the whole "turn the other cheek" thing last week, I kept reading Mark Riddle's book, Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors: A Church Leader's Guide to Staffing & Leading Youth Pastors anyway. In general, Mark says that churches rush to hire a youth pastor, do so for the wrong reasons, and then hamstring the person they hire with hidden expectations and inadequate support. This, my friends, was the story of my youth ministry life, with the wondrous exception of Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Silsbee, TX. If I had enough cash, I'd buy this for every senior pastor/staff member who was working with a youth pastor. It should be required reading. There's chapters on why you should never ask a potential youth pastor about his vision for ministry, why churches really don't want to hire innovative/catalytic youth pastors (been there, done that) and an especially pointed chapter entitled "If You Aren't Going to Mentor Your Youth Pastor, You Don't Deserve One." It's not a difficult read - well, I mean, Mark Riddle doesn't wax philosophical or get caught up in long-winded arguments. Instead, he makes his points quickly, cleanly & with passion... then gives you (and your staff) questions to process those ideas. A

Link

Finally available

This song and it's album came out today. finally.

When God speaks thru cartoons

My thought for the day: How can I embody an expression of church that doesn't re-enforce isolation of people and their faith.

Thank God for cartoonist like David Hayward

Those aren't tears, they're allergies... really.

If it doesn't work go here.

wow...
allergies i say....
you will have allergies too.